Cross-Region Execution

May 13th.

Lu Hao was in no rush to head to the Detective Bureau for missions; instead, he focused on familiarizing himself with his own vitality. Back when he was at the peak of the First Grade, his control over his vitality had been close to his ultimate trump card, but now, he had regressed to the level of only being able to control his base vitality.

Currently, the power of every strike Lu Hao landed reached 34 cards, exactly at the one-tenth threshold. He had reached the level of controlling his own vitality, roughly on par with the level Lu Aoyun had previously displayed.

If his vitality increased again in the short term, his control would likely diminish further. Therefore, Lu Hao did not rush to take on missions, choosing instead to stay home and refine his control, striving to return to the level of mastery he had at the peak of the First Grade.

May 18th. After four days spent practicing his blade work every single day, Lu Hao's vitality control finally returned to a level approaching his trump card. Each attack could basically reach 50 cards of vitality, which was not far off from the combined power of the second strike of his Blood Battle Mad Blade.

During these four days, Lu Hao also tempered two bones. The tempering speed was about the same as it had been during his First Grade days; after all, these were just ordinary bones.

In the afternoon, Lu Hao returned to the Detective Bureau to accept a mission. Only three missions remained for the Second Grade: two for mid-stage Second Grade and one for high-stage Second Grade. None of them had specific locations.

In fact, one of the mid-stage Second Grade missions had been hanging there for nearly half a year. No one had found the target's specific location in six months, and it was impossible to even confirm if they were still in Magic City.

The other mid-stage Second Grade mission was also a month old, and one could see three previous attempts recorded, all of which had failed.

Lu Hao made his selection and accepted the remaining high-stage Second Grade mission. This mission had been posted just a week ago and no one had taken it yet. The target should still be in Beiding District and hadn't managed to escape.

After accepting the mission, Lu Hao began contacting the local police station to start the investigation and screening process.

May 22nd. It took five full days of searching before Lu Hao finally found his target. The target was truly well-hidden; ever since committing the crime, they had gone straight into the underground drainage system.

Once he located the target, Lu Hao defeated them without any suspense. The process was simple; after all, Lu Hao could now be considered invincible among the Second Grade. Since the target had no special tricks, Lu Hao didn't even suffer an injury this time, and he didn't even need to use the second strike of his Blood Battle Mad Blade.

He simply wore the target down with ordinary attacks until they were finished, earning 340 Slaughter Points.

He finally had some Slaughter Points, which eased the sense of crisis Lu Hao had felt due to his dwindling reserves.

The cost of bone tempering remained the same as before, basically requiring 50 Slaughter Points to temper one bone.

Lu Hao spent 300 points to temper 6 bones. Combined with the bones he had tempered during the time he spent on missions, he had now tempered a total of 10 bones.

May 23rd. He went to accept a mission and found that only those same two Second Grade missions remained. Lu Hao wasn't narcissistic enough to think that if others couldn't solve them, he suddenly could.

After much thought, Lu Hao spoke with his mother and prepared to go to other districts in Magic City to carry out missions. However, his mother told him that, given his current status, he was not permitted to accept missions in principle.

He had been able to accept missions in Beiding District only because of his mother's help. However, she provided a solution: he could be registered under the university now and carry out missions as a student of Magic City Martial Arts University.

Lu Hao contacted Zhang Yu, and after a conversation, Zhang Yu directly registered Lu Hao's status under Magic Martial and updated his martial arts certificate.

May 24th. He received the martial arts certificate sent by Zhang Yu. His cultivation level on it had been changed to Second Grade, and an extra line for his academy had been added, filled in with Magic City Martial Arts University.

So, in name, Lu Hao was now a student of Magic Martial, albeit one who hadn't even finished the college entrance exams yet.

With the help of his new martial arts certificate, Lu Hao and Viper began heading to other districts to start taking on Second Grade missions.

The first place they arrived at was Wanhui District, where Lu Hao had been before. A place this prosperous surely had more criminal martial artists.

Sure enough, upon arriving at the Detective Bureau there, Lu Hao saw six Second Grade missions: three low-stage, two mid-stage, and one peak-stage.

Moreover, the location of one of the low-stage Second Grade targets had already been confirmed. This was basically a free delivery of Slaughter Points, so Lu Hao accepted the mission and rushed over.

However, the criminal's location was in a busy downtown area. It took quite a bit of effort for Lu Hao and the police to lure him out of the crowd, after which Lu Hao killed him directly, earning 299 Slaughter Points.

Lu Hao couldn't even tell how poor the target's base vitality was; he probably relied entirely on pills to reach that level. His Second Grade vitality hadn't even reached 300.

Still, it was enough for Lu Hao to temper 6 bones.

After submitting the mission, Lu Hao checked the other tasks and accepted a mid-stage Second Grade mission. Since this crime had been committed recently, it should still be possible to find the culprit.

Thus, the boring journey of searching began again, lasting for an entire day.

That night, he went home and tempered 6 bones, bringing his current total to 16.

May 29th. He searched for four full days without finding the enemy; it was as if the person had vanished into thin air. With no other choice, Lu Hao had to abandon the mission and head to other districts to see what the situation was.

After circling around for an entire day, he found that there were two Second Grade missions in Dongpu District, but both were long-standing cases. Xijiang District didn't even have any Second Grade missions.

Fortunately, in the final district, Nanfeng District, Lu Hao found a mission suitable for him: a peak-stage Second Grade martial artist who had committed a crime just yesterday. The target's location had basically been narrowed down.

Lu Hao accepted the mission and began searching for this peak-stage Second Grade martial artist throughout the night. If he let this one get away, he likely wouldn't have any gains for a long time.

After all, there were so few Second Grade martial artists committing crimes in the Magic City area, and there were even fewer Second Grade martial artists in other places, let alone those who would actually commit crimes.

May 31st. Lu Hao finally found this walking pile of Slaughter Points. After grappling with the martial artist for a while, Lu Hao's attacks grew increasingly fierce, while the opponent's momentum waned. Finally, Lu Hao struck him in the chest with his blade.

The target died from ruptured internal organs, and with this, Lu Hao gained 379 Slaughter Points.

In just over half a month, Lu Hao had finished all the Second Grade missions around Magic City. It would be quite difficult to gain more Slaughter Points in the future; he could only passively wait to see if any new missions appeared.

Sigh, it was true that being on Earth severely limited the speed of his strength growth. If he were in the Earth Cave, his strength would probably increase by a stage every single day.

Lu Hao was now even more eager for the day he reached the Third Grade and could head to the Earth Cave. By then, he would surely have more Slaughter Points than he could ever use.

It seemed that for now, he would have to focus on his own cultivation while striving to bring his vitality control to the level of a true trump card.