Death… And Me

"Impossible!" Arcis still found it difficult to believe what he had just heard. "How can there be that many Law Gods? That’s ridiculous! Where did you even acquire enough energy to reach such high cultivation levels?!"

"Uh?" Coyui looked at Arcis with a puzzled expression, as if the answer should have been obvious. "Isn’t that simple? We kill Godly Creatures and obtain their Godly Crystals, of course."

Everyone looked at each other. For a moment, no one had anything to say. That was essentially the same method used by the various regions throughout the grasslands. They hunted Godly Creatures, collected their crystals, and used those crystals to cultivate. There didn’t seem to be anything particularly special about it.

Then, Rean suddenly understood what Arcis had overlooked. "Senior Arcis, did you forget? These people don’t have to worry about Godly Pressure. That means they aren’t weakened by the Godly Pressure released by the Godly Creatures either. For them, hunting outside is much easier. They can simply leave the city, search for Godly Creatures, kill them, collect their crystals, and return without suffering any significant drawbacks."

"This..." Arcis had to admit that Rean’s explanation made perfect sense. "We are basically restricted by our own regions because we aren’t immune to Godly Pressure. We can’t leave the Sacred Relic’s Influence that easily. Even if we have the strength to hunt a certain Godly Creature, its Godly Pressure can weaken us enough to make the battle dangerous. Since the people here are immune, they can travel wherever they want without worrying about that problem."

"Exactly," Rean nodded. "If the experts in the Besgol Region could go out and hunt anywhere they wanted without being weakened by Godly Pressure, wouldn’t it be possible for us to have many more Law Gods as well?"

"It is possible indeed." Arcis nodded slowly as the realization sank in. Yet, his expression soon changed again. "Uh? Wait! If that’s the case..."

Roan had noticed the same problem. His eyes narrowed as he turned toward Coyui. "Where do all these Godly Creatures come from? They are the ones providing Woster with all those Godly Crystals, but this is supposed to be a sealed environment that no one can escape from. If nobody can leave Woster, how do new Godly Creatures keep appearing?"

Coyui pondered for a moment. "Hum... that’s a good question. I’ve actually wondered about that several times myself whenever I went outside the city to hunt for Godly Crystals. The truth is, they simply appear. That’s all I know. I’ve asked other people about it before, and the theory most cultivators here believe is that Woster has no way out from the inside, but that entering from the outside is possible."

"A one-way mirror," Roan commented immediately.

"Exactly," Coyui nodded. "At least, that’s the theory."

"But wouldn’t that mean the Godly Creatures could enter this place as many times as they wanted?" Kentucky was skeptical. "This place doesn’t have a Sacred Relic, does it? If the outside Godly Creatures can simply keep entering Woster, how has the Prison survived for all these years without a Relic to protect it?"

"Maybe there is a limit to how many Godly Creatures can enter Woster at once," Thery suggested. "If the entrance only allows a certain number to pass through at a time, that could explain how the population has remained manageable for so long."

"Limit?" Coyui shook his head. "There is no such thing. That much I’m certain of. If we leave the Godly Creatures alone, their numbers will continue growing. There is nothing stopping them from multiplying."

Thery frowned. "There isn’t?"

"No." Coyui shrugged. "We deal with them ourselves. We constantly hunt them, and whenever their numbers become too high, the Rosvelt Sect steps in as well. They send their experts out and wipe out enough of the creatures to bring the situation back under control. It’s been like that for as long as I can remember."

"But..." Kentucky narrowed his eyes. "What about hordes? Without a Sacred Relic, can you really keep them under control forever?"

"Hordes?" Coyui thought about it for a moment. "I don’t think I’ve ever heard about any hordes before. Then again, I’ve never really looked into the subject. Maybe I simply haven’t lived long enough to see one."

Arcis and the others felt like crying.

Haven’t lived long enough?

There was no such thing as "not living long enough" to see a horde back in the Natak and Besgol Regions. In fact, there wasn’t a region they knew of where hordes were some rare phenomenon that cultivators could spend their entire lives avoiding.

Every region was attacked by hordes of different sizes throughout the year. Sometimes they were small enough for ordinary experts to deal with, while at other times they became massive disasters that required the combined strength of the entire region.

And yet Coyui had lived his entire life in Woster without seeing a single one.

How was that even possible?

Roan remained calm despite the others’ reactions. He had already begun putting the pieces together in his mind. "There are only three possibilities I can think of."

Everyone turned toward him, knowing that Roan had a habit of dissecting complicated situations whenever the available information didn’t seem to make sense.

"The first possibility is that the Woster Prison doesn’t stop Godly Creatures from entering, but there is some kind of limit to how many of them can enter its territory at the same time. I don’t believe that’s the case, though. If such a restriction existed, Coyui and the others would likely have noticed it at some point."

He continued before anyone could interrupt. "The second possibility is that the Woster Prison somehow hides the cultivators’ presence. The Godly Creatures outside the Woster Prison Territory might simply be unable to sense the cultivators living inside. If their presence isn’t spreading outward, then there would be no reason for Godly Creatures from distant areas to gather together and form hordes around Woster."

"However, I think that possibility is very unlikely."

Roan’s expression became more serious as he explained his reasoning. "As Coyui mentioned, there are times when the number of Godly Creatures becomes so high that the Rosvelt Sect has to intervene and wipe out large numbers of them. In my eyes, that’s proof that the cultivators’ presence is noticeable enough for the Godly Creatures in the surrounding territories to detect. Otherwise, there would be no reason for so many of them to keep coming toward Woster in the first place."

"Then there is the third possibility." Roan paused for a moment. "This is the one I believe is most likely the reason why no hordes have ever appeared here."

"Killing!"

Roan’s voice became firm. "The cultivators here constantly kill the Godly Creatures inside Woster. They go far away from Dlaval City to hunt, only stopping before reaching the area they aren’t supposed to go further. Because they keep killing Godly Creatures across such a huge territory, and because they don’t have to worry about Godly Pressure weakening them, the creatures that would normally survive, gather together, and eventually form hordes simply never get the chance."

Roan looked at everyone as he continued explaining his deduction. "Don’t forget that there are at least three thousand Law Gods here. Three thousand or more! The Godly Creatures simply don’t have enough time to grow their numbers unchecked. And if there are this many Law Gods, how many Zone Gods are there? How many Aura Gods? Every one of them needs Godly Crystals to cultivate, so every one of them has a reason to go out and hunt."

"The demand for Godly Crystals is enormous. That means the Godly Creatures are constantly being hunted before their numbers can reach the point where hordes become possible. The few that survive reproduce, more appear from outside, and then the cultivators hunt them again. It’s a continuous cycle."

Roan paused before adding, "At the same time, the fact that there are so many cultivators doesn’t mean there are no Godly Creatures left. There are still plenty of them, precisely because the population of high-level cultivators is so large. It’s a strange balance, but it works in favor of everyone living in Woster. The cultivators get enough Godly Crystals to continue cultivating, while the Godly Creature population is kept under control before it can become a disaster."

Roan finished his explanation, and everyone fell silent for a moment.

They had to admit that the third possibility made the most sense.

It explained why Woster had so many Godly Creatures, why those creatures continued appearing from outside, why the Rosvelt Sect sometimes had to intervene, and, most importantly, why no one had ever seen a horde. The cultivators weren’t waiting for the problem to become serious before dealing with it. They were constantly suppressing the problem through sheer numbers and relentless hunting.

Coyui couldn’t help but nod. "I believe the third possibility is correct as well. There really are countless cultivators, both groups and individuals, going out to hunt every single day. The Ashen Hills are technically considered part of the Godly Creatures’ territory. Have you seen a single Godly Creature since you arrived here three months ago?"

Kentucky looked around the seemingly empty surroundings before shaking his head.

"That’s because they don’t even get the chance to come this close to the city," Coyui explained. "And remember, Dlaval City is still roughly two hundred kilometers away from here. The creatures are being hunted long before they can reach the city’s surroundings. Cultivators don’t even have to think about whether a horde might form. They simply go out, kill what they find, collect their crystals, and return."

Arcis sighed deeply, his expression filled with resignation. "Pure, constant killing... We’re so far behind what these people have achieved."

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