Chapter 184: Stopping Six Powerhouses

After entering the secret door, Huo Shan saw a cramped space only about a dozen centimeters wide and less than a meter high.

This was a small hidden room he had specially prepared for himself after moving into this apartment.

Since its completion, Huo Shan had never used this small hidden room even once.

The space inside was extremely tiny, barely big enough to hide just him, one bear plush.

But precisely because of this, the hidden room was very hard to discover. Now that he had crawled inside, Huo Shan felt a slight sense of relief and was immensely grateful for his earlier decision to build it.

Next, Huo Shan turned on his phone and hurriedly sent a message to Song Xu, urging his followers to come and protect him.

"Damn it, if they were in the city as usual, they'd be here soon."

"But this time they're all in the suburbs..."

Just then, Huo Shan's body stiffened slightly. He heard some noise inside the apartment.

"Did someone come in?"

Then it sounded like someone was rummaging through the room.

Huo Shan quickly peered out through a gap left in the partition and saw a stranger searching through the room.

"A neighbor taking advantage of the chaos to loot?"

"Or is someone... looking for me?"

After sending the message to Song Xu, Huo Shan immediately switched his phone to silent mode, then dared not make any extra movements. He lay silently in the cramped space, motionless like a real plush toy, without making a sound.

Meanwhile, inside Huo Shan's apartment.

Zhang Yu, disguised as a stranger and wearing a hoodie, was searching the room rapidly.

But the room was so cluttered with miscellaneous items that Zhang Yu felt it would take hours to search through everything.

Fuji said, "He must be hiding in this room."

"But each evil god can manifest in different forms—maybe a toy, a stationery item, a pen, a glove, a necklace..."

"Searching one by one will definitely take too long."

"Smash everything! Use your fastest speed. Destroy all the items in the room; you'll surely find him!"

Layers of Formless Cloud Astral surged out from Zhang Yu's body.

However, to conceal the characteristics of his attack, he activated the Great Sun Qi Sea before unleashing the Formless Cloud Astral.

As light was absorbed, the Formless Cloud Astral erupting from Zhang Yu appeared pitch black, like rolling dark clouds, smashing toward everything in sight.

A series of smashing sounds rang out.

But amidst the chaotic noise of this old apartment building, these sounds blended in with the arguments, music, and video noises from other floors, not drawing much attention.

Inside the partition, Huo Shan watched through the gap as objects outside were continuously destroyed, his heart tightening.

He knew that if it were a looting neighbor, they wouldn't come and indiscriminately trash his home.

This kind of destruction sent a chill down his spine: "Sure enough, they're coming for me?"

And thinking about all the electronic products, game consoles, computers, figurines, models... he had bought being destroyed one after another, Huo Shan felt his heart bleeding.

"Damn it... trashing my home?"

"Bullying an evil god because I can't call the police?!"

"Just wait!"

Huo Shan quickly pressed his phone and urged Song Xu and the others to come rescue him.

Not long ago.

Inside the unfinished building in the suburbs.

After investigating with flying swords and finding nothing unusual,

Song Xu and the other five followers walked in from different positions within the unfinished building.

[]

"There's nothing here."

A believer frowned and said, "Is the intel wrong? Or is the timing off?"

Song Xu frowned and said, "Something feels off. Let's pull out first."

Just as the six of them were leaving the unfinished building, a beam of light suddenly shone over.

Two security guards looked at them and said, "You six! What are you doing? Sneaking over here to steal stuff at night, huh?"

"Don't you know this is company property?"

Song Xu glanced at the Wanli Group uniform on the guards and thought to himself, "Is this building owned by Wanli Group? Even an unfinished building has guards? And they came this fast?"

Thinking this, the bad premonition in Song Xu's heart grew even stronger.

As for beating up the security guards right in front of them? Just charging straight out?

The six of them didn't dare—after all, these guards represented their company and wore cameras that were constantly connected to the network.

In the eyes of the six cult god believers, these two security guards were far more dangerous and troublesome than any other cult god.

After all, when fighting another cult god, even if it came to being drenched in blood, neither side would dare call the police—they'd just duke it out in silence.

But if they beat up these security guards, they feared they'd be unable to escape the company's lawsuit no matter where they went, even fleeing to the heavens or burrowing into the earth.

Especially since among the six, there were two delivery-driver believers and one courier believer. The moment they saw the security guards, they already felt a wave of cowardice—forget about fighting, they hung their heads as if they didn't even dare to talk back.

Song Xu sighed inwardly, knowing it was an occupational quirk. He had to step forward and say, "We didn't steal anything. If you don't believe us, you can search us."

The security guard raised his electric baton and said, "We received a report that someone's been stealing construction materials here. All of you, come register your information with me."

The construction-site believer pulled out a vial of Dao Heart Buffer and handed it over with a smile, "Brothers, we just accidentally ran in here while jogging at night. We really didn't take anything..."

The guard slapped his hand away and snapped, "Who's your brother? Come register with me!"

The six cult god believers were angry but dared not speak up; they could only keep explaining politely.

The lead guard grew even more arrogant. Sure, they had six people, but he had the entire company behind him—how could these six obviously down-and-out types possibly stand up to that?

Especially with his decades of security experience, these guys reeked of delivery, courier, and construction site vibes—rightfully suppressed by him. As the two sides were still entangled, Song Xu felt his phone vibrate several times. He finally pulled it out to look, and his expression instantly changed. He thought to himself, "The Disaster Mountain got reported?"

"Pirated cultivation techniques?"

"Someone's looking into Disaster Mountain?"

Recalling the day's experiences, a flash of lightning seemed to explode in Song Xu's mind, followed by a surge of intense anger.

"A cult god infighting, and they actually resort to reporting? And calling the cops?!"

"That opposing cult god has no sense of rules!"

Song Xu suddenly glared at the two security guards, knowing he couldn't afford to be delayed here any longer.

The other five believers sensed the change in Song Xu's demeanor and all turned to look at him.

The six exchanged glances, and their own auras abruptly shifted.

If they had been cowering before the guards just moments ago, now they suddenly stood tall.

No mistake, one head, one send, one inside, one content, one look.

"Can't delay any longer, so the only option is..."

Song Xu's figure flashed. With one hand he blocked the guard's camera, and with the other he extended it toward the guard's face. "Brother, the company's doing well doesn't mean you're doing well. Cut us some slack, okay?"

The guard looked at the several thousand yuan shoved in front of him, and his attitude softened immediately.

Song Xu sneered inwardly, "Hmph, just a couple of company security guards. Earlier I was only trying to explain nicely because I didn't want to spend the money."

"Now I'm in a hurry, so what's there to explain?"

At the same time that Song Xu and the others were entangled with the security guards,

Bai Zhenzhen was watching the feed from the surveillance software on her phone.

Ever since Song Xu and his five companions entered the unfinished building, Bai Zhenzhen had been constantly watching the content in the surveillance footage.

She thought to herself: "Good thing the surveillance camera I set up yesterday works, though it wasn't cheap."

Considering the battery life, internet connectivity, and image clarity, the surveillance camera Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu had hidden in the unfinished building, along with the batteries and network card... had cost them several thousand yuan in total.

But it was definitely worth the money—Bai Zhenzhen recognized his identity at a glance by looking at Song Xu's image.

"It's him!"

More than half a year ago, when Bai Zhenzhen tried to investigate the leader of the Poor People's Alliance, she had screened out several suspected individuals from Bailong High School.

Song Xu was one of them; Bai Zhenzhen still had his photo and information saved on her phone.

"Are they about to leave?"

Bai Zhenzhen saw the security guards approaching Song Xu and his five companions, and she breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"The Wanli Group reacted quickly—they came this fast?"

It was Bai Zhenzhen who had called in a tip that someone might be stealing steel bars in the unfinished building, which had brought the Wanli Group's security guards.

But Bai Zhenzhen knew those two security guards were the type who could be bought off for a few thousand or ten thousand yuan at most, so she immediately sent a message to warn Zhang Yu.

Bai Zhenzhen: They're about to leave the unfinished building. Speed up your operation.

Bai Zhenzhen: I recognized one of them as Song Xu. I'm sending you his information.

A moment later, when Bai Zhenzhen looked back at the surveillance footage, Song Xu and his five companions had already smoothly gotten rid of the security guards and left the unfinished building.

But Bai Zhenzhen wasn't too worried.

She opened a navigation app and looked at the route from the unfinished building to the Evil God Apartment, seeing that the roads were already marked in solid red.

"Heh, the time and location weren't chosen randomly by me and Yuzi."

"Right now it's the midnight rush hour, and the roads here are heavily congested."

"That should buy us a little more time, right?"

Inside the apartment room.

Zhang Yu looked at the message from Bai Zhenzhen and thought to himself: "They're coming back?"

He glanced over Song Xu's information, then raised his head to look at the various pieces of furniture he had already smashed, his brow furrowed.

"Why does this crappy place have so much stuff?"

Zhang Yu looked at the messy assortment of clutter—clothes that looked like they were for pets, a massage pillow, rows of sneakers, detergent, figurines, models...

"This is practically a junkyard."

Inside the mezzanine, watching through the gap as Zhang Yu continued smashing things for another ten-plus minutes, Huoshan felt a pang of heartache but was also immensely relieved: "Who the hell said I buy too much junk? If I hadn't bought all this stuff, how would it have delayed him this long?"

Fuji, watching Zhang Yu destroy so many things without finding the Evil God, reminded him: "Something feels off."

"This crappy apartment—could there be a hidden room or a mezzanine or something?"

Zhang Yu frowned and said, "Do I have to break through the walls?"

Fuji replied, "Breaking the walls would attract too much attention. Neighbors might call the property management."

Just then, Zhang Yu's phone vibrated with a message from Bai Zhenzhen.

Zhang Yu knew that Bai Zhenzhen had been keeping watch in the alley downstairs while also monitoring the unfinished building's surveillance feed, so her message must be important. He immediately picked up his phone and read it.

Bai Zhenzhen: They're coming!

Bai Zhenzhen: Get out now!

Zhang Yu's eyes narrowed: "That fast?!"

Bai Zhenzhen: Hurry! They're too fast! If you don't leave now, it'll be too late.

Looking at the pile of trash in front of him, Zhang Yu let out a cold snort, as if carrying a hint of fierce reluctance, and left the room.