A Million Military Merit Points

At that moment, Elder Xiu's eyes lit up.

He stared at the restored Great Wall on the screen, at the nomadic cavalry trapped in the valley, and at the territorial army that was closing in.

Then he spoke slowly, his voice soft, yet carrying an uncontrollable tremor.

"I didn't know you could do that."

The purpose of building city walls was not to prevent the enemy from entering, but to trap them inside once they entered, preventing their escape.

Absolutely.

Absolutely brilliant.

He suddenly remembered the Limu Nest he was exploring.

The predicament that had plagued them for two years... the lair monsters came and went like the wind, running away when they couldn't be defeated, only to return again, making them impossible to completely eradicate. If they used this approach—building rapidly repairable blockades at key passages, letting the monsters in, then sealing off their escape routes, effectively trapping them...

Wouldn't that solve the long-standing problem?

Having figured this out, Elder Xiu suddenly raised his head and said in a deep voice, "The parts of this instance related to Su Mu are also completely blocked."

Everyone was taken aback.

"Elder Xiu?" someone asked doubtfully. "Su Mu's combat power was too overwhelming before, so sealing him was one thing, but this dungeon design... wasn't it unnecessary?"

Elder Xiu offered no explanation. He simply stared at the light screen, his gaze deep and thoughtful.

Everyone looked at each other, but no one spoke. After all, they were on different sides, and the information they had was different. Elder Xiu must have had his reasons for making such a judgment.

Elder Xiu withdrew his gaze and continued watching.

After this initial success, the nomadic tribes attempted it several more times.

They changed direction, time, and tactics. But each time, the beacon towers would detect the breach immediately, the Great Wall would repair the gap in a short time, and the heavy infantry and crossbowmen would quickly surround them.

They tried to feign a retreat to lure the territory's army out of the city, but the territory's army always relied on the Great Wall to fight and never ventured deep into the grasslands.

This is an open strategy.

The Great Wall is there, the beacon towers are there, and the heavily armored infantry and crossbowmen are there.

You know how it works, you know where its weaknesses are, but you have no way to crack it.

In the thirty-fifth year, the three tribes united, gathered 100,000 cavalry, and launched their final large-scale attack.

They concentrated all their forces and launched a fierce attack on a pass in the middle section of the Great Wall.

One hundred thousand cavalrymen charged in waves, arrows raining down like locusts, their battle cries deafening. But the crossbowmen on the Great Wall held the high ground, and the heavily armored infantry held the pass, while beacon towers relayed enemy information to the rear in real time. Following the beacon towers' guidance, the territorial army simultaneously surrounded the enemy from three directions.

One hundred thousand cavalrymen were trapped at the foot of the Great Wall, unable to advance or retreat.

Their wildebeest lost their speed advantage against the heavily armored phalanx, and their arrows were largely ineffective against the defenses of the S-rank Great Wall. Once the territorial army had completed its encirclement, they had no escape route left.

Of the 100,000 cavalrymen from the three tribes in that battle, fewer than 20,000 returned alive.

From then on, no tribe on the grasslands dared to approach the Great Wall.

The population within the territory began to grow year by year. By the thirtieth year, the population had decreased to ninety-two million. However, after the thirty-fifth year, with the complete elimination of external threats, the population began to steadily recover.

In the fiftieth year, the population recovered to 120 million.

In the seventieth year, it was 150 million. In the one hundred and tenth year, it was 176 million.

The population returned to its initial 176.

Su Mu, standing high in the sky, looked at this prosperous territory, at the Great Wall that stretched for eight hundred miles, and at the eerie blue flames burning on the beacon towers, and slowly exhaled.

In the 100th year, a beam of white light fell from the sky.

The assessment is over.

At this moment, on the floating platform, Elder Xiu had already transmitted Su Mu's copy performance to the Limu Nest Command Center through the authorization.

Less than ten minutes later, a message came from the other end.

"Old Xiu, where did you get this design? It's absolutely brilliant! It achieves an incredibly high level of effect with minimal cost. Our experts here have analyzed it and found that it can be implemented with just a few minor adjustments, and the cost won't be too high."

Elder Xiu replied, "A high school student taking the college entrance exam."

The other side remained silent for several seconds.

"A student preparing for the college entrance exam? How is that possible? Could a student preparing for the college entrance exam have such a design?"

Elder Xiu didn't say much.

Another message came from the other end, the tone filled with undisguised shock and urgency. "Who is it? Students like this are naturally meant to be recruited by us."

Elder Xiu replied, "We cannot disrupt the opponent's growth trajectory. His strength lies not only in this aspect."

There was another moment of silence on the other end.

"To receive such praise from you, that young examinee must possess extraordinary talent. However, given his significant contribution, he must be rewarded."

"That's natural."

"We don't know the specific rewards he needs, so let's just reward him with military merits. My authority allows me to approve up to one million military merits."

Elder Xiu nodded.

One million military merits.

If others knew about this, they would be green with envy. You see, one million military merits is equivalent to directly reaching the authority of a major.

And this access was granted only to a college entrance exam candidate.

Moreover, this million military merits can be used to purchase a large amount of resources from the military, making its value unimaginable.

Another message came from the other end. "Send me his account information, and I'll give him a reward."

Elder Xiu replied, "I will handle this matter."

The person on the other end paused for a moment. "You even need to guard against me? Is this person really that important?"

Elder Xiu replied, "It's more important than you think. It's not to guard against you, but because your area is on the front lines. There are all sorts of spies there."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, then a reply, "Understood."

Communication ended.

Through his own procedures, Elder Xiu transferred the one million military merits to Su Mu's account. These merits would only be officially recorded when Su Mu first entered the military system.

After doing all this, he looked back at the light screen.

The entire process of Elder Xiu's communication with the other side was kept in a blocked state.

An invisible barrier enveloped him, cutting off all communication.

The proctors present could only see Elder Xiu standing at the edge of the platform, his dark gold token glowing faintly, his lips occasionally moving; they could hear and see nothing else.

No one dared to use their mental power to spy on it.

Someone of Elder Xiu's caliber would be instantly detected even by the slightest probing touch of his spiritual power.

Moreover, everyone present was under Silencing Curse, so no one would joke about the backlash to their soul.

A few minutes later, Elder Xiu put away the token and turned around.

His expression remained calm, showing no sign of anything amiss.

No one asked any further questions.

What they didn't know was that in those few short minutes, Elder Xiu had already secured one million military merits for Su Mu.

If they knew, they would be absolutely shocked and lose their composure.

What does one million military merits mean?

The proctors present were all dungeon masters of at least level 50, and most of them had part-time jobs in the Dungeon Master Association or the military system.

Many of them spent their entire lives striving for military merit.

Completing garrison duties, eradicating enemy strongholds, and participating in border wars—every time was a life-or-death struggle. A lucky player might accumulate 10,000 military merits in a year. An unlucky player might not even manage a few thousand in one or two years.

One million military merits is equivalent to directly obtaining the rank of major.

Most of the people present never reached this threshold in their entire lives.

Some people have worked hard for over a decade, rising from a regular dungeon raider to the Second Transcendence, only to accumulate around 300,000 military merits.

Some people had participated in three border wars, bearing seven scars, yet their military merits amounted to just over 500,000. Su Mu, on the other hand, was a college entrance exam candidate who earned one million military merits in a single exam.

If this gets out, the entire Dungeon Master Association will be in an uproar.

But nobody knows.