Nether Flame’s voice was full of awe as he said, "If you ask me, I consider these homunculi to be the apex of the capability of the death pathway. Zombies, liches, flesh golems, and soul puppets are nothing compared to the creation of homunculi. It truly represents power over life and death."
By now, Loki was able to tell what emotion Nether Flame was feeling. He could see that Nether Flame was genuinely interested in this topic and was eager to speak about it.
This made Loki chuckle inwardly and say to himself, ’I should have known that only things related to death would interest a death cultivator."
Meanwhile, Nether Flame was still explaining how homunculi came to be. He said, "You know that the death pathway is split into curses, spirits, bones, flesh, and blood. These five are powerful on their own and can be used to achieve truly audacious feats. However, only by mastering all five can one hope to peek at the apex of the Death Pathway."
"These homunculi are the product of the fusion of the five aspects. A fresh half-dead body is created using the bones, flesh, and blood of dead creatures. Next, a living soul is bound to this half-dead body. Then a curse is used to force the living soul to bring the half-dead body to life."
Then he scoffed and said, "Some people claim that the manufacture of the half-dead body is the foundation of the homunculi and the miracle of death having power over life. But I think those people are full of feces."
"There are also some fools who think that the capturing and manipulation of the spirit is the cornerstone. I think those people are actually made of feces, not just full of it."
"If you ask me, I think the curse of undeath is the real miracle. It is literally a curse that prevents someone from dying. It is a curse that literally does the opposite of what curses are supposed to do by forcing someone to live. Can you imagine the level of ingenuity that came into creating something like that?"
As he spoke, he pointed at the black ring that had been tattooed on the heads of every homunculi. Then he went on to describe how the tattoo was the curse of undeath and how it was critical to the functioning of the homunculi.
With all of this information, the way Loki looked at the homunculi had changed. Some things that didn’t make sense before now made a lot of sense to him.
When he looked at them again, he said to himself, ’No wonder they are so listless. They have been worn down physically, mentally, and spiritually over the years. Not even death can grant them release.’
’Forget about this being the apex of the capabilities of the Death Pathway, I think this is the apex of the capabilities of the Enslavement Pathway. If you can bring people back from the dead, stop them from dying, and prevent them from reincarnating, all to force them to do your bidding, then enslaving the living should be as easy as pie.’
To be honest, he is impressed with what the Four Directions Sect has achieved. In fact, he is jealous of them.
He can complain and grumble about the Four Directions Sect all day long about how they are cheating and enslaving everyone. But he respects their power, and if there was ever a chance for him to take the place of the Four Directions Sect in oppressing people, he would take it in less than a half-beat of thinking.
The fact that there were hundreds of millions of homunculi here only made him more impressed with what the Four Directions Sect had been able to turn debtors into useful members of society.
But after being impressed for a while, he found a reason to complain about the sect. This was because he realized that the creation of the homunculi couldn’t have been free.
When he thought about what could have cost the sect to create the homunculi, his mind raced with thoughts, saying, ’The flesh, blood, and bones can be bought with money. I learned that very early in the initiation program when Muni was auctioning initiates.’
’The souls can be gotten from debtors, and the curse can be fashioned from various materials. But even if all of these things are acquired for free, which I’m sure the sect can manage to do, it will still cost energy to bring these body parts together to create.’
’Since mortal power can’t be used to achieve this, I am guessing that the energy they need to make homunculi is lifespan. Since this is a powerful undertaking that defies the normal operations of the world, I am willing to bet that it costs a lot of lifespan to execute the creation of homunculi.’
’Just giving living creatures the talent to cultivate costs lifespan. So I’m sure that it would cost a lot of lifespan to literally bring the dead back to life. But where will the sect get so much lifespan?’
When he thought of this question, only one answer came to his mind. This answer made him grind his teeth in anger.
He hasn’t even paid his life-leech yet. But just the thought that his lifespan would be stolen by the sect and used by the sect to create an undying workforce for free, he felt half as enslaved as the homunculi.
While he was deep in thought, Nether Flame was still talking. He was saying, "The homunculi are here to maintain the operation of this battle world. But most times, they are used as undying troops to wear down enemies."
He didn’t look like he was going to stop speaking. But Loki was not interested in hearing about the uses of the homunculi.
He had something else that he wanted to know, so he asked Nether Flame, saying, "You’re a powerful rank 7 cultivator, right? Can you create a homunculus?"