He heard Time Traveler say, "As I was saying, you have to make two promises to me before you can be allowed to leave. I like visitors, but if you don’t make the promises, I will have to kill you."
His tone was grave, so Loki took him seriously. Because of this, Loki’s voice was serious as he said, "What promises do I have to make, senior?’
Time Traveler said in reply, "You have to promise not to tell anyone about my Cave Heaven and me. This is the most important promise. If you don’t swear an oath on your Dao Heart right now, I’ll kill you to ensure that the secret of my existence remains safe."
Loki had no problem with keeping what he found a secret, so he immediately said, "I swear on my Dao Heart never to intentionally expose your existence either by directly telling someone about you or indirectly by leaving trails that will lead to you. I should die if I break my promise."
He made that promise with half sincerity, and he didn’t think that there was anyone who could hold him to it. But as soon as he made the promise, he knew that he was wrong about this.
As soon as he made the promise, his Divine Crystal resonated with the promise. Then a mark signifying the promise adhered to the surface of the Divine Spark. So if he broke the promise in the future, the mark will explode and break the Divine Spark.
This death won’t be like his previous deaths because the Divine Spark is the core of his consciousness. So if the Divine Spark breaks, he will die permanently. Not even reversing time will save him. This is because there won’t be any consciousness left to save.
When he sensed this change to his Divine Spark, he became solemn. The feeling of amusement he had when a great cultivator who used to be a Dao Lord asked him to make a promise, as if he were a child asking for a pinky swear, disappeared.
He wasn’t happy with what had happened because he didn’t like anything constraining him. He wanted to be free to do anything, so he didn’t like this restriction.
But at the end of the day, this was a promise he was willing to make in the first place, so he only felt a slight irritation. After all, no one knows what the future will bring.
If he changed his mind in the future about keeping Time Traveler’s existence a secret for one reason or another, he couldn’t expose Time Traveler anymore now. So he didn’t like this one bit.
Time Traveler, on the other hand, was very satisfied with his actions, so he said, "Good, good. It seems we will get on nicely."
If he had a head, he would be nodding in satisfaction. But he didn’t have a head.
In fact, he didn’t have a body. He was just a mass of energy right now. So the best he could manage to show his satisfaction was to say how good Loki’s actions were.
Then he said to Loki, "Now, onto the second promise. I want you to promise that you won’t attack me or help anyone attack me until I return to being a Dao Lord. If you accept my promises, I will help you become a Dao Lord."
"Of course, you have to pay for my help with lifespan. But whatever lifespan you give me will only be a token of appreciation. It will be nowhere near the value of the information I can give you. So what do you say?"
This time, Loki was torn. On one hand, he wanted the information and help from the Time Traveler. On the other hand, he wanted to kill Time Traveler and take the Time Loop Supreme Metac for himself.
As he was thinking, he said to himself, "I want to kill him, but I might not be able to defeat him in a fight."
So he looked at Time Traveler again with the Power Identification and checked his stats. What he saw made him shake his head inwardly, and as he thought, "I’m weak right now. So defeating him is out of the question, no matter how unwilling I am.’
’I should be able to defeat him at the peak of power that I had in the last timeline, but even if I am able to kill him now, how can I be certain that he won’t commit suicide and destroy the Supreme Metac before he dies?’
This question was especially pertinent and had to be considered since he failed to get Money Body’s incomplete Supreme Metac the time he tried to take it by force.
This made him groan inwardly and ask himself, thinking, ’How did the Dao Lord of the Four Directions Sect take the Forging Pathway anyway? I really should ask him about it.`
Then he groaned again as he thought, ’Even if I could defeat him and I could get the Time Loop Supreme Metac, what’s to stop him from making a fuss like Golden Sun. They are brothers after all.’
’If he makes a fuss that draws the attention of Dao Lords, even if I defeat him, I won’t get the Supreme Metac. What I’ll get for all of my efforts is running for my life.’
’Speaking of Golden Sun, why does he and his brother have their Supreme Metacs, yet are hiding away like rats? There has to be a problem that is making them unable to appear with their power and try to become Dao Lords again.’
’If that problem is not solved, I would have to hide away like them. My situation might just become like Golden Sun, where I don’t dare to use my Supreme Metac for fear of drawing the attention of Dao Lords.’
The more he thought about the problems he could encounter in snatching the Supreme Metac, the more problems his mind found.