As he understood more of Jim’s motivation, he said to himself, "No wonder the religions of my past life had so much allure, even though there was no proof of a god or evidence of life after death."
"Just the possibility of life after death was enough to drive many people crazy. They were willing to become suicide bombers, and their faith was enough to let them willingly embalm their bodies into statues while they were alive."
"If the possibility of life after death can make people continue to suffer for their faith, then it is no wonder that the reality of life after death in this world is enough to make people continue struggling in this life so that their next life can be better."
As good as he thought life after death was, he also realized something detrimental about this entire situation, which made him say to Jim, "If everyone reincarnates and the number of cultivators increases without limit, does the amount of resources for cultivation increase too?"
Jim shook his head and said, "I don’t think so."
This made Loki say, "No wonder becoming a rank 6 divine being is so difficult. With this arrangement, the competition can only increase."
His words made Jim shrug and say, "But what choice do we have other than to compete? The alternative is to give up and become a mortal slave to cultivators."
So Loki sighed and said, "Everyone is a slave to someone else."
Jim chuckled before he said, "Exactly."
Loki understood where Jim was coming from, what perspective he had about life, and why he had such a perspective. But understanding is not the same as accepting the point of view that Jim has.
He didn’t say anything about his thoughts to Jim, but inwardly, he refused to accept the fate of being used as raw material for cultivation in this life just because Jim and everyone else believed that it was normal.
He is not willing to give up on achieving freedom and supremacy in this life. So he won’t let the leader of his society turn him into a zombie puppet.
Fortunately, his determination is not a castle built on air. His unwillingness is not a result of pride or overconfidence. He truly has something capable to rely on.
So he sneered inwardly and said to himself, "It is not yet certain who will become whose cultivation material."
But outwardly, he appeared to have accepted his fate and said to Jim, "What’s this about you improving your talent? My instructor for the initiation program also made mention of it. Why is talent so important?"
In response, Jim laughed and said, "Do you mean, what is important about talent aside from the increase in cultivation speed and the increase in the energy available to use Metacs?"
"Do you mean why is cultivation potential so important for rank 2 cultivators? If you mean that, then it is privileged information that I don’t have to give you."
"If you want to know the answer, you will have to pay me. I have not been paid enough to answer that kind of question."
Jim’s eyes gleamed in anticipation when he said his last two sentences. He knew that Loki had money and was looking forward to Loki paying for the information.
If Loki paid him for information, he would earn more from this mission and be able to pay off his awakening loans earlier. Unfortunately for him, Loki didn’t even ask how much the information would cost.
Loki indeed had money, and a lot of it. He has a total of 21,230 energy stones, including the 5,000 energy stones in his account. But he has earmarked the money in his possession for urgent stuff like buying a rank 2 Slave or gambling.
Until he secures his rank 2 cultivation or secures enough money to pay off his awakening debt, he is not willing to spend any of the money in his hands.
So he said to Jim, "Forget it. I’ll ask about it later."
Jim was not pleased to hear this. But he didn’t complain or try to persuade Loki.
He knew that it was a smart thing to be frugal, so he couldn’t call Loki foolish. Especially since he also had the intention to fleece Loki by charging an exorbitant amount for the information. So, it is, in fact, a good idea that Loki didn’t try to buy the information from him.
This meant that he could only snort in dissatisfaction. But no matter how dissatisfied he was with Loki for not giving him money, he still had to do his job.
He led Loki out of the sect grounds through the gate and into the city. The sect grounds are a massive expanse of land, but the city itself is larger than the sect grounds.
But while the sect grounds have invisible walls at its edge to serve as its boundaries, the city has large, thick walls built with giant stones and raised to 10 meters in height.
The layout of the city was that of curved streets constructed in concentric circles. The circles aren’t complete, though. This is because the sect ground occupies a position that prevents the city from being in a perfect circular form.
There is a large market at the center of the city, and there is a road that leads from the sect grounds directly to this market. There are also three other roads that lead out of the central market to the three gates constructed at the north, east, and west of the city.
So the sect’s ground occupies the area where the south gate of the city should have been constructed. But since the sect ground was the first to be built while the city was built later around it, the sect ground cannot be said to be encroaching on the territory of the city.
The concentric rings of roads are called rings. In general, the closer the rings are to the center of the city, the more expensive the properties. This is because those closer to the edge of the city would be the first to be attacked in a beast tide.