Chapter 183: Zhang Yu's Thunder Strike

Under the same night sky.

A location just beyond the city's edge.

Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen stood in an alley, their gazes piercing the rain- and mist-shrouded darkness, sizing up an apartment building not far away.

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

Fuji said, "Hmph, how could such a low-tier evil god's control over rituals compare to mine? Besides, I traced it using their own shadow gu—there's no problem at all."

"If you're going, hurry. Although I lured that group away with false information, once they sense something's wrong, they'll be back soon."

Zhang Yu nodded and said, "Then I'll go first."

His muscles twisted and trembled; soon his entire physique shrank and warped slightly, then his facial muscles shifted as well, taking on a completely unfamiliar appearance.

Then Zhang Yu changed into the deliveryman uniform he had prepared earlier and entered the rundown apartment building.

Dilapidated exterior walls, dim lighting, and a hallway cluttered with piled-up items.

Zhang Yu's eyes swept over the moss growing in the cracks of the stairs; he sensed a faint, lingering odor in the air.

The entire apartment building gave him a feeling of age and decay.

Even the surveillance cameras, due to aging wiring and deliberate damage by the evil god's followers, had been broken for a long time.

However, because the rent was relatively cheap, the building had a mixed crowd and was fully occupied.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "The evil god must have deliberately chosen such a shabby, old apartment. It does make our job easier today."

Zhang Yu arrived at the door of room 606 and pressed the doorbell, but no one answered.

So he pressed the doorbell again and said, "Anyone home? Package delivery."

"I'm in a hurry, so I'll leave it at the door. Come get it yourselves later."

After saying this, Zhang Yu took a photo of the parcel while standing there, then hurried away like an ordinary deliveryman.

Shortly after he left, Li Quan opened the door, looked left and right to confirm no one was there, then warily eyed the cardboard box at the door.

Seeing that the address was indeed this one, Li Quan brought it into the room and asked, "Master, it seems the package you ordered has arrived."

"Oh?" Huoshan came hopping over, shouting, "Is it the new mouse I ordered online? Hurry up and open it for me to see."

Inside the room at that moment, besides the evil god Huoshan and his follower Li Quan, there was also a dark-faced burly man quietly inhaling Dao Heart Buffer, lying on the sofa with a look of enjoyment.

Both Li Quan and this dark-faced burly man had graduated from high school many years ago and were already at the peak of Qi Refining; they were the two most loyal followers of the evil god Huoshan, always protecting his safety.

Even though Song Xu had taken people to obtain that ten million today, they still remained guarding Huoshan.

But at this moment, after Li Quan quickly tore open the parcel, he saw that inside was a high school general mathematics textbook.

"What the hell?" Huoshan fumed. "The seller sent me the wrong thing? I'm going to complain!"

Just then, the sound of police cars came from afar, and soon the sirens grew closer and closer to the apartment.

Alarmed by this noise, Huoshan and his two followers quickly opened the window and looked toward the downstairs.

As an evil god and his followers, they were always very sensitive to such commotions.

And when they saw the police cars stop at the base of the apartment building, they grew even more nervous.

"This couldn't be coming for me, could it?"

Just as Huoshan was worrying, Li Quan said, "Besides the police cars, there's also the security team of Xianyun Group. It's probably about company matters, nothing to do with us."

Huoshan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but then suddenly felt something was off.

Until the knocking of the police officers sounded, a sudden flash of insight struck Huoshan's mind.

The long-term numbness from lying flat and playing around had not completely eroded his vigilance as an evil god; he abruptly grabbed the math textbook beside him.

Huoshan flipped through it quickly and immediately widened his eyes.

Inside the math book, a martial art called "Spring and Autumn Infinite Zen" was transcribed.

"Damn it! Who's trying to frame me!"

At the same time, the voices of the police and the company security team sounded outside the door: "Routine inspection. Please open the door and cooperate."

The Li Quan beside him grabbed the math textbook and was about to throw it out of the window, but Huo Shan stopped him.

"Haven't you ever watched the news or movies? There must be some corporate dogs downstairs staring at our window with cameras! Throwing it out just hands them evidence on a silver platter!"

"We need to burn it! Burn this book now!"

Huo Shan urged repeatedly: "Burn it! Burn it!"

One of the two believers lit the book on fire, and the other fetched an iron bucket, only to find the book's material was extremely tough and burned too slowly.

Just then, the knocking outside grew louder and louder, and the constable said: "As citizens of Songyang City, you are obligated to cooperate with the investigation. Please open the door immediately."

One of the corporate personnel said: "Do you smell something burning?"

The constable's voice became more urgent: "We now suspect you are involved in the illegal distribution of cultivation methods. If you don't open the door, we will break it down!"

Hearing this, the three of them were terrified, panicking like ants on a hot pan.

"Fucking hell..." Huo Shan cursed inwardly, then said in a low voice: "Pour some oil on it! Light it on the gas stove!"

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! If we get caught, it's a sky-high fine!"

"The more characters we burn, the less we'll be fined!" "Li Quan, go stall them! Buy us some time!"

As the knocking grew louder and louder, the warnings from the constables and the corporate security team became more urgent.

Feeling strong mana fluctuations surging outside the door, Li Quan, sweating profusely, said toward the room: "They're about to come in."

At that moment, the entire book finally burst into flames.

Watching the math textbook, thrown into the bucket and gradually turning charred black, Huo Shan finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

With a loud bang! The door was broken open directly.

Seeing a large squad of constables and corporate security team members walk in, Li Quan and another dark-faced burly man quickly raised their hands, not daring to make any move of resistance.

Huo Shan, like a real plush toy bear, lay quietly on the sofa without a sound.

The leading corporate security officer looked at Li Quan and said: "Why did it take so long to open the door?"

Li Quan said somewhat nervously: "I… I didn't know who you were, so why would I open the door?"

No mistake! No typo! No missing content! Everything right here!

Just then, a team member said: "Sir, something was just burned by them."

Everyone immediately looked toward the iron bucket covered in burn marks.

Watching the corporate personnel search through the charred remains, the three of them tensed up instantly.

The corporate personnel flipped through the scorched book, but ultimately shook his head helplessly: "Can't make out what was written on it anymore."

Just as Huo Shan was completely relaxing, another corporate person suddenly reached into the iron bucket and fished something out.

Then, under everyone's astonished gaze, he pulled out an iron plate the size of a palm.

Seeing this, Huo Shan instantly realized that someone had put the iron plate inside the book. He cursed inwardly: "Who the hell did this? Trying to screw me over? Fuck, this time I'm gonna get fined to death…" As he looked at the two believers present, he started considering whether to throw them under the bus.

The corporate person scanned the characters engraved on the iron plate, his expression changed, and he said: "It's the Spring and Autumn Infinite Zen, a top-tier expert-level cultivation method."

Upon hearing this, the constables immediately stepped back, afraid of seeing what was on the plate.

The corporate personnel immediately gathered around and sealed the iron plate.

"You two, you are now suspected of purchasing pirated cultivation methods. Please come with us to cooperate with the investigation."

…

In a small alley downstairs.

Zhang Yu, already changed out of his courier uniform, leaned against the wall, looking like a completely different person, quietly watching Li Quan and the other man being taken into the Fairy Charm Corporation's car.

Watching the corporate and constable cars speed away and disappear into the night in an instant, Zhang Yu remarked: "An anonymous phone tip-off works this well? Even better than I imagined."

Fu Ji said: "After all, the leaked method is the Spring and Autumn Infinite Zen, a grade that would make those corporate dogs as eager as flies on shit."

Recalling the two men being taken into the car in his mind, Zhang Yu thought to himself: "These two should be believers, right?"

Fu Ji chuckled and then said: "This is the advantage of information asymmetry. Just this one gap—where we know his address, but he doesn't know that we know his address—is enough to screw him over."

Zhang Yu, however, did not relax at all.

After the company took away the two believers, as long as they paid enough fines, naturally nothing would happen.

Or even if these two believers were sacrificed, the other side's evil god was still there.

Zhang Yu looked at the apartment building and thought to himself, "Theoretically, the believers in that room should have all been taken away by the company."

"But..."

After thinking it over, Zhang Yu still decided to probe again.

So he picked up his phone and ordered a delivery.

After a dozen minutes, accompanied by an afterimage cutting through the air, a deliveryman carrying drinks appeared at the door of room 606 like a ghostly shadow.

Looking at the violently broken door, he was slightly stunned and asked, "Is anyone there?"

No one responded.

After looking at the notes on the delivery slip, the deliveryman sighed helplessly. With his form flickering, stirring up a gust of wind, he had already swept through the room.

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

The customer replied: "Sorry for the trouble. Since he's not there, it's fine. Please have this drink on me."

Just after the deliveryman left, the bear doll on the sofa stirred slightly, jumped off the sofa, and was about to run out.

But in the next moment, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"No, what if... what if the other party's real target is me, an evil god? Perhaps they are waiting outside right now, expecting me to walk right into the trap."

"I can't just go out like this."

"Right now, I don't have the protection of my believers; this is the most dangerous time. What I should do is..."

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

"At their speed, they can get here in at most twenty minutes."

"And I just need to avoid being found during these twenty minutes."

With that thought, Huoshan went to the wall behind the sofa, slowly opened the hidden door there, and disappeared into the room.