Lu Ding smashed through the last earthen wall blocking his path.
His entire body resembled a flying bear pouncing on its prey.
Facing the old man.
Lu Ding's voice rang out, laden with killing intent.
"Threatening Bureau 749 law enforcement personnel and obstructing law enforcement-your crimes will be punished together. Come on, block this!!"
He slammed out a palm!!
The old man formed a hand seal and circulated his qi, armor formed from gathered rocks and earth fitting itself around him.
He raised his hands to block.
Lu Ding's powerful, crushing strike sent the old man flying outright.
Most of the armor on his body shattered.
Lu Ding landed and turned, his trailing hand sweeping around like a blade, and a perfectly good head shot into the sky.
Ye Xuan could never have imagined it.
Even a Bureau 749 investigator he happened to run into had such terrifying combat strength.
This was nothing like what the old men had told him back on the mountain.
Hadn't they said that, with his age and talent, he already counted as a genius?
How had he lost his life less than a month after coming down the mountain?
His headless body fell to the ground.
Lu Ding straightened and watched the old man he had knocked back with a palm barely steady himself.
Staring at the thoroughly dead Ye Xuan.
The old man's eyes filled with blood. "Little Ye!!!"
At that moment, he had no idea how to face his old brothers on the mountain.
Over a decade ago, the old man had fled Great Black Mountain after making a mistake. Through a chance encounter, he had arrived in Yunhai and joined the Four Seas Group.
He had thought he would never have any hope of returning to Great Black Mountain.
Only when Ye Xuan arrived had the old man understood.
His old brothers on the mountain had been keeping an eye on him all these years.
They had long since let bygones be bygones regarding his past mistakes, and joining the Four Seas Group had also been arranged by those old brothers.
But now, he had failed to protect even his old brothers' sole disciple.
At this very moment, the fury in the old man's heart had reached its peak.
"Lu Ding!!!!!"
"You're utterly vicious!!!! You're unworthy of being a Bureau 749 investigator!!! Today, I'll kill you, rid Bureau 749 of a lurking danger, and avenge Ye Xuan!!!"
"Shut the fuck up with your judgments, you old fossil. As a Bureau 749 investigator, am I someone Ye Xuan could threaten at will? If you've got the ability, come kill me. If you don't, come meet your death!"
Lu Ding shot right back.
It wasn't anyone else's place to judge how he did things. At the very least, Lu Ding had a clear conscience. How many people in Bureau 749 could match his enthusiasm for slaying demons, monsters, ghosts, and fiends?
Unworthy of being a Bureau 749 investigator, his ass!
Ye Xuan had already threatened him outright. Was he supposed to let him leave, make an enemy for himself, and leave behind an uncertain danger that could cause some uncontrollable mishap in the future?
Lu Ding couldn't do something that fucking stupid.
He would only strangle every lurking danger in its cradle.
The old man formed a hand seal and pressed it against the ground.
"Yellow Marsh Boundary!!!"
The solid ground instantly turned into a marsh of yellow mud.
The old man stood upon the marsh.
Their exchange just now had already shown him that beating Lu Ding in strength was practically impossible.
But strength rose from the ground. Surely there had to be somewhere to push off from before that strength could be unleashed?
And Lu Ding was only in the Illuminating the Jade Pivot Realm. By all rights, flying should have been absolutely impossible for him.
He only needed to change the environment and leave Lu Ding nowhere to gain leverage, and he could claim the home-field advantage, using the terrain to suppress him.
Then, with strength a full realm higher, he had the advantage in personnel.
Of favorable timing, advantageous terrain, and harmony among men, he held two of the three.
No matter how terrifying Lu Ding's strength was, he wouldn't be able to unleash even fifty percent of it, while the old man could unleash a hundred and twenty percent of his own.
Under all these conditions, the old man couldn't see how he could lose.
But for all his calculations, he had never imagined that Lu Ding really could fly.
He watched Lu Ding slowly rise and stand in midair.
The old man's expression stiffened somewhat. How could he fly?
He was only in the Illuminating the Jade Pivot Realm. What gave him the right to fly!?
Outside the marsh, Xie Shunan of the Four Seas Group wore a grave expression. She had been the one who called out earlier, asking Lu Ding to spare him.
At that moment, Xie Shunan felt vexed.
How had things developed to this point?
She had originally wanted to invite Lu Ding to a meal today and sound out his attitude, but Lu Ding had declined. Xie Shunan hadn't thought anything of it; it was normal for capable people to have big tempers.
But she had never imagined it.
She had actually seen Lu Ding again in the collapsed area.
And Lu Ding had even come to blows with Ye Xuan. The savage aura spilling out truly alarmed her.
She had also been certain that Ye Xuan was no match for Lu Ding.
But she hadn't expected Lu Ding to kill Ye Xuan outright.
Now Elder Huang had confronted Lu Ding too, looking every bit as though he wouldn't stop until one of them was dead!
As for Ye Xuan's death.
Xie Shunan actually didn't care all that much.
He had never had any friendship with Ye Xuan to begin with. If the elders in her family hadn't spoken, she probably wouldn't have paid Ye Xuan any attention. That bandit air of his made her very uncomfortable.
She always felt as though Ye Xuan were living in an old era of seizing a mountain and declaring himself king.
They weren't the same kind of people.
Later, when Ye Xuan obtained the development rights to this ancient tomb site, Xie Shunan's opinion of him hadn't changed much either.
Taking this place was a curse, not a blessing.
The Four Seas Group wouldn't advance another step just because it gained this little bit of land and the things in it, nor would it fall a step behind without this place.
She had come to keep watch.
Not because Xie Shunan was interested in what lay inside the tomb.
But because if anything appeared, or some treasure emerged, she could make the decision to hand it straight over to Bureau 749 or take charge of the situation.
Some things couldn't be taken lightly.
It was easy to offend people.
But who could have known something like this would happen?
"Elder Huang, please calm down."
Xie Shunan still wanted to advise Elder Huang not to act rashly. Whether he could win or not, neither outcome would be good.
What would beating Lu Ding accomplish?
Kill him? Then be wanted by Bureau 749?
Let him go? Wait for him to succeed in his cultivation and return for revenge?
If he couldn't beat Lu Ding, then judging by the rumors outside and what she had just witnessed, Elder Huang would have only one outcome: death.
So no matter what he did, Elder Huang's outcome wouldn't be good.
And it would also drag the Four Seas Group into cooperating with an investigation.
But the old man wouldn't listen at all.
"Miss Xie, don't try to persuade me anymore. I've failed Great Black Mountain, failed those old brothers of mine. They entrusted Ye Xuan to me, but I failed to watch over him. Every grievance has its source, every debt its debtor. He killed Ye Xuan, so I'll kill him to avenge Ye Xuan. Afterward, I'll turn myself in to Bureau 749!!"
"Kill me?"
Lu Ding's face twisted with mockery at those words. "With what? That grand farmland renovation technique of yours?"
Yan Feifan covered his face, wanting to laugh but not daring to.
At a time like this, Brother Lu, you're still in the mood to joke.
But on closer inspection, there was water and mud, all soft and mushy. It really was farmland.
Lu Ding crooked a finger at the old man. "Come on. Come kill me."
"You're courting death!!!!"
Two mud dragons flew out of the marsh, lunging at Lu Ding from either side with their jaws open.
The old man didn't expect these mud dragons to pose any threat to Lu Ding.
He only hoped they could stall him a little longer, buying enough time to gather his power.
But in the blink of an eye.
Lu Ding's figure vanished from sight.
Wind whistled beside his ear. "What era is this, and you're still winding up to cast?"
At some point, Lu Ding had appeared beside him and raised his leg in midair, whipping a powerful, heavy roundhouse kick straight across with a rush of wind.
Helpless, the old man released his hand seal.
He flattened his hand into a palm and scraped it through the air. Waves surged across the muddy ground, solidifying into a thick earthen wall to block Lu Ding's attack.
Boom!!!
One kick landed.
Shattered stones flew everywhere.
The muddy water beneath the old man's feet solidified into a platform, carrying him backward.
Then the muddy water transformed into a palm that lifted the old man and tossed him into the air. He soared dozens of meters high, forming hand seals as spiritual qi surged within him.
The mud pool churned, waves of foul stench billowing out as its color changed from yellow to black.
"Death Marsh Burial Kill!!!"