They were willing to give up on this opportunity to earn merit points because there would always be an opportunity to earn merit points if they were willing to risk their lives, and because they were being paid a lot to snitch on Loki.
This was how Skarg found out that Loki had received his message. He discovered it late, but it was far earlier than Loki wanted.
Skarg didn’t like what he heard at all. The fact that Loki killed that woman meant that he didn’t like that message, and he didn’t want her to return, which was not what Skarg wanted.
If Loki were a giant, he would entertain the possibility that Loki had only killed the messenger out of anger. But Loki was a forger using the Sky-raising Giant Dao Heart refining technique. So he didn’t consider that Loki had killed her out of anger and displeasure at all.
After figuring out Loki’s motives for killing her, he became so angry that he smashed his fist into the table. Then he stood up abruptly and overturned the table completely.
That outburst wasn’t enough to pacify him, so he began pacing around the room too.
As he paced, he ranted, saying, "I told him everything so he would know that I have him dead to rights. I wanted him to know that my threat was serious and that he had nowhere to go. But he still refused to budge."
He raised his voice as he said, "Does he have a way out of the curse, or is he just willing to die before giving me the secret to rank 5? Or does he think that I am bluffing?"
He was asking everyone in the room that question. Since only his two children were in the room, he must be asking them the question.
Unfortunately, the two of them didn’t know the answer to the question. So they could only keep quiet and look at each other with uncertainty in their eyes.
At any other time, Skarg might become angry at his subordinates because of their silence and take out his anger on them for not knowing what he asked them. But this time, he couldn’t get angry at them because they were his children and because they shouldn’t have any way to know the answer to his question.
So he got over their silence and continued to rant. He said, "I hear he is very strong now. He can even kill two rank 4 giants in a single fight, with both of them ganging up on him. That’s impressive, to be honest."
"It is an impressive feat of power, but if that is the best he can do, it is still lacking. Those two were not the strongest rank 4 giants, and that kind of power is not enough to defeat me. But as long as he stays in that small world, I won’t be able to reach him directly."
"This calls for some desperate action. Since he wants to be stubborn, I must show him that being stubborn will cost him a lot."
His words came out in a rush as he paced around the room. He said them in order to vent and help relieve his anger. But by the time he was done, he had become angrier, not less angry.
In his anger, he strode over to the fireplace and picked up the fire poker. Then he took the fire poker over to the cage with the effigy in it.
Even before he reached the cage, he was already brandishing the fire poker. So when he reached the cage, the fire poker was ready for its mission.
Without delay, he thrust the fire poker into the cage and smashed it into the arm of the effigy. The effigy roared out in pain as it lost an arm. But it was still clawing at the cage, trying to get out.
Skarg wanted to destroy more of the effigy and use it to inflict more pain on Loki, but he held himself back from doing so. Since he had made his point, he dropped the fire poker and returned to his chair.
After taking his seat, he sneered and said, "Send another message to him. Let me know what he has to say now."
In the small world, Loki was sitting calmly, minding his business, when he was struck by a sudden and invisible attack. The attack bypassed the defenses of his armor since it was a spiritual attack, not a physical attack, and struck his body directly.
To be specific, the attack struck his left arm. And the power of the invisible attack wasn’t light at all.
The power of the curse was at 3(Status) × 4(Cultivation Rank) × (4(Soul) + 4(Life Ability) + 50% Energy Well) × (4(Effigy)) × (350% Overdrive), which is 1,428 units. This is even though the effigy wasn’t being used by its original creator, so this was its base power as a consumable item.
As for Loki’s spiritual defense, it was 3(Status) × 3(Cultivation Rank) × (3(Soul) + 3(Mind) + 450% Energy Well)) × (3(Reversal Metac)× (260% Overdrive), which is 737 units.
This is the power of his defense, even though he was actively using the Reversal Metac, a Divine Metac, to protect himself. So his passive spiritual defense is definitely much lower than this.
However, even the help of the Reversal Metac wasn’t enough to protect him from the power of the curse. So the curse successfully latched onto his arm and quickly began to corrode it.
In the physical world, what he saw was that a black scab had settled on his arm. Then in a few seconds, his arm shrank and shriveled into the arm of a corpse.
Loki was so frightened by this that he jumped up and waved his left arm about as he said, "What’s going on? Is this the power of the effigy? Is it this sinister?"
"I’ll talk. I’ll talk. I tell him whatever he wants to hear."
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A/N: Please, don’t forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets. Thank you for your support.