Coming back to his senses, Liu Jinglong spoke:
"Everyone worked hard tonight, the task was accomplished beautifully, and the merit points which everyone cares about are still being calculated, so don't worry.
It's late, so I won't say much more. Tomorrow morning when Chief returns, we'll have a meeting. Let's call it a night and rest early."
Meng Chuan stood up and left, planning to find his uncle to go home together.
Liu Jinglong called out to him:
"Xiaomeng, your armory privileges have already been activated, and after the merit points are calculated, you can use them for redemption.
It's a great harvest haha, I just watched the recordings and roughly estimated, conservatively at 300 points."
Meng Chuan felt a bit surprised; besides Xu Li, who was possessed by the Jiao Demon's split soul, the enemies tonight were not very strong.
And unlike last time in the chemical plant, there were no void-type Celestial Demons providing core strength.
Meng Chuan guessed that mainly the confiscated materials and the demonic Xu Li accounted for the bulk of the merit points.
"Thank you, Captain Liu, I got it.
By the way, Captain Liu, could you help me take a look at this?"
With that, he took the Jiao Demon's leftover horn from his pocket and handed it to him.
Liu Jinglong took it and felt it with his fingers.
"Is this left after the Jiao Demon's split soul vanished?"
"Yes."
"The hardness is a bit lacking, otherwise you could try refining True Martial.
Aren't you wearing the new gloves weapon from the research institute?
Send this over to them to see if they can help upgrade it for you."
Meng Chuan nodded and asked:
"Captain Liu, is this thing worth much?"
He was short on money; if this thing was valuable, he thought it would be better to sell it.
The effect of the steel bone was sufficient for now.
Liu Jinglong shook his head and said:
"Not all Celestial Demon materials are valuable; this horn can't be used as medicine, and its hardness is insufficient for being collected by martial artists.
You can only sell it to the research institute, it'll probably only be worth tens of thousands."
"Alright then, thank you, Captain Liu."
Meng Chuan silently thought it was a pity, tens of thousands was still not enough, he'd rather send it to the research institute and let them try it out.
Liu Jinglong nodded:
"Go back and rest early."
...
Early the next day.
Meng Chuan woke up two hours later than usual.
Last night he returned home too late from the police station, so to ensure six hours of sleep, he deliberately got up late today to have enough energy for martial arts practice.
The morning sun had already risen, but Meng Chuan hadn't absorbed any Purple Qi internally, feeling a bit regretful.
His Body Armor technique was 20% away from breaking through to mastery, and he mustn't miss it again in the future.
He matched it with Five Elements Qiankun Fist, focusing on practicing Body Technique with Cloud-Ascending Ladder.
An hour passed, Meng Chuan completed the final progress and glanced at the panel.
[Cloud-Ascending Ladder: Perfection (98%) → (100%) Limit Breaking]
Obtained Limit Breaking trait: [Cloud Trace (Basic)]
"Suspended for a moment, swift and ethereal"
Effect One: Suspended equilibrium, each time a toe touches empty space, automatically generate a cloud platform for 0.3 seconds (visually represented as transparent cloud patterns)
Effect Two: Wind trail retention, after rapid movement, leave an invisible trail for two seconds, which can be used for an additional 15% initial speed.
Xingyi Sect standard second-tier Body Technique Cloud-Ascending Ladder achieved Limit Breaking today.
Meng Chuan tried it on the spot, his body barely grazed the original position in an arc.
Indeed, when repeating the previous trajectory, he could feel a moment of leverage, his body felt much lighter.
Among martial arts, speed is unbeatable.
Wind trail retention holds great significance in combat, especially during skirmishes, it allows his speed to increase continuously, making Meng Chuan very satisfied.
As for the first effect, Cloud-Ascending Ladder inherently possesses temporary suspension capability, and the cloud platform can stabilize his form slightly, better than nothing.
Meng Chuan felt pleased, another cultivation technique achieved Limit Breaking, getting closer to myriad traits.
With the presence of one proof, he won't be overwhelmed by the increasing number of traits.
Even without looking at the panel, each trait would be firmly remembered and utilized in combat.
The phone screen beside a stone suddenly lit up, and he looked down to check it.
[End number 8085, Dear Silver Lion,
Your Honorary Armory access at Yong'an Police Station has been temporarily granted for one month, please redeem before expiry.]
Meng Chuan put down the phone and continued punching for another hour before stopping.
Returning home for a short rest, he waited for his aunt to serve the meal, while logging into the armory on his phone.
The top score showed 318, not much different from Captain Liu's estimate.
Meng Chuan browsed through the redemption list.
The redemption prices hadn't changed much since last time, only the price of nurturing items dropped significantly.
"Probably related to what I confiscated..."
Scarcity leads to value; the abundant nurturing items in the treasury resulted in a price drop.
He didn't need much of these, only Esoteric Sect Hard Skills needed incense during breakthroughs.
Thus, he used small change to buy some Esoteric Sect incense.
Meng Chuan was preparing for the future, preventing a scenario like before when Martial Arts Merchant Mall rose to two thousand per stick...
He continued to scroll down, this time having completely eradicated the Demon Summoning Hall's Yong'an branch, many good things were confiscated.
Meng Chuan swiped twice and found something interesting.
[Team Divine Mat]
"Used by the Jiao Demon's True Spirit for daily cultivation, specially supplied after battle, not exchangeable for personnel not involved in the 12.25 event."
Price: 220 Merit Points.
Function: Sit cross-legged to accelerate certain meditation speeds, while aiding in the cultivation of spiritual techniques.
This item is truly not cheap, but indeed a rarely seen good treasure in regular times.
Seeing there's only one in stock, Meng Chuan purchased it without hesitation.
"My weaknesses have already shown in this mission, strengthening my spiritual power is urgent.
As long as it aids the cultivation of Dragon Sitting Zen, I must acquire anything I can afford."
For the remaining points, Meng Chuan took out one-third, buying all the Esoteric Oil in the Armory's stock.
Certainly all sourced from Little Mustache, the price is quite cheap.
However, apart from himself, no one else in the police department practices Esoteric Hard Skills.
Chief Long knows he's practicing Esoteric Hard Skills; these things will sell much higher in the market than the points cost.
Meng Chuan speculates this is exclusive welfare left for him, the people in the police department are pretty decent...
Thinking of this, he recalled Little Mustache's mentioning of an Esoteric Cultivation Technique, planning to call and ask after dinner.
Afterward, he went on a spree, not needing to save the remaining merits, splurging them all on purchasing ingredients for Medicinal Paste.
Besides Esoteric Oil, external skill liniments can also be bought a bit cheaper from Brother Gang's fight club.
Comparatively, it's still more cost-effective to exchange merit points for Medicinal Paste.
"There are still plenty of external skill liniments, my over two million left will be spent entirely on striking and Five Elements Soup."
His real hope was to use merit points to exchange for Five Elements Soup's ingredients.
Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned; the Armory didn't have what he needed.
The Five Elements Soup gulping down silently each day meant spending ten thousand yuan; Meng Chuan could only grit his teeth and endure...
Lastly, Meng Chuan saw a True Martial Fist Blade, seized from a Demon Path martial artist.
[Fist Blade·Blood Chiwen]
"First Grade True Martial, possesses a severing special effect, strongly damaging to Protective True Qi."
Meng Chuan heard from others that the only heavily injured martial arts family member last night got their lung hurt by this thing.
He took a glance at the exchange price and then redirected his gaze.
"5000 merit points... forget it, it's not that I can't afford it; mainly, I don't have True Qi, can't control it..."
After some self-consolation, Meng Chuan looked again at the True Skill Level Hard Skills from the last time.
Still no one exchanging them, but that's normal, since ancient times, practicing hard skills has been a niche path.
"In the future, when I attend United University, I can obtain them through school's channels; even with enough merits, there's no need to exchange here."
The harvest from this mission was completely consumed, hearing his aunt calling for dinner, Meng Chuan contentedly exited the Armory.
Lingering on his personal information panel, his martial exam bonus points had already been credited.
"The efficiency of the police department is swift; now the Grandmaster Class should be firmly secured..."
He planned to finish sophomore year, and next year's end of July, join the seniors to participate in the national martial arts exam, entering university one year early for quicker access to university benefits.
Great Chu's related laws stipulate:
[Great Chu citizens can only enter Martial Arts University after reaching adulthood.]
He would turn eighteen exactly on June 6 next year, fully meeting the criteria.
Previously, he had no confidence in skipping a grade to enter the Grandmaster Class, but his confidence had inflated as his strength grew.
Meng Chuan's original weakness was Qi Blood, starting late after all.
But as he learned Five Elements Qiankun Fist, his Qi Blood began to surge drastically, soon nearing Eight Gates.
Considering Qi Blood, combat assessments, and potential evaluations together.
Based on previous requirements, achieving eighty-eight points permits enrollment in United University's Yong'an branch Grandmaster Class.
The head office's requirements would be higher, yet Meng Chuan feels he can still meet them.
After all, Silver Medal is extremely rare; any extra points he can get are seized.
But the main campus is too far from home, and inherently, Meng Chuan is a homebody.
Moreover, like now, with Master Luo not in the city, he misses him quite a bit...
As for Yanhua Martial Arts University, Meng Chuan doesn't plan to consider it.
After interactions with classmates in pre-advanced level recently,
He feels United University's martial arts atmosphere is excellent, and the classmates are all talented individuals.
The most crucial part is having Master Yang Huan's connection there, making life at United University easier...
Last night, he viewed the complete raid footage in the meeting room, Principal Yin and Master Yang showcased their powers in the sky.
Watching stirred the heart spirit, unable to calm for a long time.
"Having seen a higher mountain, one should work harder, practice the fist!"
...
After lunch, Meng Chuan called Chief Long.
[Xiaomeng, I've watched the footage; defeating the Jiao Demon's soul, great job!
Your strategy at the end also looked somewhat like old criminal investigations, did Meng Yongzhi teach you quite a bit? Haha.]
[Ashamed, Uncle actually does teach me a lot.]
Meng Chuan laughed awkwardly; last night, that trick was indeed a spur-of-the-moment thing.
[The Esoteric Cultivation Technique you mentioned is currently in the department.
It still needs one day for technical inspection and library processing; why not come by tomorrow to have a look?]
Long Jiu knows what Meng Chuan is anxious about, so he doesn't beat around the bush.
[Alright, Uncle Long, I'll come first thing in the morning tomorrow.]
The battle armor case was returned last night with Old Wu's help, although Captain Liu instructed him to play with it for two more days.
But since it's not his own, Meng Chuan doesn't want to spend more time on it; in the future, when he's wealthy, he plans to purchase one for slow wear.