The pressure to survive in the Demon Heaven Sect was immense. Plundering merit was an urgent necessity.
Before ascending Merit Peak, he had chatted with other new disciples from his intake to gather information. Unsurprisingly, moving out of Demon Coffin Mountain, trading a bird gun for a cannon, and settling in the Superior Mountain Range was no easy feat.
Cultivation abodes in the Superior Mountain Range were precious, coveted by everyone, and perpetually in short supply. Their rents in spiritual resources were terrifyingly high.
According to several well-connected, well-informed Dust Rank newcomers, a cultivation abode in a one-mark Superior Mountain Range cost roughly six thousand merit points a month, while a two-mark abode cost twelve thousand, and a three-mark abode twenty-four thousand.
In other words, on this merit expedition, he needed to seize at least ten thousand merit points.
Only then could he barely sustain himself, stockpile enough spiritual resources for cultivation, and move into a one-mark Superior Mountain Range, temporarily securing a cultivation abode of his own.
Yet every merit expedition had at least a hundred participants, while the total merit available was quite limited. There were too many wolves and too little meat, making competition ferocious.
For one person to earn ten thousand merit points in a single expedition was no less fantastical than a tale from the Arabian Nights.
Take the Cat Lady mission from earlier: one hundred and thirteen one-mark disciples had joined, but the total merit reward was only thirty thousand. Other gains along the way could earn additional merit, of course.
Still, the merit for Cat Lady made up the lion's share.
Over a hundred disciples dividing thirty thousand merit points would, even at the most generous reckoning, average only a little over three hundred points apiece.
Moreover, Cat Lady Mountain had eight thousand