As for filling the qi vortex in his empty aperture, this step called for physical strength, innate talent, and slow, painstaking effort.
The vortex was fragile. One careless move could damage the qi vortex in the empty aperture, so the body needed to be nourished.
But Lu Ding's body was already terrifyingly strong, so his vortex could withstand him pouring spiritual qi into it with broad, sweeping strokes.
And That Which Is Called Forgetting Form once again played a crucial role.
Once Unity of Heaven and Humanity mode took effect,
Lu Ding was like Zhang Fei threading a needle-rough, yet meticulous.
It looked crude, but every step filled it perfectly.
All these conditions combined to produce Lu Ding's terrifying cultivation speed, taking him from the first level of the Illuminating the Jade Pivot Realm to the sixth in a single night.
He only stopped because his meridians could no longer take it. Circulating his qi any further might damage them, since he had broken through too many levels tonight. Otherwise, there was no way he would have left his cultivation state.
His strength had climbed yet again.
Lu Ding stretched, feeling the fresh strength within him.
"I'll let them recover first. Once my meridians have healed, I'll cultivate again."
So Lu Ding said.
Bare-chested, he opened his wardrobe and looked inside. He hadn't brought many clothes to begin with, since his circumstances hadn't allowed it before, and he had dirtied another outfit yesterday.
Bureau 749's uniform wasn't particularly good-looking, either.
Now, aside from his uniform, only one outfit remained in his wardrobe.
Lu Ding took it out and put it on. "Once my jurisdiction's assigned, I'll buy a few more outfits when I head out on patrol."
His words had barely fallen when, speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrived.
His phone vibrated with a message about Lu Ding's jurisdiction assignment.
[Dear trainee investigator Lu Ding, your jurisdiction has been assigned. Please report to the Baofan Local Public Security Administration, Baofan District, Yunhai City, within twelve hours of receiving this notification to complete the handover.]
"Does this mean working with the local public security administration?"
"Makes sense. If I patrolled by myself, there's no way I'd get comprehensive information over such a large area. Only the local public security administration could gather so much information quickly and efficiently."
As half a Yunhai native, with household registration but no house,
Lu Ding had certainly heard the name Baofan District thunder in his ears.
The district lived up to its name: every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, and its prosperity defied description.
It was only slightly behind the highest-ranked central districts.
And that slight gap existed because land in Baofan District was too expensive. Demolition was unaffordable, leaving little room for development. A few decades ago, it had been Yunhai's economic district. Though it no longer enjoyed its former glory, rich people were still a dime a dozen there. Toss a brick at random, and you could hit someone worth tens of millions.
And its population was a mixed bag, too.
Lu Ding hadn't expected to be assigned a jurisdiction like this.
On his phone screen, a message from Yan Feifan followed.
"Brother Lu, are you awake? You looked so tired yesterday that I didn't dare disturb you. I've been assigned a jurisdiction. I bought you some breakfast and will hang it on your door in a bit. Remember to eat it when you wake up. I'm heading to my jurisdiction to take up my post. I probably won't be able to take missions with you for a while."
Lu Ding picked up his cup and took a sip of water.
"I'm awake. Have you had breakfast?"
"You're up so early, Brother Lu! I haven't eaten yet. I'm a little short on time. I figured I should get there early so the colleague taking up the post with me won't find fault with me."
"Eat before you go. That colleague taking up the post with you is me. I won't find fault with you."
Lu Ding smiled as he sent the message. Yan Feifan was still as reliable as ever. That mindset had its good and bad sides, and changing it all at once might be difficult.
He would let things take their course.
"Brother Lu, really!?"
"Would I lie to you?"
Knock, knock, knock...
A knock sounded at the door.
Lu Ding went over and opened it. Yan Feifan stood outside holding breakfast.
"Brother Lu, we actually got assigned to the same jurisdiction! This is great. I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle such a large jurisdiction."
After learning which jurisdiction he had been assigned, Yan Feifan had felt somewhat afraid.
Mainly because he had heard of Baofan District, too. It was prosperous and chaotic, with people from every religion and every walk of life, not to mention a high incidence of special incidents. Assigning someone with his meager abilities to an area like that-wasn't that a joke?
Now that he knew Lu Ding would be with him,
Yan Feifan understood at once. Everything was fine. He would still be handling the odd jobs.
Brother Lu was the main fighting force.
He absolutely loved handling odd jobs.
He put on the shoe covers he had brought and entered.
He took out breakfast and set it out.
Lu Ding accepted a steamed bun and took a bite. "What's there to be afraid of? Baofan District doesn't have a mouth. It can't bite."
"Brother Lu, you might know one side of it but not the other. Baofan District is too chaotic, and its rate of special incidents ranks among Yunhai's top three. It's stayed high all this time. They used to send full investigators there. Tell me, how could a trainee investigator like me not be scared of an assignment like this?"
"And the other patrol officer could very well have been a full investigator I didn't know. I haven't really dealt with full investigators much, have I? The few times I did, they found me annoying. I just... sigh."
"Oh? You know a lot about Baofan District?" Lu Ding looked at him as he drank his congee.
"A little. Baofan District's previous patrol officers were full investigators from our bureau, Cross Sword Bei Heguang and Pill-Transforming Hand Ming Jun. I heard they're both tough characters, and they hadn't been in the posts long. But they made a major mistake while on patrol, causing severe casualties."
"That's probably why they were replaced."
"A major mistake? Tell me more about that. I want to hear it."
Since he was going to take up the post, he needed to get the intelligence straight.
Lu Ding didn't want to go there in ignorance. He had confidence in his strength, but he wasn't a brainless brute.
"This is just what I heard. At the end of last month, the ground collapsed somewhere in Baofan District. Apparently, there was an ancient tomb underneath. Yunhai was the ancient capital of three dynasties. Ancient tombs here are as common as cabbages, nothing unusual at all. But this tomb was a little different."
"There was a White-Haired Hou being raised inside, along with quite a few treasures. When the tomb collapsed, the White-Haired Hou escaped and injured people, so Bei Heguang and Ming Jun went to deal with it as full investigators."
"They severely injured the White-Haired Hou and forced it back into the tomb. Then those two tied it up and went off to look for treasures. That let the White-Haired Hou escape a second time, and it killed quite a few ordinary people. In the end, a local qi refiner faction in Baofan District stepped in and subdued it."
"Then the two sides disagreed over the treasures in the tomb and came to blows. Those two couldn't even beat them."
Hearing this, Lu Ding could only think that those two were far too stupid.
They should at least have killed the White-Haired Hou before looking for treasures.
Having someone else step in was one thing, but when a disagreement arose afterward, the two of them couldn't even win.
Disgraceful.
Truly disgraceful.
But he had a question, too. "When an ancient tomb appears and other qi refiners intervene, doesn't our bureau do anything?"
"Brother Lu, Bureau 749 oversees qi refiners, but qi refiners have existed since ancient times. How many years has Bureau 749 even been around? We can't deprive civilian qi refiners of room to survive just because Bureau 749 was established. Besides, if those treasures fell into ordinary people's hands, they wouldn't be treasures anymore. They'd be disasters."
"What's more, sure, they're treasures, but compared with the treasures in our bureau, whether in quantity or quality, they're just the very tip of a hair on one of nine oxen. Those people helped out, too. This is also how civilian qi refiners survive. It's like when a secret realm appears in a novel. Even a sect or dynasty that dominates everything won't swallow it all alone. That makes management difficult."
That was certainly a novel angle, one Lu Ding had never heard before.
He had entered the field halfway through. He had only been in Bureau 749 for so long; it was normal that he didn't understand these things.