First-Year Internship—And You Went to Site 749 to Contain Monsters?!
Chapter 178: We're an Evil Cult, Of Course We Use Dirty Tricks

.....

Even though it all made sense, Qu Ningyan still felt something was off.

As for what exactly was off, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

If Lu Ding could really be taken out this easily, then why hadn’t anyone done it before?

She glanced at the seated Deputy Leader of Tianli Cult.

Well, to be fair, no one at the Earth Observer Realm had ever made a move on Lu Ding before.

And as far as she knew, Lu Ding had never been on the receiving end of a siege.

He was always the one leading 749 to siege others. This time, well, the tables had turned—it was finally his turn.

Tianli Cult’s Guo Wuji just so happened to be in a good mood.

Staring at Qu Ningyan: “You seemed pretty nervous just now? This isn’t our first time meeting, is it?”

Qu Ningyan quickly bowed and replied:

“Lu Ding’s too dominant. There’s a lot of outside pressure. I don’t feel confident facing him. And after this siege, I probably won’t be able to stay with the Qu family anymore, so yeah... I’m nervous.”

Even though Qu Ningyan had joined Tianli Cult,

she was still a member of the Qu family.

She was born and raised there—of course she had feelings for the place.

She had somewhat mentally prepared herself, but the time to leave came way too fast.

She wasn’t fully ready yet.

Goodbyes are always hard.

But she couldn’t blame herself, nor the Qu family, and definitely not Tianli Cult.

So the only one she could blame—was Lu Ding.

If Lu Ding hadn’t come to Yunmeng, she wouldn’t have had to leave the Qu family so soon.

So, all of this was Lu Ding’s fault.

Of course, she could’ve chosen not to take part in the siege.

But just Body Pillar and Flower Pillar alone might not be enough to take Lu Ding down—not a safe bet.

So......

“You don’t have to be too nervous. A lot of things aren’t set in stone. Plans never keep up with changes.”

“If our plan works out and Qiu Si doesn’t respond in time, you can still stay in Yunmeng.”

“If he does react and manages to stop me in time, I’ll hold him off, and the three of you deal with Lu Ding. Even if you leave early, it’s fine.”

“Even in the worst-case scenario, you won’t be in danger. I may not be able to beat Qiu Si head-on, but if I want to retreat, he won’t be able to stop me.”

He said it so casually, with such confidence.

Who knew where that confidence came from.

He made dodging someone stronger sound almost poetic.

Though, on the surface, it sounded flawless,

there was still one little issue.

“Lu Ding has Bai Hemen with him.”

Talk about not treating Xiaobai like a real person—

not even a mention of him.

In response,

Body Pillar sneered a little: “We accounted for that, but Bai Hemen’s lethality isn’t on the same level as Lu Ding. We’re not targeting him this time.”

“So, he’ll be handled by regular Tianli Cult members. Even if they have to die, we brought over a hundred people this time—should be enough to give him hell.”

Can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Killing Lu Ding alone was already troublesome enough.

As for Bai Hemen—let him live. In Body Pillar’s view, that was mercy.

“If I’ve got a free hand after killing Lu Ding, I’ll give Bai Hemen a palm strike as a bonus.”

That line came from Guo Wuji.

Qu Ningyan nodded. If that was the plan, she was reassured.

“Then I’ll go prepare and send Lu Ding a battle invitation? For the location, where do you suggest?”

“Just outside the city, Xiaolin Mountain. Our people will form a ten-kilometer circle around it in ambush.

As for a reason, you can say it’s to protect the reputation of the Qu family and Yunmeng’s young prodigies.”

“So we don’t want outsiders knowing the result of this battle. As compensation, if Lu Ding wins, you can offer him two spiritual treasures. If he’s cautious, he can bring investigators along.”

It was a good cover. Even if it got exposed later and made her look bad—

whatever. Qu Ningyan wouldn’t be in Yunmeng anymore. Her reputation here could fall apart and she wouldn’t care.

Before leaving, she had one last thing to say—

just to cover all bases.

“Deputy Leader, do you think I could pretend to be unaware and stay by his side when the action starts?”

“Wait until he drops his guard, then sneak attack him while he’s distracted fighting you two?”

Guo Wuji gave her a look of approval: “Sure.”

Qu Ningyan exited the room.

Body Pillar snorted coldly after she left: “Shameless!”

“Eh, don’t say that. We’re gonna be colleagues, sharing the same rice pot.”

“Besides, what are we? We’re an evil cult, right? Labeled by 749.

Evil cults using sneak attacks, dirty tricks, and scheming—that’s totally normal.”

“What, you expect an evil cult to fight fair and square? If we were really that good, we’d be the 749.”

Crude words, but not without reason. Still, that was very crude.

Body Pillar didn’t disagree, but the more he listened, the more it irked him.

.....

That night, the battle letter arrived.

Of course, it didn’t go directly to Lu Ding—it was delivered to the 749 combat command center.

Lu Ding was sitting in the room.

A terrain model was placed in front of them.

Qiu Si was speaking and laying out the plan.

“Even though we don’t know what realm of cultivators Tianli Cult will send, based on Lu Ding’s previous performance,”

“I’m certain Tianli Cult won’t be dumb enough to just send one or two Pillars again.”

“Given what we know about them, the first person to attack Lu Ding was Fire Pillar. He was under Guo Wuji’s command.”

“So there’s a high chance Guo Wuji himself will show up.”

As he spoke, Qiu Si reached out and slid his finger through the air over the terrain map.

He marked a 50-kilometer radius.

“If it really is Guo Wuji from Tianli Cult, we’ll designate this 50-kilometer zone as the combat zone.”

“We don’t know exactly how many people will be within that zone, so I’m raising the alert to Level 2 and deploying 1,000 investigators.”

“I’ll personally take the field and lead the operation to lock down the area.”

Since there were so many unknowns in the intel—

they’d fully leverage the home-field advantage: overwhelm with numbers, with power, with gear, and with firepower.

Minimize all possible risks.

Wipe out the evil completely!

Not even the tiniest bit of reckless saving.

If they could use missiles or other heavy stuff, you’d better believe there’d be surprises.

Lu Ding listened to Deputy Director Qiu’s arrangements.

Silently thinking—1,000 investigators……

So... could Tianli Cult even bring 200 people?

Even if they could, that’s five 749 investigators per Tianli Cult cultivator.

This setup…

You’d have to draw lots and rely on luck just to get a kill—

if you were unlucky, you might not even see one.

Solid. This was truly solid.

Home turf advantage in full effect.

When you can crush them with sheer numbers and force, there’s no need to bother with some one-on-one drama.

This isn’t some movie showing off fight scenes.

Just crush them, no-brain style.

Someone raised a concern.

“Deputy Director, if Guo Wuji really comes, won’t it be hard for you to hold him off alone?”

Qiu Si’s face lit up with a mysterious smile. He turned and looked at Lu Ding.

‘Has the old man left yet?’

Lu Ding shook his head: ‘Not so soon. He’ll probably head back once we’re out of Yunmeng.’