### Chapter 216: The Plan Begins
In Bai Yu’s eyes, the evil gods in this world generally weren’t very bright. Even the likes of Burning Heart, an evil god on a whole other level, acted like a clueless newbie. The only one who seemed a bit sharper was the Thousand Eyes Godmother.
So it’s really possible that An Que managed to trick an evil god into coming back.
Besides that, Bai Yu didn’t believe this guy could fully control an evil god.
After all, evil gods and those in red clothes were drastically different. Red clothes can be manipulated to some extent—at least they still have their physical forms, and they tend to be weak, confused, and full of grievances that can be exploited.
Controlling evil spirits and evil gods, however, escalated to a whole new level of difficulty. Those two didn’t even have physical bodies, so it’s basically a no-go right from the start.
Of course, she wasn’t a Gatekeeper, so maybe there were unique methods within the Gatekeepers to control evil gods and spirits.
Once they caught An Que, all would be revealed.
The basement looked like a small parking lot—clearly a converted space. More than ten Gatekeepers stood or sat around, bragging and laughing, completely devoid of any oppressive atmosphere. It was a stark contrast to their grim surroundings.
Even the six Gatekeepers who had “escorted” them over walked in with smiles, completely swapping their previous seriousness for casual chatter with their old friends. It was as if Bai Yu and Zhao Mingyue had arrived here and it was game over for them.
They must have received the news in advance, suspecting that Zhao Mingyue and Bai Yu were likely followers of an evil god.
They didn’t really care; after all, the real evil god wasn’t here, just a couple of kids. It didn’t seem very dangerous. Plus, with so many of them, what could two small girls do?
Completing such a simple task with such a high reward was way better than the poor souls sent to Eternal Life Village to sniff out information, right? At least those guys were risking their lives trying not to get stuck there.
And here, they just had to interrogate a couple of girls to snatch up some nice rewards.
But even so, they took their duties seriously.
The higher-ups weren’t fools. If it were completely safe, there wouldn’t be a need to call so many people here.
Among this crowd, a young man stood out awkwardly.
He had been laughing and joking around with everyone else, but the moment he saw the target of the mission was Zhao Mingyue, he froze like a deer in headlights.
He was essentially being recruited this time.
Once this task ended, he would transform from a lone wolf into someone under the two big chairmen—enjoying perks like crazy, just as the brother who convinced him to come along had said: “Stick with the big crew for a bright future!”
“Sun, Sun Ge.” Lin Zhou tugged at the man beside him who sported a big beard.
“What’s wrong? You look pale?” The man turned to Lin Zhou, noticing his extreme panic.
“Do you remember the female ghost called Gluttony that I mentioned today? The one who killed a few of An Tianhe’s guys? The one in red?” Lin Zhou whispered, gripping the man’s sleeve with a trembling hand.
“You mean…”
“Yeah, that’s her. Gluttony is super close to that woman! She must be hiding Gluttony! I wanted to tell you earlier, but this mission might not be the evil god’s doing. It’s likely Gluttony!”
“Sounds exactly like her style, leaving no traces behind—just gobbling everything up!”
“The reason you can’t find any leads is simple: she ate everything! Everything!”
Lin Zhou was the other Gatekeeper who had accompanied Xia Feihang to the youth apartment that day, and this operation had left a deep impression on him regarding Bai Yu, making him hesitant to join the ranks of the two chairmen afterward.
He was feeling a bit scared, realizing for the first time how powerful red-clad figures could become.
If he ran into them again, then…
Sun Ge’s expression changed as he was about to warn Lin Zhou when suddenly, three Gatekeepers stopped in their tracks. Their bodies dropped to the floor like shattered pieces of a broken toy.
A body riddled with kn*fe wounds flew out, colliding with another person.
All eyes turned to the small figure at the door, pupils dilating in shock.
A long kn*fe pointed to the ground, bl**d dripping from its blade.
Bai Yu raised her hand and slammed it against the elevator door behind her. In the blink of an eye, the bl**d Thread sealed the entire basement.
In terms of aura, strangely enough, Bai Yu seemed to have the upper hand.
—
“My hand! Where’s my hand!?”
“What kind of monster is that…?”
“Where did all the people go? This isn’t happening!”
“Seal it! d*mn it! Where’s your formation? You bragged about it all day long!”
“It’s useless! It doesn’t work at all! They’re not ghosts; it’s a living person! The soul-binding nails didn’t even do anything, can’t you see?!”
“Chairman, we need backup! That thing is too horrifying; we can’t take it!”
The cries of despair from the Gatekeepers echoed through the specially modified intercom. An Que heard it all clearly.
He couldn’t see what was happening on-site. Any devices would be affected by the evil god’s or the red-clad figure’s magnetic field. The only thing working was a walkie-talkie attached to a bound evil spirit.
“Sun Ge’s dead.”
“No! I don’t want to d*e!”
Amidst the chaotic voices, the man holding the walkie-talkie sounded on the verge of a breakdown. It was hard to imagine what terrifying scene could make a seasoned Gatekeeper lose their composure like this.
An Que stood up from his seat, fists clenched tight.
“Tell me! What was that thing? An evil god or a wicked spirit?”
The person on the other side didn’t hesitate. What they said left An Que even more confused.
“No, I don’t know. It was a little girl. I’m sure she’s alive. Our tactics have zero effect on her, but she can use the powers of evil spirits. Right now, the entire Ghost Gate is sealed by this monster’s power, it’s a bit like Painful Thread.”
“Chairman, send someone to rescue us! Please! I’ve been fifteen years in your service!”
“We can last at most five more minutes! Chairman!”
The man’s voice was filled with urgency, practically pleading.
“Most of the Ghost Gates have been eaten by this creature!”
“She doesn’t seem to be possessed by a ghost.”
“It’s almost like… a fetus of an evil god…”
Crack!
An Que’s cup dropped and shattered on the floor. Just outside his office, two Gatekeepers barged in.
An Que waved them off, signaling them to leave. At that moment, his expression had completely changed.
“Are you certain?”
“Very, very likely, Chairman, I…”
Before the person could finish, An Que heard a shriek, and the next second, the intercom fell silent. The increasingly chaotic noises vanished, leaving only a wisp of black smoke, signifying another walkie-talkie’s destruction.
This time, An Que was caught off guard. He had deployed more than a dozen Gatekeepers, solely to gather information about Lu Liangting and Zhao Mingyue, starting from the four nearest Ghost Gates.
This power couldn’t take down an evil god, but it should certainly be enough for self-defense. They could even k*ll evil spirits directly.
So, why had it escalated to this?
Just then, another Gatekeeper rushed in with urgency.
“Chairman! We checked those four Ghost Gates! There’s definitely a lingering presence of an evil god! It’s definitely an evil god!”
“This evil god’s residual power is incredibly faint, but every bit is exceptionally pure. Even after a day and night, it hasn’t dissipated!”
Implying that this evil god was even more terrifying than they expected.
“Our people returned from Eternal Life Village today.”
“The situation there changed drastically. The powers of the two major evil gods seem to have vanished, leaving very little behind. It’s as if they were heavily injured and barely hanging on. Then, in the back village…”
The Gatekeeper’s face turned grim, swallowing hard. His eyes darted, struggling with how to convey what he had just learned. It was too fantastical—even he found it hard to believe. When he first heard the news, he had been dumbfounded for a few minutes.
Yes, minutes.
He had been to that eerie place called Eternal Life Village more than once.
His thoughts on it were simple: he never wanted to go there a third time.
One evil god was headache enough—it was a disaster.
In that wretched place of Eternal Life Village? Four evil god sisters crammed together in a run-down village?
“Spit it out,” An Que’s face darkened immensely.
“Eternal Life Village has been slaughtered…”
“What!?” An Que’s voice involuntarily shot up several octaves.
“It happened today! Our people checked the back village. All the followers are dead, piled up in the ritual square, and they’ve probably been dead for a long time—so decayed they’ve turned to ashes.”
“In the temple, the four goddesses’ statues have been smashed! The curse power and evil aura have been completely absorbed, with Ah She and Fan Yin, the two goddesses, missing. The Thousand Eyes Godmother is very likely the one behind all of this!”
“In the temple, normally, there would be some remains of the evil god’s consciousness. This isn’t something that can be absorbed by ghosts or spirits—only an equally powerful evil god can absorb it!”
“Our investigation, based on the coordinates you provided, led us to the Crouching Dragon Cave. The corpse there was also burned…”
“We scoured the whole Eternal Life Village and found no traces of the evil god’s fetus. Complete absence of any sign of the Thousand Eyes Godmother!”
After hearing all this, An Que collapsed back into his chair.
Before him, the Gatekeeper lowered his head, afraid to continue speaking. The weight of this news was overwhelming.
Had the Thousand Eyes Godmother wiped out Eternal Life Village? Why would she do such a thing? Where had the remaining three goddesses gone? What was happening with the disappeared fetus now? How did the Thousand Eyes Godmother break through the formation in the front village? Why didn’t she choose to lie low after coming out and instead started to clear the Ghost Gates? Her intent was so evidently aggressive.
It was clear she was heading straight for them, not even glancing at the territories of those lone wolves.
“Leave.” An Que maintained that posture for a full five minutes before finally speaking in a low voice.
In just a few days, such a huge change had unfolded.
He was almost certain now that the monstrous being suspected of being a fetal evil god that slaughtered the Gatekeepers was the Thousand Eyes Godmother.
He couldn’t understand why an evil god would choose to use the powers of wicked spirits instead of curse powers.
One thing was for sure: the Thousand Eyes Godmother was stronger than before.
And it seemed her newfound strength came from a monstrous appetite for consuming evil spirits.
Previously, he had wondered why an evil god would go around gobbling up spirits when doing so would not enhance her power—evil gods ordinarily gained strength through spreading curses. It now appeared that something had changed with the Thousand Eyes Godmother, likely tied to the fetal evil god.
As for the corpse in the Crouching Dragon Cave, he had no way to determine if it was indeed the Thousand Eyes Godmother’s fetus.
The Thousand Eyes Godmother had indeed used that body to break free, but she had completely discarded it afterward.
Perhaps she had been planning for over a hundred years for this very day?
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he realized that knowing about the Thousand Eyes Godmother didn’t mean he’d lost.
The Gatekeepers were still powerful. As long as they could capture her, surrounding and killing her shouldn’t be too difficult.
He picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number.
“Chairman Chen, have you heard about the events over the past few days?”
“I’ve heard, the Thousand Eyes in Eternal Life Village has come out. Is she looking for you?”
“Yeah, she seems to have some misunderstanding about me. I didn’t explain things to her clearly back then, and quite frankly, I don’t want to explain now.”
A simple apology, though undoubtedly the Thousand Eyes Godmother would not accept it.
“I see,” Chairman Chen’s tone turned serious from the other end, “I’ve been investigating here too, and I’ve gained some information. My people have come into contact with a few of the Thousand Eyes’ followers. At a price, we managed to gather some intel.”
“The Thousand Eyes Godmother is, most likely, undergoing some transformation right now.”
“I don’t know if an evil god can continue to evolve, but all evidence suggests that this is the case. Reliable reports indicate that Burning Heart has been consumed by the Thousand Eyes.”
“What!?” An Que’s brows knitted tightly.
“Listen to me. A top-tier evil god, combined with most of the powers of Ah She and Fan Yin—that’s an unfathomable power. Anything could happen when all that power converges on the Thousand Eyes; we can’t afford the gamble.”
“Our understanding of evil gods and Ghost Gates is too scarce. If we lose this gamble, it’ll all be over.”
“She’s currently consuming wicked spirits like crazy, likely preparing for the final showdown.”
“If she succeeds, not only will our heads be on the chopping block, but the civilians of this city will suffer even worse.”
“There are also reports suggesting that the Thousand Eyes’ transformation is related to her fetus.”
“Buy us time! I’ll gather personnel and look for opportunities to surround and eliminate her!”
“For this operation, you’ll personally go as well. It’s a chance to resolve your business too.”
With that, Chairman Chen ended the call, visibly displeased with An Que.
—
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
