Under the same night sky.

Just outside the city limits.

Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen stood in an alley, their gaze piercing through the rain-shrouded, dim passage to examine an apartment building nearby.

Bai Zhenzhen asked, “Are you sure this is the place?”

Fu Ji scoffed, “How could a low-level evil god like this possibly compare to my mastery of rituals? Besides, I tracked them using their own shadow worm, so there’s absolutely no mistake. If you’re going, go now. Although I’ve led those people away with false information, they’ll be back quickly once they realize something’s wrong.”

Zhang Yu nodded and said, “Then I’ll go first.”

His muscles rippled and vibrated, and soon his entire body subtly shrank and contorted. Then, his facial muscles also shifted, transforming him into a completely unfamiliar person.

Zhang Yu then changed into the delivery uniform he had prepared earlier and entered the dilapidated apartment building.

Dilapidated outer walls, dim lighting, and corridors overflowing with clutter.

Zhang Yu noticed the moss growing in the cracks of the stairs and sensed a faint, almost imperceptible stench in the air. The entire apartment building gave him a sense of age and decay. Even the surveillance cameras had been broken for a long time, due to aging wiring and intentional damage by the evil god’s followers. However, since the rent was relatively cheap, the building was densely populated with a diverse mix of residents.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “The evil god must have intentionally chosen such a dilapidated and old apartment building. That certainly makes our operation today easier.”

Zhang Yu arrived at the door of room 606 and rang the doorbell, but there was no answer. After ringing the doorbell again, he said, “Hello? Your package has arrived. I’m in a hurry, so I’ll just leave it at the door. You can pick it up yourselves later.”

After speaking, Zhang Yu stood in place and took a photo of the package, then hurried away like an ordinary delivery person.

Shortly after he left, Li Quan opened the door, looked left and right, and only after confirming no one was there did he cautiously look at the cardboard delivery box in front of the door. Seeing that the address on it was indeed theirs, Li Quan brought the package into the room and asked, “Master, it seems your ordered package has arrived.”

“Oh?” Huoshan hopped over, shouting, “Is it the new mouse I ordered online? Quick, open it and let me see!”

Inside the room, besides the evil god Huoshan and his follower Li Quan, a dark-faced man was quietly inhaling a Tao Heart Buffer, lying on the sofa with an expression of enjoyment. Li Quan and the dark-faced man had both graduated high school many years ago and had long reached the peak of Qi refinement. They were also the two most loyal followers of the evil god Huoshan, having always protected his safety. Even though Song Xu had taken people to acquire the ten million today, they still remained by Huoshan’s side, guarding him.

At that moment, after Li Quan quickly tore open the package, he saw a high school general mathematics textbook inside.

“What is this?” Huoshan fumed, “Did the vendor send me the wrong item? I’m going to complain!”

Just then, the sound of police sirens echoed in the distance, drawing closer to the apartment building within moments. Startled by the sound, Huoshan and his two followers quickly opened the window and looked down. As an evil god and his followers, they were always highly sensitive to such commotions. And when they saw the police cars stop below the apartment building, they grew even more nervous.

“This isn’t for me, is it?”

As Huoshan worried, Li Quan said, “Besides the police cars, there’s also Xianyun Group’s security team. It must be related to company business, nothing to do with us.”

Huoshan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but then suddenly felt something was off. It wasn’t until the sound of the constables knocking on the door that a sudden realization struck Huoshan. The inertia from long-term idleness and amusement had not entirely eroded his vigilance as an evil god, causing him to abruptly grab the nearby math book.

Huoshan quickly flipped through it, his eyes widening instantly. Inside the math book, a martial art called “Spring and Autumn Boundless Zen” was transcribed.

“Damn it! Who’s trying to frame me?!”

At the same time, the voices of constables and company security personnel sounded from outside the door: “Routine inspection, please open the door and cooperate.”

Li Quan, standing nearby, grabbed the math book, intending to throw it out the window, but Huoshan stopped him. “Haven’t you seen the news or movies? There must be company dogs downstairs watching our windows, filming! Throwing it out would be actively handing them the evidence! We have to burn it! Quick, burn this book!”

Huoshan urged repeatedly, “Burn it! Burn it!”

One follower lit the book, while the other brought an iron bucket, but they found the book’s material to be extremely tough, burning too slowly. Just then, the knocking on the door grew louder. A constable’s voice could be heard saying, “As citizens of Songyang City, you are obligated to cooperate with investigations. Please open the door immediately.”

A company person said, “Do you smell something burning?”

The constable’s voice grew more urgent: “We now suspect you are involved in the dissemination of illegal martial arts techniques. If you don’t open the door, we will force our way in!”

Hearing this, the three of them were struck with terror, becoming as anxious as ants on a hot pan.

“Damn it…” Huoshan cursed inwardly, while speaking in a suppressed voice, “Pour some oil on it! Take it to the gas stove and light it! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! If we get caught, it’ll be an exorbitant fine! Burning even one more character means less of a fine! Li Quan, you go deal with them first! Stall for time!”

As the knocking grew louder, the warnings from the constables and company security team also became more urgent. Sensing strong spiritual energy fluctuations rising outside the door, Li Quan, drenched in sweat, said to the room, “They’re about to come in.”

Simultaneously, the entire book finally burst into flames. Huoshan watched the math book, thrown into the bucket, gradually turn to ash, and only then did he feel a slight sense of relief.

With a loud crash, the door was forced open. Seeing a large team of constables and company security personnel enter, Li Quan and the other dark-faced man quickly raised their hands, not daring to make any resisting movements. Huoshan, too, lay quietly on the sofa like a true teddy bear, making no sound.

The leading company security officer looked at Li Quan and asked, “Why did it take you so long to open the door?”

Li Quan nervously replied, “I… I didn’t know who you were, why should I open the door?”

Just then, a team member said, “Officer, they just burned something.” Everyone immediately looked towards the iron bucket, which was covered in burn marks. Watching the company personnel rummage through the burnt remnants, all three of them—Huoshan and his followers—instantly grew nervous.

The company personnel flipped through the charred book for a while, eventually shaking their heads helplessly. “We can’t make out the contents anymore.”

Just as Huoshan completely relaxed, another company person suddenly reached into the iron bucket, rummaging for something. Then, to everyone’s surprise, he pulled out a palm-sized iron plate. Seeing this, Huoshan immediately understood that someone had hidden the iron plate inside the book. He cursed inwardly, “Who’s so ruthless? Trying to frame me like this? Damn it, I’m going to be fined to death this time…” Looking at the two followers present, he began to consider abandoning them.

The company person glanced at the inscription on the iron plate, and his expression changed. “It’s Spring and Autumn Boundless Zen, a top-tier expert-level cultivation method.”

Upon hearing this, the constables immediately retreated repeatedly, afraid of seeing the contents on the iron plate. The company personnel immediately gathered around and sealed the iron plate.

“Gentlemen, we now suspect you of purchasing pirated cultivation methods. Please come with us and cooperate with the investigation.”

In the alley downstairs.

Zhang Yu, having already shed his delivery uniform, leaned against the wall in another unfamiliar guise, quietly watching Li Quan and the other man being escorted into a Xianyun Company vehicle. Watching the company and police vehicles quickly drive away, disappearing into the night in an instant, Zhang Yu remarked, “Anonymous tips are this effective? Even better than I imagined.”

Fu Ji said, “After all, what was leaked was a cultivation method of the ‘Spring and Autumn Boundless Zen’ caliber. Those company people would naturally be as eager as dogs smelling excrement.”

Zhang Yu recalled the two men being taken away in the car, thinking to himself, “These two must be followers, right?”

Fu Ji chuckled, then continued, “This is the advantage of information asymmetry. Just the fact that we know his address, but he doesn’t know that we know his address, is enough to completely outwit him.”

Zhang Yu, however, didn’t relax at all. After the company apprehended the two followers, once enough money was fined, everything would naturally be fine. Or even if these two followers were sacrificed, the evil god himself was still at large.

Zhang Yu looked at the apartment building, thinking, “Theoretically, the followers in that room should have been taken away by the company. However…”

After some thought, Zhang Yu decided to probe further. So he picked up his phone and ordered some takeout.

More than ten minutes later, accompanied by a blur cutting through the air, a delivery person appeared like a phantom at the door of room 606, carrying a drink. Seeing the violently forced-open door, he paused slightly and asked, “Is anyone here?”

No one responded.

The delivery person checked the notes on the order, sighed helplessly, and with a flurry of movement that stirred up a gust of wind, he quickly swept through the room. Then he exited the room, picked up his phone, and typed a message to the customer: “I’ve looked around, no one’s here. What should I do with this order?”

The customer replied: “Thanks for your effort. If they’re not there, it’s fine. Please enjoy this drink yourself.”

Shortly after the delivery person left, the bear plush on the sofa stirred slightly, jumped off, and seemed about to run outside. But in the next instant, he abruptly halted.

“No, wait. What if… what if their true target is me, the evil god? They might be waiting outside right now for me to walk right into their trap. I can’t just go out like this. Now that I don’t have the protection of my followers, this is the most dangerous moment. What I should do is…”

With that thought, the bear plush sent a message to Song Xu and the others. “At their speed, they can arrive in twenty minutes at most. And I just need to make sure I’m not found within these twenty minutes.”

With this in mind, Huoshan went to the wall behind the sofa, slowly opened a hidden door, and disappeared into the room.