The chaotic thoughts flashed through the elder’s mind in just two seconds, but he didn’t dare let a trace show on his face.
Beads of sweat dotted Su Yeling’s forehead as he gritted his teeth through the pain and ordered, “Mobilize the whole clan for a search—leave no stone unturned.”
…
On the other side, Su Cha was sighing in front of the treasure vault.
The more valuable items were stored on special secured platforms, protected by shielding systems. Taking anything directly would trigger an alarm.
“Forget it,” he muttered.
Unhurriedly, he began injecting his Spiritual energy into each protective shield, creating pressure both inside and out—so the moment something was removed, the shield would instantly rupture.
Su Cha gave himself a point for kindness: at least he wasn’t setting the place on fire—just turning the treasures into Schrödinger’s loot. As long as they weren’t taken out, they still “existed,” objectively speaking.
The secure platforms took up a lot of space—not everything was shielded.
Su Cha didn’t have a storage ring on him, so he’d brought along a burlap sack, determined not to leave empty-handed. He stuffed in everything that wasn’t locked down.
Halfway through, he glanced at the time. Most of Ji Tianjin’s earlier shots had been with silenced guns, and Su Cha had only heard the last one. He had no idea what the situation was now.
Suddenly, irregular ripples distorted the air—and Ji Tianjin emerged from another spatial dimension. “We have to go.”
He paused when he saw the huge burlap sack. Glancing around and noticing the many remaining items still on the secure platforms, he said, “Let’s burn it.”
“…”
“Normal fire won’t destroy them.”
“We’ll use Spiritual energy to ignite it.”
Su Cha, fully convinced of his own righteousness, said, “Relax. No matter how valuable they are, they’ll never be able to use them again—I added a little something.”
At that, Ji Tianjin stopped caring about the loot. His released Spiritual energy picked up the sound of rushing footsteps. Frowning, he said, “They’re coming. Let’s move.”
Seconds after they vanished, the vault door opened. The elder in charge of guarding it, who had come for a routine check, turned pale the moment he saw how much was missing.
He double-checked everything—none of the formations or alarms had been triggered. Just like the assassin who’d appeared out of nowhere to attack the clan leader earlier, this intruder had slipped in and out like a ghost.
“Lock down the city!” he shouted to the people arriving behind him. “Send guards to every exit—not even a fly is getting out!”
…
If they didn’t get out now, they wouldn’t get out at all.
Su Cha and Ji Tianjin both understood that. They didn’t return to the inn—just kept moving without stopping.
The spatial folder couldn’t be used constantly. Traveling through it made the distortions of space painfully clear. Frankly, sneaking into the Flower Demon Clan had been less dangerous than relying on that thing.
The city bordering the demon clan had barely any traffic at night. Ji Tianjin didn’t waste time hailing a car—he led Su Cha straight to the railway and rode the white tiger over the mountains.
In the dim night, the tiger’s shadow streaking across the slope was almost imperceptibly fast.
Ji Tianjin was completely drained of Spiritual energy, so Su Cha continuously fed the white tiger spiritual energy to keep it from collapsing from exhaustion.
Once their heart rates stabilized, Su Cha casually tied his hair up to keep it from blowing in Ji Tianjin’s face and asked, “Who did you go after?”
“That candidate in the news,” Ji Tianjin replied.
Su Cha looked back in shock as his hair fell loose again. “Su Yeling?”
That was a surprise. After all this time, Su Yeling had to be even stronger than before. Even with a spatial folder allowing a point-blank ambush, the chances of success were slim. As clan leader, Su Yeling not only had strength but carried multiple protective artifacts at all times.
Ji Tianjin nodded. “I helped him.”
Su Cha blinked. “What?”
“I helped him test his love,” Ji Tianjin said, gaze dropping subtly.
Su Cha instinctively cursed, “Pervert,” and turned around. But a moment later, something occurred to him, and he turned back again, voice filled with disbelief. “Don’t tell me you shot him in the…”
His voice trailed off, “In that place?”
Ji Tianjin didn’t answer directly. He just unpinned the communicator on his chest, which held the full footage of Su Yeling getting injured.
“Find a good signal spot and hack into the major platforms. Let’s make this video public,” Ji Tianjin said. “If their love can withstand societal norms, then surely his lover will still love him after this. That’s the true test of their bond.”
Su Cha had always considered himself ruthless. Suddenly, he realized he still had room to grow.
“Wait.” He raised an eyebrow. “Did anyone else see you recording the video?”
Ji Tianjin shook his head.
Su Cha smiled. “Then let’s wait. Release it at a more… appropriate moment.”
They exchanged a glance, a mutual understanding passing between them—what could be more perfect than the auction?
After traveling for most of the night, they finally arrived at a nearby small city in the early hours. There happened to be a long-distance bus heading back to Tang City. Su Cha dragged Ji Tianjin along in a sprint, just barely making it on before the driver shut the door.
It was another long ride. By the time they arrived, it was still dark. But unlike the other province, Tang City was ten times livelier at this hour—night markets still bustling on the streets.
Although Su Yeling had many supporters, human society had always been wary of demons. In major cities like Tang City, especially ancient ones, demons had to apply for entry permits in advance. If caught without one, the authorities would immediately enact military protocols.
Su Cha found a quieter street stall and ordered beer and fried chicken.
Ji Tianjin specifically requested small bottles and quietly poured him a cup.
The icy bitterness of the beer cleared his head more than it dulled it. Su Cha worked to keep his mind absolutely calm as he mentally fine-tuned their next steps.
“The mountain we came down from is close to Tang City. Su Yeling chose this location intentionally—he’s baiting me.”
It was a solid tactic. It was human territory, after all, with plenty of room for maneuvering. If Su Cha had still been in demon form, he might’ve taken the bait just to confront him.
Ji Tianjin scrolled through the Flower Demon Clan’s official site. According to the posted info, the auction would be held at the largest hotel in the city: the Green Hotel. He pulled up interior photos, then said, “Tomorrow, we need to buy a projector. I’ll need to do a bit of tweaking.”
“This world’s tech is way too primitive. Weak chips, weak performance.”
Su Cha nodded. “Anything else?”
“Drones. Buy at least two more.”
The money they looted from that rat demon wasn’t nearly enough. Su Cha dug through the treasures he’d swiped from the Flower Demon Clan’s vault and quickly pried off a few gems, planning to sell them at a pawn shop.
Occasional passersby strolled past—but no one would’ve guessed that the random burlap sack on the ground was full of priceless treasures.
“Tomorrow you buy the stuff. I’ll infiltrate the hotel and prep the setup,” Ji Tianjin said slowly as he thought aloud. “The video is just the start. What we need now is to cast doubt on his capability.”
At the most critical moment in the candidate race, a single misstep would be enough to collapse the fruits of someone’s long effort.
While Su Cha was eating fried chicken, Ji Tianjin had already finished masking his IP address and successfully hacked into the Flower Demon Clan’s official website to send a warning message.
Blood-red characters bloomed like roses across the screen before transforming into thick black ink: Cancel the auction, or face the consequences.
In the information age, even mildly interesting news didn’t need time to ferment—it exploded on contact.
Su Yeling saw the message while treating his wounds. At first, he didn’t call for a physician; the location of the injury was a little indecent. But he soon discovered that not only was the wound not healing—it was worsening, expanding.
Even the Flower Demon Clan’s innate healing abilities couldn’t stop the deterioration.
An elder knocked and entered, saying in a low voice, “The bullet we recovered tested positive for poison.”
“Su Cha.” Su Yeling took a sharp breath, gripping a medicine bottle tightly, his expression twisting with fury.
The next second, the bottle was hurled at the wall and shattered into pieces.
Neither the elder nor the physician said a word. The threat on the website was clearly a response to the auctioning of demon beads—who was behind it didn’t need to be said.
Despite his extreme anger, Su Yeling remained composed. His face darkened as he ordered, “Guide public opinion. Say it was Xue Li pulling dirty tricks to eliminate a competitor. And make sure to emphasize the charitable nature of the auction—the funds are to be donated to Tang City’s urban development.”
Xue Li was another popular candidate.
The elder nodded. “The auction…”
“Will go on as scheduled.”
Showing weakness now would affect how the public perceived him.
Su Yeling knew what the elder was thinking—up until now, they still didn’t know what kind of ghostly methods had been used to infiltrate the Flower Demon Clan.
“There’ll be no shortage of elites and powerful demons at the auction. If Su Cha tries anything, he’ll end up offending quite a few of them. Perfect—it gives us a pretext to strike back.”
…
The next morning, Su Cha and Ji Tianjin split up—one headed to a pawnshop, the other to scout the auction venue. They agreed to meet afterward on the other side of an old street.
Ji Tianjin arrived twenty minutes late. He took the pile of supplies Su Cha handed him and said, “There were a lot of suspicious people around the hotel. Took me a while.”
Su Cha corrected him mildly, “We’re the ones who look suspicious.”
Ji Tianjin laid out a detailed floor plan of the hotel.
“As soon as your demon bead goes up for auction, we project the video. Then we strike—long-range attacks, and target…”
Su Cha finished for him, “Below the belt. Got it.”
“Doesn’t matter if we don’t hurt him,” Ji Tianjin added. “As long as the video is in sync, it’ll be enough to turn him into a joke.” He reminded, “Focus on one target. Don’t accidentally hit anyone else.”
No need to make extra enemies.
Su Cha suddenly smiled. This thing called ‘face’ might be intangible, but for a political candidate, it was everything. According to his guess, the demon slayer woman would also be present at the auction—it was going to be quite the spectacle.
“We could add one more target. Su Yeling’s lover is called Xia Yu,” Su Cha said with a twitch of his lips, eyes flickering. “Back then, she actually treated me decently.”
Xia Yu had a cool and aloof temperament, and tended to show gentleness toward the weak. But looking back now, it was clear most of her kindness was just surface-level. Underneath it all was a venomous heart.
“The Xia family valued her a lot. When Xia Yu tried to stop the family from taking action against the Flower Demon Clan, they only locked her up for a while. Later, she used her younger sister’s identity to spread the rumor that I was her lover.”
As if hearing some absurd tale, Ji Tianjin frowned. “What?”
“The Xia family wanted to protect Xia Yu’s reputation. At that time, relationships between humans and demons were taboo, so they pinned the blame on her half-sister.”
People are biased. The Xia family patriarch had many illegitimate daughters, but his favorite was Xia Yu, so they sacrificed a lesser one to appease the clan.
After confirming he hadn’t misheard, Ji Tianjin couldn’t help but ask, “Is he out of his mind?”
The Empire of Galan operated purely on interest—cold and ruthless. But there was a difference between ruthlessness and shamelessness. Even Luan Zheng, when his favorite child made a mistake, wouldn’t make Shen Ningze take the fall.
A mistake only proved weakness—he’d immediately begin grooming a new heir.
Su Cha shook his head and chuckled. “That’s why I always thought the Xia family and Flower Demon Clan were a perfect match.”
When it came to shamelessness, the Xia family didn’t lose by comparison.
He could somewhat understand being treated as expendable by the Flower Demon Clan. The elders didn’t want the clan to suffer from the truth, so they found a scapegoat to placate the anger. But the Xia family didn’t even have the excuse of necessity—just pure favoritism.
Xia Yu seemed proud and composed, but in truth, she’d been spoiled rotten from a young age. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have insisted on being with Su Yeling despite the societal taboo.
Su Cha had searched online for information about demon slayers. The Xia family, as an old demon-hunting clan, still held significant status, though not what it once was.
“The auction’s in a few days,” he said coldly. “I’ll be sure to say hello to this old acquaintance.”
