First-Year Internship—And You Went to Site 749 to Contain Monsters?!

This was Shi Lei’s role—to handle all the high-tier Cultivators of Qi in Daheshan except for Ye Chengfeng.

As for Lu Ding?

He’d been charging up his ultimate move this whole time. Of course he was going to take on the biggest threat.

Clear division of labor—that’s how you stay efficient.

Shi Lei knew it was his moment to redeem himself. If he didn’t prove his worth now, once the report about Qiu Wangshui and Zhou Yun got sent up…

His time as Director would be over.

He couldn’t stop it from happening—after all, personal connections are always murky. He’d signed off on Zhou Yun’s status as an external member, and while that wasn’t a huge mistake…

Still!

He was the Director. Zhou Yun had ties to Daheshan and still got approved as an intern investigator. There was no dodging accountability.He dove down on his bird.

With a raised hand, he unleashed his most powerful offensive technique.

The force of it startled the Cultivators of Qi rushing up from Heishan Village.

“Shi! Have you lost your f***ing mind? Opening with your signature move? Paper Seal, Soul Capture? Even if we had a grudge, no need to go full extermination mode!”

The group joined forces to block it—but still got smashed and stunned within moments.

One of them got hit head-on—flesh turned into white paper, bones into bamboo strips. They instantly lost half a man.

Shi Lei’s face was grim. “Cut the cr*p.”

Starting with a killing move?

That wasn’t normal. But then again, with Lu Ding setting the bar and even more devastating attacks still to come—this barely counted.

“Third Bro, that Shi guy’s snapped—every move’s a killer! No hesitation, all lethal!”

“Definitely lost his mind. Completely unhinged.”

They bickered back and forth, but before the wounded one could say anything more—

Sounds of fighting broke out elsewhere.

Only then did they realize—it wasn’t a personal vendetta.

It was an all-out assault on Heishan Village.

Inside the village—

An old man frantically shoved books and artifacts into a box, then handed it off to a teenage boy, maybe eighteen or nineteen.

“Go! Run! As far as you can. Never come back to Heishan Village. And forget about revenge!!!”

Tears welled in the boy’s eyes.

“Grandpa, I’m not leaving! I’m part of Heishan Village! I’ll live and die with it. No matter what happens, this is my home—I won’t abandon it!”

Ye Chengfeng sighed and patted the boy’s head.

“Grandpa made a mistake. Now it’s time to face the consequences. Remember what I told you—know when to yield. And never be greedy. You can’t have everything.”

He had wanted both the carefree past and the freedom of the present—and that’s what led to this.

The old man turned, opened the door, then looked back once more. “Your brother Ye Xuan is dead. Heishan Village’s hope now rests on you. If you don’t want my death to be in vain, then run!”

“Remember what Granny Blind told you—a glimmer of life in a dead-end!”

And with that, he walked into the darkness without looking back.

The boy dashed after him, leapt onto the rooftop, and saw 749 investigators locked in battle with the village Cultivators of Qi in the distance.

Ye Li clenched his fists.

749!!!

Why? Why wipe us out completely?

Heishan Village just wanted to live like normal people.

Why did it have to come to this?!

Does being labeled a bandit once mean being one forever?

Why won’t they give us freedom?

What Ye Li never thought about was—they had the chance to live a normal life. But they rejected it. Thought the rules and laws of the world below the mountain were too strict.

No freedom.

And now they wanted freedom again—after stirring up trouble?

Like Lu Ding said: “You think you’re worthy?”

The boy turned away, eyes filled with tears, and melted into the shadows, sprinting toward the cliff.

A glimmer of life in a dead-end—was there any place more “dead” on Daheshan than that cliff?

At the village gate—

A voice rode the wind: “Shi Lei! Today I’ll kill you myself!!!”

Lu Ding emerged from the dense forest, finishing the line: “What, just ‘cause you’re old you think you can talk big?”

At the same time, the Slash Attack he’d been charging to its limit exploded from his hand. His body jolted from the recoil. A chilling sense of death clung to everyone present.

The slash tore through the incoming enemy and kept going, barely losing force. Trees, rocks, underbrush—everything in its path got chopped short by half a meter.

It finally cut through the mountaintop itself, fading into the night as boulders tumbled noisily down.

Lu Ding shook out his slightly numb hand, staring at the now-flat mountain ridge, stunned for a moment by the sheer power of the move.

Compared to when he was only at Linghai Realm Fifth Layer, the difference was night and day.

Downside? Charging it too long damaged his meridians a bit. He’d need several minutes to recover.

Then he looked at the old man who got hit.

Blood seeped from his waist, his body twisted, and organs spilled from the clean vertical slice down his torso.

The expressions on the Cultivators of Heishan Village shifted instantly.

Shock turned into terror. Confidence collapsed into stunned silence.

They’d watched him rise. Watched him host banquets. Watched his tower crumble.

Ye Chengfeng’s appearance had been their anchor. As long as he was here, nothing could go wrong.

He had led these survivors of a fallen era through war and chaos. Blade in hand, wine in mouth, meat in bowl, gold in storage.

He led them through the Daheshan purge. Signed a no-descent contract. Returned to the land—farming, living simple lives.

Decades passed in peace.

A gamble for freedom, a move against fate.

And now…

Whether the 749 Bureau discovered the plan, or just came to eliminate them by chance—it didn’t matter.

The legendary Ye Chengfeng, leader of Heishan Village, crushed by some half-grown kid they didn’t even recognize.

Split at the waist, organs spilling out.

A wail of despair echoed—“Big Bro!!!!”

But another slash rose with the wind.

The body on the ground suddenly opened its eyes, rolled aside to dodge.

His fingers twisted into seals, spiritual energy flowing.

The lower half of his body, which had been lying lifeless, began to vanish from the ground—and reappear beneath him as a hazy image, slowly solidifying.

But the hand forming seals…

It started to crack, as if made of dried clay. The color drained rapidly. By the end, it had turned pale like ceramic, cold and lifeless.

Etched with lifelike wrinkles and grooves—was it a clay hand that looked like flesh, or flesh turned into clay?

Lu Ding’s Slash Attack erupted again—this time in a storm of a hundred blades.

He didn’t say a single word.

Ye Chengfeng dodged, but it was clear his speed no longer matched that of a typical Divine Palace Realm cultivator. In the end, his lower half crashed into the Slash Attack and shattered. No blood spilled—only dust and ash scattered into the air.

“How did you know I wasn’t dead?”

He stared fixedly at the youth floating before him and asked.

His voice mingled with the wind.

“You talk too much. Just like your two dead grandsons.”

“You’re Lu Ding!!!”

The moment he heard that, Ye Chengfeng’s aura instantly fell into disarray.

Exactly what Lu Ding wanted. If brute force wasn’t enough to end things in one blow—then it was time to use his head.

As the saying goes: “A young man’s fists are hard to defend, an old man’s staff is harder to block.”

The second half applies just as well to spells.

Compared to his peers, Lu Ding’s edge came from maxed-out techniques and an overwhelmingly vast Linghai.

But against Ye Chengfeng—a century-old bandit elder—that edge didn’t count for much. Sure, Lu Ding might have a slight upper hand in spellcraft, but not by much. The man had age, cultivation, and realm on his side.

Only one thing was lacking: a complete physical body.

And that was Lu Ding’s real advantage—his own body.

The earlier Slash Attacks had confirmed it. The old man’s physique was weak. Likely due to age and decay. Now, with half his body gone and seal-casting becoming awkward—

This was the perfect time for a close-quarters beatdown. No breathing room. Using Living Shedding, Living Corpse to shamelessly stall it out.

Attrition warfare begins!

Spells to hit the body, words to shake the heart.

Slash Attack opened the path. Lu Ding’s body followed up—fists and feet blurring into motion, afterimages overlapping. Each punch landed like a hammer. Elbows cut like blades. He struck with eye jabs and throat grabs, countered with neck locks and knee strikes to the gut.

Backflip into a pounce. Azure Dragon Claw.

What he used was a mishmash of dirty street-fighting killer moves. Every attack was vicious and lethal.

Relying on strength and youth to bully the old, weak, sick, and half-dead.