Reputation Fully Maxed Out

Tianjing Airport.

As Lin Mo and his group walked out of the VIP passage, the training base's commercial van was already waiting at the exit.

The driver was a familiar face—the moment he saw Teacher Bai, he rolled down the window to say hello.

But Lin Mo didn't get in the van.

"You all head back first. I've got something to take care of with him." Lin Mo tilted his head slightly toward Dongfang Shuye.

Teacher Bai's gaze swept back and forth between the two of them. They were in Tianjing now, not abroad, so his nerves weren't nearly as taut as before.

After a moment's thought, he nodded and agreed, though he still added one more thing:

"Fine, but you have to come back. We're holding our own awards ceremony, and you're the first-place winner."

That matter had been satisfyingly resolved, to be fair.

When the Olympic Committee representatives came down, they dealt with the issue immediately. The tampered results were re-verified, and Lin Mo's perfect score rightfully returned to the top of the leaderboard.

First prize. Individual first place.

Add in the total score, and Team China took home the team championship.

So holding an awards ceremony and a celebration banquet back home was only natural.

"Don't worry, Teacher Bai. I'll definitely be back." Lin Mo chuckled.

"I can only go face my folks back home after I collect my award."

Only then did Teacher Bai feel at ease—though before getting on the van, he couldn't help but nag a bit more, mostly lamenting Lin Mo's refusal to come straight to Tsinghua University.

Then he went on about how, with Lin Mo's strength, he didn't need to wait until graduation—he could enroll at Tsinghua right away.

He'd said this from before the trip to after, from Tianjing to Seoul, and from Seoul back to Tianjing—round and round, the same spiel, likely spinning at least twenty loops.

But Lin Mo was unwavering, directly turning down Teacher Bai's repeated heartfelt invitations.

It wasn't just a "three visits to the thatched cottage" situation anymore.

Teacher Bai sighed and could only let Lin Mo make his own decision.

The rest of the team didn't pry.

Wang Jie and the others were curious about what exactly Lin Mo had to do, but a bunch of science competition kids had a certain social blindness—they weren't the type to badger him for details.

Except for Wang Jie himself.

That guy straight-up unbuckled his seatbelt, ready to get off the van with Lin Mo.

"It's official business—really official." Lin Mo pushed him back into his seat.

Wang Jie sat back down reluctantly. The door slid shut, and the van merged into traffic.

The Yanhuang Awakening vehicle was already waiting on the other side.

A car that could move freely through Tianjing without obstruction.

The two of them then got into the Yanhuang Awakening car and drove straight toward headquarters.

Lin Mo also spread out his spiritual sense.

The Ancestral Dragon buff had automatically reactivated the moment he stepped onto home soil.

It was a subtle feeling—not a surge of power or an infusion of spiritual energy from heaven and earth. It felt more like... coming home.

Standing on this land, there was a comfortable sensation that seeped into his very bones.

As the car pulled onto the expressway, Dongfang Shuye finally spoke up: "In such a hurry? Heading straight to headquarters the moment you land?"

"It can't wait."

Lin Mo leaned back in his seat, his fingers tapping idly on the armrest.

Lin Mo was currently holding a mountain of names—spies from South Korea, spies from Japan, spies from the Divine Eye Bureau.

And all kinds of double agents layered on top of that.

So much intelligence, so much that Lin Mo didn't even want to handle it himself.

This kind of hot potato was better handed over to Yanhuang Awakening.

In short, this trip abroad—the math competition was the surface operation. The real goal was to rake in intel.

Wiping out the Super Youth Corps was more or less a side quest.

They arrived at the same factory, went down via the same warehouse elevator.

The moment the elevator doors opened, Lin Mo sensed something off.

People passing through the corridor were looking at him with an odd expression.

Not wary. Not appraising. More like... how to describe it...

It was like a fan running into their idol at a restaurant—wanting to steal glances but terrified of being caught staring.

Some even seemed to want to ask for an autograph.

A young analyst in uniform walked over from the opposite direction. As he passed Lin Mo, his footsteps clearly faltered. His lips moved, but in the end, he didn't dare say a word. He lowered his head and hurried off.

But Lin Mo could tell from the looks on people's faces that it was admiration and reverence.

He didn't even need to use his spiritual sense to guess what was going on.

The battle report had already been sent back while they were still in South Korea.

Dongfang Shuye had long since relayed to Yanhuang Awakening the news of Lin Mo steamrolling the entire Super Youth Corps.

Although Yanhuang Awakening personnel would naturally question such claims, they always found ways to verify the truth.

Because most of the Super Youth Corps' ability users had artificial spiritual roots implanted during childhood, the eyes Yanhuang Awakening had placed inside were stuck in clerical positions.

The upside of that, however, was that when Lin Mo carved through the majority of the superhuman forces, he didn't accidentally hit any of their own people.

Yanhuang Awakening confirmed the news quickly.

Lin Mo, with a single person's strength, wiped out the Super Youth Corps in one night, eliminated the Demon Witch, and also had the pleasure of taking down Divine Eye Bureau agents on the side.

Word had it that when this news reached Divine Eye Bureau headquarters, they held three emergency meetings in a row.

After all, Eric and Ivy—the Children of the Earth—were figures of considerable weight.

Hard to say exactly how they reacted, but "furious beyond words" would be a fair guess.

As for details—the Divine Eye Bureau didn't know, and Yanhuang Awakening didn't fully know either.

Certain parts of Dongfang Shuye's report were vague, not because he didn't want to write them down, but because some of the scenes he hadn't fully witnessed himself.

But that didn't change the conclusion.

One man dismantling the core combat power of a national-level superhuman organization—such a feat would read like fiction in any file.

Yet it was real.

These stories spread through Yanhuang Awakening like wildfire.

Dongfang Shuye walked alongside him for a stretch, then suddenly said: "Your reputation within Yanhuang Awakening right now probably ranks second only to Director Long."

Lin Mo's steps faltered.

Second only?

Come on, man—after everything I've done, I'm still second only to Director Long? Really?

Lin Mo didn't even bother to rant out loud. He was in the mid Golden Core stage now—fighting Long Tianqi one-handed might not be a total stomp, but with both hands, it'd be like twisting a Rubik's cube with him.

But fine, he'd give Long Tianqi his due respect.

"Yeah, yeah—Director Long is number one in the world. I can't even touch that." Lin Mo said this with a straight face, barely holding back a laugh himself.

People all along the corridor kept greeting him. Some called him Consultant Lin, others called him Mr. Lin Mo, and one rash young man straight-up called out "Brother Mo," only to get elbowed in the ribs by a nearby colleague.

Lin Mo nodded in acknowledgment to each one, never breaking stride.

Subtlety? I don't need that anymore. My achievements are comparable to Emperor Taizong's, for crying out loud!

Both of us are men who pounded the Koreans into the dirt!

Familiar office door. Dongfang Shuye knocked.

A voice came from inside.

"Come in."

Lin Mo couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "You're the head of the whole bureau now—how come you don't have an assistant or a secretary?"

"We did have one. But Director Long said it wasn't necessary, so the position was dissolved."

Nobody quite knew why.