'What is the leader doing at this hour?' Ray Kang thought as he went down the stairs.
He arrived at the door of his house and opened it quickly.
A tall, well-built man stood outside in a black suit with short black hair, his hands behind his back.
"Leader, it's an honor that you visit my home," Ray Kang bowed his head upon seeing him.
The leader turned his head, his features masculine and his gray eyes sharp.
"Ray Kang, do you feel that everything is alright?"
The man spoke in a deep voice.
Ray Kang tensed—what a tricky question.
"As for me, yes. All my missions are marked by success, and everything is stable,"
Ray Kang said, choosing his words carefully, but he remembered to add the survival word just in case something had gone wrong without his notice.
"As far as I know,"
The man turned his body toward Ray Kang and asked,
"How much essence did you recover in your last mission?"
"Nineteen," Ray Kang replied immediately.
"But you handed over twenty units of essence," the leader said, looking at him with his gray eyes.
"That… maybe someone accidentally added some essence on their own," Ray Kang stammered slightly before considering the possibility.
"Right, it was added by mistake because it's second-rank essence."
"What?" Ray Kang was surprised by what he heard.
"Second-rank essence? How?"
"I know you're not the source. So, is it that deaf one?" the leader said.
"Impossible… we only hunted first-rank animals, and besides, he just recently reached first rank. It doesn't make sense for him to have second-rank essence," Ray Kang spoke quickly and nervously.
This was a very surprising development.
"If what's happening made sense, I wouldn't have come here."
"Doesn't the person in charge of the delivery device know its source?" Ray Kang asked.
"Tsk, he couldn't focus for some reasons, that fool. If it weren't for the fact that we need slaves, I would have killed him," the leader's intent to kill flashed, but he immediately held it back.
"I'll go see that deaf one. You can go back and finish what you started," the leader waved his hand and left.
"Let me go with you," Ray Kang requested, since Kogan was part of his team and he was curious about the source of the second-rank essence.
"No need," the leader refused.
Ray Kang stood in front of his house, watching the man leave.
As long as this man was involved, there was nothing Ray Kang could do anymore.
***
The streets were lit with a beautiful white glow.
Simple and charming houses stood in neat rows, with small gaps between them.
In one of those gaps, a man moved swiftly.
He wore a black cloak and moved stealthily—sometimes running, sometimes walking.
It was Wei Li.
He had resolved to carry out his plan.
In his mind, the plan was perfect—or at least logically sound.
As long as he caught them in a sexual act, it would be over for them.
Even the matter of him spying wouldn't be followed up on, since the spying would have led to the discovery of a crime.
"They won't notice me. They're all too busy with their sex lives," Wei Li sneered.
He was in his early twenty-eighth year, yet still a virgin.
That fact weighed heavily on him, fueling resentment toward those his age who enjoyed intimacy freely.
After moving stealthily for some time, Kogan and Mei Lan's house finally came into view.
"Now I just need to get close to her window… though I heard some people like doing it in the kitchen. Fine, I'll check all the windows."
Wei Li glanced around cautiously before continuing his approach.
To the right of the house was the kitchen window.
He peeked inside—only to find complete darkness.
"So, they must be in the bedroom," Wei Li changed direction toward the front of the house.
He didn't know the exact layout of the rooms, so he simply checked them in the order they appeared.
He stood by the side of the house and glanced at the street and the nearby houses, but didn't notice any movement.
He moved quickly—there was a front window next to the door that faced the main road.
"I shouldn't stay here too long," a growing sense of danger began to stir in his chest.
After three steps, he suddenly slammed into a solid pillar and fell to the ground.
He grabbed his head from the shock of the impact and looked up—only to find two sharp, gray eyes staring down at him from the black "pillar."
"The… the… the Leader, Ling Shao!" Wei Li's lips trembled.
Now, every trace of hatred in his heart vanished, replaced by absolute fear, regret, and confusion.
'What is the leader doing here?'
Wei Li's body broke into a cold sweat.
He had been extremely careful to avoid the patrols, yet he had some confidence that as long as he was cautious and smooth enough, he could slip by unnoticed — after all, no one would expect someone to do something this stupid.
But he never expected to run into one of the Four Leaders.
"What are the two of you doing here?" Leader Ling Shao spoke with a cold tone.
"Th-the two of us?" Wei Li stuttered, caught off guard.
He turned around and saw Mei Li behind him, panting heavily.
'Calm down, calm down, calm down…' Mei Li tried to steady herself.
She, too, hadn't expected to encounter Leader Ling Shao. When she saw Wei Li confront him, she stayed behind the house wall, hesitant and afraid — but he had already noticed her.
She had run along the same path as Wei Li, but didn't bother much with stealth.
Encountering one of the First Rank patrolmen meant facing the enforcers of the law.
But encountering one of the Four Leaders, Second Rank beings... that meant facing the law itself.
"Let me guess—you two were out for a little peeking," Ling Shao said, looking at them.
His aura was completely oppressive, making it hard for them to breathe.
Mei Li gasped. He was absolutely right.
But she quickly explained their situation — after all, it was already over for her, so there was no harm in trying one last time.
"No, we were just…"
Before she could finish, the door to the house opened.