Loki saw that there were also seven inner rings within the small world. He saw that each ring was a large structure with a large surface.
These inner rings were connected to the outer rings through the train tracks that passed through the crystal shell. As he watched, he saw trains leaving the inner rings through the train tracks and leaving the small world.
He also saw large elevators that connected the rings from the sky to the ground surface. So the equipment and people could leave the surface of the small world to get to the inner rings easily. From there, they will be able to use the train tracks to leave the small world for the outer rings.
Down below, there were factories of various kinds. The factories were split into two main types. They were flesh factories and the machine factories.
The machine factories refined ores into fine metal bars or rods. Then they treated the metal bars into a higher grade material before using this higher grade material to cast or forge various machines and equipment.
As for the flesh factories, the raw materials they worked with were flesh, blood, and bones. The homunculi drove truckloads of body parts into the flesh factories. These body parts were then separated into muscles, internal organs, and many more.
But that was only the first stage of separation. After the first separation was carried out, a second separation was done where muscles were separated again into various groups of muscles, and internal organs were separated into various kinds of organs.
So after the second separation, the biceps were placed in one pile while the triceps were placed in another pile. And internal organs were separated into heart, lungs, kidneys, livers, and so on.
Then the various piles are treated, refined, and upgraded. The final upgraded product is stitched together to form a whole body. This stitched body is what is used to create the homunculi.
The stitched body is baked with a special arcane machine to convert it from a completely dead body into a body that is only half dead. This half-dead body is brain dead and in a coma, but the heart is beating, the lungs are working, and blood is circulating well through its body.
Next, the half-dead body is branded with the curse of undeath. Finally, an unwilling soul is stuffed into the cursed undead body. Once this is done, a homunculus is ready for work.
As he watched, he saw warehouses full of half-dead bodies stored in sealed containers. He saw hundreds of thousands of these half-dead bodies stored away, doing nothing.
But every once in a while, the stored bodies are carried away, and a soul is bound to them to bring them back to life. Whenever this happened, the half-dead body always screamed out in pain after coming back to life.
In the brief amount of time that he inspected the world, he saw three such cases of half-dead bodies coming to life. In all three cases, the resulting homunculus always screamed in pain.
The first one roared as she said, "Nooooooooooooooooo!"
The second one screamed, "Let me die. Let me die. Please let me die."
The third one cried out, saying, "Kill me!!!"
The three of them seemed unwilling to continue living. But after a few seconds, their scream of pain abruptly cuts off. Then the three of them became docile and listless.
The three of them started behaving as if they were not screaming in pain just a few seconds ago. They became completely obedient and immediately joined the workforce without making any more fuss.
When Loki saw this, he said to himself, ’The sect must be forcing them to live and work somehow. Otherwise, these people will be killing themselves in order to avoid working, and the whole thing will quickly become untenable if the sect has to be constantly producing new bodies for unwilling workers.’
Another thing that he noticed was that these homunculi didn’t possess Energy Wells, so they couldn’t cultivate. However, their bodies were very strong and could be as strong as the rank 5 bodies of giants.
So even though they couldn’t cultivate, they were still very strong. However, Loki didn’t have much hope for their strength simply because they couldn’t use Metacs.
As an experienced cultivator, he knew that the body, soul, mind, and will were only part of the source of power. According to his experience, Core Metacs and Branch Metacs are the main contributors of power.
In this case, their rank 5 bodies will make them 5 times more powerful than the most powerful rank 1 mortal. But a rank 5 cultivator is usually 400,000 times stronger than the most powerful rank 1 mortal.
This made him smile faintly and say to himself with pride, ’This is the difference between them and my rank 6 ant drones who have the support of the Hive Mind. There is also the manifestation of Fenrir that I can use in a pinch if I need to.’
The ant drones in his army also can’t use Metacs of any kind. But they can borrow the power of the Cave Heaven of their mother, Hammock. This makes them something that no mortal can handle.
While he was feeling glad that he let the heart of Hammock’s world live and preserved Hammock’s power, they finally reached their destination.
Their destination was a large floating continent. This continent was standing above the main continent below.
After inspecting it closely, he realized that this continent was actually floating. He saw thick pillars of metal that supported the floating continent from the ground.
He also saw there were no factories on this floating continent. Instead, there were cities, farms, and livestock here.
There were also normal humans living here. Most of them were cultivators. He saw very few homunculi here.
Nether Flame took him to the top floor of the tallest building on the floating continent. There were two people there waiting for him.
One of the people was a rank 6 cultivator. This cultivator also possessed two Divine Metacs.