Under the same night sky, on the outskirts of the city, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen stood in a small alley. Their gazes pierced through the rain-soaked darkness, scrutinizing an apartment building not far away.

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

Fu Ji retorted, “Hmph, how could a petty deity mixed in with mortals possibly match my control over rituals? Besides, I used their own Shadow Gu to find them. There’s absolutely no mistake.”

“If you’re going, hurry. Although I used false information to lure those people away, they’ll be back as soon as they realize something’s wrong.”

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

His muscles rippled and vibrated. Quickly, his physique subtly shrank and contorted, followed by a transformation of his facial features into a completely unfamiliar visage.

Then, Zhang Yu donned the deliveryman uniform he had prepared and entered the dilapidated apartment building.

Dilapidated exterior walls, dim lighting, and corridors piled high with junk greeted him.

Zhang Yu’s gaze swept over the moss growing in the cracks of the steps. He sensed a faint, unpleasant odor hanging in the air.

The entire apartment building exuded an aura of decay and stagnation.

Even the surveillance cameras had long been out of commission due to aging wiring and deliberate damage by the evil deity’s followers.

However, the relatively low rent had attracted a diverse group of residents, filling the building to capacity.

Zhang Yu mused inwardly, “The evil deity must have deliberately chosen such a run-down, ancient building. It certainly makes our operation today easier.”

Zhang Yu arrived at the door of room 606 and pressed the doorbell, but there was no response.

He pressed the doorbell again and announced, “Delivery! Package here.”

“I’m in a hurry, so I’ll leave it at the door. You can pick it up later.”

After taking a photo of the package in front of the door, Zhang Yu hurried away like an ordinary deliveryman.

Not long after he left, Li Quan cautiously opened the door, looked around to make sure no one was there, and then warily approached the cardboard delivery box.

Seeing that the address was indeed correct, Li Quan carried it inside and asked, “Master, it seems like the package you ordered has arrived.”

“Oh?” Huo Shan skipped over excitedly and shouted, “Is it my new mouse that I ordered online? Hurry up and open it so I can see!”

Besides the evil deity Huo Shan and his follower Li Quan, there was also a burly, dark-faced man lying on the sofa, quietly inhaling a Dao-heart buffer, a look of pure bliss on his face.

Li Quan and the burly man had both graduated from high school years ago and had already reached the peak of Qi Refining. They were Huo Shan’s two most loyal followers, constantly guarding his safety.

Even though Song Xu had taken men to seize the ten million today, they remained by Huo Shan’s side.

Li Quan quickly tore open the package, only to find a high school general knowledge mathematics textbook inside.

“What the hell?” Huo Shan exclaimed in frustration. “The merchant sent me the wrong item! I’m going to complain!”

Just then, the distant sound of police sirens could be heard, growing closer to the apartment building.

Huo Shan and his two followers were startled by the noise and quickly opened a window to look down.

As evil deities and their followers, they were always very sensitive to such sounds.

When they saw the police cars stopping below the apartment building, their tension increased.

“Could they be coming for me?”

Just as Huo Shan was worrying, Li Quan said, “Besides the police cars, there are also security teams from Xianyun Corporation. It must be related to company matters and has nothing to do with us.”

Huo Shan breathed a sigh of relief but suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Suddenly, the police began knocking. The years of leisure had not completely eroded his instincts. Huo Shan grabbed the math textbook.

Huo Shan quickly flipped through it. His eyes widened.

He found a martial art called Endless Spring Autumn Zen transcribed in the math book.

“Damn it! Who’s trying to harm me!”

At the same time, the voices of the police and the company security team rang out outside the door: “Routine inspection, please open the door and cooperate.”

Li Quan grabbed the math book and tried to throw it out the window, but Huo Shan stopped him.

“Haven’t you seen the news or the movies? There must be corporate dogs watching our windows below! Throwing it down is just handing them the evidence!”

“We have to burn it! Quickly burn this book!”

Huo Shan urged repeatedly, “Burn it! Burn it! If we get caught, the fines will be astronomical!”

One of the followers lit the book, and the other grabbed an iron bucket, but they found that the material of the book was extremely tough and burned too slowly.

The knocking on the door grew louder. The police said, “As citizens of Songyang City, you are obligated to cooperate with the investigation. Please open the door immediately.”

One of the company employees said, “Did you smell something burning?”

The police’s voice became more urgent, “We now suspect you are involved in the dissemination of illegal techniques. If you don’t open the door, we will break it down!”

Hearing this, the three were frightened and panicked like ants in a hot pot.

“Damn it…” Huo Shan cursed inwardly, lowering his voice as he said, “Pour some oil on it! Ignite it on the gas stove!”

“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! If we get caught, it’s an exorbitant fine!”

“Burning one more word will reduce the fine!”

“Li Quan, go and deal with them first! Stall for time!”

As the knocking on the door grew louder, the warnings from the police and the company security team became increasingly urgent.

Sensing the strong surge of spiritual power outside the door, Li Quan said, sweating profusely, “They’re about to come in!”

At the same time, the entire book finally burst into flames.

Huo Shan, watching the math book being thrown into the bucket and gradually turning black, finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

A loud crash! The door was broken open directly.

Watching a large group of police and company security team members enter, Li Quan and the burly man quickly raised their hands, not daring to resist in the slightest.

Huo Shan also lay quietly on the sofa like a real teddy bear, without making a sound.

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

Li Quan said nervously, “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 filled with charred remains.

Watching the company personnel searching through the burning residue, Huo Shan and the two followers immediately tensed up.

The company man searched through the charred book, but helplessly shook his head, “I can’t distinguish the content on it.”

Just as Huo Shan completely relaxed, another company man suddenly reached into the iron bucket, feeling around.

Then, to everyone’s shock, he pulled out a palm-sized piece of metal.

Seeing this, Huo Shan immediately understood that someone had slipped a piece of metal into the book. He cursed inwardly, “Who’s so ruthless to harm me like this? Damn it, I’m going to be fined to death this time…” Looking at the two followers on the scene, he was already considering whether to abandon them.

The company man glanced at the writing engraved on the metal plate. His expression changed, “It’s Endless Spring Autumn Zen, a top-tier expert-level technique.”

Hearing this, the police immediately retreated, afraid of seeing the content on the metal plate.

The company men immediately surrounded it, sealing the metal plate.

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

Downstairs in the alley.

Zhang Yu, who had already taken off the deliveryman’s uniform, leaned against the wall, watching Li Quan and the other man being taken away in a Xianyun Company car in a different, unfamiliar guise.

Watching the company and police cars speed away, disappearing into the night, Zhang Yu sighed, “Anonymous tip-offs are so effective, even better than I imagined.”

Fu Ji chuckled and said, “After all, the leaked technique is Endless Spring Autumn Zen. These company people will definitely be as eager as dogs smelling shit.”

Zhang Yu recalled the two men being taken away. He thought to himself, “Those two should be followers, right?”

Fu Ji chuckled, then said, “This is the advantage of information disparity. Just the information gap that we know his address, but he doesn’t know we know his address, is enough to play him to death.”

Zhang Yu did not relax at all.

After the company arrested the two followers, as long as they paid enough fines, they would naturally be fine.

Or even if these two followers were sacrificed, the other party’s evil deity was still there.

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

“But…”

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yu decided to test it out.

So he picked up his phone and ordered takeout.

More than ten minutes later, with a streak of afterimages tearing through the air, a deliveryman, carrying a drink, appeared at the door of room 606 like a ghost.

Seeing the violently broken door, he was slightly stunned and asked, “Is anyone here?”

No one responded.

Looking at the notes on the takeout order, the deliveryman sighed helplessly. With a flicker of his figure, bringing a gust of wind, he had already swept through the room.

Then, he walked out of the room, picked up his phone, and sent a message to the customer: I looked around, no one’s here. What do you want me to do with this order?

The customer replied: Thanks for your trouble. It’s fine that they’re not there. You can have the drink.

Not long after the deliveryman left, the bear doll on the sofa twitched slightly, jumped off the sofa, and tried to run out.

But the next moment, he abruptly stopped.

“That’s not right, what if… what if the other party’s real target is me, this evil deity, and maybe they’re guarding outside, waiting for me to walk into their trap.”

“I can’t just go out like this.”

“Now that I don’t have the protection of my followers, it’s the most dangerous time. What I should do is…”

Thinking of this, the bear doll sent a message to Song Xu and others.

“At their speed, they can arrive in twenty minutes at most.”

“And all I need to do is avoid being found in these twenty minutes.”

Thinking of this, Huo Shan came to the wall behind the sofa, slowly opened a hidden door, and disappeared into the room.