No matter how powerful he was, they were not willing to die for him. So after they heard his decision to continue besieging the city, many of them didn’t move to take the city. They stayed where they were with a conflicted look on their faces as they wondered if Loki would try to kill them if they disobeyed him.
When Loki saw that they were hesitant, he snorted and said, "You are free to go if you don’t want to stay."
Then he started walking towards the city to lay claim to it. Some people decided to follow him. But more than half of them chose to return the way they came, and they ran away as fast as possible.
Loki didn’t like it, but he couldn’t blame them. This was because it was a safe idea for them to give up now.
Even if he blamed them, he couldn’t stop all of them and force them to help him hold the city. They would just run away if he used force on them. Besides, he wasn’t their leader, so he had no right to order them around.
Because of all these reasons, he could only let them go, no matter how much he hated them leaving. After all, the fact that they were leaving meant that he would have fewer people to use as shields if things turned dire.
As he thought of this, he said to himself in consolation, "I guess this means that I can’t be greedy. I will take a little and run away early. If I can’t have anything, I will just destroy the city and kill everyone in it."
He doesn’t plan to convert the fortress city into a post for the Four Directions Sect at all. This is because it requires too much work and because he doesn’t need to.
If he is to convert the fortress city into one of their posts, he will have to fight tooth and nail while the Martial Body Sect sends people to reclaim the city. It is only after a tug of war that has led to the loss of hundreds of lives, before one side gives up, and the city belongs to them.
For sure, he will earn a lot of merit points if he does that. But that is still no reason for him to do so much work because he has already acquired enough merit points to buy a Level 2 Dao Status.
Of the 89 enemies, he killed 43 of them. Of these 43, two of them had a Dao Status of level 3, while the remaining 41 had Level 2 Dao Status. So he earned 88 grade 3 merit points from that battle.
Once he buys a Level 2 Dao Status, he will have 78 grade 3 merit points left. This amount isn’t enough to purchase the Level 3 Dao Status. He needs just 22 points more, which is why he is unwilling to give up on the city just yet.
His plan is to go into the city and recruit 22 people or more to join the Four Directions Sect. The extra is to buy things like Life Insurance.
If he can’t recruit 22 people before the reinforcement of the Martial Body Sect arrives, then he will resort to destroying the city and killing everyone within it.
As long as he eliminates this city, he will reduce the number of living people in the small world. This will allow more souls to reincarnate into the small world from the Northern Domain.
Some of the reincarnated souls will be born in the cities of the Four Directions Sect, which will be later recruited into the sect. This will further the agenda of the sect, so he will be rewarded for it.
With this in mind, he said to himself, "The size of the reward will be dependent on how much destruction I wreak on the city, but mostly dependent on how many people I kill. So the more people I kill, the better."
With his mind made up, he took out his token and navigated through it with his internal energy. The first place he opened up was the merit shop. He went there for only one thing.
His eyes were full of anticipation, and he said, "Let’s see what this Dao Status is all about."
As soon as he said that, he clicked the option to buy the Level 2 Dao Status. Just as he did this, he felt a gaze land upon him from the sky.
The gaze was faint, but it was distinct enough for him to notice it. So he looked up at the sky in confusion to see what was looking at him.
As he looked up, he saw a bright star shining down on him. The star should have been very far away from him, but it looked like he was right beside it.
The conjecture that he was very close to the star was further confirmed when he looked around him and saw that the whole world had disappeared. All that he could see was empty darkness as if he were in the void of space.
In this large, empty world, there was only him, a being so tiny as an ant, standing before a giant glowing star. The sight was overwhelming. It took his breath away.
He actually stopped breathing as he gazed at that star. This was because he was astonished by what he saw in the star.
Despite the intense and blinding brightness of the star, he was able to see that the star was a conglomeration of gears, pulleys, bolts, nuts, gears, levers, wheels, and weapons of various kinds. The sight was mesmerizing.
The star was made of various things that had nothing to do with each other, arranged in perfect harmony. As he gazed at every part of the star moving and working in harmony, he felt that the star was the most perfect thing in existence.
His jaw dropped in disbelief, and all that he could think was, "Divine. It is simply divine."