After entering the main hall, Little Fatty headed straight for the front desk. Seated there was an emaciated middle-aged man whose darting glances held a dark, cunning gleam—clearly not a good sort. Little Fatty stopped before the counter, rapped on the surface, and said in a low voice, "I want to post a bounty!"
"Well now, haven't seen you in a while." The middle-aged man scrutinized Little Fatty with a chuckle. "You haven't been visiting the stronghold much lately. What have you been busy with?"
The middle-aged man was a steward of the stronghold, responsible for receiving and issuing missions. Members who finalized deals within the stronghold also had to register here so the organization would guarantee the transaction; the Southern Sect would not involve itself in private deals made under the table.
"Busy delivering takeout!" Little Fatty retorted, irritated.
The steward paused, eyeing him up and down, momentarily unable to tell if he was genuinely delivering food or speaking in code.
"Fine. What's the bounty for?" The gloomy-faced middle-aged man drew out a sheet of paper and picked up a pen, preparing to record the details.
Little Fatty lowered his voice. "Inquiring into Yuanshi Tianzun's movements, and inquiring into the movements of the members of Wuhen Hotel."
The pen in the steward's hand froze. He snapped his head up. "Are you out of your mind, kid? Is that something an ordinary member can pull off? Even the elders couldn't do it."
The news of the Sixth Protector hunting Yuanshi Tianzun had already spread throughout the Southern Sect, greatly emboldening the Illusionists. See? So what if he was the strongest below Dominator? He still couldn't escape the law that all beneath a Dominator are ants.
At the same time, they felt immense regret. Having failed to kill Yuanshi Tianzun this time, the kid would surely be spooked like a bird frightened by the twang of a bow, cowering under the wings of the Songhai Branch elders and not daring to show his face.
A mission to pry into Yuanshi Tianzun's movements was simply impossible.
Little Fatty shook his head repeatedly. "I didn't say actively tail Yuanshi Tianzun, just keep an eye out for his movements. Any intel regarding him must be reported to me in a timely manner."
Only then did the middle-aged man nod. That made the requirements much broader; checking public official updates counted as keeping an eye out.
"The reward is five hundred yuan a day. Multiple people can take it, but at most five. Rotate the personnel every five days, and those rotated out can't accept it again. Same goes for the Wuhen Hotel mission," Little Fatty added.
The steward scribbled quickly. "I'll submit the missions, but whether they get approved requires an elder's sign-off."
Little Fatty nodded. That was precisely what he wanted. Anyone targeted by Yuanshi Tianzun would be terrified and anxious; if he made no struggle at all and simply laid low in peace, he would seem far too calm.
Once the middle-aged man finished writing out the details, stamped the document, and filed it away in a box, Little Fatty asked nonchalantly, "Has anyone in the organization bitten the dust lately? Any big shots looking for lackeys?"
Looking for a backer was part of his everyday routine and would never arouse suspicion.
"You're already a Dream Master now. There aren't many members qualified to be your boss..." The steward's eyes darted around, and he suddenly let out a lecherous smirk. "Yi Chuanmei returned to the Spirit Realm. The Sixth Elder is short an attendant beneath him. Care to give it a shot?"
"Piss off!" Little Fatty snapped. "I'd love to get the Sixth Elder's protection, but I'm not a woman. Speaking of which, Yi Chuanmei returning to the Spirit Realm must have dealt a heavy blow to the Sixth Elder, or else he wouldn't have gone out to hunt Yuanshi Tianzun."
"A heavy blow?" The middle-aged man scoffed. "Don't you know how many women in the organization are dying to sleep with the Sixth Elder? Losing one Yi Chuanmei leaves countless more to take her place. What really hit him hard was failing to kill Yuanshi Tianzun. Just yesterday, he put out a beauty pageant mission across all the major strongholds, planning to pick a few women to vent his frustration."
"Oh," Little Fatty said, instantly understanding.
The elders of the Southern Sect were exceptionally cautious, rarely making offline contact with members. If the Sixth Elder wanted to hold an orgy, he would post a bounty at the strongholds. Women would take the job, and eventually receive an address at a specified time.
Only after passing layer upon layer of screening could they actually meet the Sixth Elder. Whoever caught his eye was handsomely rewarded.
It might be a pile of cash, or materials, consumables, or items.
To women of the evil classes, trading their bodies for compensation was practically a godsend.
Right then, the click of high heels against the floor echoed. A voluptuous, enchanting woman strolled up to the counter and smiled. "I heard the Sixth Elder posted another bounty?"
Little Fatty glanced over. She was a seductive woman with an oval face, large eyes, bright and striking features, and a blazing hot figure. She wore tight hip-hugging pants with a small leather belt, along with a waist-cinching T-shirt accentuating a remarkably heavy bosom.
The steward leered at her. "Tsk, tsk. Deacon Jing, looks like you made a killing sleeping with the Sixth Elder last time."
A flash of disgust and dread flickered across her eyes, but she giggled. "That money doesn't come easy. Trust me, the payoff is always proportional to the price. Not everyone enjoys humiliation and abuse like Yi Chuanmei did."
The steward shrugged. "At least your life isn't on the line. Alright, I'll submit your ID. Knowing the Sixth Elder, someone who's already served him stands a better chance."
***
Late at night, at Fujia Bay Villa.
Zhang Yuanqing was cultivating wrapped in the Yin-Yang Joyous Union Quilt with Guan Ya. Although she constantly complained that it was a useless piece of junk with negligible benefits, she could never resist her younger boyfriend's advances, yielding half-reluctantly every time.
"Gentler, be gentler..."
Tilting her head up to dodge his relentless kisses, Guan Ya finally caught a breath, offering a sweet, languid protest.
She felt both affection and vexation toward this younger boyfriend of hers. She loved his bedroom performance—not only did he bring her to peak ecstasy every time, but he also loved talking dirty, shouting things like, "Sister Guan Ya, I'm going to squander my fortune inside you!" or "I'm getting ready to inject the life fluid!"
All of it suited her tastes perfectly.
Her vexation was that a Night Walker had far too much endurance. As a Scout built on high agility and explosive bursts, her stamina and recovery were nothing extraordinary.
A boyfriend whose recovery was excessively potent was truly a headache.
Zhang Yuanqing paid no heed to Guan Ya's cries to stop, gloating instead—until a piercing ringtone cut him short.
"Let me take this call."
Zhang Yuanqing withdrew from Guan Ya's body and grabbed the phone from the nightstand. Seeing an unfamiliar number, his expression tightened, and he answered.
"It's me!" Little Fatty's deliberately hushed voice came through the line.
"Speak."
"The Sixth Elder is holding an internal beauty pageant lately. There's a Dream Master named 'Jing' who has experience serving him. Given how cautious he is, he's much more likely to pick someone he knows. But I don't know where Deacon Jing lives. Since I just returned to the Southern Sect, the First Elder is bound to keep an eye on me. This is the limit of what I can dig up for now." Little Fatty paused before adding, "However, you can consult Yi Chuanmei."
Yi Chuanmei was a high-level Saint of the Southern Sect and formerly the Sixth Elder's bedmate; she was sure to know more.
"Understood. Your mission is on hold for now—stay hidden and lay low." Zhang Yuanqing hung up and looked at Guan Ya, who was curled under the light duvet. "I have something to take care of. Why don't you sleep first?"
Guan Ya nodded briskly, like a chick pecking at grain.
After getting dressed, Zhang Yuanqing used Starlight Escape to reach the villa's rooftop. Taking out the Great Luo Astrolabe and placing it before him, he summoned Yi Chuanmei and asked, "Do you know Deacon Jing of the Southern Sect?"
Yi Chuanmei gave a soft chuckle, her shapely face flashing with the malice of a red-banded krait. "Is Master going to make a move on that little bitch?"
Zhang Yuanqing condensed the divine power of the sun into a long whip and lashed it out with a sharp crack, saying coldly, "As a lowly slave, you need only answer your master's questions, not ask them."
Yi Chuanmei shrieked as her ethereal body slumped limply onto the ground. Despite enduring a painful flogging, her face held a sickly look of pleasure as she gasped, "Yes, yes..."
What a pervert... Zhang Yuanqing muttered inwardly. He noticed he was gradually being influenced by Yi Chuanmei, developing a taste for sadistic acts—like always wanting to spank Guan Ya's rear.
Only after the veteran temptress threatened him with a gesture pointing to his little brother did he kick the bad habit.
Panting for a moment, Yi Chuanmei finally caught her breath and said, "Ever since my physical body died in the Spirit Realm and I became Master's slave, the Southern Sect made corresponding adjustments. Except for the dreamscape strongholds remaining unchanged, every member familiar to me relocated, including the Sixth Elder.
"I don't know where that bitch Jing lives, but it should be in Jiangnan Province. I can provide you with her height, measurements, true appearance, private body markings, as well as her personality and preferences. With this information, you can roughly pinpoint the city she lives in."
Zhang Yuanqing immediately frowned.
Like tracking down Pluto? Pluto at least had the class drawback of deep slumber as a lead, but a Dream Master could not only alter their appearance but also travel through dreams, making them far harder to find.
Even with Pluto, it had taken him several days just to barely pin him down. Finding a hidden Dream Master in an entire city would be completely impossible on short notice.
If he missed this chance, his plan for revenge against the Southern Sect would be delayed for a long time. The longer it dragged on, the weaker the deterrence to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys would be.
Zhang Yuanqing reviewed his current repertoire and came up with an idea.
He could make use of the matchbox's wishing ability.
Wishing to directly pinpoint Jing's location was unrealistic—that exceeded the limit of his abilities and violated Note 1's restriction of 'cannot directly resolve difficulties currently exceeding one's own capability.'
However, he could wish to boost the efficacy of his Stargazing, making the divination more precise... Zhang Yuanqing opened his inventory, took out the matchbox, and pulled out a match.
Striking it alight, he stared at the pea-sized flame and said in a low voice, "I wish for my subsequent deduction to be more precise, more accurate."
Stargazing deduction was an innate skill of his, not something beyond his abilities, and the wish was not to directly locate Jing.
The flame flared high, burning through the matchstick in an instant. The wish was granted.
Next, Zhang Yuanqing fetched paper and had Yi Chuanmei write down Deacon Jing's characteristics along with sketch drawings.
Scanning the written descriptions, he noticed an entry: A "Green Snake" tattoo on her lower back and inner thigh.
For Yi Chuanmei to know in such detail, she must have served the Sixth Elder alongside her... Zhang Yuanqing raised his head, opened his Star Eyes, and initiated the deduction based on the available information.
A few minutes later, an aerial view flashed into his mind—a fleeting bird's-eye perspective of a residential complex.
Jing is in that neighborhood? Zhang Yuanqing concluded his Stargazing and sank into thought.
Even with the matchbox's wish boosting the effect, narrowing it down to a residential complex was the absolute limit. That complex was quite large, housing at least several thousand households; silently pinpointing an Illusionist among them would not be easy.
Zhang Yuanqing promptly summoned Yi Chuanmei, shared the deduction's result, and asked, "What do you think?"
Yi Chuanmei knelt obediently to the side. "Illusionists have jobs and daily lives too. Every so often, Southern Sect members change their faces, addresses, and workplaces. But before a job change, we consistently stick to one face—we can't very well show up to work with a new face every day. If you can find out what face she's currently using, you'll be able to track her down."
Hearing this, Zhang Yuanqing formulated a plan.
He recalled Yi Chuanmei and dialed Little Fatty's number. "Can you draw?"
"You overestimate my talents," Little Fatty replied honestly, then added, "However, I can recall her appearance through a dream. As long as you enter a dream with me, you'll be able to see her."
Compensating for a lack of talent with skills? Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment, hung up, conducted another Stargazing reading to confirm it was safe, and texted him: "Send me a photo of your surroundings."
Though bewildered, Little Fatty obediently complied and sent a picture of a bathroom.
Fine, if you insist on sending this, don't regret it! Zhang Yuanqing struck a match, wished for a teleportation jade talisman, and crushed the talisman with a snap.
The next second, he appeared inside the cramped bathroom. To his side was the sink, and right in front of him was Good Minister Chooses His Master to Slay squatting over the toilet.
Their eyes met. Little Fatty's gaze froze, his jaw dropping wider and wider.
He can teleport directly? He came straight over?!
Zhang Yuanqing eyed him coldly for a moment. "The smell's a bit strong. Remember to eat more vegetables and less meat. I'll wait for you outside."
"..." Little Fatty nodded with a miserable look on his face.
Zhang Yuanqing waited in the living room for a short while before a loud flush echoed from the bathroom. Little Fatty emerged, pulling up his trousers, and asked, "Shall we go to the bedroom or the living room?"
"The living room!"
The two sat down on the sofa. Zhang Yuanqing breathed out Yi Chuanmei and the Ghost Bride to act as sentries, and then, with Little Fatty's help, entered a dream.
In a hazy blur, he arrived in a spacious hall.
The hall buzzed with voices, dotted with scattered stalls and comfortable booths. Over by the front desk, he saw Little Fatty, and beside him stood a striking woman with an oval face.
The dream promptly ended.
Zhang Yuanqing woke up. Having seen Jing's appearance, his plan was set.
—First, use a low-level yin corpse to make the third wish to obtain another teleportation jade talisman and teleport to Jing's residential complex; then, take control of the property management office to secure backups of the surveillance footage, transmit Jing's appearance to Li Chunfeng, and have him use technical means to locate her in the footage.
Following the cameras, they would know which building and floor Jing lived on.
***
Xinghui Garden.
In Unit 1012 of Building 6, Jing sat on a plush sofa in the bedroom clad in provocative lingerie, a cigarette between the fingers of one hand and her phone in the other, switching between company group chats and private Southern Sect group chats.
She possessed full breasts, taut, slender legs, and rounded hips; with her hair draped loosely over her shoulders as she smoked, she carried the decadent charm of a mature woman.
Jing was very adept at leveraging her physical assets. While the Spirit Realm restricted Walkers from using their skills to gain illicit wealth, it did not restrict them from exploiting beauty.
Every time she switched companies, she targeted the company boss, leaving each head-over-heels obsessed with her, yielding to her every whim.
The lingerie she wore was designer-brand, and the furniture she used was luxurious. Whenever she moved, she never bothered taking it with her, selling it online or generously leaving it behind for the landlord.
A few hundred thousand or even a million yuan meant little to her anymore; as a Dream Master, the materials and items she needed ran in the tens of millions.
Fortunately, using beauty to court favor remained effective within the Spirit Realm Walker community—it just wasn't as effortless as sleeping with ordinary people. She still couldn't forget the miserable state she had been left in after serving the Sixth Elder last time: vomiting, diarrhea, and unable to get out of bed for three whole days.
I have to enter the Spirit Realm in a few days. I must obtain a Saint-grade defensive item from the Sixth Elder, even if only borrowed...
Jing checked her phone repeatedly, anticipating the Sixth Elder's summons.
Suddenly, starlight flared up inside the bedroom, and a handsome young man stepped out of the light.
Chapter 612