Yang Wenqing left the precinct's main building and headed straight for the Folk Customs Division. Unlike his last visit, quite a few people were inside this time, though most sat at wooden tables by the windows, reading the materials in their hands.
"Police Sergeant, is there anything I can help you with?"
A gentle female voice sounded beside Yang Wenqing. When he turned around, he saw the female security officer from last year again and immediately replied, "I'm here to receive a cultivation method for the Qi Refining Stage, along with some spell-seal techniques."
As he spoke, he walked up to the female security officer's counter and handed over the certification document Deputy Division Chief Li had given him. While she picked up the document to inspect it, he removed his badge and placed it on the counter as well.
The female security officer kept smiling, unsurprised by Yang Wenqing's purpose in coming here. After skillfully verifying his identity, she returned his badge and pointed toward the staircase leading upward in the distance. "Please follow me, Police Sergeant."
Yang Wenqing nodded and silently followed the female security officer toward the stairs. When they were nearly at the second floor, she suddenly asked, "Have we met somewhere before?"
"Last year, when I came to receive my second spell seal, I think you were the one who handled it for me."
"I think I remember now."
As she spoke, the female security officer turned back and gave Yang Wenqing a careful look, then said nothing more.
The second floor was completely different from the open layout downstairs. Upon reaching it, they found a quiet, enclosed corridor. Heavy metal doors lined both sides, each without a window, bearing only faintly glowing jade plaques inscribed with different markings in ancient seal script.
The lighting here was dim. The female security officer led Yang Wenqing to an iron door and stopped before it. "Your badge has one authorization to open this door."
After saying that, she gave him a formulaic smile and decisively left.
Yang Wenqing watched her disappear into the stairwell before turning his gaze to the iron door before him. Then, as instructed, he pressed his badge against an indentation in the door.
The badge fit the indentation perfectly with a soft click. A dull clatter of mechanisms turning and a low hum came from inside the iron door, then the heavy door suddenly swung inward.
The room beyond was smaller than expected. Only a few wisps of dim green light, seeping in from who knew where, barely outlined its shape.
A gigantic mechanical puppet occupied half the room.
It was a grotesque creation forcibly pieced together from countless brass gears, dark pipes, and metal components of unknown material. Its head was a hemisphere embedded with dozens of crystals of varying sizes. Their light pulsed faintly like living creatures as they coldly watched the intruder.
Yang Wenqing had seen this kind of puppet at the Security Academy. Even so, the sight of it still made his scalp prickle. Yet he did not hesitate. The moment he stepped into the room, the iron door silently closed behind him.
He raised the badge in his hand again, facing the enormous mechanical puppet.
A solid beam of green light shot from the puppet's dim green crystals and precisely enveloped the badge in Yang Wenqing's hand. The badge instantly became scorching hot, and countless tiny golden runes, dense as ants, surfaced across it.
The process lasted roughly ten seconds. The green light abruptly vanished, and the badge returned to normal. Then a mechanical, icy voice spoke. "Ninefold Refinement Method has been stored within the core formation of your badge. Be sure to keep it safe."
Before Yang Wenqing could breathe a sigh of relief, the crystals in the puppet's head lit up again. This time, dozens of ghastly white threads, thin as hairs, pierced into Yang Wenqing's brow in an instant with the speed of a thunderclap!
"Ugh!"
Yang Wenqing let out a muffled groan, feeling as though his head were about to explode. Countless unfamiliar diagrams, runes, spiritual energy circulation paths, along with related incantations and insights, surged brutally into the depths of his memory like a breached dam.
Wind Controlling Technique, Earth Listening Technique, Sword-Controlling Art, Clear Mind Spell...
Information related to one basic spell-seal technique after another was forcibly branded into his memory.
Who knew how long passed? Perhaps it was only an instant, perhaps a long quarter of an hour. At last, the ghastly white beams dissipated.
Yang Wenqing staggered a step and had to brace himself against the cold wall to steady himself. Fine beads of cold sweat covered his forehead, and his face was somewhat pale, but his eyes shone with unusual brightness.
The dim green glow in the giant mechanical puppet's eyes had faded, returning it to its former lifeless state, as though none of this had ever happened.
The room fell into dead silence again. Only the occasional creak of turning gears proved that this colossal thing was still operating.
Yang Wenqing took several deep breaths, solemnly bowed to the eerie mechanical puppet, then turned and used his badge to open the iron door again. His steps were slightly unsteady as he walked out.
By the time he reached the stairwell, the spiritual energy within Yang Wenqing's Qi Sea had already completed one Greater Celestial Circuit, and he had recovered. When he emerged from the stairwell, an illusory barrier formed at the entrance to the corridor, completely cutting off the outside world's senses.
The moment he stepped out of the stairwell, two people came up to him. They were his fellow classmates, Wu Qi and Song Yu. "I told you it was Wen Qing, see?"
Song Yu spoke to Wu Qi first, then looked at Yang Wenqing. "Congratulations, Wen Qing. You should be the earliest one among our batch to advance to the Qi Refining Stage."
Wu Qi's gaze fell on Yang Wenqing's shoulder insignia, and he said in disbelief, "How did you manage it, Wen Qing? Your cultivation aptitude should be about the same as mine."
Facing them, Yang Wenqing's expression relaxed somewhat. "I just worked a little harder than usual. The time I spend cultivating bitterly every day is several times yours."
Wu Qi replied, "You should know that the City Defense System has no shortage of hardworking people."
People who liked reading history were just that stubbornly particular.
"This is Wen Qing's own business. Wen Qing is already a Police Sergeant, so treating us to a meal shouldn't be a problem, right?" Song Yu timely interrupted their conversation. He was reminding Wu Qi not to pry into other people's privacy, and even more so reminding him that the bureau had already promoted Yang Wenqing. That meant there would be no problem with this advancement.
"Are you two off today?" Yang Wenqing took the opportunity to change the subject.
"We've both been transferred to the night shift," Song Yu answered.
"What about Liu Rong?" Yang Wenqing asked.
"Him? Sigh, his luck was terrible. During the demon cleanup before the New Year, he got screwed over badly by his station chief. He's recovering at home now. From what he said, being able to keep his life was already like striking it rich by sheer luck."
Wu Qi lowered his voice as he answered.
"What happened?" Yang Wenqing asked even more quietly.
As the three talked, they had already left the Folk Customs Division and stopped beneath a banyan tree beside the gravel path. Only then did Wu Qi begin speaking of Liu Rong's situation. During the cleanup operation before the New Year, a cave had been discovered deep in the mountains under their responsibility. Ordinarily, something like that should have been reported to the action team, or investigated only after obtaining more specialized equipment.
But for some reason, their station chief had gone mad, relying on his cultivation and personally leading the way into the cave. Who would have thought that inside was not a demon, but an evil Qi Refinement Practitioner at the Seventh Refinement.
"Originally, that evil cultivator had no intention of fighting, but Station Chief Cao insisted on tangling with him. In the end, the evil cultivator was driven to desperation and actually activated the traps inside the cave without a care for anything else, intending to perish together with Station Chief Cao."
At a nearby morning tea restaurant by the police station, after the three had taken their seats, Wu Qi continued recounting what had happened before the New Year. "Because Liu Rong was a newcomer, he was stationed on the perimeter as a guard, so he escaped disaster. As for the others... sigh, anyway, it was terrible. West City Public Security Station is practically paralyzed now. They can only rely on militia squads even for patrols."
Before you continue