First-Year Internship—And You Went to Site 749 to Contain Monsters?!
Chapter 24: Breaking Through Five Realms in One Night, Lightning-Speed Progress

…

Meanwhile, Wen Yuquan and Yin Feng’s battle was still ongoing.

Lu Ding shook off the corpse hanging from his arm and lunged into the crowd.

Like a starving beast that had hibernated all winter, pouncing into a flock of sheep, blood and flesh flew in all directions. None of the Tianli Cult cultists who died at his hands had an intact corpse.

Nearby cleanup crews moved in, but when they saw the highway battlefield that looked straight out of hell, their faces paled.

They’d witnessed many brutal scenes before, but those were usually the work of cultists or ruthless supernatural creatures.

No one in 749 Bureau fought with this level of sheer brutality.

Standing at the edge of the highway, they observed Lu Ding.

A black cigarette, now stained red with blood, was held between his fingers as he brought it to his lips.

Yin Feng cocked his head at him and smirked. “At first, I thought you were just a little cocky—an intern investigator acting all high and mighty. But after seeing this, I take it back. You were actually pretty polite when we first met.”

Lu Ding choked on his smoke and rolled his eyes. “If you don’t know how to hold a conversation, just shut up.”

“Hahahaha! Come on, that was a compliment! No joke, I’m calling you next time there’s a good mission. Your combat skills are no joke. Even Yuan Baifeng got taken out by you. After tonight, your name’s gonna spread all over Yunhai. I wonder what nickname people will give you.”

“I just hope it’s something cool—elegant, you know?”

Yin Feng looked him up and down.

His clothes were drenched in blood.

“What part of this looks elegant? You’re basically a walking embodiment of violence. If it weren’t for your face, no one would even think of adding ‘aesthetic’ to the mix.”

Wen Yuquan walked over at that moment. “If Lu Ding weren’t part of 749 Bureau, he’d be our most wanted criminal.”

At that, he and Yin Feng exchanged glances and burst into laughter.

Lu Ding remained speechless.

“Hey, Lu Ding, take off your shirt. Isn’t it uncomfortable being covered in blood?”

Shi Yinghe’s eyes practically sparkled as she spoke.

Lu Ding figured she had a point. Without hesitation, he stripped off his blood-soaked shirt, revealing his chiseled muscles.

With his short, neatly-trimmed hair and sharp features, he was, without a doubt, a heartbreaker.

Shi Yinghe stared, completely mesmerized.

“Shi Yinghe, you’re drooling!!”

Yin Feng exaggerated his words, making her instinctively wipe her chin. When she realized nothing was there, her face turned red, and she yelled furiously.

“D*** you, Yin Feng! I’m gonna kill you!”

—

Many people had witnessed what happened on the highway, and some even recorded videos that made their way online.

But those videos disappeared almost instantly before they could spread widely.

While ordinary people remained unaware of the incident, the cultivator circles in Yunhai were in an uproar.

Lu Ding had officially made a name for himself.

His ruthless methods, the blood-drenched battlefield, and all the carnage combined to earn him a chilling new title—"Corpse-Shattering Taishui."

None of his victims had an intact body.

A fitting name.

He had made his mark by stepping over Yuan Baifeng’s corpse.

—

Back at 749 Bureau, everyone involved in the incident was summoned for questioning.

The scale of destruction had been too great.

Too many ordinary people had been present on that highway.

In the interrogation room, a man and a woman sat across from Lu Ding.

“So, you really killed Ling Gu just because she threatened you?”

“Not entirely. Mainly, she was using dark arts to harm people. As a 749 investigator, it’s my duty to apprehend or eliminate such threats.”

Lu Ding’s response was watertight.

The two interviewers didn’t press further. Closing their notebooks, one of them said, “Here’s the situation, Lu Ding. This incident caused quite a stir, so we want you to take a break for now—stay off missions for a while to avoid public exposure.”

“What if I want to keep taking missions?”

With his golden finger ability, being told to stop hunting monsters was worse than a death sentence.

The two exchanged glances, surprised by his reaction.

But this mindset—this drive—was exactly what 749 Bureau needed in an investigator.

It wasn’t that investigators who completed just one mission a month were bad.

It was just that investigators who completed multiple missions a month and still wanted more were better.

“How about this? We’ll assign you to district patrol duty. You’ll be given a designated area to oversee, and you’ll have full authority over any incidents that arise there. Treat it as a mission.”

“If any supernatural event occurs within your jurisdiction, and you handle it, each case will count as a completed mission. How does that sound?”

District patrol?

Lu Ding recalled that Zhou Jie and Long Shanshan had been doing that job before.

“Will there be monsters or paranormal events in my patrol area?”

He didn’t mind patrolling, but his main concern was whether there would be monsters to hunt.

The two officials’ expressions softened, and they smiled.

“There have been a lot of incidents in Yunhai lately. If you want, we can assign you a high-risk district.”

“Deal. Give me an area with frequent supernatural activity.”

“Patrols require two people. Normally, we’d randomly assign a partner, but since your combat ability far exceeds that of a typical intern investigator, we’ll let you choose. Do you have anyone in mind, or would you prefer us to assign someone?”

“Yan Feifan. I’m used to working with him.”

Rather than breaking in a new partner, Lu Ding preferred someone familiar.

What if they assigned him a weirdo with a messed-up thought process?

“Got it. We’ll make arrangements immediately. You should receive your patrol district details by tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

After the questioning ended, Lu Ding finally had a moment to breathe.

Two days without proper rest, covered in blood—he was exhausted.

He returned to his dorm, took a long, hot shower, and sent a message to Wen Yuquan, asking him to check on selling the Wind-Fixing Pearl.

Then, he collapsed into bed and fell into a deep sleep.

—

He woke up that evening and resumed his daily routine: eating, sleeping, and cultivating.

Currently, he was at Zhaoxuan Realm, First Layer, having activated one-tenth of his Qi Cyclones.

Sitting cross-legged on his bed, he activated the Flying Bear Slaughtering Art, absorbing the ambient spiritual energy and refining it into his Ling Qi. He then used this energy to fill his Qi Cyclones, allowing them to function autonomously.

One after another, the cyclones filled up.

His cultivation advanced naturally.

9:31:58 PM—Zhaoxuan Realm, Second Layer.

11:46:21 PM—Zhaoxuan Realm, Third Layer.

3:01:13 AM—Zhaoxuan Realm, Fourth Layer.

7:30 AM—Zhaoxuan Realm, Fifth Layer.

Feeling the slight pain coursing through his meridians, Lu Ding finally stopped.

Zhaoxuan Realm primarily focused on absorbing spiritual energy, converting it into Ling Qi, nourishing the body, and filling Qi Cyclones to self-operate.

But compared to other cultivators at this level, Lu Ding’s physical body was leagues ahead—even stronger than many Linghai Realm cultivators.

Only those with top-tier talent who specialized in body refinement could compete with him.

So, he could skip the body-nourishing step entirely.

As for absorbing spiritual energy?

Others sipped it through a straw.

Lu Ding?

He had a high-powered pump.