THE GOD EATER

His voice was wistful as he said, ”But even those without spirit roots could make up for this deficiency by forging their body, changing their blood, and strengthening their life force, all to ultimately build a life root that could connect with spirit energy in the environment and cultivate.”

”Did I mention that cultivation was completely free?” Tepid Scholar asked them.

Without waiting for an answer, he said, ”I did. In their days, you didn’t need to pay anyone to be awakened or to access the spirit energy everywhere.”

”To top things off, cultivators didn’t need to spend their lifespan to produce power. They could use the spirit energy in the environment to freely produce power. So yes, the time of the ancient cultivators was a time of plenty and prosperity despite some difficulties.”

Scoffing, he said, ”And what difficulty did they face? It was mostly the difficulty of greed. They fought each other for precious resources and the like. Their greatest enemy was themselves.”

His voice had become agitated as he spoke. He spoke as if he was angry with the ancient cultivators.

So after speaking, he shook his head and said, ”Don’t mind me. I got carried away just thinking about all that was lost.”

”I shouldn’t waste energy on that. After all, it is no use being angry with an era that is no more.”

”At that time, ancient cultivators had what they called the immortal realm. It is where we Dao Lords reside right now. But not only was their immortal realm more beautiful and full of divine crystals scattered everywhere, but it was also full of beings like us.”

”Right now, there are eight Dao Lords. At its peak, there were nine of us. But in the time of the ancient cultivators, there were thousands of Dao Lords. Can you imagine that? Thousands of them, I tell you.”

Trying to envision millions of Dao Lords, Loki’s scalp tingled. Hurriedly, he shook his head to get rid of the image of thousands of Dao Lords from his mind.

As he shook his head, he thought, ’If the Dao Lords of that time were in any way similar to the Dao Lords of our time, then I can’t imagine that the people below them in cultivation could lead a good life.’

Meanwhile, Tepid Scholar was still speaking. He said, ”Now we have four super worlds and maybe one more super world belonging to the dragon. But in their days, ancient cultivators had tens of thousands of super worlds.”

”There were hundreds of thousands of large worlds, not the ten we have now. There were also millions of medium worlds and billions of small worlds.”

”It was a time of great prosperity where the Dao Lord rank was not the apex of cultivation. There were even stronger people with more advanced cultivation back then.”

”But all of these and many more came to an end when the Sea of Worlds was invaded. Then the previous domain king was killed, every Dao Lord was killed, and the immortal realm fractured until it became what it is now.”

He sighed and said, ’I don’t know how exactly it happened. I was only a lowly cultivator when it happened. My station was too low to know those things.”

”I wasn’t a Dao Lord and didn’t live in the immortal realm, so I didn’t know what led up to that event. What I saw that day it happened was that the sky was torn asunder and rivers of golden ichor fell from the sky.”

”I was in the Blessed Heaven World back then. We were just a large world. I was working hard to ascend to the immortal realm and become a Dao Lord. So imagine my shock when I saw the great and mighty Dao Lords scrambling to enter the Sea of Worlds.”

”Those powerful Dao Lords tore holes through the sky, trying to force their way into the Sea of Worlds. Unfortunately, it was to no avail. They were all slaughtered like cattle. The only part of their existence that could make it through the rifts in the sky was their blood.”

For a moment, his eyes became unfocused, and he stopped talking. Loki didn’t have the mind to rush him because he was still trying to digest the scene of thousands of Dao Lords being killed and massacred.

No one else wanted to rush Tepid Scholar. So he was given the time he needed to recover.

When he finally regained his composure, he chuckled and said, ”That day scarred me. I thought I had gotten over it after so long. But it seems I really haven’t.”

”When I remember what happened that day, I see a river of blood. The blood was golden and shiny, but it was also hotter than lava.”

”As the blood of the slain Dao Lords fell to the ground, it crushed everything it touched. What it didn’t crush, it burned to ashes. And what it couldn’t burn to ashes, it drowned.”

”When I finally made it to the immortal realm, I found the place to be empty. Instead of glory, I found a dead, fractured world. There was only one living being in the whole place. He called himself the guardian.”

”For a minute, can you imagine my surprise when I found someone else in that empty place?” he asked them.

”I was really excited. I was also curious to know what happened back then. So I asked him for information about that day of slaughter.”

Laughing, he said, ”You know me. I’m a naturally curious person. I bombarded him with a lot of questions. Fortunately, he found me amusing and indulged me.”

”He told me that a pantheon invaded the Sea of Worlds. Apparently, an external force had come to this domain. The ruler of that pantheon asked our domain king to surrender and submit. You should know how that request was answered.”

After laughing at his own joke, he shook his head and became serious again. Then he said, ”I think it is safe to say that the offer to surrender was rejected.”