He was eager for success because he had heard that the energy manipulation skill could reach 500% thanks to overloading.
This is a lofty goal that many people don’t dare to hope for, and even those who dare to aim for it only believe that they would need to reach rank 4 or rank 5 before they can achieve it.
People like Muni can only reach a skill level of 400% because that is the limit of their potential. In fact, Muni wouldn’t have the chance to reach this if his potential were still stuck at 45 points.
So, if he hadn’t spent everything he had to raise his talent by 5 more points, he would have been stuck at a maximum energy manipulation skill of 300%.
This is why so many cultivators are scrambling to raise their talent. At some point, hard work just stops being effective. Their poor talent will be what’s holding them back and making them weaker than their peers.
But he doesn’t have any need to be worried about lacking talent. With his level of talent, he might even be able to reach beyond 500% energy manipulation skill. He is eager to see if this is possible.
As it stands, there is only one way for him to confirm if he truly reached beyond 500%. That way is to practice and practice.
He went home with the intention of practicing without resting. This is why he bothered to get the rank 2 version of the Concentration Metac.
When he was not practicing his energy manipulation skill, he was refining his Dao Heart. After all, the strength of a cultivator’s willpower is a very important factor that will determine how well they control their Metacs and internal energy.
His high Dao Heart is already paying handsome dividends by making his practice of energy manipulation very fruitful. But he wants more and faster practice speed.
Seven days went by like this. Then the final day of the initiation program arrived.
The competition was to be held on this day.
Since Slav wasn’t participating, and since Loki already made a deal with Tommy’s forging society, the Rusty Bolts Society, Loki decided to participate in the competition.
Because of his exposed cultivation, no one competed with Loki. They all gave up when they encountered him in the arena, the way they gave up for Slav.
The difference between that situation and Loki’s was that Slav had made them give up by coercing them with money and his family background, while Loki only used his superior cultivation to make them surrender.
Loki enjoyed this feeling of making everyone run at the sight of his August countenance. But he didn’t let the intoxicating feeling of power cloud his mind. He still made sure to perform for the Rusty Bolts Society.
Every time he won a match without fighting, he would say, "My victory is all due to the support of the Rusty Bolts Society. If you’re a forger and you want to learn how to craft powerful exoskeleton armor like mine, you should join the Rusty Bolts Society. You won’t regret it."
He was lying, of course. Not only did the Rusty Bolt Society not support him, but he is also sure that it is most likely that anyone who joins the Rusty Bolt Society will regret it.
But he had to say these lies because it was the condition that the leader of the Rusty Bolts Society, Rusty, gave him to join their society and learn their technique.
Besides being allowed to join the Rusty Bolts Society, he was also told that the more people he recruits for the society, the better his treatment would be. So he didn’t mind spewing these lies.
Of course, what he was saying and what he was doing was offensive to many people. Many leaders took offense at his antics and glared at Rusty. After all, what Loki was doing was similar to what Slav was doing.
They were very angry that one of them was playing dirty. But they didn’t get angry at Loki, though. This was because they viewed him as one of the raw materials that Rusty was recruiting.
Loki is certainly special. But to them, he is at most a special raw material. The fact that he was already at rank 2 made them acknowledge his talent, but it also made them more jealous and angry with Rusty.
The Viking Blade Society was also in attendance. Even Slav was also there, sitting among them. All five of them saw Loki praise the Rusty Bolts Society and thought that it was Rusty who was scheming against them.
Skarg didn’t say anything to criticize Rusty, though. He also didn’t bother to ask why Rusty was moving against them. That would mean that he expects Rusty to speak the truth, which is something only a naive person would think.
As angry as he was that his son was nearly killed, Skarg was very calm. This is a personality trait of disciples of the Four Directions Sect. It is all because of the Sky Raising Dao Heart refining technique.
Instead of lashing out and jumping on the bandwagon, criticizing Rusty for cheating in the recruitment process, he kept his cool and continued to watch as if none of what was going on concerned him.
But Death Envoy didn’t hold back at all. The zombie puppet she was controlling was very vocal about her dissatisfaction with what Rusty was doing.
What she hated the most was that she couldn’t get Loki. But she also hated the fact that Loki was making every forger inclined to join the Rusty Bolts Society.
Forgers have strong bodies that death cultivators like her like to convert into zombie puppets. So, even though it didn’t show in the zombie’s stiff face, she was very angry with the development of the situation.
While the leaders were arguing amongst themselves, the competition continued below them. Loki won every match without a fight until he met Craig in the finals.