Daily life of a cultivation judge

Ma Qi remained dazed for a brief moment before he shook his head free of the complex emotions flooding within him.

The previous week wasn't the first time he had done something impulsive. Over the three years on the worst of days in an otherwise period richly filled with horrible days, he had on more than one occasion gone back to his village but luckily reason took hold every time and he came back to the sect.

Deserting the sect was a punishable offence which depending on the type of desertion had the potential of even implicating one's loved ones.

Since he joined the sect, he had heard of a few disciples who escaped the sect and ran home, only to be caught a day later, along with their family who ended up suffering the same fate as the deserting disciple. Crippling of the cultivation base and imprisonment.

Ma Qi couldn't bear to subject his family or even the village to such torment. Him being the only one to bear the consequences was a comforting solace to him which oddly enough helped him feel like the hero he dreamed of being in his younger years.

"With the attainments I had with a silver body at 15 years, the village chief used whatever connections he had to find out when the entrance examination was happening and delivered me there himself.

He stayed through the test and was able to see me pass it, after which he left to deliver the news to my parents and the village. One of them had finally become a disciple of the great Striding Falcon Sect.."

The sarcasm was rife in his tone as he said that.

"Before we had the examination we were told those who passed the test depending on how they performed would receive different rewards, one of which was even having the chance of becoming a disciple of one of the elders and becoming an inner disciple from the get-go. 

As for the rest, as long as you passed the test, you would receive a top tier orange grade cultivation art, there would be weekly lectures from some of the seasoned core disciples who were already in the core formation stage or at the peak of the foundation establishment and on occasion even if we were outer sect disciples, one of the senior elders at the late stage of the core formation realm would hold a public lecture four times a year.

They made countless promises on how they would nurture us and all they asked of us was not to slack in our training so we can repay the sect for its efforts and help it reach greater heights.."

"The work that they made you do, did they elude to it at any point in time before you did the test or after you passed the entrance examination test?" Yang Qing asked as he interjected.

"They did say the sect worked on a meritocratic system where if we wanted to get more resources we would need to do missions on behalf of the sect. With every successfully completed mission, we would receive merit points that we would use to redeem cultivation resources from the resource hall.

They said it was a way of building a sense of belonging from the disciples towards the sect and also a way to stir us to work harder rather than remain stagnant and content with the bare minimum resources we would be getting.

With merit points, we could do anything even attend lectures of inner sect disciples despite being outer sect disciples, redeem them for artifacts and weapons that we would spend countless resources.

They painted this beautiful picture of the wonderous uses of the merit points, they even said it was possible for one to cultivate the core art of the sect, the starry skies of the striding falcon with sufficient merit points.

Thinking back now, that should have been a sign that they were hoodwinking us. Are core legacy arts so easily traded that merit points could work?" Ma Qi said as he shook his head.

Everything always seemed clearer in hindsight.

"Even if it was available through merit points, I doubt anyone could afford it, if a low-tier red-grade cultivation art with no combat abilities cost an arm and a tooth, I shudder to imagine how much the core legacy art would cost.

I could trade my life a million times and still barely cover half the cost.."

Yang Qing's eyes glowed with a strange light as he heard that statement.

"The top tier orange grade art that they promised, was it given for free or did you need merit points?"

"You could only receive it through merit points, though you could get it on credit. It was the only cultivation art you could receive it that way. You get the art and pay up the merit points you owe after..."

"What was the cost?" 

Ma Qi smiled bitterly as he answered,

"50,000 merit points.." 

Both Yang Qing and Luo Meili immediately raised their eyebrows in disbelief when they heard that. Even if they did not know the valuation of the merit system of the Striding Falcon Sect, that value seemed more than absurd.

At the Order for 1,000 merit points, you could redeem five incomplete blue-grade cultivation arts if you wanted, let alone the things you could do with 50,000 merit points. With such an amount, Yang Qing was able to buy the egg of the celestial nesting weaver, which was a spirit beast with a noble bloodline that did not lose out to dragons and phoenixes.

"Did they tell you that beforehand or did you discover it after the fact?" 

"It was after we had joined.."

"Based on your merit system how hard is it to earn such an amount? From the statement you gave the Green Sparrow Branch, I read that you feed green emerald caterpillars. How many merit points do you earn from that?"

"You receive 10 merit points only if you do a perfect job on it. If you get injured as many do, 3 merit points are deducted for your medical care and an additional merit point is deducted for tainting the wood energy of the green emerald caterpillar with your blood..." Ma Qi grimly said.

"So it would take 100 years just to pay out the debt?" Yang Qing asked in disbelief.

"What happens if you don't?"

"You can't avoid it since you have to sign a soul contract to get that cultivation art. The contract has several stipulations in it that bind you from defaulting. It was the reason I refused the art and opted to get the low-tier red-grade meditation art that they said was for free.."

"Are there missions that pay well or ways to earn merit points that don't involve missions?"

"There are, but none of them are good.."

"Like?"

"Volunteering yourself as a guinea pig for the alchemy hall and being a test subject for their potion recipes and the other which is what most chose, sell yourself to the inner disciples that have a background which in my opinion is way worse than having your arm eaten by the green emerald caterpillar because once you do, you seize being a human..

For people who created the hell hole that we currently live in, how could going under them possibly end in anything good?"

"Seems like he went with the first option. Explains the level of pill poisoning in his body,"