Can You Really Ascend to Immortality by Staging a Publicity Stunt?

[Ensemble cast, no CP]

Shipping celebrities has always been something of a mystery.

It's not as if you can just put two handsome guys together and have them interact on Weibo every day, and people will automatically ship them.

It's something I've spent nearly ten years in the industry trying to figure out.

What exactly is chemistry between a pairing? What kind of pairing can become a hit? How do you get fans to spend money on their ship?

I thought about it from morning till night, scrolling through all kinds of tags over and over, looking for elements I could use to promote my artists and then weaving them into elaborate campaigns.

After all that effort, the nobody under my management, who'd signed a twenty-year contract with a 90/10 revenue split in my favor, finally became a sensation thanks to the ship I promoted. Before I could make a penny from it, I kicked the bucket.

When I opened my eyes, I'd become Cen Jiezi, the sole leader of the impoverished Cha Qing Sect in a cultivation world.

It looked like this cultivation world had no fertile ground for shipping. But as a veteran ship-promoting operator, I'll make it work even in a cultivation world!

Promote a ship, turn trash into treasure. In this cultivation world, buzz matters just as much. Sure, joining a martial arts tournament can bring you some fame, but it's nowhere near as fast as shipping. People are still more interested in gossip.

Just you wait. I'll build buzz, connections, and resources by promoting ships, then lead our Cha Qing Sect to glorious ascension!

While everyone else was struggling to cultivate, I told them that you could ascend through publicity, too.

What exactly do you promote?

You promote your fame, your status, and your connections, then climb step by step toward the peak of the cultivation world.

That's the idea, but why are the people in your cultivation world so into such extreme stuff? Furries, nonhumans, yanderes, R18G? You name it!

That's a little beyond my skill set.

No CP, male perspective, ensemble cast, plot-focused. There will be tragic, passionate love. I just love writing tragic, passionate love, hehe!

I won't provide content warnings. I won't delete readers' content warnings in the comments. Writing is my business, and readers can post their own warnings.

Don't read any grand meaning into this work!

Theme: Make an effort to face yourself