"Brother Lin, you've given us too many military merits; there's no need for this."
"We're only lending it to you temporarily, for less than a day, so you don't need to pay us back double."
"Yes, it's all thanks to your abilities, Brother Lin, that you've earned so many military merits."
After leaving the arena, Lin An transferred two thousand military merits to Zhou Ping, asking him to help distribute them.
"Please don't refuse, gentlemen. If it weren't for the military merits you've provided for me, I wouldn't have been able to enter the arena."
Lin An smiled and said, "I won't say anything more. I'll head back now. If you need anything, feel free to come find me."
After giving everyone his address, Lin An left.
The group looked at Lin An, bewildered, and ultimately decided to accept the credit.
Lin An glanced at his token. Although he had given Zhou Ping and the others two thousand military merits, he still had twenty thousand military merits left.
"That's enough to buy a batch of resources and help me break through to Platinum Ninth Grade."
Thinking it over, Lin An went directly to the exchange hall.
He spent a thousand military merits to purchase a batch of resources, which was roughly enough for him to cultivate to the Platinum Ninth Grade Perfection.
Then Lin An spent another 5,000 military merits to buy a batch of materials, intending to use them to upgrade the rank of Condemnation.
Currently, Condemnation is only at Platinum quality; it can be upgraded to Diamond Tier.
He still had 14,000 military merits left, just enough to exchange for a storage ring with a size of 5,000 cubic meters.
The storage ring he's using now was the one he got back in Shenglin City; it's a bit too small, and he should have replaced it a long time ago.
After finishing his merit points, Lin An left the exchange hall and returned to his residence.
"I almost forgot, I haven't claimed last month's ranking results yet."
Lin An opened the leaderboard.
[Leaderboard results successfully settled.]
[You are ranked number one on 11 leaderboards. Please select the type of reward you wish to receive.]
There are 10 secondary professions, plus the Realm Ranking, making a total of eleven.
"Attribute points," Lin An said.
[Selection successful. Congratulations! You have gained a total of 21,300 attribute points.]
Lin An nodded in satisfaction. It was a pity that he had previously upgraded all his secondary professions except for formations to the Bronze Tier; otherwise, he would have received even more attribute points.
I glanced at my attribute points; I now have 298,224, nearly 300,000.
"It's still not enough; it's not enough for me to cultivate the Lin Clan Cultivation Technique to a minor level of mastery."
Lin Clan Cultivation Technique is currently only at the proficient level. To reach the minor success level, 600,000 attribute points are needed, and he is still halfway there.
"Once I break through to the Platinum Ninth Grade Perfection, I'll emerge from seclusion to hunt down Sin Beast and earn attribute points."
"Anyway, the one thing this Sin Abyss has no shortage of is Sin Beast."
Thinking it over, Lin An activated the Aura Concealment Formation and entered cultivation once again.
Time flies.
Even without the boost of ten times the cultivation speed, his cultivation speed was still very fast. In just half a month, he successfully broke through to the Platinum Ninth Grade.
However, he did not stop. On March 1st, his cultivation level reached the Platinum Ninth Grade Perfection.
At this point, only six months remained before the players arrived.
After receiving another 21,300 attribute points, Lin An also stopped cultivating.
"The three-month competition is almost over, with only one month left."
"It's time to go out and do a mission."
"This month, I'll try to hunt down more Sin Beast to obtain enough attribute points to upgrade the Lin Clan Cultivation Technique to the minor completion level."
Thinking it over, Lin An took out the Condemnation Condemnation again, thinking it was time to upgrade its grade.
Lin An then used his attribute points to feed materials directly to Condemnation.
It wasn't until 50,000 attribute points and a batch of materials were spent that the Condemnation's grade was upgraded again.
[Your Condemnation rank has been upgraded to Diamond Tier.]
[ Condemnation ]: Diamond Tier, bound, infinitely grows, indestructible, a treasured sword forged from multiple materials, possessing armor-piercing and tearing effects, with the following attributes: lightning, wind, metal, wood, fire, earth, and ice.
The changes aren't significant, but since it's a Diamond Tier weapon now, its power is naturally stronger.
Lin An nodded in satisfaction, then tidied himself up, got up and walked out of the room, then paused.
Because he saw He Changshan and the other two happen to pass by his door.
Similar to last time, the three of them were still injured. If Lin An hadn't just received the ranking rewards, he would have thought that time had reversed.
Although the three of them were in a somewhat disheveled state, their cultivation levels had all improved by one rank.
"Brother Lin, it's been a month since we last met. Are you off on a mission?" He Changshan and the other two were taken aback for a moment, then asked with a smile.
"Yes, I do plan to do a mission," Lin An nodded.
"Brother Lin, you haven't stopped doing missions these past two months, have you?" Shang Minghai asked doubtfully.
Last month, they also saw Lin An going out. At the time, they thought that after he failed in his mission, he would come to them to team up.
They waited and waited, but never saw the other person, and almost thought that Lin An had already run into trouble outside the pass.
"Yes, I've been practicing my cultivation techniques lately," Lin An said.
"It seems Brother Lin has now mastered his skills; no wonder he's going out on missions," He Changshan said with a smile.
Lin An opened his panel and glanced at it, only to find that he didn't have any fully mastered cultivation techniques. He was only proficient in the Lin Clan Cultivation Technique, while the others were at perfection.
After chatting with the three for a few minutes, Lin An left.
"It's too late to start the mission now. I heard that someone has already earned more than 5,000 military merits in the past two months."
"The three of us have only earned a little over three hundred military merits each so far. We can forget about making it into the top ten; we just hope to get into the top one hundred."
"Get well soon, we have another mission early tomorrow morning."
The three of them talked as they returned to their respective rooms.
Meanwhile, Lin An had already arrived at the mission hall.
This time, he didn't encounter Zhou Ping and the others again; he went directly to the task acceptance window.
"Accept the hunting mission," Lin An said.
Hunting missions are long-term missions without specific objectives. As long as Sin Beast is hunted, the token will automatically absorb a wisp of the Sin Beast's death energy, which can then be exchanged for military merits upon returning.
As for the materials and crystal cores of the Sin Beast, they do not need to be handed over.
"Alright, the token function has been activated for you." The staff member returned the token to Lin An.
After Lin An took it, he discovered that the token did indeed have three more functions.
The first is the function of absorbing death energy, the second is the function of calling for help, and the third is the map function.
After receiving the token, Lin An walked outside and activated the map, causing a light screen to appear.
Heavenly Vault Pass located in the lower left corner of the map, and outside Heavenly Vault Pass, most of the area is shrouded in mist, clearly indicating that there are still many places in the Sin Abyss that have not been explored.
The map shows the situation within a radius of tens of thousands of miles outside Heavenly Vault Pass, marking mountains, rivers, and dangerous areas.
"Having a map makes things much simpler; after leaving the pass, we won't be like headless flies, not knowing where to hunt Sin Beast."
Thinking about it, Lin An quickly arrived at the exit of Heavenly Vault Pass.