Chapter 182: Countless Temptations

In Huoshan's view, Song Xu was a disciple who tried far too hard for his liking.

Studying hard, cultivating hard, and earning money hard—those were all fine.

But working hard to develop followers, working hard to manage followers, and working hard to boost Huoshan's power... that made Huoshan feel rather uncomfortable.

Once again, Song Xu's nagging murmurs resurfaced in his mind.

It was an afternoon not long after he had transformed Song Xu into a follower of an evil god.

The other spoke to him with earnest sincerity: "Master, we can't keep going on like this! Times are changing, the righteous gods are advancing, and Kunxu's oversight and competition will only get fiercer."

"If we don't want to be eliminated by this world, internal reform is imperative!"

"First and foremost, we need to accelerate talent recruitment. We can no longer just go with the flow like before. We should actively gather talent profiles, go onto campuses, aggressively compete for talent, conduct face-to-face assessments, and speed up the entire recruitment process's efficiency."

"I also suggest you participate as an observer in every stage of follower recruitment and personally attend the preliminary interviews for key followers..."

Wanting to work hard to develop more followers means spending more time finding suitable candidates—from gathering profiles, to covert observation, to making the recruitment offer.

This process consumes time and mental energy... far more troublesome than sitting in an office, casually sifting through piles of resumes, and making a single phone call to summon interviewers for a Q&A session.

After all, secrecy requirements for evil god followers are extremely strict; you simply cannot recruit just anyone.

Take, for example, Huoshan's current eight followers—each one's observation and recruitment had cost him hundreds of hours of work time.

Just from this one point, Huoshan felt that being a company boss was far better than being an evil god. You just casually offer a position, and you receive hundreds or thousands of resumes; once hired, they work diligently, and you don't even have to worry about leaks or anything like that.

And if expanding follower recruitment was already troublesome, then working hard to manage followers seemed even more troublesome to Huoshan.

At this very moment, Song Xu's nagging murmurs once again arose in Huoshan's mind.

Song Xu: "This is my analysis of our current team after three months of observation."

"The main issue causing the drop in efficiency is information fragmentation."

"For instance, the courier follower doesn't submit work logs or bank statements; the wear on his running shoes doesn't match the mileage logged on his food delivery platform, and there's no finance staff to audit it—whatever he earns, he just reports himself."

"The construction site follower is even more lacking in supervision; we have no idea how many hours he works each day, what he earns, or what he spends."

"I suggest starting next week, every follower must submit a 300-word structured daily report before 9 PM, focusing on today's achievements, tomorrow's plans, and bank statements."

"Secondly, from now on, hold a half-hour regular meeting every Sunday at 1 AM, with no PowerPoint allowed—only discuss bottlenecks and resource allocation."

"Also, establish an escalation channel: any issue that remains unresolved for 12 hours should be escalated directly to me..."

Although just listening to him speak always gave Huoshan a headache,

Song Xu's actions did help Huoshan earn more money, allowing him to move from a basement to his current shabby apartment, to shop online, and even to have more money to spend on in-game gacha pulls.

So Huoshan moved when Song Xu pushed, and step by step, they ended up where they were now...

But when it came to hunting down evil gods, Huoshan still didn't really want to do it.

"Why do we have to fight and kill? Isn't it better to just eat, drink, and play games every day?"

Right now, Huoshan didn't want to continue participating in the evil god hunting work; instead, he wanted to turn back and keep playing the game he hadn't finished.

But on the other side, the believer Li Quan exclaimed, "Master, there's ten million!"

The moment he heard "ten million," Huoshan snapped to attention, quickly hopped in front of the screen, and looked over the intelligence delivered by the Shadow Gu.

He read quickly, taking in the general situation from the Shadow Gu's intelligence in no time.

"So it's an evil god who fled from Tiantai City."

"Tomorrow, the followers he left behind in Tiantai City... will bring over the ten million-plus in cash he hid outside Tiantai City?"

"Let me see the transaction location..."

Seeing the news of over ten million in cash, Huoshan's eyes lit up.

Although he didn't want to work hard, as an evil god of Kunxu, it was impossible for him to claim he didn't love money.

He just didn't want to earn it through his own efforts.

If there was a chance to grab over ten million in one go, he would not only be interested but would also push his followers very hard.

"Send the intelligence to Song Xu."

"Tell him to take the men to the exchange location tomorrow. If there's a chance... just snatch that ten million."

…

Inside the apartment.

After cultivating for two hours in the spirit realm, Zhang Yu returned to reality.

But after taking off the Spirit Face Mask, his expression looked a little strange.

He recalled today's cultivation in the spirit realm.

In the illusion, he became a security guard at a high-end club. Under the boss's oppression, he fought back, constantly battling thugs while trying to find evidence of the club's crimes, fighting again and again in the most desperate situations!

And the boss of that high-end club was Yu Xinghan, who was oppressing Zhang Yu as the guard, and also day and night exploiting the attractive employees in the club, endlessly fighting, fighting, fighting inside the club!

After coming out of the illusion, Zhang Yu couldn't help asking him in the Questioning Hall: "Does this actually have any cultivation effect?"

Yu Xinghan smiled and shook his head: "Zhang Yu, a sterilized person like you cannot comprehend my current state."

Obviously, although Zhang Yu had introduced Yu Xinghan to Xiong Haohan's side, he hadn't told Yu Xinghan about his own physical condition.

And after two days of growth, Yu Xinghan felt his spirit and will had greatly improved.

In his eyes now, though Zhang Yu's strength was formidable, he was spiritually still just a sterilized child. Unlike himself, who had already weathered countless storms and been tested through puppets and illusions.

"So-called passing through a forest of flowers without a single leaf touching the body."

"Only when hobbies and preferences become work can one cut off desire and return to the true self."

"This is the true meaning I have realized... how to overcome lust and passion."

"Heh, remember these words—they will surely benefit you greatly in the future."

Just then, inside the apartment.

Bai Zhenzhen stopped her training and looked at the awakened Zhang Yu, asking: "How did it go, Yu? Did it work?"

Zhang Yu nodded: "Let's go outside and discuss it."

So Zhang Yu then took Bai Zhenzhen to their familiar spot under the bridge, by the small river.

Bai Zhenzhen immediately asked eagerly: "What's the situation now?"

No mistakes; one start, one release, one content, one in one look!

Fu Ji said: "The intel has been sent. I hopped through three puppet machines and managed to track my colleague's location."

Bai Zhenzhen said: "So, should we just storm their place now and catch them off guard?"

Fu Ji said: "Although I tracked the target's location, to avoid alarming the snake, I didn't take the chance to probe them."

"So I still have no idea how many followers my colleague has, or what their strength is."

"But there's no need to rush. I've already sent fake intel to them. Tomorrow, it should lure away their main force."

"Then we'll follow the plan and gather information..."

Zhang Yu asked nervously: "Won't they discover it?"

Fu Ji chuckled: "That sister of yours had a good point: information is extremely important in this world."

"Sometimes the gap in information is even more important than the gap in power."

"Just like now, using the Shadow Gu to trace them back—enemies in the dark, us in the light. Exploiting this information gap, we can remain undefeated."

…

The next evening.

A container truck was driving toward the suburbs.

Inside the truck, besides Song Xu, there were five other evil god cultists at the peak of Qi Refining, all vigorous and radiating a rough aura from the delivery, construction, and courier worlds.

One cultist, tall and lean with a wavering figure, said: "When we see them, let's ram them directly with the truck and see if we can take one out first."

Another cultist, dark-skinned with a face full of scars, said: "Although it's in the suburbs with no surveillance, don't forget to perform the cloaking ritual to avoid being found by those righteous god lackeys."

A third said: "Even though the other side is also an evil god cultist and probably won't call the cops, we still need to move fast to stop them from lashing out desperately."

At the same time, Song Xu was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, resting his eyes and listening to the other believers chat without saying anything.

In his mind, he was still replaying the evil god intelligence he had received yesterday.

"Ten million?"

When he first learned of that number, Song Xu's heart had also pounded fiercely, and a strong greed surged within him.

After all, in the Kunxu World, money was potential, was the future, was the wings on the path of immortality, enabling one to advance boldly and break through to higher levels.

For the sake of that ten million, a thought had even risen in Song Xu's mind at the time: "Should I get Mo Tianyi and the others to help?"

But in the end, he suppressed that impulse.

After all, the Poor Man's Alliance was not composed of evil god believers—it was a force he had built himself, truly belonging to him, and the money they earned went into his personal little treasury; he didn't want to expose it easily before the evil god.

And that ten million…

"Even if we snatch that ten million, Huo Shan is bound to take the lion's share."

"With that much money, that lazy bum will definitely be even less willing to work hard."

Song Xu could already picture the other party parking the money to live off interest and then completely lying back to enjoy himself.

Based on his understanding of Huo Shan, the guy was absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

"And then that guy will definitely be even less willing to help me hunt the evil god."

"Besides, we still don't know where the other party's evil god is."

"Once we touch that ten million, it will inevitably put the other side on guard, and then the plan of hunting the evil god won't be easy to handle."

Although when he first heard about the ten million, Song Xu's greed blazed up, after careful thought he quickly restrained himself.

After all, snatching ten million wasn't the same as it being his own, and snatching it would instead hinder his plan to hunt the evil god and boost his potential.

Just like back then, when he endured pain and waited for the right opportunity before finally selling his grandfather's grave.

Song Xu felt that now was not a good opportunity to snatch that ten million—especially compared to the ten million, he wanted more to hunt the evil god and unlock his potential.

He tapped his fingertips lightly, stroking the palm-sized civilian-grade flying sword in his hand, and thought to himself: "I'll use the flying sword to check the situation first. If there's no opportunity, then forget it."