After slipping into the hidden door, Huoshan was greeted by a cramped crawlspace—less than a meter high and barely a dozen centimeters wide.

This was a tiny secret chamber he’d deliberately prepared for himself when he first moved into this apartment.

He’d never actually had to use it before. The space was barely enough to fit a plush bear like him.

But that was exactly what made it so well-concealed. As he nestled inside, Huoshan felt a rare sense of relief—and a deep gratitude toward his past self for having built it.

He pulled out his phone at once and fired off a message to Song Xu, urging his followers to hurry over and protect him.

“Damn it. If this were the city center, they’d be here in minutes.”

“But today of all days, they’re all out in the suburbs…”

Just then, Huoshan’s body tensed. He heard something outside the hidden space.

“Someone’s here?”

There were sounds—someone rummaging through the apartment.

Huoshan quickly peered out through a narrow slit in the wall, spotting a stranger rifling through the room.

“Some looter neighbor?”

“Or… are they looking for me?”

He silenced his phone and lay motionless, not daring to breathe. Just like a real stuffed toy, he curled up and didn’t make a sound.

Meanwhile, in the apartment outside—

Zhang Yu had disguised himself as a total stranger, hood up, and was searching through the clutter at speed.

But there was just too much junk in this room. Zhang Yu could tell it’d take hours to search everything.

Fu Ji said, “He’s definitely hiding in here somewhere.”

“But Evil Gods each take on different forms—he could be a toy, a pen, a glove, a necklace…”

“We don’t have time to check everything one by one.”

“Smash it! Go as fast as you can. Break everything in the room—we’ll find him that way!”

Formless Cloud Qi surged violently around Zhang Yu.

But before activating it, he’d already triggered the Great Sun Qi Sea Technique to conceal his technique’s signature.

As the light vanished into his body, the Formless Cloud Qi that erupted from Zhang Yu turned pitch black, like thunderclouds churning through the room.

A flurry of shattering sounds followed.

But in this run-down apartment complex full of noise and chaos, it blended in perfectly with the arguing, music, and video sounds from the other floors—nothing out of the ordinary.

Inside the hidden chamber, Huoshan watched through the slit as items were smashed one after another. His heart tightened.

If it were just some looter, they wouldn’t be trashing the place like this.

No—this was personal. Someone was targeting him.

And when he thought of his electronics, gaming consoles, computers, figurines, models… all being smashed to bits, Huoshan felt like his very soul was bleeding.

“Goddamn it… they're wrecking my place?!”

“You think Evil Gods can’t call the cops?!”

“Just you wait!”

He jabbed at his phone again, furiously urging Song Xu to hurry.

…

A little earlier.

In a half-finished building in the suburbs.

After scanning the site with a Flying Sword and finding nothing unusual—

Song Xu and five other followers emerged from various corners of the ruins.

“There’s nothing here.”

One of them frowned. “Was the intel wrong? Or did we get the timing off?”

Song Xu frowned as well. “Something feels off. Let’s pull back for now.”

But as they exited the abandoned building, a harsh beam of light suddenly swept across them.

Two security guards barked, “You six! What are you doing here? Stealing building materials in the middle of the night?!”

“This is company property, you know that?”

Song Xu eyed their uniforms—Wanli Corporation. His heart sank.

“This building belongs to Wanli? Even an unfinished site like this has security? They got here fast…”

His sense of unease deepened.

Could they just beat the guards and make a run for it?

Absolutely not. These guards represented the company—and they had live-feed cameras on them at all times.

To the six followers of the Evil God, these two security guards were way more dangerous than most rival Evil Gods.

After all, if you fought another Evil God to the death, neither of you would call the cops. Just another day of underground brawling.

But if you laid a finger on a corporate guard? You’d have lawsuits chasing you to the ends of the earth.

Two of the six—one a food delivery guy, the other a courier—were already shrinking back the moment they saw uniforms. Forget fighting; they wouldn’t even talk back.

Song Xu sighed. It was their professional conditioning. No choice but to step up himself.

“We didn’t steal anything,” he said calmly. “You’re welcome to search us.”

The guard raised his baton. “We got a report—someone’s stealing building supplies. You’re all coming with me to register your info.”

One of them, a construction worker type, tried to bribe his way out—offering a Dao Heart Buffer with a greasy smile.

“We’re just out for a late-night run and got lost, that’s all…”

The guard slapped his hand away. “Who are you calling ‘bro’? Move it!”

The six cultists bit back their rage, offering polite explanations.

The head guard grew more arrogant by the second. Didn’t matter that there were six of them—he had a whole company at his back. These six? Poor nobodies.

With decades of experience, he could spot their delivery-worker and construction-site vibes from a mile away. Crushing them was his duty.

Just then, Song Xu finally checked his phone, which had been vibrating nonstop.

His face changed instantly.

“Huoshan’s been reported?”

“Pirated techniques?”

“Someone’s hunting him?”

As he recalled the day’s events, realization hit like a thunderbolt. Rage flared in his heart.

“Internal Evil God conflict—and they brought in snitches? Called in enforcers?!”

“How shameless can they get?!”

He stared coldly at the two guards. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.

The other five cultists sensed his shift in energy and exchanged looks.

They straightened up.

No more bowing and scraping.

“If we can’t stall any longer… then we’ll have to…”

In a blur, Song Xu blocked the bodycam with one hand and shoved cash into the guard’s face with the other.

“Bro, the company’s great, but they’re not giving you a raise for this. Come on, help us out.”

The guard glanced at the thick wad of bills—several thousand yuan—and softened immediately.

Song Xu sneered inwardly. “Tch. Just two corporate guards. I was trying to save money earlier, otherwise I’d have shut you up from the start.”

“Now I’m in a rush—no time for nonsense.”

…

While Song Xu and the others dealt with the guards—

Bai Zhenzhen was watching everything unfold through a surveillance app on her phone.

She’d been monitoring the cameras ever since the six men entered the abandoned building.

“Good thing yesterday’s surveillance cams still work,” she muttered. “Not cheap though.”

With all the batteries, SIM cards, and high-res lenses required, Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu had spent several thousand yuan setting it up.

But it was worth every penny. One look at Song Xu and she instantly recognized him.

“It’s him!”

Over six months ago, she’d narrowed down a list of possible leaders of the Alliance of the Resentful Poor—most were from White Dragon High.

Song Xu was one of them. She still had his photo and file on her phone.

“They’re leaving?”

As she saw the security guards confronting the six, she exhaled lightly.

“Wanli Corp is fast—already on-site?”

It was Bai Zhenzhen who’d made the report—calling in a tip that someone was stealing steel bars at the site, which brought the guards running.

But she knew the two of them could be bribed for a few thousand, maybe ten thousand at most.

So she immediately messaged Zhang Yu.

Bai Zhenzhen: They’re leaving the site. Speed up.

Bai Zhenzhen: I recognized one of them—Song Xu. Sending his profile now.

A moment later, Bai Zhenzhen looked back at the feed. The six had shaken off the guards and left the site.

She wasn’t too worried though.

She opened a navigation app and pulled up the route from the abandoned building to the Evil God’s apartment. The map was lit up in crimson.

“Heh. The timing and location weren’t random.”

“It’s midnight rush hour—shift changes, late buses. Traffic’s hell.”

“That should buy us more time.”

…

In the apartment.

Zhang Yu read Bai Zhenzhen’s message.

“They’re on their way back?”

He glanced over the file on Song Xu and scanned the wreckage in the room.

“Why is there so much junk in this dump?”

Clothes for pets, massage pillows, rows of sneakers, detergents, figurines, models…

“It’s a damn landfill.”

In the crawlspace, Huoshan watched him smash things for another ten minutes and, despite the pain, felt oddly grateful.

“Who said I shop too much, huh? If I hadn’t bought all this junk, he’d have found me already!”

Fu Ji muttered, “Something’s wrong.”

“There must be a hidden compartment in this place.”

Zhang Yu frowned. “You want me to break down the walls?”

“Too risky,” Fu Ji said. “Neighbors might call building security.”

Just then, Zhang Yu’s phone buzzed.

It was Bai Zhenzhen again—still in the alley below, keeping watch and monitoring the feed.

Zhang Yu checked the message immediately.

Bai Zhenzhen: They’re here!

Bai Zhenzhen: Get out, now!

His eyes sharpened. “Already?!”

Bai Zhenzhen: Move! They’re fast! If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late!

Zhang Yu gave the mountain of garbage one last scowl—disappointment flaring in his chest—then turned and left.