This was all from a single attack. And he even avoided most of the damage of the attack. But the fact that he was touched by the attack, even if lightly, is enough to put him in a precarious situation.
The black-robed swordsman is also a killing cultivator, but he didn’t know that Loki had used the Branch Metacs of the Killing Pathway to attack him, which was why he didn’t understand how being lightly grazed had turned into serious mental and physical pain and weakness.
He didn’t know that he had actually been cut once. The six cuts on his body made him believe that he had been cut six times by the explosion since Loki was clearly a forge cultivator, not a killer like him.
But despite all of this ignorance about the kind of attack that struck him and the capabilities of his enemy, he knew without a doubt that he couldn’t withstand the power of his enemy and that his life was in danger.
So, after he escaped from certain death by the edge of his teeth, he didn’t stand around to admire the extent of the damage that the explosion had caused or show off to Loki that he survived the attack.
He didn’t even look back at Loki. He simply continued to focus on the Blood Escape Metac and used it with all of his might to get away from where Loki should be at the fastest speed possible.
His mind was focused on a single thing, which was escaping for his life. But he was a rank 5 cultivator, and he belonged to another sect, so Loki was unwilling to let him go.
Even though they were both killers, Loki was hell-bent on killing him. So Loki pursued him immediately.
The two of them disappeared quickly because their speed was too fast. By the time the rank 5 forger got her bearings, they were long gone.
She was still holding her breath for a while longer, though. It was only a few seconds before Loki didn’t appear and the red lightning in the ground had died down that she finally dared to exhale.
Her reaction isn’t because she is scared of Loki. As a rank 5 cultivator, she isn’t scared of death, so there is no way she will be scared of another cultivator.
What she is scared of is the red lightning that he is capable of producing. That red lightning gives her a weird feeling.
As she looked at the two large lakes of ashes that Loki had caused with those two explosions, her face became solemn. The size of the destruction isn’t what is scaring her. It is what was left behind by the explosion that is making her feel dread.
The two lakes have been filled with white ash. The white ash looks fine and fluffy, but something told her that it wasn’t a good thing at all.
She bent down to touch the white ash to feel it with her hands and maybe understand what it was that she was afraid of so much. But no amount of touching could clue her to exactly what was wrong.
At the end of the day, she could only shrug and say, "Maybe I was just being extra anxious because I am sensitive to energy. That lightning should be a product of the Lightning Engine Metac, but it feels odd. It feels..."
She struggled to find a word to describe her exact feeling. But she came up short. It caused her to sigh in frustration.
Then her face became solemn as she said, "It might not be dangerous like I think it is, but I should not leave it to fate. Besides, unless he is hiding his cultivation, he is too for a rank 4 cultivator."
When she thought of the power he was capable of, she snorted and said, "Heck, his power is too strong for even a rank 5 cultivator. Either he is the reincarnation of a divine being, or he is in possession of a Divine Metac. Either way, something has to be done about him."
With her mind made up, she took out her token and used it to send a message to an acquaintance of hers, saying, "I just saw a rank 4 cultivator with the Armored Shell Life Ability."
The other side was quick to reply, saying with a languid voice, "Thanks, but I don’t need more food. I’ve eaten my fill already and reached my limit. That young forger can consider themselves lucky for escaping my hunt."
This reply didn’t surprise her, so she wasn’t disappointed. She already had a plan for this, so she said, "But his Armored Shell is mutated."
It is true that Loki’s Armored Shell looks weird, but she is not certain that it is mutated. She is only 50% certain that it is mutated. But that doesn’t mean that she can’t speak as if she is 100% sure that the Armored Shell is mutated.
This is her plan. It is to lie to rile up the other side.
Her plan seemed to work because this time, the other side’s voice became full of urgency as they said, "Where?"
She smiled as she said, "The Heavenly Battlefield."
The other side became irritated when they heard this. They cursed, saying, "Damn it. What kind of bad luck is this?"
Then they said to her, "He mustn’t die. You have to help me protect him."
She clicked her tongue in response and said, "That’s going to be hard to do. You know how dangerous the Heavenly Battlefield is."
The person she was chatting with sneered and said, "Just tell me what you want."
She was quick to say, "I want the coordinates of a fresh world."
The other side laughed before they said, "What a large appetite. Aren’t you afraid of eating too much and dying?"
This was a warning to her, but she didn’t back down. She said with confidence, "Just give me what I asked for."