Yuan Chenyang yanked his hand back as if it had been shocked. Su Chen watched him thoughtfully.
"Sun Tai, take everyone outside. Don't go far." His face was taut, his voice low. "And don't contact anyone externally. Warn the people in this building — no one leaves, and no one reveals their identity."
"Yes, sir!"
Old Sun couldn't help stealing one last glance at the Shadow Evasion Cloak before he reluctantly led Zhao Xiong and the others out.
"...How did you kill him?" Yuan Chenyang carefully lifted the cloak. When the full view of the metal box was revealed, his expression grew even more grave.
"Starved him, then poisoned him." Su Chen was blunt. He'd gone from settling a personal grudge to eliminating a public threat — naturally, he stood on firm moral ground now.
"You knew he was compromised beforehand?" Yuan Chenyang knew this kid was sharp. He added pointedly, "I want the truth."
"No evidence," Su Chen replied honestly. If he'd had proof, he would have tortured it out of the man at the Supervision Department.
Yuan Chenyang shook his head. "If you hadn't found this, you wouldn't have called me."
Su Chen considered his words. "On the surface, there wouldn't have been an issue. Jiang He has already divorced him."
Without this discovery, he would never have contacted Yuan Chenyang. But even if someone suspected a connection between him and Qi Chuan's death — so what?
Yuan Chenyang pondered for a moment, then asked, "Who do you suspect was behind him?"
Su Chen didn't hesitate. "Zhou Xian."
Yuan Chenyang wasn't surprised. He carefully lifted the Shadow Evasion Cloak. A blade of golden energy materialized from thin air and crashed against the metal box. Yuan Chenyang immediately leaped backward.
Su Chen felt a jolt of alarm — but the metal box bore not a single scratch.
"Hm?" Yuan Chenyang seemed to notice something off. He approached cautiously, slowly extended his hand, and picked it up.
Then his face twisted. "The Evil God power parasitizing it — it's gone!"
Su Chen let his eyes flicker with just the right hint of surprise. "What Evil God power? What is this thing?"
"It's an Evil God Artifact, forged from meteoric iron. Evil Gods can embed a portion of their power inside." Yuan Chenyang turned it over in his hands, his expression growing darker by the second. "Large-scale Evil God sacrifices, summons, blessings — all require one of these as a conduit."
"By my estimate, it should have housed a fragment of Black Buddha's power. But it's empty. What have they already done in Nanfeng City!?" A vein throbbed at Yuan Chenyang's temple. "We're too late. Nanfeng City is heading for destruction. We should have torn this place apart looking for answers ages ago!"
"Uh..." Su Chen started to speak, then stopped.
"But also, thankfully—" Yuan Chenyang's tone shifted to one of grim relief. "This is just an empty shell. If the power had still been inside, I would have had to dispose of you myself."
"What do you mean?" Su Chen was genuinely curious, so he pressed.
"I told you before — with your mental talent, you're extremely likely to attract the attention of these Evil Gods. If Black Buddha's power had still been inside, it would have corrupted you without question."
Yuan Chenyang elaborated. "Your professional path would have been severed. You'd have become a puppet of the Evil Gods — mindless, enslaved."
"That's disgusting." Su Chen wore an expression of lingering dread. What had actually happened to him was... complicated to explain.
"Indeed." Yuan Chenyang seized the teaching moment. "Evil Gods are never benevolent. They might fulfill your desires, but always through some method that causes immense suffering."
"So always — always — maintain your distance."
"You have my word." Su Chen nodded gravely.
"Head back. I'll handle this." Yuan Chenyang waved him off, but then asked abruptly, "Jiang He came to see you yesterday — was it about getting Qi Chuan to sign?"
"Yes." Su Chen wasn't sure why Old Yuan had suddenly brought it up.
Heading downstairs, he pulled Old Sun aside for a quiet word. "Brother Sun — is there any convenient way to identify Evil God cultists?"
Old Sun hesitated, then shook his head. "As far as I know, not really. Some of them are just low-level believers with strong willpower — you can't tell from the outside at all."
"Some of them don't even believe in the Evil Gods — they're purely motivated by self-interest. Even harder to track down. Here in Nanfeng, at least, we don't have the means."
Su Chen recalled Zhang Hongbo's method — a brute-force verification assisted by hard evidence. If the suspicion proved wrong, the mental damage was irreversible.
He waved goodbye to the group and left.
"Imprisonment, poisoning, tailing, murder — and none of it matters." Han Da watched him go, envy written all over his scarred face.
"Shut it." Old Sun snapped at him, his expression dark. "If anyone breathes a word about tonight, don't blame me for being merciless."
............
Inside the room, Yuan Chenyang glanced at Qi Chuan's corpse, then walked to the window. He opened his Smart Bracelet and dialed a contact.
"Old Yuan?" A weathered voice crackled through the bracelet. "What made you think of me?"
"Jiang Rong. Qi Chuan is dead." Yuan Chenyang said flatly.
The bracelet went silent. Only faint static hissed through.
"How serious?"
"Evil Gods." Yuan Chenyang spoke two words.
Jiang Rong's breathing quickened. "You know this has nothing to do with me."
Yuan Chenyang came straight to the point. "I'll suppress this. Cut ties — quickly."
A long silence.
"Thank you." Jiang Rong said slowly.
"Good." Yuan Chenyang ended the call, then couldn't help but look at Qi Chuan's body one more time. "What a useful bargaining chip," he murmured.
............
"That Yuan Chenyang." Jiang Rong's expression was a storm of shifting emotions.
"Evil Gods?" Jiang He, seated across from him, shot to her feet, fury blazing. "Has Qi Chuan lost his mind? Colluding with Evil Gods?"
"Perhaps it wasn't his choice. Once the Evil Gods mark you... sigh." Jiang Rong exhaled, then pointed a finger at his daughter. "I told you back then — don't mess with men who have nothing to lose. If you married him, then commit!"
"They have no attachments, no ties — but we do!"
Jiang He's fire dimmed. She looked away with a huff and sat back down.
Jiang Rong shook his head inwardly, then mused, "I never expected Yuan Chenyang to tip me off first. We should also thank Su Chen."
"Thank Su Chen?" Jiang He was puzzled.
"Su Chen almost certainly told Yuan Chenyang everything that happened that night." Jiang Rong's voice was measured. "Back then, the academy hadn't been robbed yet. Black Buddha hadn't surfaced. Qi Chuan genuinely tried to kill you — and that fact actually clears us of suspicion."
Jiang He gave a cold snort, unconsciously touching her cheek.
"Things are about to get very tense." Jiang Rong murmured. "Zhang Hongbo is away. Feng Chang is away. Zhou Xian needs to lie low and is also trying to court my support. Yuan Chenyang is making big moves."
............
'I wonder what this Low-Tier Evil God Power actually does.'
Su Chen opened his panel and stared at the blood-red text label. It looked deeply ominous.
His currently unoccupied classes were Gale Hunter and Mystic Scholar.
'It can theoretically work on 3rd-tier classes too, but there's no point hoarding it. Who knows what kind of mutation it'll cause.' Su Chen weighed the risks. 'I'll go with Gale Hunter. If something does go wrong, I still have the Strongman's 2nd-tier branch as a backup.'
Mental-type classes were hard to come by. Physical-type classes, less so.
Decision made, Su Chen didn't hesitate. He activated the Low-Tier Evil God Power and applied it to Gale Hunter.
On the panel, the blood-red Evil God Power dissolved into writhing crimson threads that coiled around the Gale Hunter entry.
[Gale Hunter has been tainted by Evil God Power, growing increasingly frenzied. The Path of the Hunt has opened: Hunt and kill three 2nd-tier professionals to evolve the class to peak 2nd-tier.]
"Path of the Hunt? Evolution?"
Su Chen's expression ran through a remarkable sequence of emotions before settling on elation. 'This... this is incredible.'
He knew all too well what peak-tier class strength meant.