His question made Nether Flame burst out laughing. As he laughed, he said, "Didn’t you hear what I said? One would need to master the five aspects of the Death Pathway to be able to produce them."

"I haven’t even mastered one aspect, and you want me to produce a homunculus? How hilarious! How ignorant! You crack me up."

He laughed for a few seconds more after that. But Loki didn’t care that he was being mocked for his ignorance. He had a goal he wanted to achieve with this line of questioning, so he soldiered on.

He said, "If you can’t make a homunculus, who can?"

This time, Nether Flame shook his head in dismay at Loki’s level of ignorance before saying, "Isn’t it obvious? Only the Supreme Metac can make them. Only the Dao Lord can make something like this."

Loki nodded in understanding before saying, "Do you think it will cost the Dao Lord some lifespan to make them?"

Nether shrugged and said, "Maybe or maybe not. Who am I to know how the power of a Dao Lord works?"

Loki didn’t let this stump him. He went to ask another question, "Let’s say the homunculi require lifespan to produce. Where do you think the lifespan comes from? Specifically, where do you think the Supreme Metac gets the lifespan it uses?"

Nether Flame looked at Loki with a strange gaze as he said, "I don’t know. But the life-leech should be one of the ways the Supreme Metac gets lifespan."

So Loki smiled and said, "It would seem that even though you can’t make a homunculus, you still have a hand to play in it. Admittedly, it is against your will, but it should still count for something."

Then he asked in an offhand manner, "Speaking of which, how much is your contribution towards the production of the homunculi?"

In response, Nether scoffed and said, "I know what you’re doing, pip squeak. Your maneuvering has not escaped my notice."

But he still answered the question, saying, "I pay 1,000 years of my lifespan every ten years. That’s how much I contribute towards the production of all of these."

He said that last sentence with sarcasm, implying that he didn’t believe that he was contributing towards the production of the homunculi.

Loki was surprised when he heard the cost of the life-leech for rank 7 beings. The way he looked at Nether Flame became strange as he said, "That’s a lot of contribution on your part. You should be proud."

But Nether Flame snorted and said, "What pride? How can I be proud when my hard-earned lifespan is forcefully taken from me?"

Then he went on to lament, saying, "I have three Divine Positions, with each of them taking 1,000 years of my lifespan every ten years. That means I ’contribute’ 3,000 years to the sect every ten years."

"At this point, I am not sure I want to advance to rank 8. I heard that they pay ten times as much for every life-leech. So if I advance to rank 8, I will be forced to ’contribute’ 30,000 years of my lifespan to the sect every ten years and 300,000 years every 100 years, and 3,000,000 every 1,000 years."

In response, Loki said in disbelief, "That can’t be right, right? How is anyone supposed to be able to pay that much? Who can afford to sustain that kind of exploitation?"

What he got in reply was a weary sigh before Nether Flame said, "It is truly an exploitation. It is why there is at most only one rank 8 cultivator in any pathway. Sometimes, there aren’t even any rank 8 cultivators in a pathway. No one wants to advance and be punished for it."

When Loki heard the last sentence that Nether Flame said, he suddenly realized something. His eyes lit up as he said to himself, ’It is as if the sect doesn’t want us to grow strong.’

Nether Flame was still speaking. He said, "Take it from me, kid, don’t disrespect or anger any rank 8 cultivator when you meet them. With the kind of pressure they are under, I’m sure that they are looking for any opportunity for them to be punished by the sect with demotion."

When he gave this warning, he looked at Loki with a weird gaze. Loki didn’t know why Nether Flame was looking at him like that, but he understood what the warning meant.

He understood that a rank 8 divine being would be willing to break certain rules, such as the rule about not attacking and killing friendlies, if it would ensure that they get demoted to rank 7 and don’t have to pay the exorbitant life-leech rate.

So he had to be careful around rank 8 cultivators so that they wouldn’t use him to free themselves from their burden. After all, between killing a rank 6 and a rank 7 cultivator, the choice of which one would be easier to kill is clear.

After getting this warning, he said to Nether Flame, "Thank you for the warning. I’ll take note of it."

But Nether Flame shook his head and said, "We’ll see very soon if you truly took note of it."

Then he stopped talking.

Loki thought that Nether Flame was speaking and behaving in a cryptic manner. In a bid to understand why Nether Flame was behaving like this, he began reviewing everything they had just spoken about word for word.

While he was thinking about everything they spoke about, they reached the crystal shell of the world. After verifying their identities, the crystal shell opened up to create a passage for them.

The two of them passed through the passage in the crystal shell to enter the world. Upon entering the world, Loki got to see what the small world looked like. What he saw was a highly industrialized world.

There were factories all over the main continent of the small world. There were also inner rings in the sky of the small world.