Shi Yinghe looked at the sky, planted her feet on the ground, and surveyed her surroundings.
Didn't know a thing. She didn't know anything.
Was someone calling her? Nope.
Seeing her act like this, the puppeteer's composure shattered.
"Shi Yinghe, you fraud who stole your reputation, and you call yourself an official investigator of Bureau 749! Spineless, leaving someone to die-fuck your ********..."
As Lu Ding dragged the puppeteer farther and farther away by the leg, Shi Yinghe bent down, picked up the longsword from the ground, and swung it a few times to shake off the dirt clinging to it.
"Tch, backbone? How much is backbone worth? Survive first, then talk to me about backbone. And leaving someone to die? A depraved Heavenly Principle Sect fiend like you calling me a fraud? Pah."
The puppeteer's brain had short-circuited, too. She had already thrown down her sword, begged for mercy, and pretended to surrender, yet he was still talking about backbone. Was there a hole in his head?
She watched the two figures disappear into the dense forest.
Shi Yinghe took out her phone and sent a message to the operation's combat group chat.
"Wasn't this mission just the six of us? Where did this trainee investigator come from? He's ridiculously fierce. Who called in outside help?"
That was what had prompted Wen Yuquan's reaction when he received the message earlier.
In the mountain hollow.
Cold rose of its own accord, yin energy ran rampant, and swarms of venomous insects swept past.
Holding the figure upside down, Lu Ding landed on a treetop and swept his gaze across the valley floor. The place was neither particularly large nor particularly small, and he had already looked over almost all of it.
Apart from the Flying Centipede, he had seen all manner of bizarre venomous insects in every shape imaginable.
"Hey, wake up. Where's the Flying Centipede?"
Lu Ding shook the puppeteer in his hand a few times. Excessive blood loss had left the man drifting toward unconsciousness.
He slowly opened his eyes, his pale lips moving to form words. "In... in the cave."
Lu Ding looked ahead.
At the foot of the rock face at the far end of the valley, behind the trees, there seemed to be a cave just wide enough for one person to pass through.
A foul, rank stench filled it, pungent enough to sting the nose.
The entrance was smooth, too, as though something frequently passed through it on its way in and out.
But Lu Ding was no fool. Was a place like that somewhere he could just walk into?
It was so cramped that if he encountered something troublesome, even escaping would probably be difficult.
"You're not trying to play tricks on me, are you?" He lifted the puppeteer in front of him to question him.
He shook his head slightly. "No, it's really in there. I've told you what you wanted to know. Please let me go. Let... let Bureau 749 put me on trial. I really... really can't take any more. If my wounds aren't treated soon, I'll bleed to death."
Even if he was a qi refiner, he wasn't invincible. Missing an arm and being held upside down this whole time-even Superman couldn't have endured it.
The puppeteer wasn't a fool, either.
With everything he had done, he might still survive if he fell into Bureau 749's hands. He would suffer afterward, but he might also get a chance to atone through meritorious service.
But if he remained in this man's hands...
He probably wouldn't last long enough to see tomorrow's sun.
As the saying went, better a miserable life than a good death.
He hadn't lived enough yet. He didn't want to die.
Lu Ding didn't answer him. He merely looked at the cave entrance, then at the puppeteer in his hand.
Then he lifted the puppeteer, swung him in several large circles, and hurled him toward the cave entrance.
"Survive first. Then we'll talk about handing you over to the bureau for trial."
"Fuck you, you fuck! Not one of you in Bureau 749 is a decent person!!!!"
The puppeteer's body crashed straight into the cave.
Rustling sounds rang out, and the puppeteer's screams kept pouring from inside.
The next moment.
The faint rustling vanished.
A buzzing rose, like a helicopter.
A human-sized black shadow shot out of the cave.
Lu Ding couldn't make it out clearly, but he didn't bother figuring out what it was. He raised his hand and unleashed a slash.
But the thing was simply too fast.
In the blink of an eye, it dodged Lu Ding's attack.
Clinging to a branch, it made crisp crunching sounds in the darkness.
A human-sized dobsonfly was gnawing on the puppeteer's head.
Its armor bristled with spikes, and together with its enormous mouthparts, it could easily snip an ordinary person's body apart in one strike.
This was the Flying Centipede.
Thick armor and powerful attacks weren't its most remarkable features. Its speed was what made it terrifying.
Lu Ding looked at the Flying Centipede clinging to the branch.
Setting aside its cruel, terrifying habits and its identity as a monster, it looked pretty cool!
Especially those huge pincers on its head-even in the night, they gleamed with a faint luster.
If he could take this thing to an insect-fighting contest...
Who could beat it?
There wouldn't even be any need for a contest. Even all the other contestants together probably wouldn't fill its stomach.
Unfortunately, it was a monster.
And it had appeared before Lu Ding, so its end had to be death!
Man and monster faced off.
Lu Ding struck first. Slashes erupted, engulfing the entire area within ten meters of the Flying Centipede.
Since it was fast, he would simply carpet-bomb it to death!!!
Rocks and trees alike turned to powder.
The Flying Centipede beat its wings amid the slashes, constantly dodging Lu Ding's attacks with extreme speed and tricky angles.
This played right into Lu Ding's hands.
He pressed down, planting his feet against the tree trunk.
Under his force, the trunk gradually bent into an arc like a bow.
When Lu Ding released it, the straightening trunk instantly catapulted him forward.
He shot out like an arrow loosed from its string.
He raised his hand and struck the Flying Centipede with a palm carrying ten thousand jin of tremendous force.
"Got you."
Slashes erupted from his palm. One, ten, a hundred...
The clang of blades striking metal rang out incessantly.
The Flying Centipede's hard armor shattered instantly. Slash after slash struck the tender flesh beneath the broken armor, and a piercing, shrill insect cry rang out.
The human-sized Flying Centipede was dismembered in midair.
By the time Lu Ding landed and stood still, his hand was coated in slime from the Flying Centipede's flesh and blood, and he held a pale green bead the size of a walnut.
This was the Flying Centipede's inner core.
It was also the primary raw material for refining a Wind-Calming Pearl.
A mechanical voice sounded beside his ear.
[Monster contained: Flying Centipede] [Reward obtained: Wind-Calming Technique] [Wind-Calming Technique: Can still howling gales and roiling seas of clouds, and can also ride the wind in flight, roaming the Five Great Mountains, mountains, and rivers]
Wind-Calming Technique?
Lu Ding looked at the Flying Centipede's inner core in his hand.
Did that mean the Wind-Calming Pearl I'd gone through a thousand hardships to find was useless now?
How could a magical artifact compare to a spell? Especially a spell he had obtained from his golden finger-it came maxed out.
Great power, little expenditure, and no exceptional circumstances.
There was no question of it breaking, either. It was exceptionally reliable.
His feet slowly rose off the ground.
Delight surged in Lu Ding's heart.
Who could possibly resist the temptation of flight?
Soaring through the heavens and burrowing through the earth-this was an aspiration carved into the bones.
Lu Ding had been somewhat dissatisfied with his speed, but obtaining the Wind-Calming Technique had filled his one remaining weakness.
Ranged attacks, close combat, strength, speed-developed in every direction, a hexagonal warrior!
Even Lu Ding himself no longer knew just how strong he was.