Merit Points

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Merit Points
Affiliation	Punish Evil System
Occupation/Role	System resource used for cultivation assistance, information-gathering, protection, and later treasury exchanges
Status	Active
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Initial documented balance	1	Shen Zhui holds 3,100 Merit Points after the system rewards him for apprehending Yang Cheng.
First system change	75, 76	After Merit Point activity surpasses roughly 500,000, Enlightenment and Awakening Time become transferable; the system also issues a First Preaching mission.
Eye of Insight unlocked	145	After cumulative spending exceeds five million, the system grants Eye of Insight, which consumes Merit Points to inspect targets.
Merit Barrier unlocked	244	At 10,020,000 cumulative Merit Points used, the system adds Merit Barrier.
Higher Enlightenment Time unlocked	447	At more than 101 million Merit Points used, a third comprehension tier becomes available at a stated minimum cost of 10,000 Merit Points per second.
Eye of Reincarnation and Great Dao Barrier	670	After cumulative Merit Points used reaches 10.25 billion, Eye of Insight and Merit Barrier are replaced or upgraded as Eye of Reincarnation and Great Dao Barrier.

Acquisition

Merit Points are awarded by the Punish Evil System for apprehending or killing targets whose sins meet its standards. The reward is determined by the target's cultivation, the difficulty of the action, and the depth of the target's sin; judgment is instantaneous rather than dependent on legal proceedings. 1

• Killing or apprehending stronger, more sinful targets generally grants greater rewards. 1 308
• Assistance receives reduced credit when another factor or person was decisive in the kill. 49 51
• Killing someone without sufficient Sin Value can deduct Merit Points rather than grant them. 133 163
• As Shen Zhui becomes stronger, rewards from weaker opponents decline; by the Invincible True God realm, killing an Invincible True God grants far less than it did when he was a Venerable. 770
• Expenditure on barriers and observation skills does not count toward system-upgrade totals; only Merit Points spent on comprehension and cultivation are counted. 771

Recorded Rewards

Event	Merit Points	Notes
Apprehension of sixth-stage Houtian Yang Cheng	160	Yang Cheng's sin value is assessed at 160. 1
Assistance in slaying a Yin God's clone	100,000	The system credits the County Magistrate's token as the primary factor, limiting Shen Zhui's personal reward. 51
Killing the green-armored assassin	10,000	Shen Zhui's first reward during the bounty hunters' pursuit. 96
Killing Jian Shiliu	960,000	Jian Shiliu is a Divine Ability Realm cultivator whose soul is destroyed by Shen Zhui. 229
Killing Bette	5,000,000	Bette is a peak Divine Ability Realm target. 434
Killing an alien third-tier Venerable	15,000,000	Used by Shen Zhui to estimate that Venerables meeting the execution threshold are worth at least five million points. 434
Killing 31 Mid-level and 68 Lower Divine Kings	1.6 trillion	This campaign raises Shen Zhui to four-star permission. 787

Uses

Enlightenment and Awakening Time

Merit Points can be exchanged for timed states that accelerate comprehension. Shen Zhui alternates these states with personal practice, testing insights rather than relying on the system continuously. 15 244

Function	Base Cost	Effect
Enlightenment Time	100 Merit Points per second	Helps identify shortcomings, review prior experience, and clarify a path of improvement; it can be gifted. 75 244
Awakening Time	1,000 Merit Points per second	Drives deeper deduction and mastery of cultivation methods, martial skills, and Daoist Magic; it can be gifted. 143 244
Higher Enlightenment / Comprehension Time	10,000 Merit Points per second minimum	Requires a selected cultivation method and scales sharply with the difficulty and grade of the target technique. 447 448 508

The highest tier cannot improve abilities that lack a path of personal comprehension, such as Sacred Word Divine Abilities that require external power rather than practice. 448

Eye of Insight

Eye of Insight consumes Merit Points to inspect target information. It can reveal a target's combat history, injuries, cultivation details, Sin Value, and the expected Merit Point reward for killing them. 145 155 163

• Shen Zhui uses it to identify whether a target can be killed without losing Merit Points. 163
• It helps him locate high-value Demonic Path cultivators whose Sin Value exceeds the execution threshold. 319
• Following the later system upgrade, it becomes the Eye of Reincarnation. 670

Merit Barrier

Merit Barrier consumes Merit Points to resist harmful forces and restrictions.

• It can block demonic blood erosion and mitigate environmental attacks containing Rule Power. 244 488
• Inside the Ciyun inheritance space, it temporarily repels suppressive Rule Power, allowing Shen Zhui to use his full cultivation and certain treasures. 335
• The cost rises with the intensity of the threat and the power of items being protected or retrieved. 244 276 335
• Maintaining the barrier normally costs 100 Merit Points per second in its early form, but restoring cultivation in the inheritance space costs 10,000 per second; summoning the Fighting Vajra raises this to 100,000 per second. 244 335
• It later becomes the Great Dao Barrier after the system's billion-scale upgrade. 670

Gifting and Preaching Rewards

Once the system changes after the 500,000-point threshold, Shen Zhui can gift Enlightenment and Awakening Time to others. 75 76

• The first documented Preaching Reward is triggered when Zi Xuan, a recipient of granted comprehension time, enters combat within the required time limit. 120
• The reward returns an additional one-fiftieth of the Merit Points spent, though Shen Zhui discovers that such notifications are limited rather than unlimited. 120
• At a later stage, Shen Zhui notes that gifted Merit Points can return to him if the recipient kills a target with sufficient Sin Value within a short period. 832

System Upgrade History

Upgrade	Unlocks / Changes	Requirements Documented
First change	Transferable comprehension time and First Preaching mission	More than 500,000 Merit Points accumulated or spent. 75 76
Second change	Eye of Insight	More than five million Merit Points cumulatively spent. 145
Third change	Merit Barrier	10,020,000 Merit Points cumulatively spent. 244
Fourth change	Higher Enlightenment Time	More than 100 million Merit Points cumulatively spent. 447
Fifth change	Eye of Reincarnation and Great Dao Barrier	10.25 billion Merit Points cumulatively spent. 670

Medal Authority and Treasury

During the Sha Min Star Domain campaign, Shen Zhui's medal records Merit Points for authority promotion and access to a campaign treasury. All True Gods begin with one-star authority. 768

Medal Authority	Requirement / Access
One-star	Starting authority for True Gods; treasury access includes Demigod Weapons, special cultivation methods, and Great Emperor-level secret arts. 768
Two-star	Requires one billion Merit Points and the killing of a Divine King. 768
Three-star	Shen Zhui identifies 50 billion Merit Points and one Mid-level Divine King kill as sufficient for promotion. 775
Four-star	Reached after Shen Zhui accumulates 1.6 trillion Merit Points; grants access to Precious Treasures, though some exchanges also require killing a High-ranking Divine King. 787

• One hundred million medal Merit Points grants one transferable resurrection privilege, with no stated limit on the number of privileges. 768
• Chaos Crystals can be exchanged at a recorded rate of 500 million Merit Points per square. 775 798
• Great Emperor-level soul secret techniques cost from 100 billion to 200 billion Merit Points and require at least two-star authority. 770 775

Notable Totals

Balance / Total	Chapter	Context
3,100 held	1	Shen Zhui's first displayed balance.
94,561 held	49	Accumulated through combat against hostile martial artists and Daoist Xiangyang's faction.
1,904,561 held	133	Earned after the Four Seas Gate battle, including numerous Peak Xiantian and a Spirit Bridge Realm opponent.
7,500,000 held	318	Used toward solving the Exquisite Chess Game.
52,000,000 held	345	Accumulated during the Ciyun World conflict.
20,000,000 held	447	Remaining after the system reaches the 100-million cumulative-use upgrade.
10.3 billion held	652, 667	Earned largely by clearing the third layer of the Fire Refining Star Prison.
20.1 billion held	710	Reserved in part for mastering the eighth level of the Nine Heavens Thunder God Art.
30 trillion held	832	Shen Zhui considers using gifting openly to build the Nine Nether Legion.

Primary User

• Shen Zhui — The Punish Evil System awards him Merit Points for actions against sinful targets; he spends them to cultivate, inspect opponents, maintain barriers, and empower allies. 1 145 244 832