He hadn’t wanted to tell his father about his awakening as a cultivator of the Luck Pathway because, according to the Fortune Seeker Metac, this option would only increase his chances of survival by 3%. This improvement was too little, so it almost wasn’t worth the effort.
His current chances of survival were determined by the Fortune Seeker Metac to be 1%. Nothing else could increase this abysmally low chance of survival.
So even though revealing his identity as a Luck Pathway cultivator was unlikely to solve his problem, it was still better than doing nothing. This was why he eventually told his father after exhausting other possibilities.
After he told his father about the Fortune Seeker Metac, Skarg immediately began preparing for a trip. Then they left the Crystal City a day later for the cave of inheritance.
Because Slav couldn’t walk, Simon came along with them on the trip. He came to watch Slav and help the crippled 14-year-old nonagenarian.
So Skarg, Simon, and Slav left for this trip. Unfortunately for them, only Slav survived the trip. Everyone else died.
Even though Slav survived, he was not happy about it. And even though Golden Sun was able to successfully reincarnate, his face was solemn, and his emotions were grim after he regained control of his body. This was because of the state of his body.
When he examined his body, his heart sank as he said, "It looks like I’ve been targeted. A body aging by 50 years a day is clearly not natural, so I’ve definitely been targeted."
He had initially wanted to complain about reincarnating into a body so weak and fragile. But when he reviewed the memories of the previous Slav, he realized that it wasn’t that this body had waited until it was falling apart before coming to him.
Slav’s memories showed that something had made him age so quickly. And when he found a black mark while examining his body, he acquired the proof that he had been targeted by someone.
After he found the mark, his bad mood became worse. He also began to feel some fear.
He said, "I should remove this. But if I do, my chances of survival will fall precipitously for a while. Fortunately, my chances will increase later. So if I can survive the period of danger, I might survive."
"On the other hand, if I don’t remove the mark now, I will be able to continue to survive. But my chances of survival will continue to fall over time. My chances of dying will increase until I die."
"Both are bad. But I still have to make a decision."
These two options are truly bad, and if he doesn’t change the status quo, he will be going along with the second option. What’s more, the longer it takes him to make a decision, the weaker his chances of survival will be by the time he makes a decision.
At the end of the day, he chose to go with the first option. After all, it was the only option that could provide any chance of survival.
Actually, he had wanted to maintain the status quo for a while until he could find something to increase his chances of survival. Unfortunately, the source of danger was growing stronger quickly, so he was quickly running out of time.
Because of the quickly growing sense of danger, he was sure that if he didn’t make a decision now, he was unlikely to have the chance to do so in the future. So he destroyed the mark.
As soon as he destroyed the black mark, his sensation of danger spiked. Without knowing how, he knew that whoever had marked him was now coming for him.
He also sensed that his chances of survival had fallen back to 1%. With this kind of danger breathing down his neck, common sense dictated that he should run away from this position.
Golden Sun definitely had common sense, so he knew that he should run away. Unfortunately for him, his body was aged and crippled. He couldn’t run even if his life depended on it. His body simply didn’t have that capability.
Fortunately, he also had more than common sense, so he knew that the best place to hide something was somewhere in the open where no one would expect. He has had many experiences with avoiding danger by staying in the most dangerous place, so he didn’t bother to leave his position.
He decided not to leave the underground Cave Heaven. After making his decision, he said with immense regret, "If I had a Life Fire, I would be able to heal this injury easily. Unfortunately, I’m not a divine being."
Then he shook his head and said, "With this weakness, I won’t be able to become a divine being easily. So I’ve been trapped. Whoever is after me made the first move, and it was a victory-clinching move."
"Is this how I will die? To think I survived the Dao Lord World War and the subsequent hunts for my life since then, only to die like this. I can’t believe that I will fall to this extent."
At this point, his strength seemed to drain out of him. This was both a metaphorical and literal loss in strength.
It was literal in that his aged body got tired easily. He could barely breathe evenly while sitting down, and life was hell.
It was a metaphorical loss of strength in that his mind had lost hope in surviving this ordeal. For the first time in his life, he saw that there was no way out, so he lost his confidence and his belief that he was unkillable.
As he thought about what had led him to this moment, he said, "It is my fault, really. I shouldn’t have tried to compete against that man. I should have chosen to work with him, no matter how disrespectful it seemed. I also shouldn’t have tried to compete with him for the position of the domain king."