After putting away the Flying Centipede's inner core, he took out his phone. Yan Feifan had sent several messages.
[Brother Lu, we've stumbled into an official investigator's mission.]
[Brother Lu, where are you? Stop killing, stop killing! These are all part of their mission.]
The latest one had just arrived.
[Brother Lu, we're outside the valley now. Are you inside? Those three Bureau 749 investigators you met along the way said they wanted to go in and find you.]
Lu Ding sent a reply.
[Don't come in. I'll be right out.]
[Brother Lu, did you find the Flying Centipede? Sister Shi said you went in to look for it?]
[Already killed it. By the way, who's Sister Shi?]
[The female investigator you just saved.]
Outside, Yan Feifan held up his phone to show Wen Yuquan and the other two the chat.
"The inner core's probably with Brother Lu. No need for us to go in. He'll be out soon, so we can just wait."
The three exchanged glances, each looking thoughtful.
Shi Yinghe spoke first. "I heard that puppeteer say they were raising the Flying Centipede to use its inner core to refine a Wind-Calming Pearl, then work with a treasure seeker to catch lingzhi people and lingzhi horses on Headwind Mountain."
"Our mission's finished now, and we've cleared up what happened in Baiyao Ancient Town. Xue Ning, Meng Huaizhou, and You Yuan just said in the group chat that they'd finished things on their end too. They also rescued a badly injured law enforcement officer and are taking him to a major hospital in the city for emergency treatment, so they won't meet up with us for now. We'll see them back at the bureau. They were just asking about the Flying Centipede and our outside help."
"Now Lu Ding's killed the Flying Centipede, and the inner core's probably with him too. How... are we supposed to write this report?"
The three felt rather helpless. This report really would be difficult to write.
Swinging his meteor hammer beside them, Yin Feng suddenly said, "Why don't we just leave out the Wind-Calming Pearl? Lu Ding secured it, after all. Our mission was only to investigate and arrest the Heavenly Principle Sect fiends in Baiyao Ancient Town. Our arrest targets might all be dead, but they've still got survivors on their end."
"Leaving it out saves us trouble anyway. The inner core wasn't part of the mission, so we don't need to hand it in. Whoever gets it keeps it. Haven't those always been the bureau's rules?"
"I'm fine with that, but Xue Ning and the others contributed to this mission too. By the rules, they should have a share of the inner core. Now Lu Ding has it, and he killed the Flying Centipede too. What do we say when those three ask?"
Shi Yinghe raised another problem.
Having witnessed Lu Ding's methods, they had no designs whatsoever on the Flying Centipede's inner core.
Whoever killed it owned it.
The thing might be a treasure, but there was no need to argue with Lu Ding over it.
Wouldn't that be asking for suffering?
But Xue Ning and the other two didn't know that.
The six of them had originally agreed to split this mission's contribution points equally, along with any spoils they obtained along the way.
After all, none of them had the ability to handle all the Heavenly Principle Sect fiends alone.
Who could have known Lu Ding would pop up halfway through?
Now everyone knew about the Flying Centipede, and they couldn't hide the inner core either. When asked about the spoils, could they really just say they didn't know?
"Just tell Lu Ding about the problem. I don't really mind either way. I wasn't the one who killed the Flying Centipede, so I can go without it. We'll just have to see what he thinks about Xue Ning and the others."
Wen Yuquan offered his solution.
"That doesn't seem very decent of us."
Yin Feng's words left Wen Yuquan a little red-faced, and he simply gave up trying.
"This won't do, that won't do. I'm done. I don't know, I don't want it, and it's not something I should be getting anyway. As far as I'm concerned, the Flying Centipede's inner core belongs to Lu Ding. He killed it. You can do whatever you want, and so can Xue Ning and the others. It's got nothing to do with me."
"If they have a problem with it, they can go fight Lu Ding. That's part of the rules too. When reason gets nowhere, the bigger fist is the only solid argument."
"I agree. If anyone has a problem with it, they can come fight me."
Lu Ding spoke as he leaped out of the woods.
He landed steadily before the four of them.
On his way back, he had thought it through. Keeping this thing for himself would be like keeping chicken ribs-little meat to eat, yet a pity to throw away. He already had the Wind-Calming Technique. What did he need a Wind-Calming Pearl for?
But making him take something back out once it was in his bag was impossible.
He was still short of money, so he might as well sell the Wind-Calming Pearl. Yan Feifan's car had been wrecked so badly that Lu Ding felt he ought to pay for the repairs, both as a matter of sentiment and of reason.
Otherwise, he couldn't really justify it. Wouldn't that be bullying an honest man?
He couldn't do something like that.
"Brother Lu!!!"
Yan Feifan called out.
Lu Ding nodded. Just look at that attitude. How could he not get the car repaired?
It was only because Lu Ding had no money. Otherwise, he would have bought him a new one as compensation.
The whole car was covered in blood, and a Heavenly Principle Sect fiend's corpse was still lying inside. Talk about bad luck.
"Lu Ding, let me introduce myself. I'm Wen Yuquan, an official investigator with Bureau 749."
"Hello, Lu Ding. I'm Yin Feng."
"I'm Shi Yinghe..."
The three introduced themselves to Lu Ding in turn.
He didn't put on airs either, and soon he was chatting warmly with the three of them.
"Lu Ding, regarding the Flying Centipede's inner core, the others should be easy enough to deal with. There's only one person you need to watch out for."
Lu Ding looked at Wen Yuquan and asked, "Who?"
"Xue Ning. He's known as the Little Conqueror, and he's quite different from the rest of us. He was born into a family of qi refiners and began internal cultivation and external training at eight. His mastery of the Xue Family Conqueror Spear is nothing short of divine. In terms of combat strength, you could call him the strongest among us."
"He joined Bureau 749 toward the end of the second half of last year. He's done over twenty missions without a single failure."
"And he has an eccentric, unruly temperament. He can go without this Wind-Calming Pearl, but he'll definitely come fight for his pride. Even if he wins, he'll still give you the Wind-Calming Pearl."
This fellow was rather interesting. He didn't want the thing, just the face.
But Lu Ding certainly wasn't going to give him that face, much less the thing itself.
When the time came, they could only let their skills reveal the truth.
Lu Ding had never met anyone born into a family of qi refiners before. He wanted to see what was different about them too.
Meanwhile, in Jing City, one of Yunhai's prefecture-level cities.
The Dragon Soaring Building was the Dragon Soaring Group's landmark structure. At its summit, a dragon-shaped structure roared toward the heavens.
This was a branch of the Heavenly Principle Sect.
The Heavenly Principle Sect fiends in Baiyao Ancient Town had come from here.
The spacious office was exquisitely decorated.
A one-eyed man in a black suit stood before the window, swirling the wine in his glass.
"President Liu, the operation in Baiyao Ancient Town has been exposed. Bureau 749 stepped in. Our people are dead or wounded, and even the Flying Centipede's inner core has fallen into those Bureau 749 investigators' hands."
The man gradually slowed the swirling of his wineglass.
His hoarse voice rang out. "Flying Centipedes are easy to raise, but you can hardly find one in a hundred capable of producing an inner core that can be refined into a Wind-Calming Pearl. The right timing, the right terrain, and the right people are all indispensable. This year, the output of our taisui mine hasn't increased. It's actually fallen."
"Those lingzhi people and lingzhi horses are the key to our apology gifts. Without the Wind-Calming Pearl, we can't get up Headwind Mountain. If we can't catch them, I won't be the only one to suffer. Everyone in our branch will be punished."
"Send people to seize it! Before they get back to Bureau 749, get that Flying Centipede's inner core back for me!!!!"