By the time dawn was approaching, the crying in the interrogation room had finally stopped.
Chen Xian’s face was covered in tears and snot.
He kept mumbling, I give up, I give up, I really give up, I was wrong, I was terribly wrong, I’ve let everyone down...
That’s right—he cried.
Chen Xian wasn’t completely spineless, but even a tough guy like him couldn’t hold up under the combined assault of Yan Feifan’s legal bombardment and Bai Hemen’s physical beatdown.
He spent the whole night in the interrogation room, wailing and shouting.
These three were just too ruthless.
One wielded the whip, while the other held the Cultivator of Qi Regulations in one hand and the 749 Investigator Code of Conduct in the other.
They started off with one question:
At first, Chen Xian was still stubborn, insisting that he had nothing to be dissatisfied with. But after the first whip landed, he didn’t dare act tough anymore. He said that Lu Ding had silenced him, that he’d already been subdued, so there was no need to knock him out.
Then he got whipped again.
The pain made him curse through all eighteen generations of his ancestors.
Before becoming a cultivator, he was just an ordinary person—tough, sure, but not that tough.
Every time the whip fell, Yan Feifan would hit him with another legal lecture.
He explained that when 749 Investigators enforce the law, they have full authority to do so. According to regulations, when a criminal cultivator violates the Cultivator of Qi Regulations, a 749 Investigator has the right to strip them of their freedom of speech, movement, and other rights to prevent them from using speech, movement, or any other means to cast spells and resist arrest, which could lead to unnecessary casualties.
"So, it’s compliant, legal, and reasonable!"
Smack!
Bai Hemen struck him with the whip again.
One on the left, one on the right—one kept asking, “What part do you not accept?” while the other focused solely on swinging the whip.
Meanwhile, Lu Ding sat there sipping flower tea from a paper cup, occasionally spitting out the dregs.
No matter what Chen Xian said, he didn’t respond. Didn’t acknowledge him.
That silent treatment nearly drove Chen Xian insane.
It was only after the final whip strike that Lu Ding finally finished his tea and spoke.
And that one sentence made Chen Xian scream "I give up!" dozens of times.
"Go get a life-and-death contract. After I sign it, he can sign it too."
That scared Chen Xian senseless.
A life-and-death contract meant fighting to the death. There was no way he could beat Lu Ding.
Out of fear, he surrendered on the spot.
Seeing that he was merely frightened, Yan Feifan pulled out his phone and showed him the Yunhai 749 forums, where every publicly available record of Lu Ding’s actions was listed.
"Take a good look. You call yourself a genius? A genius of how many months?"
The very thing he had always taken pride in—his talent—became something he couldn’t even bring himself to mention.
His eyes were locked onto the screen, afraid to miss a single detail.
With those kinds of achievements, with that kind of rapid progression—what reason did he have not to accept it?
If before, his surrender had been out of fear, now it was genuine.
His previous perspective had been too narrow. He had believed himself to be a once-in-a-generation prodigy, a frog in a well gazing at a patch of sky, thinking it was the entire world.
But after seeing Lu Ding’s achievements and the timeline of his cultivation—
Chen Xian felt an overwhelming sense of enlightenment, like an ephemeral mayfly catching a glimpse of the vast heavens.
If he wasn’t wearing this uniform, he might have been made to truly understand the meaning of cruelty.
Looking up at Lu Ding, a strange thought emerged in Chen Xian’s mind.
"He could’ve killed me if he wanted to..."
Pain brought clarity, and Yan Feifan’s lectures had drilled professional knowledge into him with ruthless efficiency.
Lu Ding’s terrifying achievements only further struck at his pride as a so-called genius.
A person like that had actually been willing to reason with him. What else could he possibly not accept?
Lowering his head, he spoke sincerely, “I accept.”
Over here, Chen Xian had submitted.
Meanwhile, on the other side—
The top talents from Qingsheng Province had also admitted defeat.
Outside the guest conference room at Yunhai 749, the leaders from Qingsheng, Yunhai, and Yaodu stood behind the glass, observing the figures inside.
Inside the room were the geniuses from Qingsheng who had come to participate in the Year-One Combat Trials.
But after today, when news of Chen Xian and Shangguan Qing’s situation spread, Lu Ding’s name and achievements had completely overshadowed them—like whipped cream being thoroughly beaten into stiff peaks.
These so-called geniuses immediately went to look up Lu Ding’s records.
They hadn’t expected it.
And when they saw it—
They were absolutely floored.
Instant kills, brutal executions, reckless slaughters, overwhelming victories—kills beyond his level, all executed with precision and efficiency.
It looked like fiction.
As for Bai Hemen? That guy had tried to kill his own teammate!
The moment they saw this intelligence—
All they could think was:
Are you f***ing kidding me?!
Especially the part where Lu Ding and Bai Hemen had teamed up to assist Li Xuanlong in taking down Shi Gandang.
That was just too absurd.
But this was all official information from the 749 forums—cold, hard facts.
Two cultivators at the Linghai Realm had gone toe-to-toe with a Si Ming Realm powerhouse—and won.
Completely insane.
Not to mention, their strength was off the charts...
On the intelligent display in the conference room, a looped recording played.
It was footage from Li Xuanlong’s law enforcement recorder—capturing the moment Lu Ding and Bai Hemen fought Shi Gandang.
When that charged-up Slash Attack was unleashed—
It felt like the sky was about to collapse.
They couldn’t believe it.
They checked Lu Ding’s cultivation timeline again.
And the sky collapsed again.
So, after earning the highest merits during Ghost Festival, he exchanged them for resources, which—divided by his absurd cultivation speed—meant that he had already grown significantly stronger?
He was already unbeatable, and now they were being told that he’d powered up again?
Every few days, he leveled up. Every so often, he completely evolved.
How the hell were they supposed to fight that?
Geniuses had their pride, sure. But geniuses weren’t f***ing idiots.
The gap between an ordinary person and a genius was nothing compared to the chasm between a genius and this kind of monster.
Their fighting spirit evaporated in an instant.
They weren’t about to go picking fights with fellow investigators.
Why volunteer for a beatdown?
They were supposed to spar with someone like that?
That would be like sending Banbo’erba to fight Sun Wukong.
"No way, I can’t fight him. If I run into him, I’m surrendering immediately. I’m serious—I don’t have that kind of masochistic tendency, I don’t want to be beaten to a pulp."
"If it were an enemy or some kind of monster, I wouldn’t fight him unless I had no other choice. And if I really couldn’t avoid it, worst case, I close my eyes, die, and start over. But now? He and I are both 749 Investigators. We’re colleagues. Why the hell would I willingly get my ass kicked?"
"Forget fighting him one-on-one. With the way Lu Ding fights, even if we all gang up on him, we’d still be screwed."
"You still think you have a chance to win?"
"I meant we’d be lucky to survive, let alone win. Look outside—it’s broad daylight. Stop dreaming."
"Yeah, that makes sense. No shame in it."
"I agree. If I run into him, I’m surrendering on the spot."
Hearing the conversation from inside the conference room, the Qingsheng officials outside turned so dark they looked like they’d been scorched. One of them grabbed Director Chu and quickly pulled him to a corner.
"Chu!!! Deputy Director Chu of Yunhai!!!"
"Explain to me what the hell is up with this monstrous rookie of yours!!!"
Then, as if answering his own question, he muttered, "Ah! I get it now. So this was all just a setup to screw us over! No wonder there was never any proposal for multiple provinces to compete together before. Turns out you were just holding this back for a big reveal! That kid Lu Ding—he learned all this from you, didn’t he!?"
"We get here thinking we’re about to face some tough competition, and without even a word of warning, you throw a monster at us! He didn’t just stun the monsters—he stunned me too! And you’re telling me this is a rookie? A rookie?!"