Taking an Eye for an Eye

"Go, go outside and take a look."

Brother Hu's gaze hardened. He shoved one of his underlings forward and, ignoring his protests, sent him outside to check the situation.

However, less than a second after the underling vanished from beneath their lights, a horrific scream rang out.

The group watched with their own eyes as the man seemed to be dragged away by some creature in the darkness.

The phone he had been gripping tightly tumbled to the ground. After several screams, the sound abruptly vanished as well.

When Brother Hu hurriedly shone his flashlight over, he saw a twisted body lying on the ground.

It looked like a toy someone had taken apart and folded. Its head had been bent backward onto its buttocks, while all four limbs had been twisted into the shape of a braid. Its eyes, still wide open in death, retained a thick layer of terror.

Gurgle!

The tattooed men turned deathly pale with fright. Some could no longer hold their steel rods and machetes, which clanged to the ground.

They had hacked people apart and served time in prison. To ordinary people, they were extremely savage thugs.

But aside from Brother Hu, who had taken a life before, the others truly had no experience with killing—and they had certainly never seen a scene like this!

Even Brother Hu's hair stood on end. He had never encountered anything this eerie either.

Now, he somewhat believed that they had run into ghosts.

Otherwise, how could a living person have been twisted into such a bizarre shape in just a few seconds?

"There really are ghosts! There really are ghosts! Boo-hoo, we're doomed."

"Call the police! Call the f***ing police! Have them come save us."

The tattooed men mentally collapsed. Brother Hu stopped insisting as well. If he were arrested for stealing some wood and setting a fire, he would at most spend a few years in prison. But if he stayed here, he would die!

"Be careful. I'm calling the police."

Brother Hu gave in too, intending to call the police himself.

But before the call could connect, something rapidly approached from within the darkness.

Whoosh!

A vicious gust swept over. The Thousand-Hand Centipede's terrifying body burst from the darkness and clamped down on Brother Hu in one bite.

"A m-monster!"

The thugs scattered in panic and fled in all directions.

But they did not know that escaping this unfinished building was already destined to be impossible.

The dozen or so pale human hands beneath the Thousand-Hand Centipede's abdomen tore themselves free and vanished into the darkness. Before long, several desperate screams echoed through the building, drifting far across the silent unfinished structure before all sound disappeared.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede hissed twice, clamping Brother Hu in its jaws as he continued to struggle in terror.

Behind it, pale human hands dragged the corpses downstairs.

At the foot of the unfinished building, Su Jie stood before several heavy trucks. He lifted the tarps covering them, revealing one intact log after another of precious small-leaved red sandalwood.

"Of all the people you could steal from, you had to steal from me. Why is everyone trying to imitate Peng Shiwen?"

Su Jie sighed. He clearly only wanted to be a law-abiding good person. Why did they insist on forcing him?

At that moment, the Thousand-Hand Centipede came downstairs as well, bringing fourteen corpses with it. It laid them out neatly before Su Jie, then tossed Brother Hu from its mouth to Su Jie's feet as though presenting him with a prize.

"What a good boy."

Su Jie scratched the Thousand-Hand Centipede beneath its chin.

The Thousand-Hand Centipede's thick tail swayed back and forth like a puppy's.

"Are you human or a ghost? Human or ghost?"

Brother Hu trembled violently. As he looked at the corpses of his underlings all around him, his heart and liver quivered with fear.

He had never seen anyone so ruthless, and his methods were beyond anything he had ever heard of.

"Who I am? Didn't you investigate me quite thoroughly?"

A smile played at the corner of Su Jie's mouth. He walked out of the darkness into the moonlight and bent down to look at him.

"It's you! You're the owner of those raw materials."

Brother Hu recognized Su Jie's face and instantly went numb. He also understood why Su Jie had come after them. They truly had it coming.

"Since you know, that makes things easier. I want to know some information about your boss. If you tell me..."

"I won't betray my boss. That's how it always happens in the movies—if I talk, you'll kill me to silence me."

Brother Hu wore a resolute expression, making Su Jie laugh.

"Who would've thought you were such a tough guy? As it happens, I know a thing or two about making people talk. I hope you don't disappoint me."

He was trying to play the hero in front of Su Jie. Clearly, he had no idea about the torture methods of a demonic cultivator.

Ten minutes later

"I've told you everything I should. Please, please, just give me a quick death."

Brother Hu, who had been unyielding and resolute earlier, now lay on the ground filled with despair and terror, wholeheartedly begging to die.

"Seriously? You didn't even last ten minutes. Remember to be a good person like me in your next life."

Su Jie snapped his fingers.

You call yourself a good person? Even a demon isn't as wicked as you.

That thought flashed through Brother Hu's mind. Then his consciousness was swallowed as Yin Fire Blood Bees crawled all over his body and burrowed inside through his mouth and nostrils.

Su Jie then opened the ancient mirror he had brought with him and tossed in the corpses and small-leaved red sandalwood logs. This was an absolutely spotless way to destroy the evidence.

After tidying everything up, Su Jie vanished into the night.

He was going to find the true mastermind. The people he had killed were nothing more than someone else's pawns.

"What did you say? A'hu didn't answer his phone? What about Lei Zi and the others?"

In a luxurious high-end villa complex in Linping City, Cui Yunchun, dressed in pajamas and listening to Ma Lanfei report the news, shot to his feet.

"Director Cui, you told me to call A'hu once every three hours. I did as you said, but half an hour ago, he didn't answer when I called. Lei Zi and the others didn't answer either."

Ma Lanfei spoke nervously. It was not yet midnight, but no one had answered any of her calls, so she had immediately come to report.

"Could A'hu and the others have been tempted by the money and decided to keep this shipment for themselves?"

Ma Lanfei hesitated before making her guess.

"Impossible. A'hu was an orphan I raised from childhood. He's absolutely loyal to me. Something must have happened over there. Have someone investigate immediately, focusing on that man named Su Jie."

Cui Yunchun flew into a rage, his eyes seeming ready to devour someone.

Ma Lanfei was frightened. She was about to make a call when a voice suddenly rang out inside the room.

"Boss Cui, in such a hurry to find me?"

The voice came from outside the door, startling the two people in the bedroom.

"Who are you? Wait, Mr. Su—you're Mr. Su, aren't you?"

Cui Yunchun froze before quickly realizing who it was.

"I was in the wrong this time. I'm willing to make amends. How about I compensate you one hundred million yuan for your losses? If that isn't enough, I can add more."

As expected of someone who had weathered great storms, Cui Yunchun surrendered quickly.

Since Su Jie could enter his house without making a sound, that meant he could also threaten his life.

"One hundred million yuan? That's a big offer. But... it's too late to talk about that now."

Following a cold laugh, footsteps sounded outside the bedroom. When the door opened, a figure stood beneath the moonlight, sending chills down the spine.

Cui Yunchun and Ma Lanfei focused their eyes and cried out together, "A'hu!"

The person standing at the door was none other than their own man, A'hu.

"Why are you here? Could it be that you really betrayed me? How dare you!"

Cui Yunchun seemed to understand something. He stared at A'hu in shock and fury.

"Brother Hu, how could you do this? Director Cui has treated you with the utmost kindness, and you actually colluded with outsiders to betray him!"

Ma Lanfei was equally furious, while secretly feeling relieved inside.

For the sake of their many years of friendship, Brother Hu probably would not kill them, right?

However, faced with Cui Yunchun's fury, A'hu's reaction was extremely strange. He stiffly raised both hands, despair showing in his eyes.

"Save me, Boss Cui. Save me..."

Before he could finish, the flesh on A'hu's face twitched violently. It seemed as if something was wriggling beneath his skin, and he spoke in a hoarse, rigid voice: "Tsk, I'm still far too inexperienced. I can't even control an ordinary person for long. Since that's the case, Boss Cui, you seem to enjoy setting fires. Then I'll give you a grand blaze as well. An eye for an eye—it's only fair, right?"

Only then did the two realize that something was wrong. A'hu before them seemed to be controlled by something.

Cui Yunchun and Ma Lanfei knew nothing about Gu masters. Otherwise, they would have understood that this was a technique for using a Gu master's spiritual power—a new technique Su Jie had mastered while practicing the Wild Insect Control Technique.

Su Jie's strength was still far too weak, and the technique itself had flaws. It was limited by both time and distance, much like an unstable signal. Every now and then, the victim could break free of the control, just as A'hu had moments ago.

"Mr. Su! Mr. Su, we can still negotiate. Name your price!"

Feeling deeply uneasy and terrified, Cui Yunchun shouted frantically. This time, however, A'hu showed no reaction. The flesh beneath his skin split open, and one Yin Fire Blood Bee after another crawled out, swarming toward the two of them.

The bloody, horrifying scene left both of them nearly numb with terror. By the time they wanted to beg for mercy, it was already too late.

Inside the bedroom, sparks of fire began to burn. The Yin Fire Blood Bees from the Tianyuan World sent this place a magnificent, roaring inferno.

On a treetop several hundred meters from the villa, Su Jie stood there, admiring the building engulfed in flames.

"Not bad, not bad. The flames are spectacular. No wonder villains always like to set fires after killing people—it really does put you in a good mood."

A smile hung on Su Jie's face. After taking one last look at the flames soaring into the sky, he turned and left.

"I've been out for two hours. I should head back and get some rest. At last, I'll be able to sleep well tonight."