Point Allocation Rules

Lu Yuan had a good night's sleep, and his body had mostly recovered. Only a small wound remained on his chest.

But the Essence Restoration Pill's effects had run out, so Lu Yuan would have to recover from that last bit slowly on his own.

Or he could try to get another pill out of Ji Yin.

Considering how pained Ji Yin had looked at the time, Lu Yuan didn't think his chances were good.

The math exam was that morning, followed by the comprehensive science exam in the afternoon. Unlike the agonizing Chinese and foreign language exams the day before, Lu Yuan felt confident about both subjects.

For one thing, the two subjects were almost identical to those in his previous life. For another, they were what he had focused on during the month and more he had spent imprisoned by the cult.

He had recovered much of his experience solving problems from his previous life. It would be a lie to say he could get a great score, but out of a total of 750 points, Lu Yuan only needed 250 to reach the qualifying score for admission to Cultivation University.

Not to mention that Lu Yuan had earned military merit in the campaign to wipe out the cult, putting 200 points in his pocket already.

Surely he could get 100 points from Chinese and the foreign language combined. If he couldn't get 150 from math and comprehensive science, then he really would be a 250.

Oh, and there were also bonus points from the Internal Affairs Bureau's special commendation. Ten points was nothing to sneeze at.

When he got up, he found Xiao Bing still asleep against the sofa. Why hadn't she gone back to her own room? Lu Yuan didn't disturb her. He quietly washed up and had breakfast with his parents at the hotel buffet.

The lavish breakfast went without saying. As far as Lu Yuan was concerned, this world was a culinary desert anyway.

After breakfast, Dad accompanied him to the exam venue. Mom had been through a lot lately because of her health, so she stayed in the room to rest as well.

Lu Yuan could have gone to the exam on his own, of course, but it was an unwritten custom for parents to accompany their children to the college entrance exam, and he wasn't about to go against Dad's wishes.

He had originally planned to use his new phone to call Ji Yin's assistant and ask him to drive them to the exam venue in yesterday's car.

Unexpectedly, the hotel had a car ready to take guests there and back. It was even a top-of-the-line luxury car worth several million on the market, and it looked incredibly cool on the road.

When Lu Yuan came out of the exam venue that afternoon, the car appeared again, this time with Mom and his younger sister aboard.

The driver saw the whole family safely to the train station before saying goodbye and driving back to the hotel.

"You get what you pay for!"

The family stood at the station entrance, marveling. At twelve thousand a night, the hotel's service really was attentive.

But the entire family agreed that even if Lu Yuan became a wealthy cultivator someday, staying in a hotel like that would still be a textbook example of squandering money and ought to be expressly forbidden in the family rules.

The Lu family didn't have any family rules, so this became the first.

Back home in Ning City, Lu Yuan finally relaxed completely. It was also time to take stock of what he had gained from the trip.

He had called Ji Yin to confirm the 200 bonus points for the college entrance exam. With Directors Ji Yin and Zuo Ling submitting a joint report, the matter was as good as settled. All that remained was for the military's commendation order to reach the education department.

Then there was the friendship of the Internal Affairs Bureau, which Lu Yuan had earned through this incident. That, too, was a precious gain.

It wasn't just Zuo Ling and Ji Yin who would acknowledge what Lu Yuan had done. The Internal Affairs Bureau was a vast organization with branches everywhere, and its headquarters had influence that reached the heavens.

For a long time, the cult had left the Internal Affairs Bureau fuming with pent-up frustration. They wanted to make arrests, but didn't know where to start.

Lu Yuan had played a vital role in the destruction of the Jiangzhou cult. A detailed mission report had already been shared on the Internal Affairs Bureau's intranet. Bureau personnel everywhere marveled at what this final-year high school student had done and believed Lu Yuan had to join the Bureau after graduation.

They had even picked a codename for him. Lu Yuan's codename in the Internal Affairs Bureau was:

Fucking Daredevil

What else could you call someone who took the college entrance exam with a knife stuck in his chest?

On the second day after he returned home, Zuo Ling called Lu Yuan personally. Compared with Ji Yin, Zuo Ling sounded somewhat businesslike.

She got straight to the point.

"Lu Yuan, the Internal Affairs Bureau owes you a favor. When you need it, you can call me to collect."

Lu Yuan had taken the mission to earn military merit and get bonus points on the college entrance exam.

But because of Ji Yin's mistake, Lu Yuan had narrowly escaped death during the operation, and the danger had far exceeded expectations. Anyone could see that a single military merit award was rather meager, so Zuo Ling had added this reward.

The Internal Affairs Bureau had considerable influence, especially when it came to intelligence. This was an unexpected bonus for Lu Yuan.

Those were all his gains on the surface. His greatest gain was one only Lu Yuan himself knew about: what he had gained from the system.

The current system interface:

Merit Points: 10369

True Essence: 130/130 ling

Spiritual Pressure: 13 seals

Divine Sense: 24 thoughts

Return Progress: 11.18%

Martial Arts: Body-Protecting Shield (beginner)

After the mission to wipe out the cult was completed, Lu Yuan's system Merit Points had instantly increased by 10,000.

As for precisely when that had happened, Lu Yuan wasn't entirely sure. It seemed to have been the moment Ji Yin appeared and saved him when Guo Huai was about to kill him.

The changes to his True Essence were complicated and full of twists and turns, so he had to start from the beginning.

At the time, Lu Yuan and Guo Huai had been in the same car. When Lu Yuan realized the Internal Affairs Bureau was about to make its move, he started using Beyond-Limit Point Allocation.

His True Essence had been 120/120 then, and he had planned to use Beyond-Limit Point Allocation to raise it temporarily to 132/120.

Lu Yuan had tried Beyond-Limit Point Allocation in his cell, and it could substantially increase the effectiveness of his Body-Protecting Shield. With his life about to be on the line, he naturally wouldn't be stingy with his Merit Points.

But when he focused on the plus sign, his True Essence didn't become 132/120. Instead, it suddenly became 120/130.

For some reason, Beyond-Limit Point Allocation had turned into Upper Limit Point Allocation, and 1,000 had been deducted from his Merit Value, leaving him with 379.

The situation had been urgent, and Lu Yuan hadn't had time to investigate. He could only use Restoration Point Allocation immediately to refill his True Essence from 120/130. It cost 10 merit and brought it to 130/130.

He had then activated his Body-Protecting Shield and barely survived the explosion.

Looking back on it now, it was remarkable.

He remembered that when his True Essence was at 120, he couldn't raise its upper limit. He could only allocate temporary points at ten times the merit cost. The temporarily added True Essence would gradually dissipate within an hour or so.

But why had he suddenly been able to raise the upper limit again, and by 10 points at once?

Lu Yuan suspected it might have something to do with the change in his Spiritual Pressure.

When his Spiritual Pressure was at 12 seals, his True Essence upper limit had been 120. Now his Spiritual Pressure was at 13 seals, and his True Essence upper limit was 130. Judging by how the numbers matched, Spiritual Pressure seemed to determine the upper limit of True Essence.

But it wasn't that simple.

Lu Yuan remembered how the change in his Spiritual Pressure had come about. He had used Beyond-Limit Point Allocation to temporarily raise his True Essence to 132. After the temporary True Essence gradually dissipated, his Spiritual Pressure had increased by 1 point.

In other words, not only did Spiritual Pressure determine the upper limit of True Essence, but True Essence also affected the growth of Spiritual Pressure in turn.

Which of the two was the cause, and which was the effect?

Lu Yuan was utterly baffled.

But it didn't matter if he couldn't figure it out for now. Growth was a good thing either way. Lu Yuan was rolling in wealth now, so he wasted another 50 Merit Points testing his guess.

This time, it was indeed Beyond-Limit Point Allocation, and his True Essence temporarily became 135/130.

With that, Lu Yuan was basically able to determine the rules for allocating points:

1. Restoration Point Allocation. As long as True Essence isn't full, allocating points to it is Restoration Point Allocation, at a merit cost of 1:1.

2. Upper Limit Point Allocation. If True Essence is full but hasn't reached the upper limit imposed by Spiritual Pressure, allocating points to it is Upper Limit Point Allocation, at a merit cost of 1:100.

3. Beyond-Limit Point Allocation. If True Essence is full and has reached the upper limit imposed by Spiritual Pressure, allocating points to it becomes Beyond-Limit Point Allocation. It can increase True Essence by up to 10% of the upper limit, at a merit cost of 1:10.

With the point allocation rules cleared up, Lu Yuan had taken his first step toward exploring the system.

Then the system presented him with another puzzle.

Lu Yuan noticed that the number in the Return Progress field had increased by 0.01%, and was now at 11.18%.

If Return Progress was viewed as a collection of missions, then the progress bar should indeed have increased after Lu Yuan successfully completed his mission in Jiangzhou.

But the proportion was wrong.

If that mission, in which he had narrowly escaped death, was only worth 0.01%, then what was the previous 11.17%? Lu Yuan certainly didn't know of any 1,117 missions he had completed before that were as difficult as going undercover in the Jiangzhou cult. How many days had it been since he was reborn?

Maybe... a possibility suddenly occurred to Lu Yuan:

Wasn't I the one who completed the previous 11.17%?

The final change was the addition of a "Martial Arts" field. His Body-Protecting Shield had reached the beginner stage. This change had also happened after the battle.

At the time, Lu Yuan had been in the car. Seeing the blast wave rushing toward him, he had operated his Body-Protecting Shield with all his might to resist it.

The Body-Protecting Shield had barely blocked the impact, and Lu Yuan hadn't been torn apart on the spot. But he had still faintly heard something shatter. Thinking back, that might have been the sound of the Body-Protecting Shield breaking.

After the danger had passed, Lu Yuan activated his Body-Protecting Shield again, and the system gained a new display: Body-Protecting Shield (beginner).

Perhaps the Body-Protecting Shield Lu Yuan had cultivated for the previous month hadn't even been worth mentioning, and the system simply hadn't bothered to display it.

After shattering once in battle, the Body-Protecting Shield had finally advanced. Clearly, improving one's strength still depended on actual combat, even if that battle had consisted of nothing but taking a beating.