He noticed that he continued to age despite reversing time several times, so he is sure that if he dared to reverse time now, it would be an extra 3 years of age that would follow him into the past. So his age at the point he awakens will be 22, not 19.
He noticed that his time and age were flowing forward despite the reversal of time when he saw that his age at the point of awakening was 20 years old, not 19. That was two years ago when he noticed this.
Since the time he noticed that his age doesn’t decrease, his age has only increased, and it only increased by the total amount of time that he has lived and experienced, including the time that was lost when he reversed time.
This made him realize that he can’t reverse time forever and that he will die one day when he reaches the limit of his lifespan. So it became of the utmost importance for him to increase his lifespan.
This is why the most important thing for him right now is to advance to rank 2 as soon as possible. This is just the closest goal in the long-term goal of reaching rank 6 as fast as possible, so that he can prolong his lifespan.
Unfortunately, despite his desperation and hard work, he has not been able to get the rank 2 Core Metac that he needs.
After thinking long and hard about his problem for so long, he could only sigh and say, "I think I’ll just buy a whole rank 2 cultivator outside. If I can’t buy one, I’ll kill one."
Since he can’t get what he wants now, he can only wait until he leaves the sect grounds and gains access to the wider world out there for what he wants.
As he was thinking, his peers were all talking about the competition. Whenever they spoke about the people who were likely to win it, they couldn’t help but mention Loki. This is because he has always been the best in the tests.
Right from the second month, he was the best in the strength of willpower and the skill of energy manipulation because of his powerful soul and powerful Dao Heart. This is despite holding back from using his full power.
As for the matter of cultivation, Slav was always able to win it. Loki didn’t compete with him for this, even when the cultivation of his main energy well reached the peak of rank 1, because Slav had more potential than him, and he would need to use the energy in his other four energy chambers to beat Slav.
He didn’t even use the full energy capacity of his main energy well to compete with Slav. He always stopped short of 50 units out of the total 77 units capacity of his energy well because he didn’t want to expose the fact that he awakened an innate Metac.
So he always lagged behind Slav, Craig, and Leroy in the matter of cultivation. As for the other two tests, he was always first, even with his half-hearted effort. This made him the overall best.
This is why they have to mention Loki whenever they mention the people who could win the competition. Even if he rarely fights, so they don’t know how good he is at fighting, they still have to count him as a top contender.
What they didn’t know was that he didn’t care about the competition and wouldn’t compete with them for the benefit they wanted to fight for. This made a lot of people care a lot about his performance in the competition.
The one who cares the most about his performance is Slav. In fact, Slav was glaring at him while everyone talked about who would win in the competition.
There were four people following Slav now. His entourage has reduced from nearly 30 to just four. This is partly because some of them stopped being his lap dogs, but mostly because the rest of them were eliminated and killed.
As it turned out, those who stopped being his lap dogs were the smart ones, even though some of them died because these four that are still alive wish dearly that they had left when they had the chance to. At least three of them regret sticking with Slav.
The five of them walked together and followed Loki to the accommodations. They didn’t follow Loki to his lodgings, though. They left him and went to Slav’s lodgings after they reached the accommodations.
Slav gritted and ground his teeth in frustration all the way to his place. When he couldn’t continue to hold back, he spat on the ground and said with bitterness, "I can’t believe that a Slave can be better than me."
His face was scrunched up as if he had just tasted the most sour lemon. So if they didn’t know that he was angry before, they knew for sure now.
In order to prevent him from taking his anger out on them, they quickly spoke to appease him.
The one on his right said with a smile, "He couldn’t beat you in cultivation, which means that his potential is nowhere near yours. Coupled with your background, no matter how hard he works, he can never compare to you, and his achievements will never amount to much."
He spoke with confidence as if he were stating a fact. This made his words more believable.
The one on Slav’s left quickly added with a fawning expression, "Besides, he could only beat you in terms of the skill of energy manipulation and Dao Heart. Those things can be made up in time. He only has an advantage in them now because he is older than you and has a stronger mind."
The third one nodded and said in agreement, "That’s true. Those two things only require effort. In time, you will be able to make up for these deficiencies. But he can never make up for his deficiency in potential."