Under the same rainy night sky—

At the edge of the city—

Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen stood in a narrow alley, their eyes cutting through the misty rain toward an old apartment building in the distance.

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

Fu Ji snorted, “Hmph. These Evil Gods who blend into mortal life can’t control a Ritual half as well as I can. Besides, I tracked this place using his own Shadow Parasite. There’s no mistake.”

“If you’re going in, hurry. I misled their people with false intel, but if they catch on, they’ll double back fast.”

Zhang Yu nodded. “I’ll go.”

Muscles rippled and shifted under his skin. His entire physique subtly contracted and twisted. Even the contours of his face morphed into a completely unfamiliar look.

Then he pulled on a delivery uniform he’d prepared in advance and entered the run-down apartment building.

Peeling walls, dim lighting, and hallways choked with junk.

Zhang Yu noticed moss growing between the stair cracks and caught a faint, sour stench in the air.

The whole building exuded age and decay.

Even the surveillance had long since failed—sabotaged by Evil God cultists or worn down by time.

Still, the cheap rent meant the place was packed with a chaotic mix of tenants.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “The Evil God probably picked this rundown building on purpose. Makes today’s job easier for us.”

He stopped in front of unit 606 and rang the bell. No answer.

He rang again and said, “Anyone home? Delivery.”

“I’m in a rush, so I’m leaving it at the door. Come get it when you can.”

With that, he snapped a photo of the parcel and strode off like any ordinary courier.

Moments later, Li Quan opened the door. He glanced around, then eyed the package on the ground warily.

The address checked out. He brought it inside. “Master, I think your delivery’s here.”

“Oh?” Huoshan bounced over gleefully. “Is it my new mouse? Open it already!”

In the room, besides the Evil God plushie Huoshan and his follower Li Quan, a burly man with a dark face was sprawled on the sofa, enjoying a hit of Mind-Stabilizer.

Both Li Quan and the dark-faced man had graduated high school years ago and reached the peak of Qi Refinement. They were Huoshan’s most loyal followers, long tasked with his protection.

Even today, with Song Xu leading a crew to secure that ten million, these two stayed behind to guard him.

Li Quan quickly tore open the package—only to find a high school general math textbook inside.

“What the hell?” Huoshan snapped. “They sent me the wrong thing? I’m filing a complaint!”

Just then, sirens wailed in the distance, quickly growing louder.

Huoshan and his two followers stiffened and rushed to the window.

As an Evil God and cultists, they were highly sensitive to such commotion.

When they saw the police cars pulling up outside, their tension spiked.

“They’re not here for me... right?”

Just as worry crept into Huoshan’s mind, Li Quan said, “It’s not just the police. Xianyun Group’s security team is with them too. Probably company business—nothing to do with us.”

Huoshan let out a breath of relief—only to feel something was off.

The moment the knock sounded at their door, realization struck him like lightning.

Years of complacency hadn’t fully dulled his instincts. He lunged for the math book.

Flipping through it, his eyes widened in horror.

Inside were pages densely copied with the Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation—a top-tier Technique.

“Son of a... someone’s trying to set me up!”

Outside, a voice called out: “Routine inspection. Please open the door and cooperate.”

Li Quan instinctively reached for the book, intending to toss it out the window, but Huoshan stopped him.

“Have you never watched the news? Never seen a movie? I guarantee some company mutt’s filming from the street. You chuck it, and you’re handing them the evidence yourself!”

“Burn it! Burn the damn thing!”

“Now! Hurry!”

One follower lit the book while the other fetched a metal bin. But the book’s material was unusually durable—it burned too slowly.

Meanwhile, the knocking grew louder and more urgent.

“You are obligated to cooperate as citizens of Songyang City. Open the door immediately,” a constable warned.

Another company voice added, “Anyone else smell burning?”

The knock turned into pounding. “We suspect illegal Technique distribution. Open up or we break the door down!”

The trio panicked, cold sweat beading on their brows.

“Damn it all…” Huoshan cursed, voice low. “Use oil! Set it on the gas stove!”

“Hurry, damn it! If we get caught, we’re looking at astronomical fines!”

“Every page you burn saves you money!”

“Li Quan, stall them at the door!”

As the pounding intensified, so did the pressure outside. They could feel powerful Mana surging just beyond the door.

“They’re about to break in!” Li Quan called out, panicking.

Finally, the book caught fire in earnest, flames devouring it whole.

Huoshan stared at the blackened pages, slightly relieved.

Boom!

The door blasted open.

A wave of constables and security officers stormed in.

Li Quan and the dark-faced follower threw up their hands, frozen stiff.

Huoshan lay limp on the sofa like a true plushie, pretending to be inanimate.

“Why did it take so long to answer?” barked the security lead.

Li Quan stammered, “I… I didn’t know who you were. Why should I open the door?”

“Sir, something was just burned,” a team member called out.

Everyone’s eyes turned to the scorched bin.

Company personnel poked through the ashes, while Huoshan and his men held their breath.

But after a moment of searching, one officer sighed. “The contents are too charred to identify.”

Just as Huoshan relaxed, another officer reached into the bin—and pulled out a palm-sized iron plate.

In that instant, Huoshan knew: someone had slipped the plate inside the book. His heart plummeted. “Who the hell did this? They’re really out to kill me!”

He glanced at his followers, already weighing whether to throw them under the bus.

The officer examined the inscription, his face darkening. “Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation. Expert-grade Technique.”

The constables recoiled instinctively, afraid to glimpse the plate’s contents.

The company men swooped in and sealed the artifact.

“You’re now under suspicion of purchasing pirated Techniques. Come with us for questioning.”

…

Down in the alley—

Zhang Yu, now out of his courier disguise and wearing a different face, leaned against the wall, quietly watching Li Quan and the other man being loaded into a Xianyun Group vehicle.

As the cars vanished into the night, he murmured, “Anonymous tip-offs actually work? That went even better than I expected.”

Fu Ji laughed. “Of course. When you’re leaking something as high-level as the Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation, those company dogs come running like they’ve sniffed out fresh shit.”

Zhang Yu recalled the two people arrested and mused, “Those two were probably both cultists.”

Fu Ji snickered. “That’s the power of asymmetric intel. Just knowing their address when they don’t know you know—it’s enough to ruin them.”

But Zhang Yu wasn’t at ease.

Even if the cultists were caught, once the fines were paid, the issue would likely be dropped.

Or if the cultists were sacrificed, the Evil God was still out there.

Zhang Yu eyed the apartment building. “Theoretically, all the cultists in that room were taken.”

“But just in case…”

He decided to probe further.

Pulling out his phone, he ordered delivery to unit 606.

A little over ten minutes later, a streak of motion sliced through the air. A delivery man holding a drink appeared outside the broken door like a wraith.

He frowned at the busted door. “Anyone there?”

No reply.

He sighed and, in a flash of wind, swept through the room.

Then he stepped outside, typed on his phone: “I checked the place—no one’s home. What should I do with the order?”

Customer replied: “Thanks for the effort. If no one’s there, just enjoy the drink yourself.”

Moments after the delivery man left, the plushie on the sofa twitched.

It jumped down, ready to flee—

Then froze.

“Wait. What if… what if the real target was me all along? What if they’re still out there, waiting for me to walk into a trap?”

“I can’t just bolt.”

“Right now, without my followers, I’m at my most vulnerable. What I should do is…”

With that thought, Huoshan sent a message to Song Xu and the others.

“At their speed, they’ll be here in twenty-some minutes.”

“I just need to avoid detection until then.”

He moved to the wall behind the sofa, opened a hidden panel, and slipped into a secret passage.