Chapter 34: Resolving the Bandit Gang

8 a. m., the morning light had just broken.

By the river, a figure stood with closed eyes, feeling the flow of the wind, sensing the trajectories of all things.

Suddenly he opened his eyes, his body turned into an afterimage and vanished from the spot, racing across the rippling river surface, and in the blink of an eye had shot out several hundred meters, leaving a straight trail on the water.

Wherever he passed, the air tore apart.

Only a string of low rumbles and surging gusts of wind were left behind.

That figure stomped hard on the water and leapt high into the air; when he landed again, the river surface was as though a thousand-jin boulder had fallen into it, the surrounding spray exploding apart, splashing up dozens of meters high, the sound like a thunderstorm!

The gale howled, as if cheering him on.

Jiang Qin flashed back to the riverbank, relying on no tool at all, standing in the air.

In just one night, he had still managed to master it!

【Wind Thunder Limitless Step】 minor completion!

"The feeling of treading the air is just great, but unfortunately it demands a fairly high control of Spirit Energy, so I can't fly at high speed. Still, the way it is now is enough for the time being."

Sensing the changes within himself, Jiang Qin returned to his room on the second floor of the villa.

After a quick wash and breakfast, he drove straight toward Zhenling Academy. There were few cars on the road, so he sped the whole way and arrived at the gate of Zhenling Academy in less than ten minutes.

As for speeding?

Yours truly is an Investigator — which patrol officer would dare to pull him over?

In front of the gate of Zhenling Academy, a light, graceful figure in white had long been sitting by the guardhouse waiting, holding a Fierce Beast leg in her hand and eating it with great relish.

Lin Lao spotted Jiang Qin approaching, thought for a moment, and still reminded him:

"Remember, when carrying out a mission, never turn your back to anyone who isn't a teammate. Human nature is always the hardest thing to fathom, especially since some Fierce Beasts can even take human form and are hard to tell apart."

"Got it."

Su Lingwei quickly finished off the Fierce Beast leg, stood up, and asked:

"Do we head out now?"

Jiang Qin glanced at the time. "Let's wait another two minutes."

Though she didn't understand, Su Lingwei still nodded and sat back down.

The two minutes passed quickly.

Jiang Qin didn't delay any longer, turned, and walked out of the Academy with Su Lingwei.

"Let's go. Today we need to complete three B-level Tasks."

"Okay."

The maglev car sped off. Lin Lao shook his head and went back into the guardhouse.

At that moment, by a window on one floor of the teaching building.

Chen Xiaohu, who had stood frozen in the corridor for a full hour, still never took that step, until those two figures had completely vanished into the distance.

He consoled himself:

"It's fine. It's just proving myself, after all."

"Following Jiang Qin will definitely lead to a lot of danger. By comparison, I'd be safer finding a team to go hunt Fierce Beasts in the Otherworld Rift. What improving strength — staying alive is what matters most!"

…

Outskirts of the city, outside an abandoned factory where few people set foot.

Two Public Security Bureau officers were cautiously lying in wait in the grass, having endured a whole night of freezing cold, not daring to let their guard down in the slightest.

This bandit gang had robbed two Martial Artist shops in succession, leaving five dead and dozens of ordinary citizens injured.

Heinous in nature.

The younger officer couldn't help asking: "Brother Tang, when exactly are the Investigators coming? This bandit gang has been hiding inside for two whole days. If we don't catch them soon, they'll slip away again."

Tang Shi frowned as well and soothed him:

"Just hold on a bit longer. Who could have expected that Liao Jun actually broke through to Spirit Sea Realm — those two Intern Investigators were no match at all. Now that the mission's difficulty has gone up, anyone sent will at least be a Spirit Sea Realm Martial Artist."

The moment his words fell, the phone in his pocket buzzed faintly.

He hurriedly answered, "Hello?"

An extremely young voice came from the other end: "Is this Captain Tang? I'm Investigator Jiang Qin, taking over this mission. I'm about to reach the target location — how do we link up?"

"Hold on, we'll come to you now. The other side has people keeping watch; if you come over rashly, it's easy to startle them."

"Okay."

The brief call ended.

Tang Shi led the younger officer away carefully. From a good distance away, he spotted two figures standing at the road junction. When they got closer, his expression stiffened slightly.

With a flicker of hope, he asked: "Just… the two of you?"

"Who else?" Jiang Qin rolled his eyes.

At this point Tang Shi's world completely collapsed. One look at these two youngsters and he knew they were Intern Investigators. What was Zhenling Bureau thinking, sending two more Intern Investigators — to die?

They had already startled the prey once; this time it had taken a great deal of effort to track down their hiding place.

If they let them escape again, tracking them down later would be far, far harder!

Jiang Qin saw through his concern, but couldn't be bothered to explain, and asked directly:

"How many on the other side, what configuration? What's the current situation?"

Tang Shi forced down his helplessness and answered: "Thirteen in total — one Linghai Chuji, twelve Spirit Guidance Realm Martial Artists, all hiding in the factory at the back. As for weapons and explosives, they should have used most of them up in the past few days."

"Mm."

Jiang Qin looked at Su Lingwei: "Do you want to warm up?"

Su Lingwei didn't have much real-combat experience against Martial Artists, which was also why she had agreed to team up with Jiang Qin, so she immediately nodded.

She walked alone toward the dilapidated factory in the distance.

Seeing this, Tang Shi was stunned. Just one person going in like that?

He couldn't help but ask, "What realm are your teammates?"

"Yinling Jiuzhong, I guess."

"... Aren't you going to help?"

"She's more than enough on her own."

While they were talking, Su Lingwei had openly walked through the front door into the factory building.

Intense fighting erupted inside the factory shortly after.

Then, under the shocked gazes of Tang Shi and the new security officer, five or six figures fled out covered in blood, glancing back every now and then as if some evil spirit were chasing them.

Immediately after, another burly figure burst through the factory roof, letting out a furious roar:

"A mere Yinling Realm little girl dares to come challenge me alone — the Zhenling Bureau really looks down on me, Liao Jun!"

Spirit Energy around his body formed into armor, and he didn't dodge or evade the two Flying Knives shooting toward him.

In his view, how much power could Flying Knives thrown by a mere Yinling Realm cultivator possibly have?

And in battle, overconfidence is an extremely fatal bad habit.

Two silver Flying Knives pierced through Liao Jun's abdomen and heart in succession, cleanly taking his life, and his corpse finally slammed into the ground with unwillingness, blood flowing freely.

At the same time, those underlings who had just fled not far from the factory were also claimed by Flying Knives one after another — every single one pierced through the heart, without the slightest mercy.

And from the time Su Lingwei went in until now, it hadn't even been ten minutes.

Tang Shi and the new security officer watched, utterly dumbfounded.

Solving a Spirit Sea Realm so cleanly — are you sure this is a Yinling Realm Martial Artist?

Jiang Qin, however, wasn't surprised.

Academy Martial Artists and loose-cultivation Martial Artists out in society simply can't be considered equal in strength. Take martial techniques, for example — a loose-cultivation Martial Artist might have to expend enormous effort just to get their hands on a Grade C martial technique, while an Academy student only needs to make a couple more trips into an Otherworld Rift to get a Grade B martial technique, which isn't hard at all.

Then there's the physical body aspect.

Academy students generally temper their physical bodies to the extreme before attempting a breakthrough.

But Martial Artists like Liao Jun don't care about any of that — as long as they can break through, that's enough. They can't come up with so many materials to lavishly strengthen their bodies either.

All these reasons combined created such a vast disparity in combat power between the two sides.