.....
Outside the training ground.
Lu Ding and Bai Hen flew over, but they didn’t rush to hand in their mission.
Instead, they stood at the entrance of the training facility.
Lu Ding rolled up his sleeves.
Bai Hen pulled out a bottle the size of a mineral water bottle from his bag.
Inside was a solution that could reveal any invisible coating.
This was sothing Lu Ding had previously asked Elder Deng for, and when Elder Deng ca, he brought it along.
All for the purpose of finding the hidden mole in the training facility.
Previously, when Chang Yan died, he’d said the mole had an inverted triangle tattoo behind their ear.
Bai Hen twisted the cap open, ready to pour it onto Lu Ding’s hand when—
Soone walked out from the training ground entrance.
Gao Han, holding a notebook, instinctively looked this way.
And when he clearly saw who was standing outside—
He shouted in surprise: “Lu Ding, Bai Hen, when did you two get back?”
Though there had been so conflict before, they were coworkers, and it wasn’t anything too serious—no need to hold a grudge.
Besides—
Even if he did hold a grudge, he couldn’t beat Lu Ding anyway.
As soon as he said that—
Lu Ding and Bai Hen both turned their heads toward him.
Lu Ding said, “Don’t move, don’t move!!”
“Here, pour it, but not too much. There’s a lot of people—we gotta conserve it.”
Bai Hen poured the solution. As it flowed out, Lu Ding rubbed it onto his hands, making sure his palms were thoroughly coated, then walked straight toward Gao Han.
That move—
Scared the hell out of him.
That unpleasant mory of being smacked into a pile of leaves by Lu Ding ca rushing back.
He stepped back.
Raised his hand to block.
“Lu Ding, calm down okay? We’re cool, I already respected you before, really. Let’s talk this out, okay?”
“Relax, not gonna hit you.”
As Lu Ding spoke, he tilted his head.
Bai Hen stepped in and smack—locked Gao Han in place.
Such terrifying strength.
Shocked Gao Han to the core.
When!?
No seriously—
Can a guy catch a break!?
Before, his strength wasn’t far off from Bai Hen’s.
But this—this gap now was insane!!
And over these days, they had been training inside the facility.
anwhile, Bai Hen had been running around with Lu Ding all this ti.
Logically, that ant no ti for cultivation.
So Bai Hen’s strength should’ve plateaued, while his had improved by leaps and bounds—the gap should’ve narrowed.
But how... how... did this mission trip sohow make Bai Hen even scarier than before!?
Still confused—
Bai Hen raised his hand and gave him a light slap to the back of the neck.
Pa!
“Head down.”
That slap to the thick neck left Gao Han feeling humiliated.
He glared at Bai Hen—
Then sharply lowered his head.
“Fine, I’ll lower it!”
Action first, words after.
The tone showed grievance, the action showed reality.
He really couldn’t win.
Lu Ding stepped up, lifted the hair behind his ear, and gave it a good rub.
Left the area red.
But there was nothing.
A glance from Lu Ding, and Bai Hen let go of Gao Han.
He even gave a warning.
“Don’t tell the instructors. Don’t tell the other trainees. Or else........”
To prevent his sleeve from slipping, Lu Ding shook out his hand and added, “I’ll hang you on a tree and let him whip you.”
Not telling the other trainees was to avoid alerting the target.
Not telling the instructors—what if the mole was an instructor?
Who knew.
So Lu Ding decided to investigate himself.
Anyway, aside from the head instructor, no one here could take him on.
Bully!
Two bullies!
Though that’s what Gao Han thought, outwardly, he kept nodding: “I won’t say a word, not a soul.”
Bai Hen was satisfied, and echoed a phrase Lu Ding had once said to him: “You're done here, go play.”
As he spoke—
He took out his pocket notebook, flipped to a page, and in the list of densely packed nas, crossed out the characters for Gao Han.
Though their thod seed plain and unremarkable—
It was no less effective than corporate espionage.
Like sneaking into a rival’s company and killing their fortune tree with boiling water.
Bribing the cleaning lady at high cost to unplug the router every two hours and flip the main switch.
Sending in a mole to swap the company’s worshiped God of Wealth statue with a lookalike Yama King.
The first and last tactics are grossly infuriating—sleepless-night level.
But that middle one? It’ll leave you baffled for months.
Lu Ding’s thod here worked the sa way.
There’s only so many people—rub each one down.
Whoever refuses—suspicious. Beat them!
Whoever runs—suspicious. Chase and beat them!
Whoever’s missing—suspicious. Find and beat them!
And if the mole actually is found? Beat them to death!
Even if they don’t find the mole—
That’s fine too.
Lu Ding stood there and pulled one of his shaless moves.
So what!
Just rub!
No one could do a thing about it.
After all, nowhere in the training base rules did it say you couldn’t rub people down.
Gao Han was a bit confused what these two were really up to.
Before he could ask—
Lu Ding looked around, saw no one else, and asked first: “Where are the others?”
Gao Han suddenly realized—wait, so it’s not just they’re rubbing down!!?
No wonder they told him not to say anything.
Hey!
Now this was getting interesting.
“We’re split up for managent. I know where they are—I’ll take you to them!!”
Gao Han got a little excited and led the way.
These days, he’d long been sick of Huangfu Lingyun. Ever since Lu Ding left, that guy had been strutting around like he owned the place.
Tail practically pointing to the sky.
All because Lu Ding was gone and no one could keep him in check!
Now that Lu Ding was back—heh, your good days are over!
Thinking that, even Gao Han’s steps beca lighter.
Lu Ding and Bai Hen followed him toward a certain direction.
anwhile—
Huangfu Lingyun, basking in glory, had no idea his nightmare had returned!
At a plaza inside the training ground.
A whiteboard stood upright, with practical techniques listed on it—Heart-Clarifying Art, Sand Drawing ssaging, Qi Guiding.
An instructor held a straight little stick like a pointer.
“We’re done with the Heart-Clarifying Art. Based on overall performance, Huangfu Lingyun learned it the fastest and applied it best..... next, you’ll all practice on your own, take a break. Huangfu Lingyun, help out the others. We’ll do Sand Drawing ssaging in a bit.”
Hearing the instructor praise him, Huangfu Lingyun smiled slightly and nodded gently.
Outwardly calm, inwardly smug.
So what if he had stumbled in the Blood Pool. His talent wasn’t sothing these people could match!
It was just that Lu Ding wasn’t here.
If he was here...
Forget combat strength (he’d already been brutally beaten), but in terms of talent!
He wasn’t so nobody!
He was the Chosen One.
As his thoughts ran wild—
The other trainees sitting nearby gathered around and asked:
“Huangfu Lingyun, how did you learn it so fast? I barely saw you listening and you already got it.”
To this, Huangfu Lingyun replied: “That... it’s hard to explain. Simply put—focus.”
At first listen, nothing seed off.
But think deeper—
What does that an? So only you focused? The rest of us were flying planes in class?
Maybe others didn’t care, but with Xue Ning’s personality, he definitely found it annoying.
If it were the old him, he’d definitely snap back at Huangfu Lingyun.
But ever since getting “educated” by Lu Ding—and seeing what happened to Wen Ruchu—he’d never mouthed off again.
He just set down his pen, crossed his arms, snorted through his nose, turned his head—out of sight, out of mind.
Huangfu Lingyun turned and saw this, then walked right up to Xue Ning.
“What’s wrong, got a problem?”
Xue Ning couldn’t hold it in: “What? I didn’t even say anything! I just turned my head to breathe! I wasn’t even looking at you, and you co over here asking?”
“Didn’t the instructor ask to help out? Co on—tell what you don’t get, I’ll help you.”
“F***, you’re really good at pretending, huh, Huangfu Lingyun? Would you still be this fake if Brother Lu were here?”
At the ntion of Lu Ding, Huangfu Lingyun’s mood instantly soured.
He deliberately glanced around, then looked at Xue Ning again:
“Well, he’s not here, is he?”
“Zhang Wei!”
The noisy chatter went dead silent.
Ever since the last ti Huangfu Lingyun got beaten by Lu Ding, everyone in the training ground knew—
That was the one na he couldn’t stand to hear.
And the only one bold enough to yell it in the training ground—was Lu Ding.
Almost simultaneously, everyone turned in unison toward the entrance of the plaza.
Huangfu Lingyun’s face darkened, his molars grinding—
Two words exploded from his mouth: “Lu!! Ding!!”
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