Chapter 176: The Ten Million Temptation
In Huoshan’s view, Song Xu was a believer who was… far too diligent for his own good.
Studying hard, cultivating hard, and earning money hard—that was all well and good.
But diligently developing believers, diligently managing believers, and diligently increasing Huoshan’s strength… that made Huoshan feel less than great.
Song Xu’s incessant chatter echoed in his mind again.
It was an afternoon not long after he had converted Song Xu into a believer of an evil god.
The man had spoken to him with a look of utmost sincerity, “Master, we can’t go on like this! The times are changing, the righteous gods are advancing, and the oversight and competition from Kunxu will only become more intense.”
“If we don’t want to be eliminated by this world, internal reform is needed!”
“The first step is to accelerate talent recruitment. We can no longer be as passive as before. We should proactively gather information on potential candidates, go to campuses, and actively compete for talent, conducting face-to-face evaluations to speed up the efficiency of the entire recruitment process.”
“I also suggest that you participate in all stages of believer recruitment as an observer and attend the initial interviews of key candidates…”
Wanting to diligently recruit more believers required spending more time searching for suitable candidates, from gathering information to covertly observing them, and then making the move to recruit.
The time and mental energy consumed in this process… was far more troublesome than sitting in an office, picking and choosing from stacks of resumes, and summoning interviewees with a single phone call to ask them all sorts of questions.
After all, being a believer of an evil god demanded an extremely high level of secrecy; one could not recruit people lightly.
For instance, the investigation and recruitment of each of the eight believers currently under Huoshan had cost him hundreds of hours of work.
From this point alone, Huoshan felt that being a company boss was much better than being an evil god. One could simply offer a position and receive hundreds or thousands of resumes, and those hired would work diligently without any need to worry about things like leaking secrets.
And if expanding the number of believers was already a hassle, then diligently managing them was, in Huoshan’s opinion, even more troublesome.
At this moment, Song Xu’s incessant chatter once again surfaced in Huoshan’s mind.
Song Xu: “This is my analysis of our current team, based on my observations over the past three months.”
“The main reason for the decrease in efficiency is information gaps.”
“For example, the courier believers don’t submit their work logs and bank statements, the wear on their running shoes doesn’t match the mileage on their delivery platforms, and there’s no financial personnel to audit them. How much they earn is entirely up to them.”
“The construction site believers lack even more supervision. We know nothing about their daily work hours, income, or expenses.”
“I propose that starting next week, every believer must submit a 300-word structured daily report before 9 p.m., focusing on today’s achievements, tomorrow’s plans, and bank statements.”
“Secondly, we will hold a half-hour regular meeting every Sunday at 1 a.m. No slideshows, just discussions on bottlenecks and resource allocation.”
“We also need to establish a problem escalation channel. Any issue not resolved within 12 hours will be escalated directly to me…”
Although Huoshan felt a headache coming on just from listening to him, Song Xu’s actions had indeed earned him more money.
It had allowed him to move from a basement to his current dilapidated apartment, enabled him to shop online, and even gave him more money to top up in games for gacha pulls.
Thus, with Song Xu pushing and Huoshan moving, they had progressed step by step to where they were today…
But when it came to the matter of hunting an evil god, Huoshan was still reluctant.
“Why must there be fighting and killing? Isn’t it nice to eat, drink, and play games every day?”
At this very moment, Huoshan had little desire to continue with the work of hunting an evil god. Instead, he wanted to turn back and continue playing his unfinished game.
But on the other side, his believer Li Quan exclaimed, “Master, it’s ten million!”
Upon hearing the words ‘ten million,’ Huoshan instantly perked up. He hurriedly hopped in front of the screen and looked at the intelligence transmitted by the Shadow Gu.
He scanned ten lines at a glance, and in an instant, he grasped the general situation of the other party from the information sent by the Shadow Gu.
“So it’s an evil god who fled from Tiantai City.”
“Tomorrow, the believers this fellow left behind in Tiantai City… will bring over the ten million plus in cash that he hid outside the city?”
“The transaction location, let me see…”
Seeing the news of over ten million in cash, Huoshan’s eyes lit up.
Although he didn’t want to get involved in the rat race, as an evil god of Kunxu, it would be impossible to say he didn’t love money.
He just didn’t want to rely on his own efforts to earn it.
If there was a chance to snatch over ten million in one go, he would not only be interested, but he would also work hard to spur on his believers.
“Pass the intelligence to Song Xu.”
“Tell him to take some men to the transaction location tomorrow. If the opportunity arises… snatch that ten million.”
Inside the apartment.
After cultivating in the Spirit Realm for two hours, Zhang Yu returned to reality.
However, after taking off the spiritual interface mask, his expression looked a little strange.
He recalled his cultivation in the Spirit Realm today.
In the illusionary landscape, he had become a security guard at a high-end club. Under the owner’s exploitation, he rose up in resistance, constantly fighting against thugs while striving to find evidence of the club’s crimes, fighting and fighting and fighting in a desperate situation!
And the owner of that high-end club was Yu Xinghan, who exploited Zhang Yu the security guard, and also exploited the attractive employees in the club day and night, fighting and fighting and fighting in the club!
After emerging from the illusionary landscape, Zhang Yu couldn’t help but ask him in the Dao-Querying Hall, “Does this actually have any cultivation effect?”
Yu Xinghan smiled and shook his head. “Zhang Yu, a neutered person like you can’t possibly comprehend the realm I am in right now.”
Apparently, although Zhang Yu had introduced Yu Xinghan to Xiong Haohan, he had not informed Yu Xinghan of his own physical condition.
And Yu Xinghan, after the growth he had experienced in the past two days, felt that his spirit and will had been greatly elevated.
In his eyes now, although Zhang Yu’s strength was formidable, in terms of spiritual realm, he was nothing more than a neutered child.
Unlike him, who, through puppets and illusionary landscapes, could be said to have weathered storms and stood the test of time.
“To pass through a thousand flowers, yet not a single leaf clings to you.”
“Only when a hobby or a preference becomes a job can one sever desire and return to the true self.”
“This is the true essence of overcoming lust that I have comprehended.”
“Heh, remember these words of mine. They will surely be of great benefit to you 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-boy? Was it a success?”
Zhang Yu nodded. “Let’s go outside to discuss.”
So Zhang Yu then took Bai Zhenzhen to their familiar spot under the bridge, by the small river.
Bai Zhenzhen immediately asked impatiently, “What’s the situation now?”
Fu Ji said, “The intelligence has been sent. It was routed through three proxies, so we’ve managed to track my colleague’s position.”
“Then let’s go kick down their door right now and catch them off guard.”
Fu Ji said, “Although we’ve tracked their location, to avoid alerting the enemy, I didn’t take the opportunity to investigate them.”
“So, I still have no idea how many believers my colleague has or what their strength is.”
“But there’s no need to rush. I’ve already sent the false intelligence. It should lure their main force away tomorrow.”
“Then we can proceed according to plan, gather intelligence…”
Zhang Yu asked nervously, “They won’t discover us, will they?”
Fu Ji chuckled. “That sister of yours was right about one thing: information is crucial in this world.”
“An information gap can sometimes be more important than a power gap.”
“Just like this time, using the Shadow Gu to counter-track them. With the enemy in the open and us in the dark, we can use this information advantage to secure an invincible position.”
The next evening.
A large container truck was heading toward the suburbs.
Inside the truck, besides Song Xu, were five other evil god believers at the peak of Qi Refinement. Each one was brimming with vigor, exuding a fierce aura from the worlds of food delivery, construction sites, and express couriers.
A lanky believer with a seemingly ethereal figure said, “When we see them, we’ll just ram them with the truck. See if we can’t kill one right off the bat.”
Another believer, a burly man with dark skin and a face full of flesh, said, “Even though the location is in the suburbs with few cameras, don’t forget to set up the shielding ritual first to avoid being discovered by the righteous gods’ lackeys.”
Yet another person said, “Although they’re also evil god believers and probably won’t dare to call the police, we still need to be quick to prevent them from doing something desperate.”
Meanwhile, Song Xu was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck with his eyes closed, resting. He listened to the other believers chat without saying anything.
His mind was still replaying the evil god intelligence he had received yesterday.
Ten million?
When he first learned of this figure, Song Xu’s heart had skipped a beat, and a strong sense of greed had risen within him.
After all, in the world of Kunxu, money was potential, a future, and wings on the path of the Immortal Dao that could help one advance bravely and break through social strata.
For this ten million, an idea had even surfaced in Song Xu’s mind at the time: “Should I ask Mo Tianyi and the others to help?”
But in the end, he suppressed the impulse.
The Paupers’ Alliance, after all, was not composed of evil god believers. It was a force he had built himself, people who truly belonged to him, and the money they earned for him went into his personal coffers. He didn’t want to expose it to the evil god so easily.
And that ten million…
Even if we manage to snatch this ten million, Huoshan will definitely take the lion’s share.
With so much money, that lazy bum will surely be even less motivated to work hard.
Song Xu could already picture him putting the money in the bank to live off the interest, completely slacking off and just having fun.
Knowing Huoshan, he was absolutely capable of doing something like that.
At that point, he’ll definitely be even more reluctant to help me hunt evil gods.
Besides, we still don’t know where the other evil god is.
Once we touch that ten million, it will inevitably put the other party on high alert, and hunting the evil god will likely become much more difficult.
Although great greed had flared in Song Xu’s heart when he heard about the ten million, after careful consideration, he quickly reigned it in.
After all, even if he stole the ten million, it wouldn’t be his, and doing so would hinder his plan to hunt the evil god and enhance his potential.
It was just like how he had endured pain and waited for an opportunity back then, ultimately selling his grandfather’s grave.
Song Xu felt that now was not the right time to go for this ten million, especially since, compared to the money, he wanted to hunt the evil god and unlock his potential even more.
His fingertips tapped lightly, stroking the palm-sized, civilian-grade flying sword in his hand as he thought, I’ll use the flying sword to scout the situation first. If there’s no opportunity, then I’ll forget about it.