16: Chapter 16 Military Merit Exchange

Without a moment's delay, Wang Guo led a slightly perturbed Lin Ye and a curious Wang Hu through the encrypted secret door deep within the observation tower.

This area was guarded to the absolute extreme. Pitch-black alloy high walls isolated the inside from the outside, their surfaces carved with sealing runes. Four demigod soldiers clad in dark golden armor and exuding profound auras stood at attention with spears in hand, each of their combat strengths far surpassing that of an ordinary true god.

Spatial blockade formations and spiritual interception formations were deployed all around; even high-tier powerhouses could not forcefully break in without permission.

"This is the Cangnan City Military Department's exclusive confidential office for military merits," Wang Guo lowered his voice, his expression solemn. "It only handles the residual military merits of martyrs and the exchange of battlefield achievements. Outsiders have no right to step foot here, and this is also the material exchange point with the highest clearance in all of Cangnan City."

The three of them proceeded all the way, verifying their identities and registering their spiritual patterns layer by layer, successively passing through three airtight alloy gates before finally arriving at a primitive, silent stone grand hall.

The hall was dark in tone, its floor paved with pitch-black spirit stone tiles. Suspended in the exact center was a translucent glazed divine mirror, with soft white light slowly flowing across it, permeated with a heavy aura of rules.

Deep within the hall, an elderly man with white hair cascading to his shoulders and an aged face leaned lazily against a stone chair. There was no overwhelming pressure around him, yet he naturally carried the heavy sense of weight brought by the precipitation of time. He was the high-tier true god guarding this place, specifically in charge of martyrs' military merits.

"Old Wang, why did you bring outsiders to barge into the Confidential Hall today?" The elder's eyelids lifted slightly, his murky eyes sweeping across the three of them, his tone calm yet majestic.

"Elder Qin, this person is the only son of Lin Jingfeng and Su Lan, Lin Ye." Wang Guo's attitude was respectful, without a shred of the arrogance of a guarding true god. "Today, I am applying to unlock the authority for the soul-bound military merits left behind by his parents, and hand them over to him for his own disposal."

Hearing this, the white-haired elder's expression grew slightly serious. His gaze fell upon Lin Ye, and his withered fingertips gently tapped.

A faint, transparent spiritual light instantly enveloped Lin Ye, seeping along his glabella deep into his soul to accurately verify his soul imprint.

A few seconds later, the divine mirror hummed, and dense golden characters emerged on the glazed mirror surface.

[Soul Imprint Detection: Match successful.]

[Holder: Lin Ye.]

[Inherited Merits: Lin Jingfeng, Su Lan.]

[Sealed Military Merits: 30,000 points.]

The cold system prompt echoed within the hall. The elder's pupils contracted slightly, and a trace of surprise appeared on his aged face.

"Thirty thousand military merits?"

Even Elder Qin, who was well-accustomed to high-tier merits, couldn't help but sigh softly.

An ordinary middle-tier true god who died in battle would leave behind no more than a few thousand points of military merits. For Lin Ye's parents to be able to leave behind thirty thousand points of military merits was enough to show their glorious achievements in conquering different realms and slaying monsters back in the day.

Wang Guo turned his head to look at a bewildered Lin Ye, and explained in a deep, meticulous voice: "The exchange rules for military merits are strict. One point of military merit is equivalent to one drop of purified faith stock solution."

"Thirty thousand military merits converted down comes to thirty drops of pure faith fluid."

As these words fell, Wang Hu beside them gasped deeply, his eyes wide open.

His family was a true god clan, yet their quota for every half year was only a single drop of faith fluid. Thirty drops of faith fluid could be called a terrifying, astronomical amount of resources.

"If you foolishly exchange them for universal credit points," Wang Guo continued to add, "one drop of faith fluid is equivalent to ten billion credit points, so thirty drops would be a full three hundred billion credit points."

"However, within the Source Realm, no one would be foolish enough to exchange military merits for credit points."

"Faith fluid and military merits are high-tier hard currencies that are priceless and in high demand. No matter how many credit points you have, you won't be able to buy a sufficient amount of resources."

Lin Ye's fingers hanging by his sides curled slightly, and a distinct brilliance surfaced in his cold eyes for the very first time.

Thirty drops of faith fluid.

These could completely cover the consumption of all the main materials for the transformation of Shagu Devouring Hounds, Qi-Blood Underworld Python, and Shadow Fox, and there would even be a large surplus.

The evolution of the Shagu Devouring Hounds is: Shagu Devouring Hounds → Marrow-Eating Demon Hound → Shahun Hound → Gluttonous Demon Hound → Blood Greedy Wolf → Mountain-Swallowing Wolf → Taotie Fierce Beast → Taotie.

The evolution path of the Qi-Blood Underworld Python is: Qi-Blood Underworld Python → Sha-Swallowing Python → Blood-Refining Python → Sha-Swallowing Boa → Myriad-Poison Demon Boa → Myriad-Poison Flood Dragon → Shayuan Flood Dragon.

Of course, the materials required further down the line would be astronomical numbers, but those could all be taken slowly!

The complete evolution trajectory of the Blood-Fiend Serpent clearly surfaced in Lin Ye's mind. Relying on his unique Ancestral Tracing and Origin Nourishing talent, the bloodline evolution chain of any fierce beast held no secrets in his eyes, completely eliminating the need to query the military department's database.

His gaze flickered slightly as he secretly finalized the cultivation direction for the serpent clan in his heart.

He was incomparably clear that the Blood-Fiend Serpent could evolve into the Hua-Sha Python at the first tier, hardening its physical body, massively increasing its poison glands, and freely inhaling and exhaling sha qi. Its final evolutionary form was the Shayuan Flood Dragon, which condenses flood dragon scales, controls torrents of sha qi, and awakens water-controlling divine powers, possessing infinite potential.

"The military department's exchange channel is thirty percent cheaper than external auction houses and divine pavilions," Wang Guo spoke up at the right time, pointing out the key advantage. "There are no middleman markups, no adulteration from the black market, and the material purity is one hundred percent. Do you want to supplement all your subordinate clan's advancement materials in one go?"

"That goes without saying!"

Lin Ye didn't hesitate in the slightest, his tone crisp and decisive. Grasping a massive amount of military merits, he no longer had to be restrained by resources; this was the most solid backing his parents had left for him.

The next instant, Lin Ye directly recited a long list of exchanges, clear and organized without any procrastination.

Category one: All materials for the evolution of the four clans.

Purgatory Fire Marrow, Divine Flame Crystal Core, Scorching Heaven Essence Blood... to complete the advancement materials for the Crimson Flame Heavenly Ape;

Shagu Spirit Liquid, Beast Marrow Crystal, Blood-Devouring Inner Core... dedicated to the transformation of the Marrow-Eating Demon Hound;

Poison Origin Heart, Sha Flood Dragon Scale, Black Water Nether Crystal... serving as the evolution core to complete the full-body Demonic Blood Python.

All materials were maxed out completely without a single omission, and even the ordinary materials were bought out here.

Category two: Brand new subordinate clan cards.

Lin Ye specially selected three subordinate clan cards suited for the wasteland and with extremely high cost-performance ratios to make up for the legion's shortcomings, while also purchasing all the materials for their evolution:

The first, a flying-type fierce beast card — [Shadow Soul-Devouring Crow]. Entirely pitch-black with wings that blot out the moon, it excels at high-altitude reconnaissance, group dives, and mental pecking, specifically countering concealed monsters and filling the void of him having no air force.

The second, a defense-type fierce beast card — [Black Rock Bone-Armor Turtle]. Thick-skinned and fleshy, bearing bone-spiked rock armor, it can guard mountain passes and act as the legion's meat shield.

The third, a swarm fierce beast card — [Bone-Eroding Poison Mosquito]. Tiny in size and massive in number, entwined with potent poison, it can carry out overwhelming toxin-covering attacks across the sky.

Category four: Auxiliary rule cards.

Two high-tier reproduction cards, one clan berserk card, and one bloodline solidification card. They strengthen the clan's breeding speed, stabilize the purified bloodline, and avoid advancement backlash.

Category five: Divine kingdom ecological expansion materials.

He purchased in bulk a large number of special seeds suited for the polluted wasteland: Blood-Coagulating Sha Grass, Nether Soul Spirit Fruit, and Black Rock Ancient Wood. They can purify turbulent sha qi while nourishing the physical bodies of fierce beasts, and once the spirit fruits mature, they can also purify bloodlines.

At the same time, he exchanged for a large mountain and river terrain card and two natural river expansion cards to modify the divine kingdom's landscape, creating rolling mountain ranges and deep underground rivers to forge hidden habitats for the snakes and foxes.