Chapter 1303: 745: Follow Me

Chapter 1303: Chapter 745: Follow Me

“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.

Ouyang Mu lowered his head, his expression flickering with hesitation and indecision.

Mo Hua saw this and smiled gently, speaking warmly, “If you can’t repay the merit points, you can help me with something instead.”

Ouyang Mu was taken aback, “I… what could I possibly help with?”

After thinking for a moment, Ouyang Mu slowly said, “If Brother Mo doesn’t mind, I can do artifact refining… Sword casting is possible too…”

Mo Hua raised an eyebrow, finally hearing the words he was waiting for, and immediately nodded:

“Deal!”

Ouyang Mu felt slightly nervous, “But, my sword-casting skills are quite average…”

“It’s fine,” Mo Hua encouraged him, “No one starts out knowing everything. You can learn and practice slowly.”

Coming from the Tai’a Sect with a proper sword-casting legacy, Ouyang Mu was surely better than himself, Master Gu, or the other Taixu Sect disciples.

Moreover, Mo Hua felt that although Little Wood was a bit stiff, he was sincere and had a good temperament.

A good temperament could compensate for lack of skill, as improvements would come with time.

But if someone lacked integrity, there was no point building ties with them.

Skill could be honed, but once a person’s heart was tainted, it was nearly impossible to change.

Ouyang Mu was clearly encouraged and made a solemn promise, “Brother Mo, don’t worry, I won’t let you down!”

Mo Hua saw his serious expression and couldn’t help but laugh, saying:

“Just do your best; no need to pressure yourself.”

“Alright!”

Ouyang Mu nodded earnestly.

Mo Hua thought for a moment longer and said:

“You owe me 500 merit points. How about this? Forge me a Spirit Sword, and I’ll count it as 100 merit points. I’ll provide the materials.”

Mo Hua’s offer was a fair market price.

In the sect, commissions for ordinary Second Grade Spiritual Artifacts usually varied between 50 to 80 merit points due to the time required to forge them, with occasional fluctuations.

Spirit Swords cost a bit more.

One hundred merit points was considered reasonable.

Of course, these were just ordinary Spirit Swords.

Those engraved with Sword Arrays—the proper “Sword Weapons” of a true inheritance—were much more expensive. But they were beyond the abilities of most disciples to craft.

Ouyang Mu, still at the Foundation Building Middle Stage and currently studying at the sect, certainly wouldn’t know such advanced sword-casting techniques.

And the Tai’a Sect wouldn’t teach them Sword Arrays at this stage either.

Mo Hua had no need for those skills; he didn’t require an inheritance-grade Spirit Sword.

All he needed was a regular Spirit Sword that Ouyang Mu could craft.