So even if everything works well and there is no danger whatsoever from the Four Directions Sect when he accepts the mission, the mission is still asking too much from him. This is why he skipped the mission and went looking for the second-highest-paying mission.
The second-highest paying mission was to go to a large world to help establish an outpost for the Four Directions Sect there. This outpost will serve as the bridgehead for the invasion of the world by the Four Directions Sect.
If this mission is successful, he will earn 500 divine merit points. He will also earn more divine merit points for every enemy he kills. The rate is 100 divine merit points for each rank 6 enemy.
On top of that, he will earn some divine merit points for every month that he spends on the mission. But with the first two rewards, if the mission only lasts a day and he kills five rank 6 enemies, he will be able to advance to rank 7 straightaway.
The third-highest paying mission was the mission to sign up for a sect outpost in a large world and join it in resisting the attacks of the whole world. The mission will continue until the sect has officially been established.
The reward for this mission is based on kills. Each rank 6 divine being that he kills is worth 100 divine merit points. So the more he kills during this mission, the more divine merit points he will earn. And if he kills ten rank 6 enemies, he will earn enough divine merit points to become a divine being.
The fourth-highest paying mission is to guard the territory of the sect in the large world after the sect has been established. The reward for this mission is based on how long he is willing to serve the sect.
There are many missions to sign up for under this fourth kind of mission, and they all pay differently. Some missions pay just 1 divine merit point every year that he spends protecting the territory.
Most of these missions pay 1 divine merit point every year. Some pay between 2 and 5 divine merit points every year on the job. Only a few of them pay up to 10 divine merit points per year.
After checking the particulars of the different missions under this kind of territory-protecting mission, he realized that the level of reward was tied to the level of danger that would be encountered during the mission.
The higher the danger, the higher the reward for the mission. And there is also the chance to earn more by killing powerful enemies that attack the territory.
It is just that powerful enemies are unlikely to attack since anyone who was likely to attack had already attacked and had been killed during the establishment of the sect territory. But even if no one attacks the territory, he will still be able to earn a stable yearly income.
Once he understood this, he nodded and said, "So the three missions represent three levels of danger. Their danger from highest to lowest are the second, third, and fourth kinds of missions."
"First of all, I can go to a previously untouched world, breach its defenses, build an outpost there, and resist the attempts of the world to stop me from building the outpost. This mission will be very dangerous and is riddled with unknown danger."
"If this is too dangerous for me, I can pick the second option and sign up with an outpost to defend it until the territory of the sect has been established. The pay will be directly related to the number of enemies I help eliminate."
"But if this one is also too much work for me, I can sign up to be a guard for the sect. Even if I get paid 1 divine merit point per month, as long as I hold out for 1,000 years doing the job."
He couldn’t keep a straight face when he said that last part. He burst out laughing when he talked about how one would have to serve as a guard for the sect for a thousand years before they are allowed to advance to rank 7.
After laughing, he shook his head and said, "No wonder rank 7 cultivators are so few in number. Be it slowly raising divine spirit creatures in their Cave Heaven peacefully or going to fight on the battlefield, none of it is easy."
At the end of the day, he picked the second-highest paying sect mission. The main reason he picked this option was that it paid the most in the shortest amount of time.
From the description of the mission, this mission usually lasts less than a year. This makes this mission 24 times faster than what he would have to do to reach 100 million units of law fragments.
The second reason he picked this option is that he can earn more divine merit points through kills, and there is a monthly income of 100 merit points. So this kind of mission has a better reward than the other two.
Finally, he picked this option because if the first one is completed, he can continue with the second and third options in the same world if he wants to earn more divine merit points. This makes the option all-inclusive compared to the other two.
After making this decision, the next thing he had to do was decide which world to sign up for. Or so he thought.
When he checked the list of worlds that the sect was targeting for invasion, he saw that there was only one entry in the list. So even though the mission description said that he could pick the world to invade, he didn’t really have any choice in the matter.
He went ahead to pick this world, but he snorted in dissatisfaction while doing so. Then he began reading the information that the sect had about the world.