Three days later, late at night.
Xu Min crouched beneath the eaves near the Zhang residence, wrapped in a tattered mat, posing as a refugee.
His eyes remained fixed on the Zhang residence's door. It was just past midnight when he heard the stiff creak of the door being gently pushed open.
The man called Zhang Laosan poked his head out of the house and looked both ways. After making sure no one was around, he hurried into an alley.
Xu Min immediately followed.
Zhang Laosan passed through several narrow alleys at a rapid pace. His cautious manner suggested he feared being discovered. Finally, he stopped before an abandoned Land God Temple in the west of town.
The temple doors were tightly shut, with tattered sealing strips pasted across them.
Zhang Laosan quietly approached the doors and casually raised his hand to knock three times. He paused, then knocked twice more.
Three long, two short.
At the sound, the Land God Temple's door opened a crack from within. A hand as pale as a corpse several days dead reached through the gap and handed Zhang Laosan a small cloth bag.
Hidden at a distance, Xu Min used his powerful senses to discreetly probe the situation inside. From the scents carried on the night breeze, he keenly detected something bloody in the cloth bag, along with several copper coins that jingled within.
At the sight of these precious things, Zhang Laosan quickly accepted them, knelt respectfully, and kowtowed three times.
"Thank you for your mercy, exalted immortal..."
His voice trembled badly, despair and numbness threaded through his words.
The person behind the door ignored Zhang Laosan, and the gap quickly closed.
Clutching the cloth bag, Zhang Laosan turned and hurried away.
Xu Min did not follow. Instead, he continued watching the