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

The attack arrived first, the flying boat came later. Thousands of demons formed an army, the flag of Lü Mountain fluttered in the wind.

Demonic energy blanketed heaven and earth, rolling like a flood.

The flying boat that crushed the sun, moon, and stars stood supreme through the ages.

Lu Ding and Mottian both looked up at the same time.

In that moment, the same thought arose in their minds, completely unbidden.

Reinforcements had arrived.

Lu Ding knew they were here to help him.

Mottian thought they had come to pick him up.

Then, over a thousand figures aboard the flying boat descended in unison.They surrounded the remaining God Ascension cultivators.

The Black-Robed Elder with the crooked mouth spread his arms wide.

Black miasma spewed forth.

This was the secret art of Demon Continent Lü Mountain—True God Demon Refining Body!!!

His broad, special black Taoist robes were faintly stretched by bulging muscles.

The moment he landed, he didn’t waste a single word.

He raised his fist and smashed it toward the Divine Sword Holy Land God Ascension: “VILE WRETCH!!!!!”

One punch shattered both sword and man into pieces.

He turned and threw another fist into the Profound Nether Cult God Ascension’s face: “HERETIC!!!!”

BANG!!!!

One punch blew the head apart. The terrifying force within crushed the headless body, killing him instantly, dead beyond dead.

Every single strike from the Black-Robed Elder was fueled by fury. Each punch connected with flesh and bone, and in that moment, he was the very momentum of heaven and earth!!!!

Lu Ding watched this.

Holy shit!!!

He hugged the White Ink Mine and tossed it directly toward the nearby mountain ridge.

He deactivated his [Dharma Form] state, grabbed his blade, and charged forward.

Now that the balance of power had shifted, he had to put on some airs.

“Chasing me down, huh? Go to hell!!!!”

Mottian, also brimming with excitement, ran toward the Lü Mountain crowd alongside him.

But unlike Lu Ding, Mottian spotted a familiar figure among them, someone who had helped him before.

He dropped straight to both knees.

“Thank you, Celestial Master Zhu, for saving me. Mottian is ashamed. I have failed to live up to your high expectations.”

The middle-aged man in black robes, referred to as Celestial Master Zhu, had a slightly crooked mouth: “You little ghost, you actually recognize me!?”

He gave Mottian a thorough once-over: “Isn’t this my Lü Mountain Demon Devouring True Art? How do you know it?! And you’ve twisted it into such a degenerate branch path!”

Mottian’s expression froze: “Celestial... Celestial Master Zhu, you don’t remember me? Over four hundred years ago, you saved me in Demon Continent’s Demon-Sealing Prefecture. You said my bone structure was extraordinary. The Demon Devouring True Art—you gave it to me.”

Celestial Master Zhu looked confused: “Is that so?”

He raised his hand, opened the crown of his own skull, and flipped through his own brain matter like turning the pages of a book.

“Oh, oh, oh, I remember now.”

The next second.

Celestial Master Zhu’s face changed instantly: “You’re a vile wretch too!!!”

“I gave you the Demon Devouring True Art so you could survive and establish yourself in this chaotic world, to benefit the whole Demon Continent. But you turned it into a method of cannibalism! No wonder I have such exceptional talent yet struggle on the path of cultivation—it’s because of this twisted fate you caused, adding vile karma to my name!!!”

“Today, I will surely cripple your cultivation!!!!”

Nearby, Lu Ding was swinging his blade, while the Black-Robed Elder, with a crooked smile, was clapping on the side.

Suddenly.

Lu Ding’s peripheral vision caught the scene.

Damn it!!!

With a [Celestial Shift], he flashed over, grabbed Mottian, and rolled to dodge Celestial Master Zhu’s palm strike.

“Senior, stay calm! Let’s talk this out!”

Celestial Master Zhu saw it was Lu Ding and immediately changed his expression, breaking into a smile: “Lu Ding, be good and step aside. Don’t get tangled up with this bad kid. He’s disgraceful and harms human lives. I can’t keep him. The proper demon-devouring technique was corrupted into a cannibalistic one—it shames my Lü Mountain’s reputation.”

The Black-Robed Elder walked over.

“Hmm!?”

Celestial Master Zhu quickly stepped back half a pace and bowed: “Master.”

The Black-Robed Elder spoke in a tone so gentle it was almost sweet: “Lu Ding, is there something you want to say?”

Lu Ding looked at Mottian, who wore an expression of utter resignation, as if accepting his fate.

He sighed.

“Do you have anything you want to say?”

Mottian knelt again, knocking his head heavily against the ground before Celestial Master Zhu: “Celestial Master Zhu, I’m sorry. You saved my life and taught me the way, yet I’ve made you bear this karmic burden.”

“My life and my skills—you saved them, you taught them. Now that you want them back, Mottian will not resist.”

Lu Ding was about to speak.

Mottian cut him off: “Lu Ding, don’t say anymore!”

“My mind is made up!”

“Different paths cannot lead to the same goal. You are human, I am a ghost. You enforce the law for humanity, I act for my own whims.”

“I, Mottian, have drifted through life, adrift in the mortal world. My greatest wish in this life was to have a friend I could truly talk to, and to join Lü Mountain—even if it was an impossible dream.”

“But as a malevolent ghost, I can no longer join Lü Mountain. Still, I found you—a friend I could talk to.”

“I don’t want to put you in a difficult position, nor do I want my existence to bring undeserved disaster to a good man like Celestial Master Zhu, forcing him to bear my karma.”

“My life should have ended long ago—on the Demon Continent, that winter, in Old Tang’s arms. Every day I’ve lived since then is a bonus.”

“I wanted to fight because I didn’t want to die—didn’t want to be buried at the hands of the Miaodao Sect. I’m not fighting now because my fate has run its course. Being able to repay Celestial Master Zhu is my honor. If possible, I hope you’ll send me off after he cripples my cultivation. Don’t use your Slash Attack—it looks painful.”

“Afterward, set up a cenotaph for me on Lü Mountain, as if I once saw its scenery too.”

Mottian straightened his back, facing everyone with open honesty.

He didn’t think he had done evil, nor did he believe cannibalism was wrong.

So there was no talk of repentance.

Lu Ding nodded.

He adjusted his bodycam to the best angle.

Aimed it at Mottian.

Then Lu Ding stepped back half a pace.

Celestial Master Zhu, without any warning, raised his hand and struck Mottian with a palm.

Mottian’s body disintegrated inch by inch, revealing his true form. Ghostly energy burst forth and scattered, along with his cultivation, dispersing into the world.

Mottian endured the agony.

He didn’t utter a single sound.

Until the dissolution was complete.

Mottian collapsed weakly to the ground, his body gradually turning transparent. The ghost clouds that filled the sky dissolved inch by inch, the ghost realm crumbled piece by piece, and countless malevolent ghosts he had transformed dissipated into ash along with the loss of his cultivation.

He struggled to speak, his voice barely a whisper: “Lu Ding... send... send me off.”

Lu Ding remained silent.

He raised his hand, formed hand seals, and let his Spiritual Energy overflow, enveloping Mottian, nurturing a flower bud. In a blur, Mottian returned to the town where he had met Old Tang.

He saw the life he could have had.

Old Tang hadn’t died.

That winter, they had made it through safely.

Mottian’s technique had successfully transformed. With his rapidly growing cultivation, he became like the protagonist of those novels—climbing mountains, digging up rare natural treasures, slaying goblins and demons, trading for wealth and resources, and giving Old Tang a good life.

He made the ordinary mongrel dog, Little Rascal, undergo a bloodline transformation, turning into a spirit creature that grew alongside Mottian.

When the town’s shallow pond could no longer contain Mottian, a true dragon, he said goodbye to Old Tang, now a wealthy man, and resolutely set off on an adventure with Little Rascal. He grew along the way, faced life-and-death crises, made friends, and by some twist of fate, arrived in the Great Han.

He passed the political vetting.

He became an auxiliary investigator and grew alongside Lu Ding.

Mottian smiled: “Too bad the timing doesn’t match...”

BOOM!!!!

A flower tree burst into the sky. The flower bud bloomed, engulfing Mottian in a sea of blossoms. The flower coffin snapped shut.

BANG!!!

A rain of black petals exploded across the sky, scattering like falling rain—elegant, beautiful.

Lu Ding caught one of the petals, his expression strange.

You sly bastard, Mottian, playing mind games with me, huh? Don’t you dare let me run into you again. Don’t you dare flee south out of the Great Han, go straight ahead, use secret techniques to teleport, wash away your past, break through and rise again!!!

If Lu Ding hadn’t failed to receive a kill notification, he might have believed Mottian was dead.

No wonder he didn’t want him using the Way of the Jinche—said it looked painful~

Lu Ding laughed. What could he do? He’d been outplayed. The next time he saw Mottian, he definitely wouldn’t give him an easy time.

Meanwhile.

In the ruined forbidden grounds of the long-destroyed Miaodao Sect.

A broken stone wall covered in ancient script recorded:

[When a person dies, they become a ghost; when a ghost dies, they become the unseen; when the unseen dies, they become formless; when formless dies, they dissolve into nothing; nothingness gives birth to the Way; the Way gives birth to one; one gives birth to two; two gives birth to three; three gives birth to all things; all things are rooted in humanity...]

“Lu Ding, thank you, my friend. We’ll meet again. I hope you won’t be too surprised then.”

How could someone of his extraordinary talent be willing to die just like that? Now that he had finally found someone like Lu Ding he could talk to, he had no intention of dying.

But aside from this life, everything else he had truly returned to Celestial Master Zhu. And he had truly died once.

...

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