THE GOD EATER

The more they spoke, the more Loki realized that everything that had just happened was a play. Heavenly Eye’s exposure of the secret to his advancement, Martial Will’s collaboration on the method of advancement, and Black Chain’s anger at his will being defied had all been a play orchestrated to fool him.

As this realization dawned on him, he felt a chill go through his mind, making him think, ’These people are all tricky to deal with. They looked like they were fighting each other, but it was all pretend.’

’They nearly had me too. I completely believed them. If not for my habitual distrust, I wouldn’t have asked them to swear the oath, and they would have had me.’

He would be lying to say that they didn’t succeed in fooling him. Their scheme was just too believable. They would have gotten away with it if he hadn’t been distrustful of Heavenly Eye.

He knew that Heavenly Eye was lying about the name and appearance of her two pathways. He also knew that she was hiding Golden Sun and was probably the hidden Harem King.

Lastly, she had just lied about how she already told him the secret to his advancement. When all of these experiences were combined, they distilled into an instinctive distrust of anything she said. That’s why he asked for an oath to confirm that what he was told was the truth.

He chuckled bitterly as he said, ”I was asking for a routine oath. I didn’t actually expect any foul play. It seems I need to be more cautious.”

”Since you caught the trap, you deserve to know the truth,” Tepid Scholar began. ”One main requirement to become a two-star Dao Lord is to reach a conversion efficiency of 10% in your first Supreme Metac.”

”You definitely need divine crystal for the new Supreme Metac and the old one. You also need 10 celestial gold to stabilize the old Supreme Metac. But if you put 10 celestial gold into a Supreme Metac that hasn’t reached 10% conversion efficiency, that Supreme Metac will surely collapse.”

Then he finished by saying, ”I swear on my Dao Heart that this is the truth of the requirements of advancement as far as I know it to be.”

Upon hearing this, Loki began to clap as he said, ”So not only did you lie about which Supreme Metacs needed divine crystals, but you also lied about the requirement for conversion efficiency. I am honestly impressed. It seems I have a lot to learn about being a Dao Lord.”

”Enough wasting time,” Black Chain said with a snort. ”Now that you have what you want, tell us about your second request.”

When Loki heard this, he glanced briefly at Black Chain’s angry face before saying, ”Thanks to the information I just acquired, I now have three requests. It is no longer two.”

”Oh, come on,” Martial Will began to say in complaint. ”Is this what we get for helping you?”

Loki immediately cut him off, saying, ”You didn’t help me. What you did was try to cheat me.”

”I missed one tiny detail, and now I’m the villain?” Martial Will asked in shock.

With a sigh of lamentation, the Dao Lord of the Martial Body Sect said, ”What kind of world do we live in where a Dao Lord, who only wants to help, can’t make a tiny mistake?”

As pitiful as he was pretending to be, Loki still said, ”Even if what you said was the truth, it still wouldn’t have counted as you helping me with anything.”

”This entire thing is not you helping me with anything. The information you gave me was not a favor. It was payment for the services I will soon render. So this is a transaction.”

The white eagle cut him off and said, ”He is right. You’re being greedy.”

”You said you wanted two things, but now it has become three things. You are being more greedy than Black Chain, and that’s not a compliment.”

The black eagle also said, ”If this is a transaction, there should be equivalent exchange. A transaction should also be voluntary. What you’re doing is extorting us, not making a voluntary transaction.”

”You’re mostly right, but you’re wrong about two things,” Loki said with a shake of his head. ”A transaction only means an exchange. It doesn’t mean an equivalent or fair exchange.”

”Secondly, I am indeed extorting all of you. However, I have something to give you that will more than make up for what I am about to demand.”

”Oh, please,” the white monkey said with a sneer. ”What could an ignorant Dao Lord who didn’t know how to advance just earlier have to give us that could possibly be valuable?”

Tepid Scholar also joined in with an extra dose of skepticism, saying, ”I am also skeptical about what you have for us.”

”According to my guess, your new demand should be for celestial gold and divine crystals. Since you just came up with the demand after you heard the requirements to advance, I’m guessing that the demand must be related to the requirements.”

”But if I am right and you don’t have the divine crystal and celestial gold you need to advance, it is unlikely that you have anything valuable. So maybe you should just stick with your shameless extortion.”

”First of all,” Loki said in reply. ”This is still extortion. Whatever I have, you have to take it no matter how poor it is and give me what I want.”

”Be that as it may, I am indeed offering something valuable so as to encourage all of you to give me a lot of divine crystals and celestial gold.”

”I am sure that if I force you, you will give me something. But if I really want something very valuable from you, I should make you voluntarily offer your best to me.”

”Thirdly, in light of that, I won’t force anyone to give me the divine crystals and celestial gold I need. If you think what I have is valuable, then make an offer for it.”