"This spine bone is for you."
Mo Hua said generously.
Ouyang Mu was momentarily overwhelmed by the favor and shook his head repeatedly, saying, "I can’t take it..."
"Don’t you want it?"
Mo Hua waved the spine bone in his hand.
Ouyang Mu’s eyes were completely drawn to the spine bone, following its movements back and forth, reluctant to look away.
But he gritted his teeth and firmly declared:
"I want it, but I didn’t earn it through monster hunting. I can’t accept it."
Mo Hua said, "Senior Brother Feng looked after me before. Now I’m looking after you a bit. Just take it, it’s fine."
Ouyang Mu still shook his head, "No merit, no reward."
Mo Hua was a little surprised, and his gaze carried a hint of appreciation.
This Little Wood, while a bit rigid, had a good heart, was principled, and didn’t like taking advantage of others.
"Hmm," Mo Hua nodded. "If you don’t want it, let’s drop it."
Mo Hua pretended to put the spine bone of the Flame Demon Wolf away.
Seeing that the spine bone, which was so close to him, was about to vanish, Ouyang Mu froze for a moment and then grew a bit anxious.
He hesitated for a long while before hurriedly saying:
"Brother Mo, can I buy it with merit points?"
"Merit points?" Mo Hua pondered briefly and nodded, "That works. But this Flame Demon Wolf’s spine bone, according to typical pricing, costs 800 merit points. Do you have that much?"
"Eight hundred?!"
Ouyang Mu was stunned, his face reddening soon after. "I... don’t have that much..."
"How much do you have?"
"Just... three hundred..."
Ouyang Mu stammered nervously.
Although he was a direct lineage of the Ouyang Family, once within the sect, he had to follow the sect’s rules and rely on himself for everything.
These merit points were accumulated bit by bit by helping others with blacksmithing and forging swords over time.
After spending some recently, he now only had 300 left.
"How about I sell it to you for 300?" Mo Hua suggested.
Ouyang Mu shook his head again and again, "No, I can’t let Brother Mo take a loss. I..."
He hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Can I owe you first and pay you back later?"
Mo Hua rubbed his chin, silently pondering something, without responding.
Ouyang Mu thought Mo Hua didn’t trust him and quickly vowed:
"I’ll definitely pay you back!"
"How will you pay me back?" Mo Hua’s eyes were meaningful as he asked with a guiding tone.
Ouyang Mu said, "I’ll work hard to earn merit points..."
Mo Hua sighed, "It’s not easy to earn merit points, is it?"
Ouyang Mu’s face showed a hint of difficulty.
Indeed, earning merit points wasn’t easy.
The good tasks were always highly contested.
If you couldn’t compete for them, you could only complete lower-level tasks to slowly accumulate points.
At the same time, the sect demanded spending a lot of merit points on various things: cultivation techniques, Taoist skills, the Artifice Manual, pills, Spiritual Artifacts, and so on.
Saving merit points felt like gathering grains of sand, while spending them was like watching flowing water.
Most disciples found their earned merit points insufficient to meet their needs.
Generally speaking, once disciples reached the Foundation Building Middle Stage, they could enter the Refining Demon Mountain.
In the Refining Demon Mountain, as long as you learned quickly, became experienced, and successfully hunted monster beasts and harvested materials, earning merit points wouldn’t be difficult.
However, if you learned slowly and repeatedly failed to hunt monsters, it would be adding insult to injury, making merit points increasingly hard to acquire.
Ouyang Mu had no confidence in monster hunting at all.
His 300 merit points had taken him a long time to save up...
If he bought this Flame Demon Wolf’s spine bone, he’d owe 500 merit points.
To accumulate those 500 merit points through regular tasks would take who knows how long.
He had no assurance in monster hunting, and if something went wrong, he might not earn merit points and would be unable to repay the debt, making Brother Mo suffer a loss.