Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Thank you for the clarification, you can continue where you left off.." said Yang Qing.

Ma Qi nodded as he continued with his testimony.

"So after we joined it was then we were informed of the merit points and how pivotal it would be to our growth the more we had.

They did say the sect was never short of missions only short of people to do them, so even when they informed us of the charges involved in the top tier orange grade art, most weren't wary of it.

From what I can guess based on the makeup of the outersect disciples back then, they knew their audience well.

None of us were from a well-to-do family or background as such not many of us have ever even laid eyes on an orange-grade cultivation art let alone one that was a top tier, so if told you would get to cultivate one from the onset and you'll have to do was take a debt of 50,000 merit points, not many would bat an eye.

And the way they painted the whole thing, they made it seem like within a month one would be able to clear that whole debt, which couldn't be any further from the truth.." Ma Qi said with a soft chuckle of derision.

"Did you have a mandatory set of missions you had to do in a day?" Yang Qing suddenly interjected.

"Officially the only mandatory one was feeding the green emerald caterpillar. Every outer sect disciple was required to do it at least six hours a day. 

But with the way things were structured, you couldn't survive doing just one mission.." answered Ma Qi.

Yang Qing moved his hands to motion for him to continue.

"There are a few things I would like to make clear before I continue. First is that all the affairs of the outer sect disciples are run by the inner sect disciples from accommodation to pricing of merit points and its renumeration.

To date, because of my lowly station, I am not sure if this is done with the consent of the elders and the sect master, or if it is because those inner disciples have sway with those supposed to be in charge of the affairs of the outer sect disciples who give them the freedom to do whatever they wanted.

It's unclear if said arrangement is per the sect guidelines but considering how much those disciples get away with, it may very well be part of the guidelines that the affairs of the outer sect are handled by them..."

"Well noted disciple Ma Qi.."

Ma Qi nodded as he continued,

"So like I was saying everything is controlled by merit points from food to clothing to cultivation resources down to accommodations.

If you don't have merit points the living hell we already lived in would turn even grimmer, which was something we all discovered on the very first day.

We all went in thinking we would live in these lavish courtyards filled with dense spiritual qi and have access to cultivation facilities that we could never have imagined.

But all we got were run-down bamboo pole shacks with moldy grass. It had nothing but a broken clay cup, an earthenware bowl, and soot-filled kettle, and one mat that was to be shared by three people.

And when it came to the spiritual qi, it was sparse because of the disintegrating sulfur desert laceflower that were grown all over the place in a bid to decompose the wastes from the alchemy and artifact refinement works from the sect.

Next to our abode was the dumping ground of those wastes. Thanks to the presence of the disintegrating sulfur desert laceflower, the spiritual qi of the area naturally gravitates towards those flowers, the air is constantly hot and dry, and the whole accommodation constantly smells of rotten eggs because of them.

It's like we are living inside an active volcano day in and day out, doesn't matter whether it's during the night or the day, the conditions are the same because of those flowers.."

The disintegrating sulfur desert laceflower were considered environmental scavengers or purifiers. They worked mostly with plant and mineral-based materials and had little to no effects on animal or human corpses.

Just like their names, they disintegrated waste materials and refined them for their use thus preventing any accidents that may crop up from the long-term accumulation of wastes. In addition, the wastes they refined, the purified energy contained would be deposited on the petals of the flower. Those petals with said energy worked as spirit stones. 

However, despite how convenient they were, most organizations didn't use them and opted to use alternative means of waste disposal.

The reason for that was mostly because of the side effects of having the disintegrating sulfur desert laceflower. They were greedy for spiritual qi so they ruined any chances of any other plant growing next to it not unless the other plant was strong enough to outdo it when it came to drawing spiritual qi, and the last two were the stench and the dry heat it subjected the area to.

No one would plant those flowers where there were living beings and would only use them in areas declared a dumping ground, where there would be little to no presence of other life.

"With merit points, you could get mortal-rank herbs and artifacts that would help you deal with the effects of the disintegrating sulfur desert laceflower. However, those artifacts and herbs worked only short term so you would need to keep gathering merit points as long as you remained there.

While there were permanent solutions, the cost was just as extravagant as the top-tier orange-grade art. You're better off acclimating yourself to the effects of the flower because even if you got it, it wouldn't be yours for long.

Earlier I mentioned there were two ways of accumulating a high number of merit points. In truth, those two ways are also the only way you can survive as an outerset disciple..."