Chapter 179: Zhang Yu's Thunder Strike

Chapter 179 – Zhang Yu’s Thunderous Strike

Beneath the same night sky.

On the outskirts beyond the city’s edge.

Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen stood in a narrow alley, their gazes piercing the rain‑shrouded gloom as they surveyed a nearby apartment block.

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

Fu Ji replied, “Hmph, a low‑rank deity masquerading as a mere mortal—how could its control of the rite ever match mine? Besides, I summoned it with the opponent’s shadow parasite; it’s foolproof.”

“If you’re going, hurry. Though I diverted those men with false intel, once they sense something amiss they’ll be back in a heartbeat.”

Zhang Yu nodded, “Then I’ll go first.”

He felt his muscles coil and tremble, his body shrinking and warping ever so slightly, his facial features reshaping into an entirely unfamiliar visage.

He then donned the courier uniform he had prepared earlier and entered the dilapidated apartment building.

Crumbling walls, dim lighting, and corridors choked with clutter.

Zhang Yu brushed aside the moss sprouting in the stair‑case cracks, noting a faint, lingering stench in the air.

The entire structure exuded an aura of age and decay.

Even the surveillance cameras, long since corroded by aging wires and the deliberate sabotage of the deity’s followers, had been dead for ages.

Yet the rent was cheap, the building teemed with a tangled web of residents.

Zhang Yu thought, “The deity must have deliberately chosen such a ruinous, antiquated place—convenient for our operation today.”

He arrived at the door of Room 606 and pressed the buzzer, only to hear silence.

He pressed again and called out, “Anyone? The package has arrived.”

“I’m in a hurry, I’ll leave it at the door. Come out and fetch it yourselves.”

After saying so, Zhang Yu stood still, snapped a photo of the parcel, and, like any ordinary courier, hurried away.

Moments later, Li Quan opened the door, glanced left and right to confirm no one was outside, then stared warily at the cardboard box on the threshold.

Seeing the address matched his location, Li Quan brought it inside and asked, “Master, it seems your delivery has arrived.”

“Huh?” Huo Shan bounced over, shouting, “Is that the new mouse I ordered online? Open it up for me right now.”

In the room, besides the deity Huo Shan and disciple Li Quan, a dark‑faced hulker lounged on the sofa, quietly inhaling a Dao‑heart buffer, a look of pure indulgence on his face.

Both Li Quan and the hulker were high‑school graduates long ago, having already reached the pinnacle of Qi cultivation, and were Huo Shan’s most loyal followers, ever‑watchful over his safety.

Even today, when Song Xu sent men to seize that ten‑million, they still stood guard beside Huo Shan.

Li Quan tore open the parcel in a few swift motions, only to find a high‑school general mathematics textbook inside.

“What the hell?” Huo Shan snapped, “Did the seller send me the wrong goods? I’m filing a complaint!”

At that moment, the distant wail of a police siren drifted closer, soon echoing right outside the building.

The sudden sound startled Huo Shan and his two followers; they hurried to the window, eyes fixed on the street below.

As a deity and his acolytes, they were always hypersensitive to such disturbances.

When the police car halted at the foot of the apartment, their nerves tightened further.

“Could it be coming after me?”

While Huo Shan fretted, Li Quan said, “Besides the police, the Xianyun Group’s security team is here—likely a corporate matter, nothing to do with us.”

Huo Shan exhaled a sigh of relief, yet a vague unease lingered.

Then the knock of the constable sounded, and a flash of insight struck Huo Shan’s mind.

Years of idle indulgence had not entirely eroded the deity’s vigilance; he snatched the mathematics book from the side with sudden urgency.

Flipping through it hastily, his eyes widened.

Within the pages was a transcription of a martial art called the Endless Spring‑Autumn Zen.

“Dammit! Who’s trying to sabotage me?”

Simultaneously, voices from outside announced, “Routine inspection—please open the door and cooperate.”

Li Quan grabbed the textbook, intending to hurl it out the window, but Huo Shan stopped him.

“Haven’t you watched the news or movies? The company’s goons are surely watching our windows from below! Throwing it away would hand them the evidence on a silver platter!”

“Burn it! Light it up right now!”

Huo Shan urged, “Quick, burn it! Burn it fast!”

One follower lit the book, another fetched a metal bucket, only to discover the tome’s material was unusually resilient, smoldering sluggishly.

Meanwhile, the pounding at the door grew louder; the constable barked, “As citizens of Songyang City, you are obligated to cooperate with the investigation—open the door immediately.”

A corporate guard added, “Do you smell the burning?”

The constable’s tone sharpened, “We now suspect you of disseminating illegal techniques. If you don’t open up, we’ll break in!”

The three of them felt a wave of panic, their hearts thudding like ants on a hot pan.

“Dammit…” Huo Shan cursed under his breath, then strained his voice, “Pour some oil! Put it on the gas stove and ignite it!”

“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! If we get caught, the fines will be astronomical!”

“Even burning an extra character could shave off a penalty!” “Li Quan, buy us some time—stall them!”

As the knocking intensified, the constable and corporate security’s warnings grew more urgent.

Sensing a surge of magical energy outside, Li Quan, sweat beading on his forehead, shouted into the room, “They’re about to break in!”

At that instant, the entire volume of the book erupted in fierce flames.

Watching the charred pages sink into the bucket, Huo Shan finally exhaled a sigh of relief.

With a deafening crash, the main door was ripped open.

A squad of constables and corporate security personnel stormed in; Li Quan and the dark‑faced hulker raised their hands, daring not to move a muscle.

Huo Shan lay still on the sofa, as motionless as a genuine plush bear.

The lead security officer addressed Li Quan, “Why did it take you so long to open the door?”

Li Quan replied nervously, “I… I don’t even know who you are, why should we open the door?”

At that moment, a team member called out, “Sir, they just burned something.”

Everyone turned toward the iron bucket scarred with soot.

The corporate agents scoured the smoldering remnants, their eyes darting in frantic search.

After rifling through the blackened manuscript, they shook their heads helplessly, “We can’t make out the contents anymore.”

Just as Huo Shan began to relax, another corporate guard reached into the bucket.

In the stunned silence, he pulled out a palm‑sized iron fragment.

Seeing the piece, Huo Shan realized someone had hidden the metal within the book; he muttered, “Who’s so ruthless? To sabotage me like this? Damn, we’re going to be fined to death…” He glanced at his two followers, already weighing whether to discard them.

The guard examined the engraving on the fragment, his complexion turning pale, and announced, “It’s the Endless Spring‑Autumn Zen—a top‑tier, expert‑level technique.”

Upon hearing these words, the constables immediately retreated step by step, fearing to glimpse the contents of the iron plate.

The company's men quickly surrounded it, sealing the iron plate away.

‘Gentlemen, we now suspect you of purchasing pirated cultivation techniques. Please accompany us for questioning and cooperate with the investigation.’

……

In the narrow alley below.

Having shed his courier uniform, Zhang Yu leaned against the wall, assuming the guise of a stranger, and watched silently as Li Quan and his companion were ushered into a vehicle of the Xianyun Company.

Watching the company’s and the constables’ cars speed away, vanishing into the night in an instant, Zhang Yu mused, ‘Anonymous phone tips are that effective? Even better than imagined.’

Fu Ji replied, ‘After all, the leak involved a cultivation method of the Spring‑Autumn Endless Zen tier; those company types will be as eager as dogs that catch a whiff of dung.’

In Zhang Yu’s mind, recalling the two taken away, he thought, ‘They must both be believers, right?’

Fu Ji chuckled, then added, ‘That’s the advantage of an information gap—just the fact that we know his address while he doesn’t know we know it is enough to ruin him.’

Zhang Yu, however, did not relax in the slightest.

Once the company snatches two believers, as long as the fine is paid, everything proceeds smoothly.

Even if those two believers are sacrificed, the opponent’s dark god would still linger.

Gazing at the apartment building, Zhang Yu thought, ‘In theory, the believers in that room should have all been taken by the company.’

‘But…’

After a moment’s contemplation, Zhang Yu decided to probe further.

He lifted his phone and ordered a delivery.

Ten minutes later, a phantom streak sliced through the air; a delivery man, clutching a drink, appeared like a ghostly silhouette at the door of Room 606.

Staring at the violently forced open door, he blinked slightly and asked, ‘Is anyone there?’

No one answered.

Glancing at the note on the order, the delivery man sighed helplessly, his form flickering, a gust of wind swirling as he swept the room in a single pass.

Then he stepped out of the doorway, picked up his phone, and typed to the customer: ‘I’ve looked around, no one here. What shall we do with this order?’

The customer replied: ‘Thanks for the effort. If no one’s home, that’s fine—please keep the drink for yourself.’

Soon after the delivery man departed, the bear plush on the sofa twitched, leapt down, and seemed ready to flee.

But in the next instant, it halted abruptly.

‘Wait, what if… what if the target truly is this dark god of mine? Perhaps he’s waiting outside, ready to trap me in my own snare.’

‘I cannot just walk out.’

‘Now, without the protection of believers, I am at my most vulnerable. What I should do is…’

At that thought, the bear plush sent a message to Song Xu and the others.

‘At their speed, they could arrive in at most twenty‑something minutes.’

‘And I only need to remain unfound within those twenty‑something minutes.’

With that in mind, the disaster‑mountain figure slipped to the wall behind the sofa, gently opened a hidden door, and vanished into the room.

(End of chapter)