Yang Wenqing walked out of the sub-bureau’s main building and headed straight for the Folklore Section. Unlike his last visit, the section was filled with people this time, though most were sitting at the wooden tables by the windows, reading through documents.

"Sergeant, is there anything I can help you with?"

A gentle female voice sounded by Yang Wenqing’s ear. When he turned, he saw the same female officer from last year and immediately responded, "I’m here to collect the cultivation Secret Technique for the Qi Cultivation Stage, as well as some Dharma Seal Magic."

As he spoke, he walked up to the female officer’s counter and handed over the authorization document from Vice Section Chief Li. While the officer took the document to examine it, he removed his badge and placed it on the counter.

The female officer maintained her smile, unsurprised by Yang Wenqing’s purpose for being there. After skillfully verifying his identity, she returned the badge to him and pointed to a staircase in the distance. "Please follow me, Sergeant."

Yang Wenqing nodded and silently followed the officer toward the stairs. Just as they were about to reach the second floor, she suddenly asked, "Have we met somewhere before?"

"I came to receive my second Dharma Seal last year. I believe you were the one who handled it."

"I think I remember now."

As she spoke, the officer glanced back to study Yang Wenqing for a moment, then said nothing more.

The second floor’s layout was completely different from the open-plan first floor. The top of the stairs opened onto a quiet, enclosed corridor lined with heavy metal doors on both sides. The doors had no windows, only jade plaques that shimmered with a faint light, each carved with different markings in an ancient seal script.

The lighting here was dim. The officer led Yang Wenqing to one of the iron doors and stopped. "Your badge has one-time access to open this door," she told him.

After saying this, she gave him a formulaic smile and promptly left.

Yang Wenqing watched her figure disappear down the stairwell before turning his attention to the iron door in front of him. Following her instructions, he pressed his badge into a recess on the door.

The badge fit the recess perfectly with a soft CLICK. The dull sound of turning mechanisms and a low hum echoed from within the iron door, and then the heavy door swung abruptly inward.

The room behind the door was smaller than expected. Only a few wisps of eerie green light, their source unknown, faintly outlined the room’s contours.

Inside was a massive mechanical puppet that took up half the space.

It was a bizarre creation, forcibly assembled from countless brass gears, dark pipes, and metal components of unknown materials. Its head was a hemisphere embedded with dozens of crystals of varying sizes. The light within them pulsed faintly like living things, coldly staring at the intruder.

Yang Wenqing had seen this type of puppet at the Police Academy, but seeing it now still sent a shiver down his spine. He didn’t hesitate, however. As he stepped into the room, the iron door closed silently behind him.

He once again raised the badge in his hand, facing the giant mechanical puppet.

The eerie green crystals on the puppet’s head emitted a solid beam of green light, precisely enveloping the badge in Yang Wenqing’s hand. The badge instantly became searing hot, its surface covered with countless minuscule, ant-like golden runes.

This process lasted for about ten seconds. The green light suddenly vanished, and the badge returned to its normal state. Then, a mechanical, icy voice spoke: "The Nine Refining Secret Skill has been stored in your badge’s core Array. Be sure to keep it safe."

The voice had barely faded when, before Yang Wenqing could even breathe a sigh of relief, the crystals on the puppet’s head lit up again. This time, dozens of deathly-white, hair-thin beams of light shot out with the speed of lightning, instantly piercing the spot between Yang Wenqing’s eyebrows!

"Ugh!"

Yang Wenqing grunted, his head feeling as if it were about to explode. Countless unfamiliar diagrams, runes, Spiritual Qi circulation paths, and their related incantations and insights flooded savagely into the depths of his memory like a bursting dam.

Wind Manipulation Technique, Earth Listening Skill, Sword Control Technique, Purifying Heart Spell...

Information on one basic Dharma Seal Magic after another was forcibly branded into his memory.

An unknown amount of time passed—perhaps just an instant, perhaps a long quarter of an hour—before the deathly-white light finally dissipated.

Yang Wenqing staggered and had to brace himself against the cold wall to keep his balance. His forehead was beaded with cold sweat and his face was a little pale, but his eyes were exceptionally bright.

The eerie green light in the massive mechanical puppet’s eyes had dimmed, returning to its previous lifeless state as if nothing had just happened.

The room fell silent once more, with only the occasional CREAK of a gear proving that the behemoth was still operational.

Yang Wenqing took a few deep breaths and gave the strange mechanical puppet a solemn bow. Only then did he turn, use his badge to open the iron door again, and walk out with slightly unsteady steps.

By the time he reached the stairwell, the Spiritual Qi in his Qi Sea had already completed a Grand Circulation, and he had returned to normal. As he exited the stairwell, an illusory barrier materialized at the corridor entrance, completely cutting it off from outside perception.

The moment he emerged from the stairwell, two people approached him. They were his classmates, Wu Qi and Song Yu. "See? I told you it was Wenqing."

Song Yu spoke to Wu Qi first, then turned to Yang Wenqing. "Congratulations, Wenqing. You must be the first in our class to be promoted to the Qi Cultivation Stage."

Wu Qi’s gaze fell on Yang Wenqing’s epaulets. "How did you do it, Wenqing?" he said in disbelief. "Your cultivation aptitude should be about the same as mine."

Facing them, Yang Wenqing’s expression relaxed a little. "I just work a bit harder than usual. I spend several times more hours in arduous training every day than you two."

But Wu Qi retorted, "You should know that the City Defense System has no shortage of diligent people."

’People who like history are always so pedantic.’

"This is Wenqing’s business. Now that he’s a sergeant, treating us to a meal shouldn’t be a problem, right?" Song Yu interjected, cutting them off. He was reminding Wu Qi not to pry into someone’s private affairs, and more importantly, that since the bureau had already promoted Yang Wenqing, there was clearly no issue with his advancement.

"Are you guys off today?" Yang Wenqing asked, taking the opportunity to change the subject.

"We were both moved to the night shift," Song Yu replied.

"What about Liu Rong?" Yang Wenqing asked.

"Him... sigh. He had some bad luck. During the Demon cleanup before the new year, his director really screwed him over. He’s at home recovering now. From the sound of it, he’s lucky to have even made it out alive."

Wu Qi answered in a hushed voice.

"What happened?" Yang Wenqing asked, his voice even lower.

As they spoke, the three of them left the Folklore Section and stopped under a banyan tree by a gravel path. Only then did Wu Qi begin to explain what happened to Liu Rong. It turned out that during the pre-new-year cleanup operation, a cave was discovered deep in the mountains they were responsible for. Normally, a situation like this should have been reported to the operations team, or they should have acquired more specialized equipment before investigating.

But for some reason, their director, relying on his own cultivation, personally led the way into the cave. Who would have thought that inside wasn’t a Demon, but an evil Qi Cultivator who had reached the Seventh Refinement.

"The evil cultivator didn’t even intend to fight, but that Director Li insisted on tangling with him. In the end, the evil cultivator was pushed too far and recklessly activated the traps inside the cave, trying to take Director Li down with him."

In a dim sum restaurant near the police station, Wu Qi continued the story after the three of them were seated. "Liu Rong only survived because he was a rookie on perimeter guard duty. As for the others... well, it was a total disaster. The West City Public Security Office is basically paralyzed now. They even have to rely on the militia for patrols."