THE GOD EATER

In the description of the world that would be invaded, the sect stated that the world was a large world called Oceania. It is a world covered with water and is ruled by humanoid amphibious people. These humanoid amphibious people are called Gators.

While he was reading this, he split part of his attention to check on his army and speak with Hammock. He didn’t plan to speak with Hammock to ask how the ant queen was doing. He was only interested in asking questions.

This was why there was no exchange of pleasantries when he appeared before Hammock as a mass of light. He went straight to the point and asked the question he had on his mind.

He said, “Why is the sect invading worlds when they can just capture them as they do with small worlds?”

He didn’t greet, but Hammock still bowed to him and said, “Greetings, master.”

It was after he had shown his respect that he answered the question, saying, “I think the question you asked is interesting because I don’t recollect any time the Blessed Heaven World captured a large world.”

“During the nearly 500 years that I was a divine being, no large world was ever captured and subdued to be used as a Heavenly Battlefield. I have also read a lot of books about history, but I have never seen this happen in the past either.”

“I didn’t think much about it, though. In fact, I don’t think I noticed this discrepancy. But now that you’ve made it obvious, I believe that I have three possible reasons for why it is the case.”

When Loki heard what Hammock said, he became surprised. So the tone of his voice contained some indication of his surprise when he said, “You have three possible reasons? That sounds mighty audacious for something you hadn’t noticed or considered deeply.”

“So you just came up with the two reasons. What are the odds that you would be correct?”

In response, Hammock said with confidence, “Master, I am 100% certain in the validity of one of the reasons. As for the second one, I am only 50% certain. But the third one is entirely based on my suspicion, so I have no confidence in it.”

Loki was no curious to hear what Hammock had to say. So he said, “I see. In that case, let me hear what reasons you came up with.”

Hammock obliged and nodded obediently before saying, “The main reason I believe that large worlds are invaded instead of being captured is that any captured world will belong to the entire world and can fall into the hands of any sect.”

“Who will get a captured world will depend on who wins the Heavenly Battlefield. On the other hand, the sect that can claim ownership of an invaded world is the sect that invaded that large world.”

“I think that small worlds and medium worlds are of little consequence to sects. But large worlds are too important to allow to fall into the hands of others because of the result of a gambling match.”

Loki found this reason to be reasonable and plausible, so he nodded and said, “You have a point. The sects are selfish and greedy, so it is normal that they wouldn’t want something that big to fall into the hands of their competitors.”

“I can see why you are 100% confident in this reason. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine if you’re right or wrong. In fact, there is no way to be sure that the fact that no one large world has been captured is not a coincidence.”

But Hammock shook his head and said, “I am sure it is not a coincidence because I know of several large worlds, but I don’t know any large world that has been captured.”

“If I know of large worlds, that means the five sects must also know about them. Yet sects only invade the large worlds. They have done nothing to capture the large world. This suggests that the situation is intentional, not by coincidence.”

Loki thought about this for a while before saying, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe sects really want to keep a large world all to themselves.”

“After all, a large world is usually up to 1 billion square kilometers in size. I can see why they wouldn’t want to share it.”

Hammock immediately responded, saying, “I’m glad that you agree. As for the remaining two reasons, I’m not so confident about them.”

Hammock was concerned about being wrong, but Loki didn’t care. He was already satisfied with the first reason. So no matter how unreasonable the other two reasons are, he could accept them.

So he said to Hammock, “Just say what you have to say. Any reason and explanation is better than no reason whatsoever.”

Since Loki had ordered him to speak, Hammock could only say, “My second reason why large worlds aren’t captured and are instead invaded is so that sects can establish territory there and recruit more sect members from the world.”

“Since the Blessed Heaven World is already saturated, if sects want to expand, they will have to do so in another world. I believe that is another reason for invading other worlds.”

“On the other hand, if a world is captured, the world heart will always go to the Blessed Heaven World. Once the world’s heart is taken, the world becomes dead and hollow. Without a heart, the world becomes unable to produce living things and souls, which makes it unsuitable for expansion.

Then Hammock’s voice became uncertain as he said, “This seems to me to be a reasonable reason why sects would invade large worlds. But I can’t fathom why sects would want to expand.”

“In fact, I don’t understand why Dao Lords would establish sects. After all, they are supposed to be the strongest in the universe. So what do they stand to gain by establishing a sect and expanding that sect?”