The headlights shone straight at Linggu, dazzling her into instinctively raising a hand to shield her eyes.
She had never imagined that someone would travel so far over an offhand threat just to run her the hell over.
Ma Qi, however, reacted.
"Linggu!!"
With a shout, he lunged sideways, pushing Linggu clear with precisely applied force. The front of the vehicle that should have struck her slammed into his stomach instead.
Because of his towering build, he instinctively shifted upward to dissipate the impact.
The instant the jeep hit him, Ma Qi plunged headfirst through its windshield.
He looked up to see a strikingly handsome young man, fury blazing unchecked in his eyes.
"You like taking disasters for other people, huh?!"
Lu Ding was seething. That collision should have killed or gravely injured the woman, but this burly bald man had butted in and kept him from hitting her.
That immediately displeased Lu Ding.
He reached out, clamped a hand around Ma Qi's bald head, and dragged him through the shattered windshield into the vehicle.
His fists rained down, each blow carrying ten thousand jin of force, beating the Pagoda-Bearing Arhat until he could not fight back at all.
The hard qigong that had always served him so well was like paper now.
It could not stop Lu Ding's fists, which carried tens of thousands of jin of tremendous force.
Even taking Wen Yuquan's blade had not hurt this much.
With every punch, Ma Qi felt his organs and bones shattering and shifting out of place.
Blood mixed with fragments of his organs kept spraying from his mouth.
He struggled constantly, but to no avail, as though a mountain were pinning him down.
In the driver's seat, Yan Feifan threw caution to the winds. Whoever this man was, if Lu Ding attacked, so would he.
From somewhere, he produced a short blade and hacked, chopped, and stabbed at the lower half of Ma Qi's body facing him.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Linggu, who had been pushed away, still had not figured out what was happening. She was just about to return to rescue Ma Qi from the vehicle.
Then she heard Ma Qi's agonized shout from inside: "Go!! Linggu, run!! It's an ambush!!! Aah!!!!"
On top of that, Wen Yuquan and Yin Feng were already catching up from behind.
Her eyes bloodshot, Linggu could only retreat with hatred in her heart.
By the time Wen Yuquan and Yin Feng arrived, the jeep had stopped rocking.
They looked at the glass scattered across the ground and the blood that had sprayed out of the jeep.
The two exchanged a glance.
Both saw confusion in the other's eyes.
None of their colleagues should have been coming here to support them. There was no way they could have finished arresting the other Heavenly Principle Sect members so quickly.
What was going on?
Yin Feng tilted his head, trying to look inside.
But he had only taken one step forward.
The doors on both sides of the jeep opened simultaneously.
Covered in blood, Lu Ding and Yan Feifan climbed out on either side at the same time.
"Ptooey. Tough hide, stubborn life. So fucking hard to kill. Even got blood in my mouth."
As he spoke, Yan Feifan shook the short blade in his hand, its edge already rolled.
Getting out on the other side, Lu Ding casually discarded Ma Qi's arm, which he had torn off during the fight inside the vehicle, and sniffed the woman's scent in the air to determine which way she had fled.
"Brother..."
Yan Feifan had just been about to call out to Brother Lu.
Then he saw two men standing in front of the jeep, their faces filled with shock.
His gaze swept over the weapons in their hands before finally settling on the stars on their shoulders.
Yan Feifan instantly stood straight. "Greetings, senior investigators!"
Lu Ding had noticed the two long ago. He simply could not be bothered with them. They were on the same side, and from the looks of things, they had been chasing that woman too.
As for greeting them?
Only Yan Feifan would do that.
Although he was a trainee investigator, he enjoyed the same priority as a full investigator.
By that reckoning, they were peers.
"All right. Yan Feifan, see if your jeep still runs. I'll go after that woman first. Watch yourself. I'll call you in a bit."
After determining the direction, Lu Ding leaped onto a rooftop and chased after Linggu.
"Brother Lu! Brother Lu, wait for me!"
"Don't go. Wait a moment."
Coming to his senses, Yin Feng called out to Yan Feifan, who was about to run off.
This was ridiculous!
Not only had two trainee investigators run over Ma Qi, the Pagoda-Bearing Arhat, but they had also pinned him inside the vehicle and killed him.
They had even torn his arm off.
Why was Ma Qi called the Pagoda-Bearing Arhat? Because he was tall and burly, practiced hard qigong, and had a background as a lay Buddhist disciple.
That was why he was called the Pagoda-Bearing Arhat.
His body had been tempered until even bullets could not penetrate it, yet someone had actually torn his arm off?
Absurd. Absolutely absurd.
Wen Yuquan's slash had only broken his skin earlier.
These were trainee investigators?!!!
You've got to be kidding me.
What on earth happened back at the base? We've only been gone half a month. How did you all secretly evolve without those of us out on missions?!
Yan Feifan smiled. "What is it, senior?"
Yin Feng considered for a moment. "Hmm... what's your cultivation level?"
"Aperture Opening!"
"What's his cultivation level?"
Yin Feng pointed in the direction Lu Ding had gone.
Yan Feifan was a little crafty with his answer. "Brother Lu has taken an Aperture Opening Pill. He's at least at Illuminating the Jade Pivot."
"A perfect assessment scorer?!"
Yin Feng cried out in surprise, but that still did not add up. Even among the perfect assessment scorers, he had never heard of anyone like this. The only possibility was this month's assessment, whose results he knew nothing about because he had not returned yet. If this young man was from this month's batch, he had possessed such combat power right after his assessment.
Wasn't that far too absurd?
What does that make the rest of us?
After all that cultivation, did it all go to the dogs?
"Then he..."
Seeing that Yin Feng seemed intent on asking endless questions, Yan Feifan grew anxious.
"Please stop asking. Are you trying to catch that woman who ran away?"
Yin Feng gave an "Ah."
"Then that's right. Brother Lu came to settle things with her too. If we don't go after them now, you'll be carrying her body parts back to report your mission completed."
"What do you mean?" Wen Yuquan asked.
Yan Feifan's answer was startling. "She threatened Brother Lu. He'll probably tear her apart."
At that, the two leaped onto the rooftops, with Yan Feifan close behind.
Ahead, in the woods outside Baiyao Ancient Town.
Linggu fled, her expression terrified, as the presence behind her drew closer and closer.
She simply could not understand where this man had come from. He looked somewhat familiar, but after running through all of Bureau 749's famous investigators in her mind, she could not match him to a single one.
Could he be someone outside Bureau 749?
Do I have a grudge with him?
At that thought, Linggu turned her head and shouted, "Young brother, is there some misunderstanding between us?"
Only then did she discover that Lu Ding, who had been pursuing her relentlessly moments earlier, was no longer behind her.
Suddenly, wind whistled beside her ear. Linggu raised her arm to block, but the moment the force struck, she felt as though she had been hit by a truck.
The terrifying force sent Linggu flying, slamming her heavily against a large tree. Blood gushed from her mouth.
Her arm had been battered into a twisted braid.
A dull pain spread through all her internal organs.
Lu Ding landed in front of her and half crouched, a smile on his lips.
"A misunderstanding? There's no misunderstanding between us. You really are a grand person with a short memory. You threatened me just today, and you've already forgotten? Didn't you say you'd remember my aura? How come you can't sense it with me right in front of you?"
At that moment, Linggu's eyes widened.
"You're the one who broke my spell!"
As she spoke, Linggu hooked two fingers straight toward Lu Ding's eyes. But before they could reach him, she felt a breeze pass, and her arm instantly burst into tiny chunks of flesh that scattered across the ground.
The woman's screams rang through the woods.
"You made me come such a long way. I thought you'd be some spirit beast or evil entity, but you're just a person. You got my hopes up for nothing. Tell me, should I tear you apart, or flay you?"