Scum Of The Demonic Sect

Chapter Seven: Earning Merit

"This is all merit!" Lin Haoming thought excitedly, looking at the mountain beasts.

Thinking of his current position as manager, he didn't hold back and said directly, "Brothers, I, Lin, have been valued by Senior Brother Situ and entrusted with important responsibilities. I promised him I would serve him well, so from today onwards, I will be responsible for killing all the mountain beasts! You can deal with them after I've killed them?"

"Huh?" Everyone was stunned to hear Lin Haoming's order, but since the manager had spoken, they couldn't disobey. Besides, it was just killing mountain beasts, not themselves, so no one cared.

Seeing no one object, Lin Haoming chuckled and said, "Junior Brother Li, you'll handle the specifics from now on. If I'm not there, just call me from my cave!"

"Yes, Steward Lin!" Hearing Lin Haoming's words, Li Shuntian knew he was now the second-in-command here. Although he didn't have an official title, he was practically second only to the sect leader, and he immediately felt a surge of pride.

As a prince, he had suffered humiliation at every turn in this sect, but today he had finally begun to see some progress.

Lin Haoming didn't care much. He grabbed a blood-red blade, walked to a mountain armor beast, chanted something to it, and then swiftly brought it down.

Immediately afterward, Lin Haoming walked to another mountain armor beast, chanted for a while, and then continued to swiftly bring it down.

Having killed many pangolin beasts, Lin Haoming had gained some understanding of the Merit Bead. If it absorbed merit, the bead would react, and the greater the merit, the stronger the reaction. Furthermore, if one carefully observed the Merit Bead with their divine sense, they would notice a golden thread within it becoming increasingly solidified; once fully revealed, it indicated that another seal had been broken.

The merit gained from granting merit to pangolin beasts was actually quite weak, but it was still perceptible. However, after killing over twenty pangolin beasts in this round, it was discovered that only about a third of them actually received merit, indicating that not every pangolin beast desired to be saved.

Even so, Lin Haoming continued to come and kill pangolin beasts every day.

Other managers, once appointed, almost never took up arms again, but Lin Haoming went to his slaughterhouse every day, killing pangolin beasts daily. In a month, he slaughtered over a thousand, but the third seal remained unbroken. The golden line was growing thicker, but never fully solidified, which disappointed Lin Haoming.

On the day of pay distribution, Lin Haoming knew he had to collect his salary from Manager Ma first before it was distributed.

Since it was a minor month, he only needed to collect the pills.

Upon reaching Steward Ma's cave, before even entering, they heard Guo Xin's shrill voice shout, "Hey, our Butcher Lin is here! Have you heard? To prepare for the next competition, Butcher Lin has been slaughtering mountain beasts in his own arena every day. He's personally butchered over a thousand in a month! Truly ferocious!"

"Slaughtering over a thousand first-tier high-grade spirit beasts in a month, he truly lives up to his name as a butcher!" Another man named Li Cang laughed along.

Just then, Tang Gaojun entered. Hearing their mockery, he said with displeasure, "Lin Haoming, what are you doing, killing mountain beasts every day instead of cultivating properly?"

"Hehe, Senior Brother Tang, maybe Junior Brother Lin is cultivating some powerful technique that requires malevolent energy, so he's killing mountain beasts every day to condense it!" Li Cang mocked before Lin Haoming could explain.

"I've never heard of condensing malevolent energy by killing a bewitched spirit beast. If such a method exists, Junior Brother Lin, why don't you teach me? I'll go to my own territory and try killing a few Fire Rhinoceros Beasts myself!" Guo Xin continued his mocking remarks.

Lin Haoming, seeing Guo Xin's sarcastic expression, sneered, "Senior Brother Guo, since you look down on me, how about we increase the stakes?"

"Hmm? What do you mean by that, kid?" Guo Xin narrowed his eyes, looking at Lin Haoming warily.

"Of course, I'm increasing the stakes! I'm willing to bet my entire fortune, thirty spirit stones! Senior Brother Guo, do you dare to bet with me?" Lin Haoming challenged.

"Heh, good lad, you've got guts. I'm just afraid you'll be penniless after this bet!" Guo Xin, facing someone weaker than himself, naturally wouldn't back down.

"Good, Junior Brother Lin, that's spirited! Even if you lose this time, we won't blame you!" Tang Gaojun, seeing Lin Haoming dare to bet his entire fortune, began to look at him with new respect.

Lin Haoming sensed the change in Tang Gaojun's gaze, realizing that the Demonic Sect truly valued ruthlessness. He had pushed himself to the brink, naturally making Tang Gaojun and the others re-evaluate him.

"Junior Brother Lin, don't worry, go ahead and compete. Even if you lose this time, I, Old Niu, will help you win it back later!" Niu Wu patted Lin Haoming's shoulder again, their relationship seemingly very close.

Lin Haoming smiled, accepting their kindness, but said nothing more, taking a bottle of pills and leaving.

As a manager, he not only received a larger quantity of pills each month, but also more spirit stones.

According to the Blood Refining Sect's rules, cultivators in the late Qi Refining stage receive four Qi Circulation Pills per month and one spirit stone every two months. However, those in charge receive two Qi Gathering Pills per month, plus one spirit stone.

One Qi Gathering Pill is equivalent to three Qi Circulation Pills, so two Qi Gathering Pills are equal to six Qi Circulation Pills. However, in reality, Qi Circulation Pills are much less effective for late Qi Refining stage cultivators. Even if three are consumed, the effect is only half that of one Qi Gathering Pill. Therefore, if they were to exchange them, four Qi Circulation Pills could only be exchanged for one Qi Gathering Pill. Thus, Lin Haoming's income effectively doubled.

Of course, Lin Haoming didn't care about this income at all; he harbored far greater ambitions.

He went to his former cave dwelling and summoned his twenty-odd subordinates.

According to the rules, everyone here was supposed to offer him a Qi Circulation Pill. However, Lin Haoming went to the first person, Li Shuntian, and directly poured three Qi Circulation Pills into his hand.

As the second-in-command, receiving the full amount of pills was normal. However, the second person, Han Xiao, also possessed a cultivation level of the seventh level of Qi Refining. It had nothing to do with him, yet Lin Haoming directly handed him four Qi Circulation Pills.

Han Xiao looked at the pills in his hand, somewhat surprised, and said, "Manager Lin, these pills..."

Lin Haoming knew what he was going to say and smiled, "Please don't be offended, everyone. I'm different from others. As long as I'm here, I will absolutely not withhold anyone's pills and spirit stones!"

"Ah!" Hearing Lin Haoming's words, everyone was somewhat surprised, their eyes filled with wariness as they looked at him.

When Lin Haoming came here, he had planned that by exempting them from tribute, these people would surely be grateful, and merit would naturally follow. However, after he announced it, expecting a large amount of merit to arrive, he found that the merit beads didn't react at all.

Lin Haoming didn't believe that he wouldn't receive merit for doing good deeds. The only explanation was that these guys had never been grateful to him before.

Thinking about this, Lin Haoming felt a surge of resentment. He had given them a large reward, yet they wouldn't reciprocate. Were these scoundrels even human?

What Lin Haoming didn't know was that these people used to receive protection after giving him pills. Now that he wasn't accepting them, did that mean he couldn't protect him? If so, why were they grateful to him?

However, Lin Haoming had already made his boastful promise; he couldn't very well withhold the pills. He gritted his teeth and distributed them, though his face was far from pleasant.

Next, at his slaughterhouse, perhaps influenced by his emotions, he killed fifty mountain armor beasts, seemingly without feeling any merit. This made Lin Haoming even more resentful.

He dropped his blood-stained blade, intending to return to his residence to collect more spirit stones, when suddenly someone ran out from behind him.

Lin Haoming looked and saw that the person who ran out was none other than Bao Wenliang.

This kid used to bully me a lot when he was with Li Haiying, so Lin Haoming stopped walking and watched to see what he was up to.

When Bao Wenliang saw Lin Haoming waiting for him there, his face immediately lit up with a smile, and he said, "Manager Lin, I was ignorant before, so I did a lot of wrong things with that scoundrel Li Haiying. Manager Lin, you've been in your position for so long and haven't bothered me, which shows how magnanimous you are. I really feel ashamed. Here's a small token of my apology, please accept it, Manager Lin."

Lin Haoming glanced at what Bao Wenliang was handing him and found that it was three spirit stones, which was half a year's income for him. His face immediately lit up with joy, and he said, "Junior Brother Bao, you've hit the nail on the head. Actually, I've always thought you were a capable junior brother..." "Hey, I've noticed Junior Brother Li's cultivation has weakened lately. How about this, you and he can help me manage these men from now on!"

Hearing Lin Haoming's words, Bao Wenliang was overjoyed and excitedly exclaimed, "Thank you so much for your kindness, Steward Lin! From now on, just say the word, and I'll go through fire and water for you!"

Lin Haoming, having suffered a great blow today, and considering that the Lin Haoming he had bullied before wasn't him, didn't harbor much hatred. He casually gave him a small favor, and to Lin Haoming's surprise, with just that one sentence, he suddenly felt a surge of merit, no less than that he had gained from helping Feng Ping and Jian Wei, enter his Merit Bead.

A month of performing rituals to liberate the mountain armor beast, plus this, the accumulated merit finally reached the amount required to unseal the Spirit Gathering Bead. Lin Haoming was overjoyed and found Bao Wenliang even more agreeable.

He immediately returned to his residence, activated the magic array, and quickly took out the Spirit Gathering Bead.

Sure enough, the third golden line on it had solidified.

Holding the stone in his hand, Lin Haoming tried to absorb the spiritual energy within. As soon as he circulated his cultivation technique, he felt a powerful surge of spiritual energy enter his body. Instantly, he felt as if he were absorbing spiritual energy directly from a mid-grade spirit stone, just like when he was with his ancestor.

Mid-grade spirit stones contain a hundred times more spiritual energy than low-grade spirit stones. However, this wasn't the most important factor. The crucial point was that mid-grade spirit stones absorbed spiritual energy twice as quickly as low-grade ones. This was relative to Qi Refining stage cultivators; at the Foundation Establishment stage, it was equivalent to twice the speed, and at the Golden Core stage, it was three times the speed.

Therefore, while the official exchange rate for mid-grade spirit stones was one to one hundred low-grade spirit stones, in reality, Lin Haoming would gain at least five more. For him, this was a completely unexpected and delightful surprise.