Chen Lin had no idea he had been caught in the crossfire. On the contrary, he was in quite a good mood.
After arriving outside Danding City, he had found that things were exactly as Qian Li had described. Countless cultivators had gathered here, with cluster after cluster of makeshift buildings stretching as far as the eye could see, even across the Jinshui River.
This was precisely what he needed. He built a simple dwelling a little farther away and began asking around for information.
After making some inquiries, Chen Lin had a clear picture of the situation.
There was good news and bad news.
The good news was that, unless specifically conscripted, cultivators were no longer required by the Alliance to join combat units. There were simply too many people, and many sects had friction with one another, making them difficult to manage.
The system had now changed to one of rewards, with merit deciding everything.
Ranks were determined by accumulated merit. Everyone started at rank one and advanced one rank for every thousand merit earned, with no upper limit.
Merit could still be exchanged for supplies. Rank depended on the total merit a cultivator had ever earned, not their remaining balance.
Whether applying for housing within the city, exchanging for resources, or requisitioning subordinates, those with higher ranks received greater priority.
But those were secondary concerns. The Alliance had also announced that, should the war become irretrievably lost, merit rank would determine priority during the retreat, with higher-ranked cultivators receiving protection first.
This move seized everyone by the throat, leaving all cultivators no choice but to obediently risk their lives for the Alliance.
With the Prayer Cult occupying the Wuding Sea, the Alliance's cultivators had become beasts trapped in a cage. Without powerful cultivators to lead and protect