Gao Wu: Oh no! Young Master Zhen is a cultivator!

Lin Ran raised an eyebrow: "What red-haired guy? I don't understand what you mean."

"Hmph! You know perfectly well what you're doing." Bai Xingzhou turned the doorknob, opened the door, and walked out.

Lin Ran leaned back in his swivel chair, turned halfway around, and stared blankly at the door of the study.

Did this guy really find out?

He took out his Special Affairs Bureau ID from his Nine Heavens Pendant: "In the end, I was caught red-handed. If it weren't for the convenience of life, I'd really like to go out and live like a wild man."

With his current illusionary abilities and earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to escape), if he is truly determined to hide, let alone a Martial Saint, even a Celestial Realm expert might not be able to find him.

But if it comes to that, he will be cut off from the whole society.

Perhaps the path to immortality is destined to be lonely, but he doesn't want to live that kind of life of eating dew and drinking the wind right now.

"Red-haired guys can't show up?" Lin Ran's lips curled up slightly. "Next time, just pick someone with white hair, okay?"

Bai Xingzhou bid farewell to Lin Hongbo and left, and Lin Hongbo got up to see him off.

Song Yishu glanced at the study, her eyes filled with obvious unease.

When Lin Ran came out of the study, Song Yishu quickly went up to him and asked, "Ran, what does the Special Affairs Bureau want with you?"

"It's nothing serious." Lin Ran walked to the sofa, sat down, took an apple from the fruit plate, and took a bite.

Click!

Lin Ran raised an eyebrow slightly: "These apples are good. Crisp and sweet!"

At this moment, Lin Hongbo also walked back and looked at Lin Ran: "Is it related to the Sun family's affairs?"

Lin Ran nodded: "It's somewhat related, but not the main reason. He just wants me to join the Special Affairs Bureau, using the Sun family's affairs as an excuse."

"So you agreed?" Lin Hongbo pressed.

When he saw Bai Xingzhou off earlier, he noticed that Bai Xingzhou was in a pretty good mood, which meant that he had probably achieved some kind of goal.

Therefore, it seems that Lin Ran accepted Bai Xingzhou's invitation.

Lin Ran shrugged: "There's nothing I can do. If I don't agree, he'll have me monitored 24/7. That's despicable!"

"You joined the Special Affairs Bureau?" Lin Zhiyao came out of the restaurant, looked at Lin Ran, and feigned disdain: "Weren't you putting on airs and refusing to agree before?"

With an apple in his mouth, Lin Ran mumbled, "I'm not putting on airs, I just find it troublesome."

Seeing this, Lin Zhiyao paused slightly, then pouted and said, "So you don't find it troublesome now?"

"To be honest, it's not that troublesome. The terms have all been agreed upon, and I don't need to do any reporting. I just patrol the coastline and write a report every day."

Lin Ran glanced at Lin Zhiyao: "It's better than being monitored 24/7, don't you think?"

Fighting with others is endlessly enjoyable.

After exchanging a few words with Lin Zhiyao, Lin Ran suddenly felt that joining the Special Operations Bureau wasn't so bad.

After all, being an investigator for the Secret Service is a job that many people envy.

For example, Lin Zhiyao always envied Lin Zhixia, but unfortunately she only had A-level talent and did not meet the Special Affairs Bureau's special invitation standard.

For ordinary martial artists to join the Special Affairs Bureau, they must at least reach the Inner Breath Realm and then participate in the assessment and selection process.

Lin Ran and Lin Zhixia were both specially invited to join, which truly made others envious.

Lin Hongbo sat back down on the sofa and casually asked, "What kind of treatment do you get from the Special Affairs Bureau?"

"Trainee investigator, annual salary of 300,000, 1 million after becoming a full-time employee."

Lin Zhiyao became smug again: "Only this much money? It's not even as much as my allowance for a month."

Unlike Lin Ran, Lin Zhiyao, as the third young lady of the Lin Group, was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and had no idea what 300,000 yuan meant to ordinary people.

Lin Ran felt it was too little simply because 300,000 could not buy two third-tier crystal cores, and he absolutely did not mean to belittle the 300,000.

He knew that for an ordinary family, 300,000 yuan could be the cost of several years, or even more than a decade.

Lin Zhiyao felt that 300,000 was too little and genuinely looked down on it.

After all, she herself said that 300,000 yuan wasn't even enough for her monthly allowance.

Even Lin Ran couldn't imagine how she could possibly spend 300,000 yuan a month.

However, none of that matters.

"Is this about money?" Lin Ran retorted righteously, "This is the Special Intelligence Bureau, the center of power. You're talking to me about money?"

"But being a Special Affairs Bureau investigator is also the most dangerous job!" Lin Zhiyao said with a somewhat unconvinced look on her face.

Lin Ran raised an eyebrow: "Really? Then you definitely don't want to join the Special Affairs Bureau, right?"

"I...I...Hmph!" Lin Zhiyao turned her head away and ignored Lin Ran.

At noon, the holographic bracelet pushed out another shocking news.

Sun Boyuan issues statement: Vows to avenge his father, offers 1 billion yuan reward for his capture.

The accompanying photo shows the mourning hall in the main hall of the Sun family's ancestral home.

The hall was filled with white banners, and the dark red brocade robe that Sun Kaiyuan wore in his lifetime hung below his portrait. The incense burner was filled with burning incense and candles.

The comments section was filled with sarcastic remarks.

"One billion? Does the Sun family even have one billion to spare now?"

"Don't talk nonsense, even a starved camel is bigger than a horse!"

"A bounty? Let's save our own lives first!"

"Having offended so many people, the consequences are finally coming!"

Lin Ran closed the news and opened another message.

Internal warrant from the Secret Service.

The bounty is on a red-haired, gold-elemental awakened individual, accompanied by a composite sketch, with a reward of five million.

A smaller line was added below: This person is extremely dangerous. Martial artists below the Innate Realm are advised to avoid direct contact. If any trace of him is discovered, please report it immediately.

Lin Ran opened the simulated portrait and glanced at it.

It's drawn quite well; it looks about 60-70% like the illusion disguise from last night.

Unfortunately, this person will never appear again, and increasing the bounty tenfold won't help.

At 2 p.m., Lin Ran began his first patrol.

Thirty kilometers of coastline is just a short time for a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

But working logs are a completely different matter from patrolling the coastline.

Lin Ran squatted on the reef, the virtual keyboard of the holographic bracelet floating in front of him. He had been staring at the blank report template for almost half an hour.

Patrol route: from boundary marker No. 7 to boundary marker No. 11 along the eastern coast, a total of 31 kilometers.

Abnormal situation: None.

He stopped typing, thought for a moment, deleted the blank text, and started editing again.

Visibility at sea was normal, and there were no signs of damage to the coastal vegetation. Three sets of unidentified footprints were found on the beach, which were identified as belonging to low-level saw crabs, which have since retreated on their own.

No signs of mutated marine mammals were found in the nearshore waters, and water quality data were within the standard range.

No action is required.

Follow-up recommendations: It is recommended to strengthen the guardrail near the No. 7 boundary marker. Due to yesterday's high tide, there are three rusted and broken sections in this section of the guardrail, posing a safety hazard.

He read the report again from beginning to end, but still felt that something was missing.

So another sentence was added to the disposal measures section: "The broken guardrail has been temporarily reinforced."

If everything is correct, click Send.

The message was sent on the wristband screen and instantly became a read message, followed by a reply of two words: "Received".

Lin Ran stared at those two words for a few seconds, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"This guy replied so quickly, he probably didn't even read it, right?"

I spent half a day squatting on the rocks racking my brains to write a report, but the other party replied in less than a second.

Either they set up an automatic reply, or they simply didn't open it.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

When someone joins the agency, the intelligence service always has to assign them a job, otherwise they'll be considered as receiving a salary without working.

The so-called patrol of the coastline was nothing more than a dispensable assignment.

Even if he doesn't do it, probably no one will pay attention to him.

"Heh, looks like this work report was written for nothing. It sounded impressive, but it was a complete waste of time!"

Lin Ran shook his head helplessly, slowly stood up from the reef, and stretched.

His gaze swept across the sea, where something could be vaguely seen moving beneath the shimmering surface, creating a string of tiny bubbles.

"Since I'm already here," he said, raising his hand to cast a water-repelling spell before leaping into the water.

A white streak appeared on the sea surface, then quickly closed in.