THE GOD EATER

With an uncertain voice, Tepid Scholar said, ”I’m not sure about that, though. After all, I have never encountered something like that before. It is just my best guess. What I am sure about is that only the guardian might be able to escape the fate of being crushed.”

He wasn’t happy with the interruption, but Golden Sun still said, ”Thank you for the information.”

In response, the voice from the sky said, ”I hear sarcasm and insincerity in your voice, but I’ll take it. You’re welcome.”

Frustrated, Golden Sun grumbled, saying, ”What a know-it-all!”

As if he just heard the best news ever, Martial Will said, ”Finally. Someone else finally sees it.”

Loki had to ignore them. Urging Golden Sun, he said, ”What do we have to do to revive or save the Sea of Worlds?”

Golden Sun took a deep breath, even though he didn’t need to breathe, to get rid of his mounting frustration. Then he said, ”We need a domain king. I don’t know why having a domain king will change things, but the guardian said that a domain king will allow the energy we need to return.”

”As for how to determine who the domain king will be, the guardian said that the competition for it will start after ten Dao Lords appear in the Sea of Worlds at the same time. But some people couldn’t wait for ten Dao Lords to appear before they started a war.”

As he spoke, anger was slowly creeping into his voice. He was also glaring at Black Chains in anger for some reason.

Loki didn’t know why Golden Sun was like this, but he saw that every other Dao Lord was also glaring at Black Chains. When he saw this, he thought, ’Golden Sun is clearly not alone in this. So he might be into something.’

In response to their passive-aggressive glaring, Black Chains, without an ounce of regret, said, ”I did what I had to do to save us.”

Rolling his eyes, Tepid Scholar immediately said, ”Oh come on. You didn’t have to. No one forced you as far as I know.”

But Black Chains insisted, ”I had to because the guardian said that the Sea of Worlds would finally be unsealed and allowed to make contact with the universe once we had ten Dao Lords.”

”They also said that the Sea of Worlds could be invaded by other domains once we have been unsealed. So when the competition for domain king starts, the Sea of Worlds will be in danger and will need superior power to protect it.”

”To protect the Sea of Worlds, I decided that I had to grow stronger as fast as possible. I made the necessary decision to accumulate the strength of the other Dao Lords into one person. After all, quality is greater than quantity.”

With a sneer, Golden Sun said, ”There it is. You decided to take everyone else’s pathways for yourself. Just say that you coveted our Cosmic Dao and wanted to take them for yourself.”

Black Chains, without shame, nodded and said, ”There was that too. But so what? There is nothing wrong with trying to acquire more strength.”

”And I was sincere about saving the world. The end justifies the means, so I am blameless.”

Then the monkey pointed at the other Dao Lords and said, ”Besides, I wasn’t the only one who fought you in that war. These also joined me.”

Fearing misunderstanding, Martial Will explained, saying, ”We fought because we had to. If we waited for the competition to start, you and your hand of brothers were definitely going to win.”

Tepid Scholar nodded and said, ”You three were too strong. We fought to eliminate the competition early. Looking at how things have turned out, I dare say that we made the right decision.”

”We are Dao Lords now, while you’re barely at rank 9. So who made the right choice?”

”To be honest, we also wanted your Cosmic Dao. Black Chains wasn’t alone in that. Though, I would say that if you had allowed me to study your Cosmic Daos, I wouldn’t have joined the war back then.”

Black Chains, laughing like a maniac, said in mockery, ”See? I was right to initiate that war. We won, while you, your brothers, and every fool who sided with you perished. Especially that fool who calls himself the Human Emperor and didn’t know what was good for himself.”

Exhaling again to vent his anger, Golden Sun said, ”That is all I know about our dying domain.”

Just as he finished speaking, an excited voice came down from the sky, saying, ”It looks like it’s my turn.”

Everyone turned to focus on the source of the voice, just in time to hear Tepid Scholar say, ”If we are dying now, it is probably accurate to assume that we weren’t always like this. It should be safe to assume that there was a time when the domain was alive and prosperous.”

”Indeed, there was such a time. It was the time of the ancient cultivators.”

His voice was wistful as he said, ”At that time, anyone could cultivate. Cultivators didn’t need to join sects. Anyone in any part of the world, be it a village or a city, or a forest, could cultivate at any time.”

”Cultivation was also free. There was this special energy in the world called spirit energy that anyone could use to cultivate.”

”Cultivation also increased lifespan. Even from the lowest rank, there was always an increase in lifespan or quality of life. So over time, fewer and fewer cultivators were dying, while more and more people were living for longer. Because of this, the number of cultivators increased rapidly over the years.”

He paused for a bit as if thinking of something. Then he chuckled as he said, ”Maybe I’m romanticizing the time of the ancient cultivators a bit too much. To be honest, not everyone could cultivate. Only a few people with a special talent called spirit roots could connect to spirit energy and use it to cultivate.”