THE GOD EATER

With him in control of their Divine Positions, even if an alliance leader dies, he can forcibly maintain the lives of the members of the alliance. Therefore, thanks to all of the preparations he made, even if none of the alliance leaders succeeded in advancing and he failed to get one Rank 9 Dao Initiate from the 21 of them, he would still have 126 Rank 8 cultivators to show for his efforts.

Clearly, he had a lot of good things planned for himself and these divine beings. But for Heavenly Eye, nothing about what he was doing was good.

Her true body was far away from this place, but as the Dao Lord of the Rank 8 deceiver, she could sense that he was dying a little bit every moment.

”How odd,” she said in confusion. ”What could be killing him a little bit at a time?”

She sensed his Divine Positions dying every second or so. It was odd to her because if something was killing him, it should kill him instantly.

If the deceiver ran out of lifespan, Life Fire should shut down at once, and his four Divine Positions should stop working immediately. So even though she knew the divine beings she lent Loki were likely to die, she was still intrigued by what was going on and wanted to know why.

After thinking about the issue for a long time, she came up with various possibilities that would explain the slow death. But she wanted to know for sure, so her true body tore open a rift into the lower realm, and her eyes poked through to see what was going on.

Through her connection to the Divine Positions of her disciples, she sensed their location. Therefore, she knew exactly where to look to get to the bottom of this anomaly.

However, when her inquisitive eyes fell on the location, she could only see a world with a tiny mole attached to it. The glass shield blocked her sight, so she couldn’t see what was happening within the world or within the small blue mole attached to it.

The failure to see what was going on frustrated her, and she didn’t hesitate to make her avatar in the Blessed Heaven World say to Loki’s avatar, ”Ragnarok. What are you up to?”

”Your invasion just started, and one of my Rank 8 disciples is dying. Didn’t you lead them there with your avatar? Are you just standing to the side watching them die?”

Before Loki could say anything to defend himself, Tepid Scholar joined the conversation, saying, ”That can’t be true. He swore an oath to preserve their lives as much as possible. So he won’t stand by and watch them die when he can step in to save them.”

He spoke as if he were speaking up for Loki, but his voice was stern, and his eyes glared at Loki as if Loki owed him money. So Loki had no misunderstanding about his relationship with Tepid Scholar. It was clear to him and everyone else that Tepid Scholar didn’t like him.

When Loki finally had the opportunity to speak, he said to Heavenly Eye, ”What I am doing with the divine beings is classified. All you need to know is that I will keep to my oath. I will protect them when I can, as long as you don’t interfere.”

Then he said to Tepid Scholar, ”Stop looking at me like that. No matter how you glare at me, I won’t let you examine the Domain Power Artifact.”

”Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. Don’t be an enemy of research,” Tepid Scholar said in protest.

”What are you worried about anyway? Didn’t you boast that only you could do something like this in the Sea of Worlds?”

”If you’re right, and I believe that you are, my taking a little peek at it won’t change anything. I am not as skillful or talented as you, so there is no way I can replicate your work. Trust me when I say that you have nothing to worry about.”

He said a lot of good words to convince Loki, but Loki snorted and said, ”Don’t try to butter me up with flattery. I am not that foolish as to fall for something like that.”

”I know that I am great and immensely talented compared to you lot, so there is no need for you to tell me. Besides, I am also smart enough not to underestimate any of you.”

”What do you mean?” Tepid Scholar asked, feigning ignorance.

In response, Loki rolled his eyes at him as he said, ”It might be impossible for you to copy it, and it might be possible. I can’t say for sure with 100% certainty. Only time will tell if you’re capable or not.”

”But one way to speed up the truth is to allow you to examine how I did it. However, that’s just asking for defeat.”

”If you can’t copy me, then there is no need for me to test fate by allowing you to examine it. But if you can copy it, it’s even more reason I shouldn’t test fate. So I prefer that we remain ignorant of your capabilities and let me keep how I did it a secret.”

Tepid Scholar immediately began arguing, ”I think you underestimate yourself too much and overestimate my potential and intelligence too much. You need to correct that attitude, as it would hamper your confidence and potential.”

He went on and on, talking about how Loki had no reason to be worried that his technology would be copied. He even diminished his intelligence several times in his argument. Clearly, he was willing to say anything to get his way.

Unfortunately, nothing he said worked on Loki. So he shifted from talking to taking action to compel Loki to give him what he wanted.

He said, ”As they say, talk is cheap. Since my talking doesn’t seem to move you, how about I make you an offer you can’t refuse?”