"Then please leave. I said just now—no idlers allowed in this place." Lao Wu straightened at once, his face turning stern. He was no ordinary gate guard but a man out of the action teams proper, one who had spent years licking blood off a blade, and once he got serious he was a ruthless character with a killing air about him.

"No idlers allowed? Do I look like an idler to you?" Xue Jianfeng gave a cold laugh, and ignoring the several men outright, strode straight inside.

"Halt, or don't blame me for being rude." Lao Wu frowned and barked at the sight, and when the two of them still acted as though no one else was present, he reached out at once to seize Xue Jianfeng by the shoulder.

Yet before he could so much as touch the man's clothes, and without any movement he could perceive from the other, a great gaping wound suddenly appeared on his own arm, streaming with blood. A pain of incomparable ferocity shot up into his scalp—even a man specially trained as he was could not endure such agony—and he sank down on the spot with a muffled groan.

The others finally realized something was badly wrong. Leaving one man to tend Lao Wu, the rest immediately surrounded Xue Jianfeng and Fei Yangsheng in a tight ring. At the same time the alarms of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau blared out, and nearly all the agents on duty came pouring out at once. Without a shred of doubt the two of them became the target of every eye.

"Who are you? How dare you force your way into the Mysterious Investigation Bureau—do you not know the consequences of such a thing?" the crowd shouted in stern rebuke.

"Consequences?" Xue Jianfeng laughed outright at the word, and said with contempt, "A piddling third-rate power of the mortal world—I do as I please. What consequences could there possibly be?"

"Insolent boasting! Take him down, all together!" The crowd's blood was up in an instant; one after another they let loose their auras, ready to seize him on the spot.

"A pack of ants, a rabble of shrimp soldiers and crab generals, and you dare lay hands on me? Are you all so unafraid of death?" Xue Jianfeng sneered coldly, and only then did he abruptly release the immense aura of Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.

Every man of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau shrank back at once, each face stamped with utter horror, their eyes fixed on Xue Jianfeng as though on some monster. What kind of strength was this? This oppressive might was stronger than even the greatest Heaven-Rank Great Perfection by at least several hundredfold!

A pack of weaklings! Xue Jianfeng swept them a glance of scorn. Had he not been mindful of the Tai Gu Alliance's rules, he might well have yielded to the whim just now and put this place to the sword—killing to establish his authority was his habitual style—rather than merely cowing them with his aura as he did now.

This was, after all, the official power of the mortal world's cultivators. If he truly wiped out the Mysterious Investigation Bureau, then even under the banner of seeking justice for Sun Baimei and the other, the Tai Gu Alliance would have no way to justify it. So he could only hold his killing intent in check.

The agents of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau dared not act rashly. Though their strength was modest, they had at least this much judgment and Jianghu experience: for all their numbers, once blows were truly struck theirs would be the part of the slaughtered. The man's strength was, after all, far too absurdly overwhelming!

"Who is in charge here? Stand out and speak to me." Xue Jianfeng eyed them all with a sidelong, imperious glance.

The crowd exchanged helpless looks. Feng Tianlong and Qiu Lingshan were both absent at the moment, and the highest rank present was at most a squad captain. To converse with a top-tier existence of such unfathomable strength—plainly they were not qualified.

Just then a car drew up outside the gate. Qiu Lingshan stepped out of it and, seeing the scene at headquarters, froze on the spot.

For the past month, because reports had come from everywhere of unknown high-level cultivators on the move, she, as deputy director of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau, had been run utterly ragged. Almost wherever a sighting was reported she went in person to investigate, though to this day no detailed, confirmed information had turned up. Yet the sheer number and strength of these stranger cultivators were deeply unsettling.

She had never expected that no sooner had she returned from an investigation afield than she would run into this scene. By any reckoning, she, a fine hand of Heaven-Rank Great Perfection, was no weakling—yet set against the aura Xue Jianfeng was displaying at this moment, it was utterly beneath mention. They were not on the same plane at all.

Astounded beyond measure as she was, Qiu Lingshan was after all the deputy director, and these years had brought her no small tempering; neither in spirit nor in courage was she as other women. Steadying herself a little, she walked straight in.

"What exactly has happened here?" Qiu Lingshan asked in a low voice.

"Director Song, this man came from nowhere and forced his way in for no reason at all," the wounded Lao Wu reported hurriedly.

"You are the head of this place?" Xue Jianfeng turned around at the words, his bearing all high and mighty, looking down on all creation—until his eyes fell on Qiu Lingshan, and at once they went wide and fixed. That there could be such a captivating female cultivator under heaven! Bold and striking, she far surpassed the classical beauties of the Tai Gu Minor Jianghu!

In truth this was nothing but aesthetic fatigue. Just as a modern man, suddenly encountering a classical beauty, would take her for a goddess descended, so too did he, a man reared in an ancient milieu, react the same way at the sudden sight of a beauty in modern tailored clothes. This was the common nature of men—not to speak of a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection like him, for Golden Core adepts and even Nascent Soul adepts were no different.

The Tai Gu Minor Jianghu was not without its beauties. His own sect in particular held such a peerless one as Leng Leng, who in true beauty was in no way inferior to Qiu Lingshan—only that the two women's styles were utterly different.

"I am Qiu Lingshan, deputy director of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau. Might I ask who you are, sir?" Qiu Lingshan inquired, neither servile nor overbearing. She could in fact guess that these two before her must be among those unknown high-level cultivators who had been appearing without cease of late; it was only that their strength was so startling, so overpowering, that she found it a little hard to accept.

For all that the Mysterious Investigation Bureau had already taken this matter most seriously, even making it a top-priority investigation, they had still vastly underestimated these people's strength. Against an enemy so powerful, the entire Bureau put together would be no match at all.

"Qiu Lingshan? It seems the mortal world is not wholly without merit. To meet a beauty such as Miss Song—Xue has not made this trip in vain." Facing Qiu Lingshan, Xue Jianfeng's manner visibly softened, and he said mildly, "I am Xue Jianfeng, of the Tai Gu Alliance."

As he spoke, Xue Jianfeng deliberately struck a pose of serene detachment. In his eyes there was now only Qiu Lingshan; it seemed to him that once he revealed his identity, this stunning girl would surely bow down before him on the spot. That the strong are honored—this was an unchanging truth in any time and any place.

At these words, sure enough, everyone present, Qiu Lingshan included, was struck with shock. Beyond a chorus of sharp intakes of breath, a collective silence fell. (To be continued.)