Jason chuckled and shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm not that thankful. I only came to offer words of appreciation."
After discovering that he wasn't going to get anything out of Jason, Arthur began to pack up his things into the space pouch.
As he did so, he said to Jason, "I hope you know that you're very evil. You helped my enemy win a bet against me, and now you're rubbing salt in my wounds about how you won't help me pay the debt."
Jason shrugged and said, "In my defense, it is not smart to make you lose and then help you pay the debt."
Arthur sighed and said, "You make some sense. Maybe you're only slightly evil."
Jason grinned and said, "It also isn't smart for me to help you pay your debt if I want to have fun at your expense and witness the look of pain on your face when you learn that you have to pay so much money."
Arthur cursed out loud before saying, "I've changed my mind. You are very evil after all."
Jason laughed without shame. After laughing, he said, "I'm really thankful, though. Without what you did, the family would have lost more than 50% of the forces at the second mortal coil."
Arthur couldn't believe it. He asked in surprise, "So more than 50% of the people in the second mortal coil in the family came to participate in the inter-sect competition? Why would the family do this if they are weak? Don't they know that they are just sending them to their deaths?"
Jason sighed and said, "Because they have no choice."
He decided to explain when he saw that Arthur had stopped what he was doing to stare at him with confusion.
He said, "Don't get me wrong. No one forced them to send people to the secret realm. It was their choice to send people. But if they don't send anyone, they won't be able to gain any resources from the secret realm."
"Not only are the resources valuable, they are also rare to encounter in the outside world. If the families don't send people to participate in the secret realm, then the sects will monopolize the resources needed to advance to the third mortal coil. Soon, the families won't be able to produce cultivators at the third mortal coil."
"In summary, if they don't send people for the slim chance of success, then they would have admitted their failure. What will happen is their strength will slowly degrade over time."
Arthur said, "I see. So they won't even be able to preserve their strength if they abstain from the intersect competition."
Jason nodded in agreement. "Exactly. The power they have is bought with the lives of many people. If they send in ten people, all they need is for one of them to survive and return for the family to stand a chance of profiting."
"They might gain or lose with ten lives. But if they don't send anyone, they will automatically lose. With a loss, they can forget about ever replacing a sect."
Arthur chuckled when he heard that. He said, "With what I've seen, I don't think it is possible for a family to replace a sect."
Jason didn't deny it. Instead he smiled and asked, "And how did you come to that conclusion? Wasn't it because you saw that the disciples of the families can't match the disciples of the families? How would you and the families know if they can replace a sect if they don't find an opportunity to see the best that the sect is capable of?"
Arthur understood what point Jason was trying to make. His mouth opened as he exclaimed, "Oh."
Jason pressed his point by saying, "The best of those at the second mortal coil of the sects and the families get to participate in the inter-sect competition. By participating in it, you can compare the levels of every sect and see if any sect has learned something new."
"Most importantly, this inter-sect competition gives everyone the opportunity to see why the Blood Skull sect is the overlord of the region. When the disciples participate in it and experience the difference in power, they will know to accept the status quo and not cause trouble."
Arthur shook his head and said, "So this is an opportunity to make the disciples of the other sect respect the balance and not try to overthrow the Blood Skull. This will prevent sect wars and keep the region stable."
Jason nodded. "So in summary, the inter-sect competition is not only good for the families, it is also good for the sects and good for the cultivators in the entire region."
Arthur looked at the other ships, where some disciples were staring at the ship of the Blood Skull sect with hatred, and said to Jason, "You make it sound like everyone is a winner in the inter-sect competition. I'm afraid not everyone will think so."
Jason shrugged. "Valuable lessons are oftentimes expensive to learn. They may be angry now, but they have also learned an important lesson."
"Besides, we don't need everyone to think that it is a bad idea to try to change the status quo. We just need the majority to understand that this is the best situation for everyone."
Arthur asked, "What if one of the disgruntled disciples becomes the supreme leader of a sect in the future and decides to start a war with our sect for revenge?"
Jason laughed for a while. Then his face became cold and solemn all of a sudden.
He said with a chilling gaze, "Then they will be destroyed."
"The fact that we haven't uprooted the other sects doesn't mean that we can't. The main obstacle is that the other sects won't sit back and watch us take them down one by one."
"The other sects will gang up on us if they see that we are bloodthirsty and greedy, which will make us lose too much. So even if we win the fight against the other four sects, it won't be worth it at the end of the day."