Early that morning, Jiang Chen was still swiping through Douyin with deadly focus...
To truly understand the people, one must first dive deep into their daily lives.
A man must put his career first.
No way he was going to let a little fox temptress like Hu Yiyi distract him from his grand mission!
"Hm, cultivators sure get the hang of this fast."
The effect of 150,000 new users registering was immediate and explosive.
The backend already showed over two million videos posted.
Which meant, on average, each person had posted over 13 videos?
What an addiction...
Unfortunately, most of them were absolute garbage—cringe-level bad. Straight-up front-facing camera shots, zero post-processing.
Not even one paw of those fox girls in terms of filming technique.
At this moment, the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen's follower count had already passed 130,000.
Considering the entire human user base was just 150,000, that ratio was downright terrifying.
That's basically one out of every 1.15 human men following her.
"Are humans really that thirsty?" Jiang Chen mused.
I mean, he himself had only followed, what, 700+ fox girls? Totally normal.
The other fox girls' fan counts were also rising rapidly. But second place, the Flirtatious Fox Queen, had just broken the 50,000 mark.
Some of the younger foxes who'd only recently taken human form barely scraped together a few hundred fans.
Not their fault, really. They were still too innocent to play in the big leagues.
In the softcore arena, the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen was absolutely unmatched—dominant queen of the borderline content meta.
"This won't do," Jiang Chen muttered. "We've got to fully develop each fox's unique appeal. Every fox deserves her moment to shine."
With a flick, he teleported straight to the fox territory.
There, he caught the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen staring at their chat history, gritting her teeth.
"Demon Lord! Why did you read and not reply?!"
"I—uh, well, I did reply in my heart. My hands just… forgot to follow up."
"…???"
"Anyway! Enough of that. I've got serious business. Call all the foxes here."
"All of them?"
"Just the ones with Douyin accounts."
Soon, thousands of chattering fox girls gathered.
They were all excitedly gossiping:
"How many followers do you have now?"
"I just discovered this super suggestive new filter!"
"A bunch of cultivators DM'd me asking to 'discuss the Dao'~"
"Someone asked for leg pics!"
"Someone asked me to step on his face with my jade feet!"
"...Huh?"
Jiang Chen's expression twitched.
Is the cultivation world this good at adapting to new knowledge?
"Alright, quiet down. Lord Demon has something to say."
Under the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen's command, the foxes instantly fell silent—obedient as classroom chicks.
"No need to be nervous. I'm here today to talk about one thing: the importance of choosing the right niche."
Niche?
The foxes tilted their heads, all blinking at him with big dewy eyes full of confusion.
Good heavens! With those pure and clueless expressions, they could put half the top 'innocent-style' influencers on Earth to shame!
Jiang Chen pondered. How best to explain the idea of content specialization?
"How many followers do you girls have?"
Some proudly raised their hands—10k, 20k, 7k, 8k.
But most looked down at their toes, embarrassed to meet his gaze.
They felt like failures.
Lord Demon had gifted them this divine weapon to bewitch human cultivators, and they'd only managed to hook a few hundred? How shameful!
"The niche I'm talking about relates to how fast you gain followers—and how many you can ultimately gain. I look around here, and every single one of you has the potential to hit a million followers minimum!"
"Eh?!"
"Even us little foxes can get a million?!"
The underperforming foxes perked right up, ears twitching as they paid close attention.
"But why does your niche affect follower growth?" asked the glamorous Jade-Face Fox Queen, tail swaying.
Same level of beauty and charm, but her followers didn't even come close to the Flirtatious or Soul-Stealing Fox Queens.
"Exactly! That's what I mean by the importance of niche."
Jiang Chen decided to use her as a teaching example.
"Even when you girls use the same filters, same BGM, same camera angles… the results can still vary wildly."
"YES! EXACTLY!" The foxes all nodded furiously.
"That's because in the eyes of human cultivators, you're all beautiful—but in different ways."
"When it comes to sultry appeal, the Flirtatious and Soul-Stealing fox clans reign supreme."
"And me?" asked the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen, hand raised smugly.
"You don't count. You're born to dominate Douyin. Your whole clan is basically the chosen race for livestreams."
"If you want to beat those top seductress foxes on their turf, it's possible, but extremely difficult."
"Look at the Jade-Face Foxes—so naturally sweet and pure-looking—yet you girls pile on thick makeup like you're auditioning for a villainess role!"
"Ahhh!" Jade-Face Fox Queen gasped in realization.
"You mean we should lean into our strengths? Like, the Jade-Face Fox Clan should go with the pure and innocent route?"
"Exactly!" Jiang Chen nodded approvingly.
"Use the original camera app—no filters. Look like a clueless, sweet girl who doesn't even know how Douyin works."
"Don't go overboard, but tease just enough. Maybe show a little leg by accident. Or lean forward just enough to show a hint of your collarbone."
"Pick soft, innocent filters. Choose BGM and shooting angles that match."
"Focus your content. Stay consistent. Build your base."
A few foxes raised their hands, puzzled. "Um... what's 'focused content'?"
"It means don't change your style too much. Human preferences vary—some like bold and sexy, some like hands, waists, legs, feet, even... spit."
The foxes stared, wide-eyed: |｡Ծ⌂Ծ)||๑ớ▿ờ)
"Hey now, don't look at me like I'm the pervert! I'm talking about humans!"
"If someone comments that they like feet, try posting foot videos. If those perform better, make more. That's what focused content means, got it?"
"Ooohhh~"
Every fox now looked at Jiang Chen like he was a divine sage.
Demon Lord really gets humans!
"Oh, right—about DMs and comments," Jiang Chen added. "It's okay to reply—but selectively."
"Lots of cultivators use their full ID—sect, rank, and real name. That makes them easy targets."
"For example, I saw this idiot today whose username was: First Disciple of Heavenly Dao Sect, Situ Chengfeng. Obvious rich fool."
One fox raised her paw. "What does 'target' mean?"
"It means you keep them hooked. Don't chase, don't reject. Distract them. Slow their cultivation. But remember—don't fall for them."
"Understood, Lord Demon!"
Foxes never liked humans anyway. They preferred their fellow pretty foxes.
The meeting lasted two full hours.
Instead of returning to the Demon Palace, Jiang Chen teleported straight to the Jade Rabbit territory.
The foxes were great—but after staring at their perfect figures for too long, even perfection gets boring.
——
Douyin?
Smartphones?
The Jade Rabbit Queen's long ears looped in confusion. Her small brain struggled to keep up.
"You want revenge for your fallen bunny kin, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" she snarled adorably, baring her bunny fangs.
Perfect! Even when furious, she was still so damn cute that Jiang Chen almost broke into auntie giggles.
Those newly transformed soft baby rabbits? Absolute fan killers.
"I've got a plan. We can severely hinder human cultivation—without lifting a finger."
"There's a tool that powerful?!"
"Listen closely..."
Jiang Chen carefully explained how to use smartphones and how to shoot Douyin videos.
Long-distance voice transmission! Real-time calls!
Such a divine treasure actually exists?!
"Eh? Is that the Phantom Fox Queen? And the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen is in the phone too?! Ew—why is there a human cultivator?!"
The Jade Rabbit Queen was instantly hooked.
Jiang Chen left behind 10,000 phones for the transformed bunny girls.
As for instructions?
Aside from warning them about privacy, he didn't say a word.
The Jade Rabbit Clan didn't need stage dressing. Just post their daily lives—they'd automatically win over the masses with sheer cuteness.
Next up—
The Flower Clan: ethereal fairy vibes.
The Tiger Clan: ripped beefcake mode.
The Leopard Clan: lean twink aesthetic.
That's enough for now.
Can't push it too far, or human cultivators would become too desensitized—harder to bait later.
But a new problem arose.
As more humans joined, their videos were... well, mostly trash.
Some looked like they'd never seen a mirror. One wrinkly old guy with yellow teeth filmed 2,000 videos in a day—even outpaced the foxes. Absolute clown.
Worse, many hadn't even filmed one video.
Totally unacceptable.
If a new customer opened the app and got jump-scared by grandpa's selfie, that'd kill user retention.
Jiang Chen had to raise the bar.
So, he launched the first official Douyin campaign:
[Excellent Short Video Contest]
One week only. Top 100 most-liked videos win prizes.
1st place: 10 million spirit stones.
100th place: 100,000 spirit stones.
Everyone with a phone got the push notification instantly.
What?! Ten million spirit stones?!
The entire cultivator world lost its mind.
Jiang Chen grinned. A wave of content was coming, and surely, some hidden talents would rise.
But wait.
Likes alone would favor sexy content too much—not fair for average folks.
So he launched a second campaign:
[Rising Creator Incentive Plan]
Also one week. Top 100 fastest-growing accounts win.
Same prize structure.
To be clear, each creator can only enter one plan. Even the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen, queen of views and followers, could only win one prize.
Just as Jiang Chen leaned back to savor his genius...
Ping!
A message from Huang Wansan popped up.
"What?! All one million phones are already sold out?!"