While the Wang Family was holding its clan meeting, five hundred meters away, in an unremarkable two-story building—
A flickering blue-black shadow pulsed in and out of visibility. At first, it looked like a skull.
When it expanded, it revealed itself to be a pale human face.
That face was neither male nor female, but countless disgusting blue-black maggots crawled all over it.
This person was one of the newly promoted Elders of the Holy Spirit Cult—Mask Douluo. His martial soul was called Demonic Maggot, a strange spirit that evolved by devouring souls.
Mask Douluo held a bloodstained head in his hands. He split the skull open and began greedily sucking out the brain matter.
Devouring brain pulp was one of Mask Douluo's favorite indulgences. His personal record was draining the brains of one thousand people in a single day.
When he heard that his cult leader, Zhongli Wu, intended to help one of the princes by eliminating the forces supporting the others, he volunteered for the task himself.
He was especially eager because he had just broken through to the Titled Douluo level and needed to devour powerful souls to stabilize his foundation.
For Evil Soul Masters, if they did not kill and devour souls to cultivate, their progress would be no faster than that of a mediocre Soul Master (for reference, Tang Ya).
But once they began killing and consuming souls and flesh, their cultivation speed could surpass even that of innate full–soul power geniuses.
Thus, every Evil Soul Master, after tasting that rapid progress, could no longer tolerate the slow and dull practice of meditation.
Seeing Mask Douluo's enthusiasm, Zhongli Wu handed him the matter of the Wang Family.
The minimum requirement: kill Wang Yan, Patriarch of the Wang Family, and Great Elder Wang Lu, crippling the Wang Family's power so they could no longer support the Second Prince, Xu Tianyu.
Receiving this assignment, Mask Douluo was overjoyed. He first sent his subordinates disguised as bandits to rob the Wang Family's rare metals.
Then, after planting parasitic maggots inside the body of the Wang Family's Tenth Elder to control and monitor him, he deliberately allowed the elder to escape.
The purpose was to have him return to the Wang Family with the news—so that the family's experts would come out to take revenge.
When that happened, he could eliminate or control all the powerful members who left, and once they were under his control, send them back to massacre the entire Wang Family.
If the Wang Family didn't take the bait, he planned to use the controlled Tenth Elder to lay out arrays and probes around their estate,
learning the full details of the Wang Family's manpower, structure, and the patrol intervals of the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion stationed in Mingdu…
After carefully investigating every detail, he would strike swiftly and decisively—killing the Wang Family's Patriarch, Wang Yan, and the Great Elder along with a few other powerful figures—then flee at once.
Mask Douluo had already observed that the Wang Family estate was located on the outskirts of Mingdu, not in the central district.
Even if the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion detected the disturbance and the surge of soul power, it would take them some time to arrive.
That delay, in Mask Douluo's estimation, would be insufficient to wipe out the entire Wang Family—but more than enough to kill Wang Yan and several key elders. That would at least meet Zhongli Wu's minimum orders.
As for any investigation afterward, Mask Douluo believed that as long as he fled back to the Holy Spirit Cult, even if Emperor Xu Jing of the Sun and Moon Empire himself wanted to kill him, there would be nothing he could do.
Truly, only an Evil Soul Master could be so mad and so arrogant.
At that moment, Mask Douluo was using the maggots he had implanted inside the Tenth Elder to monitor the events inside the Wang Family's meeting hall.
This was the ability of his martial soul, Demonic Maggot—to implant larvae inside living beings, allowing parasitic control.
He could either manipulate the host or devour their soul. Though he was somewhat weak in direct combat, the versatility of his abilities made Zhongli Wu value him highly and personally cultivate him into a Titled Douluo.
Mask Douluo casually tossed aside the now-drained skull.
He let out a strange laugh.
"Jie jie jie… the Wang Family really does have quite a few strong ones. Two Soul Douluo, over a dozen Soul Sages.
If I devour all their souls, I'll not only stabilize my foundation—I might even advance toward Rank Ninety-Two."
His eerie laughter echoed through the dark room, chilling to the bone.
He licked the brain matter still clinging to his lips, his eyes flickering with greed.
Through the link with the blue-black maggots in the Tenth Elder's body, he could clearly see and hear everything happening inside the Wang Family's meeting hall.
"Two Soul Douluo, more than ten Soul Sages… tsk tsk, what a feast this will be."
Mask Douluo muttered under his breath. As he grinned, the maggots on his face squirmed along with his laughter, making him look even more revolting and horrifying.
Soon, however, a puzzled look crossed his face.
"Strange… isn't the Patriarch of the Wang Family supposed to be Wang Yan? Why is there a kid sitting in the Patriarch's seat?
Could it be that Wang Yan got old and passed the position to a younger generation?"
Mask Douluo didn't dwell on it. He was supremely confident in his own strength.
Although he had only recently reached the Titled Douluo rank, his martial soul was so bizarre that most Titled Douluo of the same level weren't his match.
Unless the opponent had an exceptionally powerful martial soul—or high-quality soul bones—Mask Douluo was confident he could still retreat unharmed.
If even Titled Douluo of his level didn't scare him, how could a mere Wang Family?
To him, the Wang Family was nothing more than ants. If not for the fact that they were inside Mingdu, he could have crushed them all effortlessly.
Mask Douluo continued listening to the Wang Family's meeting. After a while, the meeting concluded.
Stretching lazily, he muttered,
"What a hassle. The Wang Family really are a bunch of cowards—talking and debating for so long, only to decide to 'investigate carefully.' How boring. In the end, I'll still have to handle it myself."
...............
Time passed quickly—a week went by.
It was a dark, windy night—perfect for killing and arson.
When dark clouds blotted out the moon, a black-robed figure silently appeared within the Wang Family estate.
Under the robe, Mask Douluo's maggot-covered, grotesque face twisted into a disgusting grin.
He had spent an entire week preparing for this operation, and this moment was precisely when the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion patrols were farthest from the Wang estate.
He had two minutes to act—two minutes in which he could guarantee his safe retreat.
If he stayed beyond that, there was a chance he'd be intercepted by the Legion.
But in Mask Douluo's view, killing Wang Yan and Wang Lu—along with a few elders—would take far less than a minute.
After all, he wasn't planning a frontal assault; it would be an assassination.
It might even be possible to kill them all without making any noticeable disturbance.
"Jie jie jie… Wang Family, tonight you'll be erased from history!"