Chen Lin didn't know that he was being implicated. Instead, he was in a good mood at the moment.
Because after he arrived outside Danding City, he found that it was just as Qian Li said, there were countless cultivators gathered here. Looking around, there were simple buildings one after another, even extending to the other side of the Jinshui River.
This was exactly what he needed, so he built a simple residence at a farther location and began to gather information.
After some inquiries, Chen Lin had a clear idea of the situation.
The news is mixed.
The good thing is that, unless specially recruited, the Alliance no longer requires all monks to be incorporated into combat teams. The main reason is that there are too many people and there are frictions between many sects, making them difficult to manage.
Now it has been changed to a reward system, and everything is based on merit.
The levels are divided according to the upper limit of merit, starting from level 1, and you will be promoted to one level every time you increase your merit by one thousand, with no upper limit.
Merits can still be exchanged for supplies, and what is linked to the level is the total number of merits accumulated, not the balance.
Whether it is applying for residence in the city, exchanging resources, recruiting subordinates, etc., the higher the level, the higher the priority.
These are secondary. The alliance also announced that if the war is irreversible, the retreat will be based on the level of merit, and priority will be given to protecting monks with higher levels.
This is a throat-locking move that forces all monks to work obediently for the alliance.
Now that the Qishen Sect has occupied the Wuding Sea, the monks of the alliance have become trapped beasts in a cage. Without the leadership and protection of a strong person, it would be difficult for them to break out on their own.
If you want to save your life, you have to fight hard first. It seems contradictory, but there is nothing you can do about it.
Chen Lin was thinking when a powerful wave suddenly swept through the house. He subconsciously wanted to practice his skills to resist it, but he immediately thought of something and ignored it.
This is the alliance's monitoring device conducting routine monitoring, and it only detects evil spirits to prevent people from the Qishen Sect from hiding among the monks on the periphery. It is said that they appear at irregular times every day.
The residences of monks outside the city are also demarcated and they are not allowed to exceed the monitoring range, otherwise they will be punished.
"Fellow Daoist Ye, there will be a small exchange meeting later. Do you want to participate?"
Chen Lin was just about to take out the blueprint of the Mo Yin Lingzhou to continue studying it when he suddenly heard a rough voice coming from outside.
This is his neighbor, a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi training.
The other party came to find him because he had now concealed his cultivation level at the state of great perfection of Qi training and used the alias Ye Fan.
Chen Lin walked out of the room and saw that in addition to his neighbor Zhang Qingfeng, there were two familiar faces, an old man and a middle-aged man, both of whom were monks living nearby.
"Haha, you guys haven't gone out to join the demon hunting team these two days. How come you are so free?"
"Oh, don't mention it!" The old man sighed, "Wu Gui and I just came back from the demon hunting team. We almost lost our lives, and we haven't completed the mission yet. It was a wasted trip."
The middle-aged man also looked helpless, and said: "Recently, the evil demons of the Divine Religion have appeared more and more frequently, and their strength has also been growing stronger. I don't plan to go out for the time being. I'll see if I can get the Foundation Establishment Pill and try to establish the foundation first. This damn world doesn't give Qigong cultivators a way to survive!"
His words were agreed by the other two people, and Chen Lin also nodded, but he smiled bitterly in his heart. The Qi-cultivating cultivators looked at the glory of the foundation-building cultivators, but they didn't know that the foundation-building cultivators also had a difficult life!
"Why, have you two accumulated enough merits to exchange for the Foundation Establishment Pill?"
Chen Lin has countless Foundation Establishment Pills in his hands, but unfortunately he cannot openly take them out and sell them to the other party.
He is just an ordinary Qi-cultivating cultivator now, not an alchemist in Dan Pavilion, and the other party may not have treasures of equal value for exchange.
Hearing Chen Lin's question, Wu Gui was furious and said, "It's even more annoying to talk about this. When the Alliance had enough Foundation Building Pills before, I didn't have any merits. When I went through so much trouble to collect enough merits, the Alliance had no Foundation Building Pills anymore!"
Chen Lin asked in confusion: "Why is there a shortage of Foundation Building Pills? Hasn't the Alliance always been ensuring the supply of Foundation Building Pills? Could it be that something went wrong with the Pill Pavilion?"
At this time, neighbor Zhang Qingfeng said, "Fellow Daoist Ye, you just came here and you don't know that now, not only the Foundation Establishment Pills, but also the reserves of various elixirs are basically empty."
He shook his head. "It's not that Dan Pavilion has a problem, but that there is no raw material. The Alliance has been pushing things forward in recent years. Although a large number of foundation-building cultivators have been produced, the natural resources and treasures have been basically used up. Even if the Dan Pavilion's alchemists are very skilled, it will be useless without materials."
The old man agreed, "That's right. Not only elixirs, but other kinds of treasures are in a similar situation. Even if there are some in stock, priority will be given to cultivators with high merit levels. For those of us who have no level or background, forget it. We might as well try our luck at the exchange fair."
What the two said made Chen Lin suddenly realize.
He ignored this question.
The resources of the immortal cultivation world are limited. In order to quickly develop combat power, the alliance has been draining the pond to catch fish in recent years. Now the drawbacks are apparent. Even if the alliance eventually defeats the Qishen Sect, it will take hundreds of years for the vitality of the Tianyuan immortal cultivation world to recover.
This situation made Chen Lin feel mixed emotions.
Resources were scarce and expensive, so the things he had on him could be sold for a good price, especially the Foundation Establishment Pills, of which he had an enormous reserve.
But in this way, it would become difficult for him to collect materials for refining the Mo Yin Ling Zhou.
He also sighed and looked extremely disappointed.
Since I have played this role, I still have to perform the play.
A cultivator who was stuck at the great perfection of Qi training came to the three main cities with great difficulty, but there was no foundation-building pill here. The despair he felt can be imagined.
Sure enough, his expression was immediately highly recognized by the three neighbors, and they looked at him with much friendlier eyes.
In such a depressing atmosphere, Chen Lin and three others came to the bank of the Jinshui River. A large ship was parked there, and the exchange meeting that Zhang Qingfeng mentioned was held on the ship.
The alliance was short of reserve resources, and private exchanges outside the city were frequent, but the alliance didn't care. He had participated in several of them before, but didn't gain much.
As soon as he reached the side of the boat, Chen Lin's expression changed and he looked at a beam of light flying in the distance.
The escaping light arrived in an instant, and an old woman with a wrinkled face landed on the ground. She ignored Chen Lin and others and walked directly onto the ship.
After the other party disappeared, Chen Lin asked in surprise: "Why, there are foundation-building cultivators participating in this exchange meeting?"
Even though the old woman just now was old and ugly, the fluctuations she emitted were genuine foundation-building stage.
Zhang Qingfeng nodded and said, "When I received the invitation, the other party did say that there might be foundation-building cultivators appearing. But don't worry, the organizer is Yunhai Shangren, who has been holding exchange meetings on this ship recently. He is quite famous."
"People from Yunhai?"
Chen Lin cried out in surprise.
When he was on Xiaoqiu Island before, he also participated in a secret trade fair, which was organized by Yunhai Shangren.
Could they be the same person
Seeing that Chen Lin still seemed to have doubts, Zhang Qingfeng continued, "Don't worry, this Yunhai has a very good reputation among the people, and it is easy for Foundation Establishment Pills to appear because of the participation of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Even if Qi Condensation cultivators have them, they cannot take them out for exchange."
Chen Lin nodded.
What the other party said made sense, and even if it was really that person from Yunhai, it wouldn’t matter, as the two of them had no grudge against each other.
After paying thirty medium-grade spirit stones, several people boarded the big ship. Even Chen Lin felt that the price was expensive, and Zhang Qingfeng and the other two were grinning.
But this also means that the exchange will be at a higher level, and Chen Lin can't help but feel a little excited.