Heading to Central Province

However, Lu Feng immediately waved his hand.

"I've already obtained enough spoils from the annihilation of the Vajra Temple; no further rewards are needed."

"That won't do!" Wei Qingxuan glared at him.

"One million Merit Points may not seem like much, but it's a token of the department's goodwill, so you have to accept it! Otherwise, I might really turn against you!"

"In that case, thank you very much, Brother Wei."

Upon hearing the words "Brother Wei, "Wei Qingxuan immediately lit up with a smile.

"That's more like it!"

"Give me the token, and I'll transfer your merit points to you, brother!"

Lu Feng took out the token, and Wei Qingxuan waved his hand, causing the merit number on the token to instantly surge by one million.

His current token bears a total of 1.07 million merits.

"By the way, Brother Wei, I will be leaving the Bureau soon to travel to the Central Province royal family."

"What?"

A hint of surprise flashed across Wei Qingxuan's face.

"You just got back, what are you doing at the Central Province royal family? If you need any resources, just tell me, and I'll find them for you!"

Wei Qingxuan patted his chest and said confidently.

"It was Lu Shuang who invited me to accompany her to the Ten Thousand Swords Tomb Secret Realm."

"Ten Thousand Swords Tomb!"

Wei Qingxuan's pupils contracted.

"Lu Shuang... her surname is Lu? She's a member of the royal family?!"

Clearly, he also knew about this secret place.

"Brother Feng, you also have the surname Lu... You wouldn't happen to be...?"

"No, it's just a coincidence of surnames. I've already confirmed this with Lu Shuang."

Upon hearing this, Wei Qingxuan's expression visibly relaxed.

"The Ten Thousand Swords Tomb... is indeed a tremendous opportunity for you."

"However, we must be extra careful on this journey. The Central Province Plains are teeming with experts, far surpassing the strength of our northern regions."

Afterwards, Wei Qingxuan explained to Lu Feng in detail all the intricacies he knew about the royal family and the things one needed to be aware of.

Three full hours later, Lu Feng finally took his leave.

"The royal family actually has dozens of experts at the Celestial Person Realm! And the royal patriarch, Lu Tianming, is at the Celestial Person Realm Ninth Layer, just one step away from entering the Yin Spirit Realm!"

From Wei Qingxuan, Lu Feng learned that the current Emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty, Lu Yunqi, only possessed the Great Grandmaster Perfection at its peak.

The reason he stopped at the Great Grandmaster Perfection was because of an ironclad rule in the royal family.

Any member of the royal family who breaks through to the Celestial Person Realm must enter the Dragon Protection Pavilion and shall never again assume the position of Emperor.

The so-called Dragon Protection Pavilion was the place of seclusion for emperors and members of the royal family who broke through to the Celestial Person Realm throughout history.

The one with the highest cultivation level was Lu Tianming, the royal patriarch.

This person has been trapped in the Celestial Person Realm Ninth Layer for decades.

For the past two decades, the reason why neighboring countries have not dared to invade Great Qian is entirely due to Lu Tianming's leadership.

Lu Feng was secretly shocked; the royal family's foundation was indeed so profound.

Lost in thought, before he knew it, he had returned to Commandant Lu's residence.

You're back?

He only snapped out of his daze when he heard Lu Shuang's voice.

He then took out the token.

"Just now, Deputy Si Zheng Wei rewarded me with one million merit points. Adding that to the original seventy thousand, I now have a total of one million seven hundred thousand Merit Points."

"Now it's up to you. See how you design a set of regulations to reward the brothers of Commandant Lu's office."

Upon hearing this, Lu Shuang took the token, which indeed contained 1.07 million merit points.

She looked up, her expression complex.

"Are you sure? With so many merit points, if you used them yourself, it would be enough to exchange for a large amount of resources. With your current cultivation level of Great Mid-Stage Grandmaster, you could at least advance a step further."

Upon hearing this, Lu Feng shook his head.

Let alone the Great Mid-Stage Grandmaster, even if he could break through to the Celestial Person Realm in one fell swoop, it wouldn't be as satisfying for him as accumulating Demon Points to improve.

Furthermore, the highest-ranking weapons in the Demon-Slaying Bureau's warehouse are only fourth-tier Mortal Artifact, which he has no use for;

The highest level of cultivation technique he could exchange for was the Grandmaster level, which was equally useless to him.

Rather than letting them rot in my hands, I'd rather give them all to the Commandant's office.

"These merits are of little use to me, so I'll leave them to you. Once the government is running smoothly on its own, we'll head to Central Province."

Upon hearing this, Lu Shuang gave him a deep look and nodded solemnly.

Then, Lu Feng transferred all the merits on his token into a blank token with a wave of his hand and handed it to Lu Shuang.

One day later, Zhou Si emerged from seclusion, having successfully broken through to the Hua Jin.

That same day, Lu Feng publicly announced the appointment of Zhou Si as the Deputy Commandant of Commandant Lu's Commandery.

After that, Lu Shuang personally guided Zhou Si to familiarize herself with the procedures, systems, and personnel of the mansion, teaching her everything step by step.

Early on the third day, Lu Feng and Lu Shuang set off from Jinguan City and flew towards Central Province.

"Miss Lu, are you really not in a hurry? Won't we be late if we keep going like this?"

They hadn't flown far when Lu Feng couldn't help but ask.

Before he left, Lu Shuang gave him a map.

On the map, the route from Jinguan City to Central Province was clearly marked, with every point along the way and every location where monsters roamed were circled in red.

In several places, the route was clearly longer than usual.

It's obvious that Lu Shuang had somehow found out about his penchant for slaying demons and specially drew up this demon-hunting route map.

"The Ten Thousand Swords Tomb Secret Realm won't open for another two months. At our pace, half a month should be enough."

"Didn't you say you honed your skills in battle? Perfect, we can slay demons while traveling."

"The stronger you become, the greater your assistance to me once we enter the secret realm."

Upon hearing this, Lu Feng was speechless for a moment and could not refute it.

The two continued flying south.

Within the territory of the Northern Demon-Slaying Bureau, the demonic beasts had been largely eradicated, so the two did not linger.

Four hours later, the two flew out of the jurisdiction of the North City Demon-Slaying Bureau and arrived above a lush mountain range.

As soon as we entered the mountain, the roars of monsters could be heard incessantly.

"Although this place is within the Great Qian Dynasty, it is not under the jurisdiction of the North City Demon-Slaying Bureau. As long as these demonic beasts do not voluntarily enter the Demon-Slaying Bureau's territory, the division generally doesn't bother with them, hence the large number of demonic beasts."

"Among them, there is probably more than one Fifth-Tier Demon Lord. Be careful."

Lu Shuang spoke eloquently, as if she were the true ruler of the North City Demon-Slaying Bureau.

Lu Feng nodded, his divine sense sweeping across the entire mountain range.

There are at least tens of thousands of demonic beasts. If we were to find and kill them one by one, it would take at least half a day to clear them all out.

Although he had plenty of time, Lu Feng didn't want to waste it on the road.

With a thought, he took out the Eight Trigrams Profound Mystery Disc from his storage bag, then turned to Lu Shuang and said:

"Stay by my side, don't stray more than ten feet from me."

Having said that, he activated his True Essence and tossed the Eight Trigrams Profound Mystery Disc into the air.

In an instant,

The Eight Trigrams Profound Mystery Disc flashed white light and disappeared into the void.

Immediately afterwards, four towering pillars of light rose up from the four directions of the mountain range, covering the entire mountain!

"This... this is a formation?! When did you learn formations?!"

"Moreover, judging from the area covered by this formation, it's already comparable to a city-protecting formation!"

Lu Shuang stared intently at Lu Feng, her face filled with disbelief.

She thought she knew this man very well, but she had no idea when he had learned formations; she had never seen him use them before!

Just as she was stunned, a three-zhang-long (approximately 10 meters) white tiger phantom materialized in mid-air.

Then, the tiger's shadow roared silently to the sky and slammed its fist down on the forest!

In an instant, the screams of countless monsters echoed throughout the valley.

[Successfully slayed a second-tier serpent demon, gaining 10,000 Demon Points.]

[Successfully slayed a Tier 1 serpent demon, gaining 1000 Demon Points.]

System notification sounds rang in Lu Feng's ears.