Chapter 537: Merit Points in Hand (5/10, Autumn Subscription)

That's right, the moment he opened his mouth came a "tch," as if he had some grievance against Fang Yue.

This left Fang Yue completely baffled. He looked questioningly at Yu Baiyi beside him, who pursed his lips, not intending to explain at first.

But very quickly, he figured it out—Fang Yue had become a favorite of the two Green-Clothes Lords, and was about to be promoted to the third Green-Clothes Lord of Qingsi County—so he hurriedly lowered his voice and explained in a whisper: "Pan Lao has a grandson who's been pursuing Lord You for years, never succeeded, and Lord You even found a chance to demote him to Black-Clothes. Only then did he behave himself."

Originally, once Lord You made her stance clear, the matter would have been considered settled. But recently there have been rumors that you're getting close to Lord You, so naturally some gossip has sprung up. Pan Lao must have heard these rumors, that's why he…"

Just as Yu Baiyi was saying this, he noticed Pan Lao's sidelong gaze fixed right on him.

That startled him. He quickly shut up, lowered his head and said nothing, groaning inwardly.

One was the newly appointed Green-Clothes.

The other was Pan Lao, who managed the Merit Points.

He didn't want to offend either side, but comparing the two, naturally the new Green-Clothes was more worth currying favor with. Add to that his connection with Fang Yue, and their relationship was… passable, at best?

Yu Baiyi was even thinking that perhaps he could ride this wave of momentum and become the new Green-Clothes Fang Yue's trusted right-hand man.

Every Green-Clothes has their own people, their own faction.

Although in Qingsi County it wasn't very obvious—because the two above were too harmonious, shared the same goals, and had a good relationship—so factional struggles weren't pronounced.

But below the Green-Clothes, those White-Clothes, fighting for Lord You Sisi and Lord Jun's attention, would tear each other apart over the smallest benefit, the smallest chance to stand out.

Up top, all was peaceful and harmonious; down below, it was blood and gore.

As a White-Clothes who had only recently been promoted, Yu Baiyi's chances of standing out in this scramble were slim.

Being able to barely hold onto his White-Clothes identity was already not bad.

Originally Yu Baiyi hadn't thought about advancing further. Who would have expected that those two Green-Clothes Lords, for some reason, suddenly decided to promote Fang Yue to be the third Green-Clothes Lord of Qingsi County.

Naturally, opportunity had arrived. "The pavilion by the water gets the moonlight first"—if Yu Baiyi didn't seize this moment, his brain must have been kicked by a donkey.

So even if it meant offending Pan Lao, he had to prioritize figuring out how to curry favor with Fang Yue.

The ins and outs of all this were crystal clear to Yu Baiyi. After a brief consideration, Pan Lao also let out two cold laughs toward Yu Baiyi. He didn't expose him outright, but he more or less understood the other's little scheme.

Only Fang Yue looked utterly bewildered.

His grandson can't win over You Sisi—what does that have to do with me??

Shaking his head, Fang Yue stopped thinking about these trivial matters and stepped forward to place his White-Clothes Token on the counter.

"Pan Lao, please help me check how many Merit Points I have on my White-Clothes Token."

Although Lord Han had said that the Green Division's internal affairs were a mixed bag, with factions deeply entangled.

But as the major power Fang Yue could access, the Green Division's path of advancement was simply too tempting.

Resources in every aspect were also very abundant. Even if the Green Division was shady, it was still a Government organization, a banner representing Qing Guo. On the surface, what it had to do was still protect the common people and slay the anomalous.

On top of that foundation came internal strife and the tangled interplay of factions.

Fang Yue had Lord Han's legacy, so he could well afford to ignore these problems and simply focus on how to take resources from the Green Division to raise his own strength.

After all, leaving the Green Division, Fang Yue couldn't think of where else to find a reliable organization for the moment.

Whether the letter written by Lord Qi Ba Jiu from Blazing Fire Sect still held any validity was uncertain, and besides, Blazing Fire Sect's mountain wasn't in Heiqing Shanmai either.

Strictly speaking, in Heiqing Shanmai, apart from the Green Division's forces being truly complete, all other powers were merely branches or partial claws and fangs, extending here and nothing more.

By comparison, the Green Division was naturally more reliable. Worst case, if the Green Division really couldn't go on anymore someday, he'd just find another way out then.

While Fang Yue was thinking these thoughts, Pan Lao reluctantly tallied and verified Fang Yue's Merit Points.

Even though Pan Lao had grievances against Fang Yue, in this aspect he didn't dare do anything shady.

Merit Points were the Green Division's most direct and most important metric for measuring a person's performance—an indicator.

Tampering with or touching them at will would invite the entire Green Division's reckoning. Headquarters would send people to investigate thoroughly and resolve the issue with thunderous methods.

Even if you gave Pan Lao several guts, he wouldn't dare fabricate anything or skim off the top in this area. After all, headquarters could easily detect any problems with Merit Points, and when that happened, the whole clan would be implicated. On this matter, there had never been any leniency.

Using a special technique, Pan Lao unsealed the Document passed down from above, verified the contents, and finally confirmed Fang Yue's Merit Points.

15,000 points.

How could it be so many?!

Pan Lao stared in shock, eyes wide, and turned to look at Fang Yue in disbelief.

One had to know that he had worked here his whole life and still didn't have ten thousand Merit Points.

This young man—had he saved the world or something? Where did so many Merit Points come from?

Without authorization from above, he wasn't qualified to check Fang Yue's records, let alone investigate the source of the Merit Points. Those files were all encrypted.

To investigate privately—setting aside whether he could even crack the Encryption Array above—being discovered alone would bring consequences Pan Lao couldn't bear.

"Pan Lao?"

"…"

"Have my Merit Points been entered into the White-Clothes Token?"

"…Entered."

With a complicated expression, Pan Lao entered the Merit Points granted from above into the White-Clothes Token and handed it to Fang Yue.

"Congratulations, Ye Baiyi, on receiving a large number of Merit Points. You must be a brave soul who risked his life for the Green Division."

That was right—repelling the Wu Yu Clan that had destroyed several villages. Without that move, Heiqing Shanmai would have suffered terribly; almost no one could have stopped the Wu Yu Clan, and Qingsi County would have been done for along with it.

After that came the Underground Stronghold, smashing the Phoenix Organization's branch and exposing their human-drug trade.

These were all great feats.

Although it wasn't all Fang Yue's doing alone, the lion's share was definitely his.

Unlike repelling the Wu Yu Clan, this time the matter of smashing the Phoenix Organization was vouched for by the two Green-Clothes Lords. The Merit Points could be issued first and tallied later. If there were any errors, naturally the two Green-Clothes Lords would be punished along with Fang Yue. If there were no errors, then it was buy now, enjoy now.

He channeled his internal force to sense the White-Clothes Token, and a line of numbers was immediately detected.

15,000?

Fang Yue naturally knew that after these two waves of incidents, he must have gotten the lion's share of the Merit Points.

But for the number 15,000, he still had no concrete sense of what it really meant.

After all, without any comparison, he didn't know how many Merit Points he had, or just how generous that amount truly was.

Still, since he'd come to the Green Division to exchange for a cultivation art, the most direct feedback would naturally be to simply look at what he needed and see what the prices were like.

"Pan Lao, what can Merit Points at the Green Division be exchanged for? Could you give me an introduction?"

(End of Chapter)