Compete, my ass-who would dare fight Lu Ding?

And so.

Lu Ding was reasonably satisfied.

"All right, someone take that one over there to the hospital. The rest of you, clean up the battlefield, cooperate with the cleanup personnel coming later, and maintain order at the scene."

He could not stand staying here for another second.

Too much monster blood and dust from the fighting had stained him.

He reeked, and he could barely stand it. He needed to hurry back to the Public Security Administration Bureau for a shower.

He turned and flew into the darkness high above.

Everyone's astonishment rose another notch.

He could fly!!!?

When they had seen Lu Ding moving while floating earlier, they had assumed it was merely some minor trick of circulating qi and borrowing the wind. Flying had never even crossed their minds.

Floating and flying were not the same thing.

Why were ghosts notoriously troublesome among the broad categories of entities handled by Bureau 749, with practically no one willing to accept containment missions involving them?

Because not only did ghosts have all sorts of bizarre abilities, they could also float naturally. Once they grew powerful enough, they could fly extremely fast.

If they found themselves outmatched, they could run.

They shot straight up like scallions pulled from dry soil and vanished. You could neither hit them nor catch them.

If Qi Refiners could fly too, ghosts would actually pose less of a threat than all those other monsters of every description.

Unfortunately, ordinary people had no access to secret arts that allowed flight, let alone the ability to learn them. Nor did they have the vast reserves of qi needed to sustain flight and remain airborne for long periods.

Thus, the fact that Lu Ding could fly had once again delivered a different kind of shock to them.

When they turned around again, the smoke behind them had dispersed, exposing Fang Du's dead body on the floor.

Although he was already dead.

His rapidly rotting remains still radiated an extremely terrifying aura.

Merely drawing a little closer, they could feel waves of sinister cold rushing at their faces.

"Th-this couldn't be the monster that spread the Yin Domain, could it?"

"Unless something unexpected happened, it should be. Surely there couldn't have been anything even stronger than this thing? Then..."

The speaker faltered, turned his head to look around, and only then continued, "Could Lu Ding have dealt with it?"

After saying that, he felt his words were somewhat inappropriate and hurried to amend them. "I'm not questioning Investigator Lu's strength. What I mean is, if a monster stronger than this had appeared, this residential complex would have been destroyed long ago. How could it have held out until Patrol Officer Lu arrived?"

They chatted on and off.

Soon, the cleanup department arrived, everyone dressed in black and wearing gas masks, carrying bags of every size and fully equipped.

Those taking photographs took photographs; those handling the aftermath handled the aftermath.

Finally, when they emerged from the emergency stairwell and saw the battlefield on the nineteenth floor, all of them felt that even hell on earth could hardly look worse.

Severed limbs, pus-filled blood, and rotting flesh.

Deep marks left by slashes across the walls, floor, and ceiling told them just how terrifying a battle had taken place here.

Had one person really killed all of these...?

Could a trainee investigator really accomplish something like this?

They could not believe it, yet they had no choice but to believe it. Apart from Lu Ding, no other investigator had been here earlier, and there were no traces left by a second person fighting.

Everything told them that Lu Ding had done this alone.

They stepped into Room 1911.

The pus-filled blood and rotting flesh beneath their feet clung to their soles, stretching into strands.

This was also why Lu Ding had chosen to float rather than fight with his feet on the floor.

Looking cool was only part of it. More importantly, it was far too filthy.

One unretouched photograph after another was sent back to Bureau 749, stirring up a tremendous uproar.

Bureau 749 did not conceal its investigators' post-battle cleanup reports. Instead, it posted them for everyone to see.

The purpose was twofold: first, to use the strong to inspire the weak; second, to spread the word and warn petty villains that every generation of Bureau 749 investigators was like dragons, with capable people emerging one after another, so they had better not cause trouble.

But today, as Lu Ding's post-battle cleanup report came out.

The investigators who had joined less than a year ago all asked the same question.

"Are we still going to compete in this year's First-Year Martial Competition?"

"Compete, my fucking ass. Who's going to fight Lu Ding? You, me, or him? I don't know about anyone else, but if I run into Lu Ding, I'm surrendering outright, no questions asked. Hesitating for even a second would disrespect his battle record and his title."

"With that kind of fighting strength, you're still hanging around among trainee investigators? Isn't this bullying? Hurry up and get promoted. We weaklings were having a great time pecking at each other."

"First there was Pagoda of Many Trials Bai Hemian, followed by Warm Immortal Official Wen Ruchu and Jade Guanyin Tantai Xianyue. Those three stood like the legs of a tripod, practically locking down the top three places in this year's First-Year Martial Competition. Now Corpse-Dissecting Taisui Lu Ding has charged onto the scene too. We might not place, but at least we can watch the show."

"Only the top three in the First-Year Martial Competition get to pursue advanced training. Now there are four of them, so one is bound to get squeezed out. Those four will probably beat each other dizzy when the time comes."

A clear, sweet voice came from beside them. "Big brothers, what's the First-Year Martial Competition?"

The chatting men turned to look and saw a girl in a white dress smiling sweetly. Standing beneath the light, she looked like the white moonlight of their youthful hearts.

As for anyone who had never had a white moonlight, congratulations-now he did.

Had Lu Ding been here, he would definitely have recognized her as Ji Yanshuang, the Ji family's second young lady whom he had rescued back then.

As it turned out, after experiencing the incident with Linggu, Ji Yanshuang had unexpectedly awakened her talent as a Qi Refiner. The cleanup personnel had discovered it during an interview, and she had volunteered to join Bureau 749.

Quite a few days had passed since then. She had originally intended to get a leave slip and go home to see her older sister and father.

But just after coming out, she had heard someone discussing Lu Ding.

That was why Ji Yanshuang had approached to ask.

That polite "big brothers" had them scrambling over one another to answer her question:

"The First-Year Martial Competition is a tournament that only investigators who joined less than a year ago can enter."

Someone beside him added, "Investigators who joined within the month before the previous First-Year Martial Competition can enter the next one too, because you can't cultivate much in a month."

A third person spoke up. "There are ten prize-winning places in total. The rewards for fourth through seventh aren't that different, though they're all good things. But the top three are different. They can enter an advanced training site jointly established by Bureau 749 branches across the country."

"The goal is to select promising talents with exceptional gifts and train them to make them stronger."

Ji Yanshuang adopted a thoughtful expression. "Then is the competition really fierce this year?"

"Fierce doesn't even begin to describe it. Let me put it this way: none of those three we just mentioned is a lamp that burns little oil. Jade Guanyin Tantai Xianyue possesses Guanyin's Great Radiant Form and is tremendously powerful. A while ago, she fought a snake spirit in Ninglong City all by herself as it tried to transform into a flood dragon. Their fighting brought down a dam."

"She successfully held out until reinforcements arrived, and only then did the snake spirit flee. That snake spirit was comparable to a Spirit Sea Ninth Level Qi Refiner. Once it successfully transformed into a flood dragon, it would be on par with a Divine Palace realm Qi Refiner."

"If she could hold back a monster like that, wouldn't you say she's strong?"

Ji Yanshuang said, "But didn't Lu Ding kill a veteran Spirit Sea Qi Refiner while he was still at Illuminating the Jade Pivot?"

The man: ...