Su Ze practiced the Swan Dance in the courtyard to digest the extract, all while waiting for news from Chen Suifeng.

CLAP CLAP CLAP...

An unbelievably handsome young man approached Su Ze amidst the sound of rhythmic applause. Although he wore a smile, his eyes held a weariness that didn’t match his appearance.

"You dance very well!" Chen Suifeng complimented.

Su Ze’s expression stiffened. ’When did this old guy get here?’

Su Ze immediately stopped dancing and called out, "Mr. Chen."

"Don’t be so formal. You can call me..." Chen Suifeng paused, seemingly unsure of what he wanted Su Ze to call him.

He was more than old enough to be Su Ze’s grandfather, but he didn’t like being called "Grandpa" or "Uncle" or anything of the sort, as it made him seem old.

He was reluctant to accept the fact that he was old, so he always maintained the appearance of his youth.

Su Ze cleared his throat and said, "If you would not cast me aside..."

"Hmm... Just call me Mr. Chen when others are around. In private, you can call me Mr. Fen," Chen Suifeng suddenly said, cutting Su Ze off.

’Mr. Fen? I was ready to call you my adoptive father, but you just want to be brothers.’

’Mr. Fen it is, then!’

"Mr. Fen, can I bring two companions along?"

He had to admit, calling him "Mr. Fen" made Su Ze feel much closer to the Venerable Powerhouse, and the awkwardness of facing a superior and an elder was gone.

"Don’t bring anyone else. It’ll waste time, and I’ll have to split my attention to look after them in the wilderness," Chen Suifeng said.

Since the big shot had spoken, Su Ze didn’t bring it up again.

It just so happened that Mr. Ya and Mrs. Yun had been busy lately. Mr. Ya had now fully absorbed three vials of the Butterfly Stage extract. Once he finished digesting them, he could prepare to break through to the Saint level.

Mrs. Yun had just reached the Saint level and become Dongli’s fifth Guardian God, a major event celebrated throughout the entire Dongli Kingdom. The Dongli government was now promoting the news heavily, and Mrs. Yun had to cooperate by attending various functions.

"Are you packed? We’re leaving now," Chen Suifeng said.

"Mr. Fen, how are we getting there?"

"We’re flying, of course. Did you think we’d walk?"

"Well..." Su Ze tilted his head back and smiled. "I was wondering if you might be interested in dealing with a few pests along the way?"

"Pests? You mean the Defilers?" Chen Suifeng paused for a moment, then laughed. "Interesting. You want to be the bait?"

Chen Suifeng didn’t know that Su Ze already had a grudge with the Filth Earth Organization. However, the Filth Earth Organization had always enjoyed hunting geniuses, so it was perfectly normal for them to target Su Ze after his outstanding performance with the Divine Dice. Not to mention, everyone suspected that Su Ze had obtained the Bloodline Crystal.

In fact, it was likely that not only the Filth Earth Organization had its eyes on Su Ze, but also other assorted vermin.

"Instead of letting them constantly plot against me, it’s better to take the initiative, lure them all out, and kill them in one fell swoop," Su Ze said.

...

Su Ze flew out of Dongli University alone. Once he reached a deserted area, he put on the Hundred-Change Mask and altered his appearance and build, transforming into a steady-looking man in his thirties with an average build.

He didn’t deliberately make a scene to attract attention, but he was confident that the Filth Earth Organization’s spies planted in Dongli University would have noticed him.

His current change of appearance was likely also under their surveillance.

Changing his appearance was an essential part of the plan.

If he didn’t change his appearance and went out brazenly with his own face, the intent to lure them out would be too obvious. Anyone could tell something was wrong.

Then, Su Ze hailed a cab and headed straight for the airport.

He bought a plane ticket to Fengshui City, planning to enter the Blood Earth Forest from there, the only place where Dongli bordered the wilderness.

The Dongli Kingdom bordered the Lin Hua Country to the north, the Great Desert Kingdom to the west, and the Luofan Country to the south. To its east was the Central Sea. Only Fengshui City in the northeast connected to the Blood Earth Forest.

After arriving at the airport, Su Ze muttered to himself, "Is anyone following me?"

Chen Suifeng’s voice immediately sounded in his ear: "There’s an invisible guy who’s been following you the whole way. His power level should be at the Butterfly Stage."

"That’s good."

He wasn’t afraid of being followed, only that no one would follow. Since someone was tailing him, his plan to lure the snake out of its hole was almost certainly going to work.

Because the plane ticket was purchased using his real identity, he had to temporarily take off the Hundred-Change Mask when going through security.

After smoothly boarding the plane, Su Ze put the Hundred-Change Mask back on, returning to his previous appearance.

Chen Suifeng didn’t board the plane. Instead, he followed behind it to Fengshui City. He couldn’t show himself before luring out the hidden enemies, or he would scare off the pests.

The person tailing Su Ze didn’t get on the plane either. He was just a scout whose purpose was to determine Su Ze’s destination; knowing which flight Su Ze was on was enough.

...

「Fengshui City, Fengshui Pass.」

Using the excuse of going out to hunt, Su Ze passed through the checkpoint smoothly, left the country, and arrived in the Blood Earth Forest.

Fengshui Pass had always operated under a policy of lenient exit and strict entry. It was easy to leave, but entering required a rigorous identity check.

"Mr. Fen, where to next?" Su Ze asked in a low voice.

"Just keep walking forward, deeper into the Blood Earth Forest. We’re too close to the border; the pests might be hesitant and won’t dare to come out." Chen Suifeng was nowhere to be seen, but his voice appeared directly in Su Ze’s mind.

"Alright."

With a Venerable Powerhouse accompanying him, Su Ze felt emboldened and fearlessly headed deeper into the Blood Earth Forest.

Any foolish mutated beasts that attacked him along the way were casually blown to bits.

With his current strength, he was unrivaled by anyone below the Saint level.

Therefore, anyone who dared to make a move on him would have to be a Saint-level powerhouse.

Halfway there, Chen Suifeng’s voice sounded in his ear again: "After you left Fengshui Pass, someone else started following you. I don’t smell a stench, so they probably aren’t from the Filth Earth Organization."

’If they aren’t from the Filth Earth Organization, then they must be powerhouses from the Lin Hua Country.’

At Chen Suifeng’s instruction, Su Ze had used his real identity to buy the plane ticket. These powerhouses from the Lin Hua Country were resourceful and well-connected; they must have found out his itinerary through the flight information.

As Su Ze went deeper, he started encountering some groups of Hunters. Their gazes swept over him, and some of their hands quietly crept toward the weapons at their waists, clearly having some ideas.

As a lone traveler, Su Ze looked like an easy target.

In the end, however, no one made a move. Anyone who dared to travel alone in the Blood Earth Forest was either a fool or a powerhouse, and they weren’t willing to take that gamble.

Gradually, Su Ze encountered fewer and fewer people. This was already the depths of the Blood Earth Forest, where large numbers of Tier-3 mutated beasts roamed. Ordinary hunting parties didn’t dare to hunt here.

’Why haven’t those guys following me made a move yet...’ Su Ze was getting a little anxious.

"Interesting. There are three people following you in total. They’re obviously not together, and they’ve noticed each other. Now none of them wants to make the first move," Chen Suifeng sent via voice transmission.

"So I just keep walking like this? When will it end?"

"Don’t be impatient. The real pests haven’t even shown up yet. We’ll see what happens when they appear."

...

「Half an hour later.」

Su Ze twitched his nose. Having extended his sense of smell to its maximum range, he faintly caught a familiar stench.

"They’re here." Chen Suifeng had also noticed the pests’ arrival.

The people from the Filth Earth Organization didn’t bother with stealthy tracking; three of them directly blocked Su Ze’s path.

All three were new faces Su Ze had never seen before. However, the leader, a man in a black cloak, had an especially strong stench. Just by smelling it, Su Ze knew he was a Saint-level Overlord.

’That stench is overwhelming!’

Among the Defilers Su Ze had met, only the two Overlords, Feng Bqing and Bai Guishou, could compare to him.

As for the two people behind the cloaked man, their stench was much fainter. They were probably Butterfly Stage evolvers.

The cloaked man chuckled. "Those three characters behind you—are they here to protect you, or to tail you?"

"What!" Su Ze feigned surprise with slightly exaggerated acting and quickly looked behind him.

Seeing that they could no longer hide, the three people who had been following Su Ze all revealed themselves. They were three more new faces Su Ze had never seen.

As soon as the three appeared, they all unleashed the aura of Saint-level Overlords, trying to intimidate the cloaked man opposite them.

These three, who had originally been wary of each other, actually united when faced with the Defilers.

"You rats from the gutter, get lost!" one of the three berated them.

The cloaked man chuckled. "No need for such hostility. I’m not your competitor. We want different things. You want the Bloodline Crystal, while I only want his extract. We can each take what we need. There’s no conflict." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

One of the three Saint-levels spoke up. "Regardless of what you want, you don’t seem qualified to share the prey with us. There’s only one of you, and there are three of us. Even if it’s something we have no use for, that doesn’t mean we’re willing to just hand it over to you."

He had automatically ignored the two Butterfly Stage members behind the cloaked man.

They truly had no interest in Su Ze’s extract; no one in their families wanted to become a Defiler. However, that didn’t mean they were willing to simply hand over Su Ze’s extract. Some things, even if useless to them, they would rather destroy than leave for an enemy.

Su Ze wasn’t panicking at all, because Chen Suifeng was currently in his ear, introducing the three Saint-level Overlords who had been tracking him.

All three were from major families in the Lin Hua Country. To his surprise, one of them was an elder of the Tao Family!

That’s right, the same Tao Family that Tao Qian belonged to.

’It seems the Tao Family has never given up on getting revenge on me.’

The cloaked man’s lips curled into a smirk. "Who told you we only sent one person?

"In fact, our organization values Su Ze far more than you can imagine."

Before he could finish speaking, Su Ze heard Chen Suifeng mutter, "More and more pests are gathering."

The next moment, a row of figures shrouded in black robes appeared behind the three Overlords from the Lin Hua Country—more than twenty of them in total.

Amidst this sea of black, an old man in a white suit stood out conspicuously. His suit was ironed perfectly straight without a single crease, and his leather shoes were polished to a mirror shine. At a glance, he was a man of distinction.

The faces of the three Overlords from the Lin Hua Country changed instantly.

Although the Defilers still only had two Saint-level Overlords present, the twenty-plus Butterfly Stage members couldn’t be ignored. More importantly, the Defilers were a unified organization, whereas the three of them were not of one mind.

If a real fight broke out, the three of them would even have to be wary of each other, guarding against the possibility of being backstabbed by the other two.

"Fine. Su Ze’s corpse is yours, but before that, you have to let us find the Bloodline Crystal first, or at least find out its location." The three of them instantly changed their tune and agreed to cooperate with the members of the Filth Earth Organization.

They also knew that Su Ze might not be carrying the Bloodline Crystal on him; it could be hidden somewhere.

Bai Guishou took off his white formal hat and revealed a friendly smile. "Be my guest."

The gazes of the three Saint-level Overlords from the Lin Hua Country fell on Su Ze in unison. Before they could even start questioning him, they saw Su Ze let out a yawn.

"You’re all discussing how to deal with me... Are you sure you don’t need to ask for my opinion?"

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