A heretical cultivator in Bureau 749, I'm the fiercest at pulling out tendons and skinning peop

The literary contest is over, and Tao'er has finished hers; now all that's left is the physical contest.

Old Zhang wasn't in a hurry, letting these youngsters take their time.

Good heavens, an hour-long buffet, they're really going all out!

They were all so full they looked like they were pregnant.

Especially those gentlemen from Jinghai, their spiritual energy was practically overflowing from their throats.

If you don't digest this properly, you'll probably be showering people with compliments while you fight later.

After about half an hour, seeing that these brats looked a bit better and could at least stand up straight, Old Zhang tucked his sleeves in and strolled to the center of the platform with a smile.

"Dolls—"

The old man's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a hook, drawing everyone's attention. "Have you rested enough? Have you recovered?"

"Literary duels are about brains and skills. But the work our 749th Bureau does often relies on this—"

He clenched his fist, and his knuckles cracked softly.

"Might makes right!"

"Put on this suit—"

He pointed to the 749 Bureau uniforms on everyone's bodies, his smile fading and replaced by a more solemn expression. "Your cultivation isn't just for your own longevity and carefree enjoyment."

"On your shoulders rests the weight of peace and stability for countless homes, and the well-being of hundreds of millions of people behind you!"

"So, in the upcoming fight, you all better be on your toes! Show me what you've got! Let this old man see just how hot-blooded and fierce the boys of our Great Han 749 really are!"

"Remember this: once you put on these uniforms, you'll be the last line of defense between the common people and those monsters and demons! And that wall has to be as tough and thick as it gets!"

The old man's words were simple, but every word struck a chord with people.

Many of the young investigators in the audience unconsciously puffed out their chests and their eyes blazed with spittle.

It's truly passionate.

But then I glanced over at Jinghai...

Well, the little flame that had just been lit was almost half extinguished with a "whoosh".

There's no way around it, Jinghai's lineup this year is just too damn bullying!

Ji Zuodao, Dharma Prime Minister.

Li Shuwen, Dharma Image.

Seventy-seven, Dharma form.

Dog Lord, still in Dharma form!

Four Dharma Realms!

In addition, there's Liu Ming, who won seven consecutive matches in the previous competition.

In previous years, Jinghai also won first place in martial arts competitions, but those were all achieved within the same realm. The geniuses from other branches could still hold back their ambition, thinking, "Maybe we can win this year."

This year?

What's the point of fighting?! Let's just give them the awards!

Even if you tied all the rest of them together, they probably wouldn't be enough to warm up those gentlemen in Jinghai!

In an instant, the investigators from each branch office turned green, as if they had swallowed two pounds of bitter melon raw. They felt extremely indignant and desperate.

"This...this is impossible to fight!"

"Exactly! The difference in strength is too great!"

"How about... the gentlemen of Jinghai fight each other? We'll just cheer them on?"

Old Zhang stroked his beard and slowly began to speak:

"By the way, we won't be having any more competitions this year."

"Huh?" Everyone was taken aback.

In previous years, it was always a ring competition, with matches drawn by lot until the strongest was determined, right?

"A ring match, one-on-one, that's just children's play!"

"When it comes to actually carrying out a mission, do you think demons and monsters will talk about chivalry and one-on-one duels? Bullshit! They'll use any means necessary, from the most cunning to the most numerous!"

"So, the rules for this year's fighting have been changed!"

"We're not going to do any of that fancy stuff! If we're going to do something, let's do something real—"

"Mass Rumble!"

"That's more like it! That's the kind of battle our 749th Bureau should be fighting!"

Before the words were finished—

"hold head high--!!!"

Beneath their feet, the colossal Kunpeng suddenly let out a resounding cry that seemed to pierce through the endless void, capable of splitting gold and shattering stone!

Immediately afterwards, everyone felt their bodies suddenly lurch forward!

The Kunpeng, with its enormous wings that resembled clouds hanging from the sky, slowly retracted, and its massive body began to swoop down towards the boundless, deep blue-black ocean below!

"Holy crap! It's going to crash into the sea!"

"What is the old man trying to do? A suicide attack by jumping into the sea?"

Amidst the gasps of surprise, an even more astonishing scene unfolded.

As it plunged downwards, the Kunpeng's body, which was originally covered with hard scales and gorgeous feathers, began to undergo an incredibly mysterious change!

The luster of the feathers quickly subsided and transformed, the texture becoming smooth and moist, with the oily sheen unique to deep-sea behemoths, as if it had transformed into the skin of some enormous whale creature.

Those wings that blotted out the sky also stretched and deformed in the airflow, their edges becoming rounded and smooth, transforming into huge fin-like structures that were more suitable for cutting through the waves!

The Kunpeng enters the sea silently, without splashing a single wave, as if it were an integral part of the deep ocean.

Everyone felt a sudden darkness before their eyes, and then they were surrounded by an endless deep blue.

The Kunpeng does not actually dive into the sea in a physical sense, but rather wanders in the gap between a kind of void and reality.

Standing behind it, everyone felt as if they were watching an incredibly realistic and immersive deep-sea AR spectacle.

"Wow! This view is absolutely stunning!"

"Look over there! A huge bioluminescent jellyfish! It looks like a lantern!"

"What kind of fish is that? It looks so random! Like it got squeezed in a door!"

Rarely having the opportunity to "travel" the deep sea in this way, the young people temporarily forgot the tension of the fight, shouting and yelling excitedly like primary school students on a spring outing.

The giant Kun continued to dive deeper.

The light is getting dimmer.

The surroundings changed from deep blue to inky blue, and finally turned into an absolute, chilling blackness.

Even though they were Qi cultivators with eyesight far exceeding that of ordinary people, in this depth of pure darkness, their field of vision shrank drastically, and they could only barely make out the blurry outlines of their companions beside them.

"My God, this is so dark... It's so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face, that's no exaggeration."

"I'm getting a little scared... what if I fall..."

"Shh! Don't talk! Look ahead! What's that?!"

Right here in the absolute depths of darkness.

A glimmer of light.

It suddenly lit up.

Immediately afterwards, that point of light rapidly expanded and spread—

Crimson, golden, incandescent, warm, dazzling light, full of vitality and endless heat, tore through the eternal darkness of the deep sea and forcefully entered everyone's field of vision!

"Holy crap?!" One investigator rubbed his eyes hard. "The sun?! Am I hallucinating?"

"You're dreaming!" his companion retorted instinctively. "This is the deep sea! Thousands of meters below! Sunlight can't possibly get in here... damn it!"

The rebuttal abruptly ended, turning into even louder profanities.

Because, it really was a sun!

Not only is the sun shining brightly, but the sky is also a clear blue, with wisps of white clouds drifting leisurely by!

Beneath that sky, amidst the vast expanse of blue water, the outline of an island appears and disappears in the light and shadow, teeming with life.

The deep sea, together with the blue sky, white clouds, and bright sunshine of the islands, creates the most extreme, absurd, and shocking visual dislocation and temporal folding!

It's as if someone used the sharpest knife to slice open a hole in this thick curtain representing the deep sea, revealing a completely different, even absolutely opposite, "truth" hidden inside!

"My goodness..." the burly man from the Northeast branch muttered, his worldview once again being utterly crushed.

"What the hell is this?" The girl from the southwest stared blankly.

After a brief moment of shock and bewilderment.

Finally, someone with a quick mind, combining previous experience, had an unbelievable yet perfectly reasonable idea that exploded in their mind like a thunderclap!

"Holy crap! No way?!"

"Not again?!"

"Really, Mr. Zhang?!"

Amidst this symphony of exclamations of "Holy crap!" and "Damn it!"

Ji Zuodao suddenly sat up straight from being slumped over.

He opened his mouth wide, gasped, and then forced out a trembling, distorted gasp from deep within his throat:

"I'll go—!"

"Old man! This is way too extravagant!"

"Another secret realm they've created for us?! Are they giving us these in bulk?"