Death... and me

Rean came out of his residence for a moment and said to the crowd there. "It turns out I'm in need of a new item called a Deep Sea Spiked Clam Pearl. Usually, it costs around 100 Rank Two Divine Stones. You all know that my Special Edition equipment costs 300 Rank Two Divine Stones. With that said, those who can bring me 3 Deep Sea Spiked Clam Pearls will be able to jump the queue and have their order made ahead of others. However, I'll only accept three pearls per person. Otherwise, someone will definitely try to bring me a lot of them, which is not nice for the others."

*Wow!*

Immediately, the information spread throughout the Inner Sector, prompting hundreds of cultivators to rush into the Blacksmith Hall. Rean was right, though. The Blacksmith Hall had Deep Sea Spiked Clam Pearls, but only a few. 37, to be more specific. Those pearls were sold almost instantly before their buyers returned to Rean's residence. "Very good! Come with me to the Blacksmith Hall."

Rean then took their order and asked if they would provide the materials once again. Soon, he began his forging process. 'A few people also had the pearls themselves. Putting the Blacksmith Hall's pearls together, I already got 54 pearls. Not a bad start as I need 200 of them, 100 for me and 100 for Roan. By the time I finish forging these people's equipment, more pearls would have arrived already.'

Meanwhile, Roan ditched the people who wanted him as a helper and went to the Sacred Land's store in the Mission Hall. That would be the place where he could find the blood most easily. Once he got inside, one of the attendants immediately came to him and asked, "Hello, sir. What do you need?"

Roan nodded before asking, "Do you have Gargantuan Mikrel Worm Blood? I need two vials of it."

The attendant sighed internally, feeling like this would be a cheap sale. Nevertheless, he had to go ahead. "Definitely, sir. Each vial costs 500 Merit Points."

Sure enough, it was a very cheap item, just like Rean mentioned. Well, at least it was for people of Rean and Roan's level. Roan took out his badge and quickly paid for the two vials before leaving for the Alchemist Hall. There, he asked the attendant to leave a message at the counter about his request and that he was willing to pay Merit Points for the information. Only then did Roan return to his house once more.

Of course, Roan didn't start cultivating the Starlight Body Cultivation Technique straight away. After all, Rean would spend quite some time in the Blacksmith Hall. Considering Rean was able to forge one weapon per day, he would take at least 70 or so days to accumulate the 200 pearls they needed. Obviously, that was already extremely fast when one thought about the task's difficulty.

Roan then decided to take another look at the manual to make sure everything was okay. In fact, he really wanted to cultivate. However, because of their premature breakthrough in the Demising Catacombs, the twins wouldn't be able to cultivate for three months at least. Otherwise, they might damage their dantians.

On the next day, Roan left his residence and headed straight to the arenas. Now that he had the Merit Points, he might as well fight there. "Oh, you're back. You even entered the Initial Stage of the Saint Realm. Congratulations." The worker there was the same one that gave Roan the idea to work as a helper for Merit Points.

Roan nodded in response, telling the worker, "Yes. I came to challenge the Saint Realm Ranking Board."

The worker didn't mind and gave Roan a list with many green and red names. "The names in green are cultivators who are available at the moment. Those in red are obviously not. Since it's your first time challenging the rank, you can only challenge the bottom thirty in the ranking."

Roan nodded as he looked at the Saint Realm Ranking Board. There was a total of 1000 positions. However, it wasn't much. In the Soul Transformation Realm, for example, there were 10000! As for the Elemental Transformation Realm, only 100 positions were available. 'It's just like the Outer, Inner, and Core Sectors. The lower you are, the larger the number of cultivators,' Roan muttered inwardly.

Roan checked the list and could see that all thirty guys at the bottom were either at the peak of the Soul Transformation Realm or at the Initial Stage of the Saint Realm. Roan ignored that and simply selected the cultivator at the highest point possible, number 973. Cultivators 972, 971 were marked in red, so they weren't available for Roan to challenge.

The worker received Roan's request and nodded, telling him, "It will be 10000 Merit Points to challenge them, sir."

Roan also added, "Take another 10000 Merit Points for yourself."

The guy was taken aback. "T-This... W-w-why would you give me such a thing?" He couldn't even talk properly. One must remember that workers were not part of the Sacred Land. However, they were paid in Merit Points when they decided to work here. Of course, compared to the Sacred Land disciples, the number of Merit Points they could make was ridiculously low. This worker, for example, didn't make more than 100 points per month. They only accepted working like this because the Sacred Land itself had a ridiculous amount of concentrated Divine Energy. This place was definitely the best place to cultivate in, so the almost volunteer-like work was worth it for them.

Roan shook his head in response, telling the worker, "That idea you gave me to work as a helper helped me a lot. Just take it as payment." Roan wasn't lying. It was because of this guy that Roan found the Starlight Body Cultivation Technique in the end. Compared to that, what was a measly 10000 Merit Points? He just felt it was the right thing to do.

"But..."

"Enough." Roan cut him off. "I told you to take an extra 10000 Merit Points for yourself, so take it. Now, here's the guy I want to challenge." Without even waiting for the worker's response, he pointed at the 973rd person on the list. It was time to challenge the ranks.