This was a building that looked like the city had tried to digest it and spat it back out.

  Tangled external corridors wrapped around the structure like intestines. Beneath the long-peeled pink paint, ugly gray concrete showed through. The stairwell entrance was piled with unsorted garbage, giving off the sour stench of rotting slop.

  The fire department's "Order to Rectify" notice posted at the entrance had faded beyond legibility, buried under layer upon layer of those ubiquitous classified-ad stickers. A few handwritten "Urgent Sale" flyers were mixed in, the original prices crossed out in red pen again and again, the numbers dropping lower and lower—practically halved and still no takers.

  Ling stood downstairs and pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses.

  Through Ghost-Eye, the entire building presented a nauseating, sickly hue.

  Thick black miasma clung to every window like mold. A few units in particular were so dense with darkness you couldn't tell if they were the source or the collection point.

  Occasionally an elderly man or woman in a worn tank top shuffled past on their morning exercise. They too carried this same gray, decaying aura.

  Ling even felt they'd become some strange symbiotic organism with the building—their breathing rhythms actually synchronized with the pulsing of the black energy.

  This didn't feel like a community. It felt like a massive, living tumor.

  Val hunched his tall frame, looking at the gloomy building before them. He instinctively stepped back half a pace, clutching at Ling's sleeve:

  "Um… Boss said we're not supposed to come to places like this. He said our minor temple can't afford to mess with whatever's here…"

  Mimi, on the other hand, was excitedly licking her lips. Young yao her age, especially young cat-kin, couldn't suppress their curiosity.

  "Shut up. Keep up."

  Ling ignored Val's fussing and walked straight toward the ancient elevator.

  The numbers on the elevator panel flickered wildly, indicating the building's chaotic structure—from B1 to the 15th floor, with various illegally constructed mezzanines sandwiched in between.

  "Creak—"

  The elevator doors slowly opened.

  A slovenly man with dark circles so deep he looked like he'd been punched stood in the corner. He stared straight ahead with vacant eyes. The doors opened, but he didn't move.

  Ling assumed he wasn't getting off and stepped in with Mimi and Val.

  The instant Ling pressed the floor button, the man who'd been standing like a statue suddenly moved.

  Without any warning, he whipped around and shoved Ling with furious force:

  "Don't you fucking know to let people off first?!!"

  The man's voice was hoarse and shrill, exploding in the cramped car:

  "Young people these days have no fucking manners! Son of a bitch! Fuck your mother! Can't you see I'm trying to get out?!"

  Spit flew from his mouth. Even after his tirade he wasn't satisfied, raising his hand to strike Ling's face.

  "SLAP!"

  A massive, muscular hand clamped down like iron pincers, intercepting the man's wrist from behind.

  Val loomed over the man, radiating pressure.

  The man's wrist screamed with pain. Looking up, he discovered this "bodyguard" stood a full head and shoulders taller than him, muscles looking ready to burst through his clothes.

  The bully's instinct to pick on the weak and fear the strong instantly took over. The man shrank his neck, wrenched his hand free, and spat viciously:

  "Ptui! Bad luck!"

  He cursed his way out of the elevator and disappeared into the dim hallway.

  Ling narrowed her eyes, gaze locked on the man's retreating back.

  She saw something bizarre: the man's physical body had taken two steps forward, but his shadow on the ground… was still in the original spot.

  A full 0.5 seconds later, the shadow snapped forward like a stretched rubber band, reattaching to the man's heels.

  At that moment, a bright red system warning popped up in Ling's vision:

  [Warning : Spirit-Net signal extremely abnormal in current area]

  [Notice : Some monitoring services may experience delays or failures.]

  [Please be mindful of personal and data security, and exercise self-discipline.]

  Looking at those last four characters, Ling raised an eyebrow, lips curving into an amused arc. The annoyance she felt just a moment ago vanished in an instant.

  "Self-discipline?"

  She reached out and pressed the button for the top floor. The elevator doors slowly closed, shutting out that rotting stench.

  "So what you're saying is… this is a surveillance blind spot?"

  Ling turned her head, flashing her two employees a classic hungry-ghost grin:

  "Guys, it's time to run wild！"

  …

  Following the tracking spell's guidance, the three arrived at the top floor of this "offline building"—Unit 1502.

  At first glance, the door looked no different from the security doors downstairs plastered with small ads—full of age and grease stains. No sound came from inside. Ling gave it an experimental push. It didn't budge.

  Ling stepped back half a pace and tilted her head toward the Young cat-yao who was already itching for action: 「Mimi, you're up.」

  Mimi was practically vibrating with excitement over being on a mission, her bangs practically standing on end. She took two running steps, launched into a flashy spinning kick, her shapely leg cutting through the air with a whoosh as it slammed into the door.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  BOOM! The heavy security door flew inward like it was made of paper. Mimi rode her momentum, about to dive in after it, on course to flatten a figure inside.

  But a cold snort came from within the dust cloud.

  The figure didn't dodge or retreat. A withered arm jerked, throwing a punch into empty air. The instant the flying door met the fist wind, it exploded into a shower of fragments.

  Mimi twisted gracefully in midair, landing and sliding several meters before steadying herself, a threatening growl rising from her throat.

  The dust settled, revealing the interior. In stark contrast to the filthy chaos outside, this apartment was decorated with extreme luxury—genuine leather sofas, crystal chandeliers, thick Persian carpets. It was like a palace hidden inside a slum, except it had been ransacked and turned upside down, as if burglars had been through.

  Standing in the center of the living room was none other than the one who'd slipped away during the chaos that night—Master Bai. But now his aura was completely transformed. The weakness from being stripped clean by Ling had vanished entirely, replaced by a violent, unstable pressure.

  At his feet lay a pile of premium spirit stones emanating dense spiritual energy, their glow flowing and shifting. Beside them lay a pried-open safe.

  Ling's gaze had barely swept over before she could properly assess the stones' market value when Master Bai, with nimble hands, swept his sleeve like a food-hoarding hamster, scooping all the treasures on the ground into his cuff. That pure spiritual energy vanished without a trace.

  Bai spotted Ling standing in the doorway. He froze for a moment, then his face twisted into something savage, grinding his teeth:

  "You again! Perfect—time to settle our accounts. Since you tracked me here, that means… that waste Secretary Wang isn't coming back, is he?"

  Ling didn't answer. Instead, she strolled leisurely into the room, casually snagging a heavy solid-gold medal from the display shelf by the entrance.

  She read the inscription: Longjiang Outstanding Contribution Award—Wang An—Issued by the Celestial Court Propaganda Department（CCPD).

  Ling tossed the medal up and down, laughing mockingly:

  "So you're here to steal someone else's nest? What a coincidence—I followed you here to stock up too."

  "You're asking for death!"

  Bai roared, killing intent surging in his eyes.

  Ghost-Eye rapidly initiated a scan.

  In her vision, Bai's data glowed an angry red-purple. This old bastard had clearly swept up who knows how many of Secretary Wang's hidden treasures—his cultivation was in an abnormal explosive growth state. His estimated burst attack value was nearly double that of the high-attack-type Mimi. But strangely, his minimum defense wasn't that high—only three times Ling's fragile vessel.

  Classic high attack, low defense. He must have a fatal weakness hidden somewhere, or this sudden power surge simply hadn't been digested yet. Unfortunately, Ghost-Eye had just been upgraded and couldn't maintain deep scanning for long—she couldn't yet locate that fatal weak point.

  Bai struck first. He confidently flung a handful of yellow talisman papers from his sleeve—the gesture was like scattering joss money at a funeral, absolutely extravagant. The talismans ignited without fire, transforming into golden light screens that instantly sealed every door, window, and crack.

  Ling watched those high-grade talismans being consumed, heart aching as if watching someone burn her money: "Wasteful idiot! Those are all supposed to be my loot!"

  With the retreat sealed, Master Bai formed hand seals, lightning crackling in his palms. This was his specialty—the Thunder Strike technique. Before, he could only power it through artifacts he'd begged from Secretary Wang like a dog. Now—he felt the exhilaration of directly channeling ambient energy.

  Ling commanded calmly: "You two don't tank it head-on. Keep him busy first. Wait for my signal before going all out!"

  The words had barely left her mouth when a thick arc of electricity struck toward them.

  Val stepped forward, his normally simple-looking face instantly turning solemn. With a low growl, he activated his innate skill—Stone Lion's Grounding.

  His flesh-colored skin instantly took on a grayish-white rocky texture. His entire body seemed to transform into an indestructible stone lion. The lightning struck him with crackling explosions, but like water flowing over rock, it was perfectly conducted into the ground, not harming his body at all.

  Using Val's nearly six-foot-three frame as cover, the under-five-foot Mimi was like a viper hiding behind a human shield. Whenever the lightning briefly paused, she burst out as a blur, leaving bloody scratches on Bai before darting back behind cover.

  Though these superficial wounds couldn't damage Bai's foundation, they were enough to make him hop with rage.

  The cheapest fighter was Ling.

  She hid at the battlefield's edge, not directly participating in attacks. Instead, she treated this three-way fight as free training data, observing every spiritual collision from every angle.

  No matter how much he'd resisted studying before, once on the battlefield, Ghost-Eye's nature drew him into his flow state.

  The frequency of each lightning strike, every shield fluctuation, the shape of energy flows… all data was recorded.

  [Sampling in progress… Data confidence:

  As Bai's lightning strikes increased, Ghost-Eye gradually grasped the opponent's attack cycle.

  [Feature extraction: [Model fit: 45% ↑]

  Then Ghost-Eye started occasionally providing tricky trajectories. Ling would throw random bottles and jars accordingly, recording Bai's counter-attack paths—zero damage, maximum insult.

  [Running Generative Adversarial Network (GANs) simulation… Prediction success rate:

  With high-frequency, diverse "friendly interactions," Ghost-Eye's learning speed skyrocketed, his demon core heating intensely. In Ling's eyes, semi-transparent grid layers began appearing over Master Bai's body, certain areas turning red. Until—

  [Model convergence complete.

  Ghost-Eye let out an excited shriek in Ling's consciousness: "Hehe, got him, Sis Ling! This old fart's been stripped naked. From now on, he can only run around bare-ass in front of us!"

  Meanwhile, Master Bai grew increasingly furious but couldn't find an opening through their dense harassment attacks.

  However, level suppression was real.

  After several minutes of high-intensity combat, Val and Mimi were nearly depleted of stamina and mana, their movements noticeably slowing. Bai was also breathing hard—clearly this high-burst fighting style was draining him too.

  Just as Ling was warming up, eager to join the fray, Bai suddenly let out a sinister laugh. He'd finally found an opening to pull a cyan spirit-slip radiating official authority from his sleeve.

  He began chanting: "Heaven and earth, dark and yellow, By Divine Decree, I carry out the mandate—evil gods and malevolent spirits, be swiftly slain!"

  Instantly, the pure spiritual power stored in the spirit-slip surged into Bai like a dam breaking. His depleted meridians were immediately filled. The man had literally full-healed on the spot!

  "Hahaha, Secretary Wang's demon-slaying subsidies are all mine now! The supreme spiritual essence from the Nine Heavens Divine Pool isn't something you wild little juniors can match! Now… return my artifacts and my treasure pouch, and I'll leave you intact corpses!"

  Ghost-Eye finally finished cooldown and launched another deep scan.

  The results showed Bai's internals were extremely unstable—the waveform variance was so extreme it was almost meaningless as reference. The energy in that spirit-slip was too massive and pure, wildly battering against his meridians. His already injured body had no idea how to channel this sudden power.

  Bai's muscles began swelling grotesquely, veins writhing like earthworms. Though Ghost-Eye still couldn't scan a specific weak point, Ling keenly noticed that at his dantian—his lower abdomen—a brilliant gold-red point was condensing, blindingly bright.

  Was this—a breakthrough imminent?

  Bai clearly sensed it too. Overjoyed, he cackled maniacally: "Hahaha, truly a blessing in disguise! Who knew this old man would accidentally form a Golden Core riding this wave of fortune! Let me finish you quickly—I'll search for my things at leisure!"

  With his wild laughter, the entire room's atmosphere shifted dramatically.

  Bai raised both hands high, beginning to guide that rampant energy within him. Lightning bolts began appearing from nowhere on the ceiling, converging together with heart-stopping crackling. From outside the building, every light in the structure flickered on and off, as if the voltage was overloading.

  Ling's eyes sharpened—she saw through it. This old bastard couldn't control this power at all. He was force-dumping it!

  She shouted urgently: "Mimi! Val, behind me!"

  The two didn't hesitate, immediately retreating. Ling glanced back at Val, lowering her voice: "Remember what I told you earlier? Trust me!"

  Val nodded heavily, though he didn't know why he trusted her so readily.

  At that moment, the thunder array took shape.

  An ear-splitting explosion, and a barrel-thick heavenly thunder struck down. Blinding light instantly engulfed all three. This wasn't a spell—it was the most primal, most violent energy discharge.

  The pure spiritual power hadn't even been converted into mystic thunder form before being brutally slammed down. To any self-respecting cultivator, this usage would be heartbreaking: What a waste of heavenly gifts!

  As extravagant and stupid as lighting bundles of cash on fire for warmth.

  But Bai had gotten rich overnight—it was normal that he couldn't handle it yet. For him, as long as it was genuine destructive power, that was enough.

  Watching that apocalyptic lightning descend, Bai laughed like a madman, eagerly waiting for the thunder to finish so he could admire the beautiful sight of three people turned to crispy charcoal.