She was still confused so Loki made things clear for her by pointing up to the sky and saying, "You know what, you should go up there and do what you did earlier. I want you to fall on me with all of your strength."
Before she could refuse, he said to her in a cold tone, "Don’t say no again. If you do, I will be forced to attack and kill you."
When she heard this, she stopped shaking her head midway and changed to nodding her head. Then she went up into the sky.
Twenty minutes later, a meteor fell from the sky and landed near Loki’s position. He didn’t dodge even though he knew it was coming and had ample time to evade.
This can be considered foolishness, and he paid the price for it. The resulting explosion washed over and nearly ripped him to shreds.
After taking on this kind of power, he didn’t bother to thank the rank 5 forger. He simply rushed out of the newly created crater in pursuit of the golden pillar of light.
By this time, the golden pillar of light has nearly reached the end of the world. But there was a limit to how far it could go because there was a limit to the size of the small world.
Because of the golden pillar of light, they can never hide. This arrangement makes it so that the person holding the symbol of authority can only keep running or stand their ground and fight to maintain their possession of the symbol of authority.
Since his speed is now 90% more than their speed, he will be able to catch up to them if they keep running, and he will do so in less than a day.
The worst part is that he can always tell where they are, but they can’t tell where he is. So in the next few hours, they will have to fight him to continue possessing the symbol of authority.
As he was rushing to get the symbol of authority for the Four Directions Sect and earn a lot of merit points from doing so to ensure that he would be designated as the most useful soldier, he thought back to that meteor strike.
The explosion replayed in his mind, so he heard the loud sound of the earth shattering again. Before the shockwaves could batter him, there was a brief flash of light. This flash was followed by an intense wave of heat that threatened to cook him alive.
It was after the heat struck him that the shockwaves came to batter him. The shockwaves were in turn accompanied by shattered rock and sand. The force of the blow nearly knocked him away.
He stood his ground, though. He wanted to experience as much as he could before giving up. It seems that his plan was worth it.
After replaying that scene in his mind, he shook his head and said, ’I was right not to take the hammer head on. The power of that hammer is at least 500,000 units. It might even be up to 1 million units.’
’I might have been able to withstand it if I had actively used the Strength Pathway, Forging Pathway, and Killing Pathway to attack it. But if that had failed, I would have died. The risk just wasn’t worth it.’
The image of the white hot explosion flashed through his mind again and made him say, ’The destructive power is on par with a nuclear bomb. The only thing that I have seen that could rival that kind of power was when that rank talisman master self-destructed. That too was strong enough to wipe out a city from the face of the earth.’
He had been able to survive the self-detonation of that talisman master despite being closer to the explosion because his defense was enhanced by the Vengeful Bones Metac. Even then, the Shifting Armor had been shredded.
This time, he stayed away from the center of the explosion. But because he didn’t have the enhancement of the Vengeful Bones Metac anymore, he had nearly died from the explosion.
Right now, he can’t even keep his Shifting Armor activated. The poor Life Ability is too damaged for that.
The Shifting Armor will need a lot of time to heal. Fortunately, he has a long way to go to catch up to the golden pillar of light, so he can bear to wait.
With nothing to do, he has time to think. So after thinking about how powerful that meteor strike was, he wondered to himself, saying, ’I wonder how much she saw.’
Because he was no longer wearing his second skin when he left the new crater, the rank 5 forger had likely seen his real appearance. This also meant that she had seen his "mech suit" liquify and return to his body.
As a master forger, it is definite that if she saw him deactivate the Shifting Armor Life Ability, she would be able to determine that his Life Ability has mutated. It is even possible for her to determine that his Life Ability is now a Divine Metac.
Whichever she discovers will create trouble for him. Only the amount of trouble differs.
But no matter how much trouble she can create, the trouble is unlikely to be in the short term. It is more likely that the trouble will come after the Heavenly Battlefield is over.
As long as trouble comes after the Heavenly Battlefield, he won’t mind dealing with that trouble. This is why he decided not to kill her now. It is also why he didn’t go ahead to kill the rank 5 money cultivator after thinking about it.
Right now, his focus is to get the symbol of authority, keep a hold of it for 24 hours, help the Four Directions Sect gain victory, and be rewarded as the most useful player.
So he said to himself with a chuckle, ’As long as you let me win, you can kick up as much trouble as you want after.’
His mind was focused on the pursuit with single-minded focus. But as it turned out, he wasn’t the only one who was anxious about retrieving the symbol of authority and pursuing the golden pillar of light.
----------
A/N: Please, don’t forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets. Thank you for your support.