"I guess that makes sense," Levi admitted, averting his eyes even further away from my face. Yet, rather than giving up on the topic, he shook his head and forced his eyes back on me. "Still, I need a solid reason behind this decision."
I took a deep breath. This time, however, I breathed it out normally rather than sighing it out.
While I managed to win in this skirmish of words, it didn't change the validity behind Levi's words.
To save a cultivator was akin to take responsibility for them. After all, if all of them or even one of them were to go wild and bring destruction upon the continent, it would be my responsibility.
I would be the one who unleashed him upon the continent, after all.
"As I said before, an insane number of people died. Those below the enlightenment rank could only count on luck to escape. And those below-ascended ranks couldn't really fight back against them," I explained the situation.
Levi has long reached the very peak of an overascender. The only thing that kept him from becoming a royal was the leash that the already existing royals put on him.
As such, he couldn't really understand the point of view of those who have yet to reach his rank.
For him, those anti-mana monsters were a tough opponent at most, but hardly a danger. That's why, he likely failed to comprehend the true scale of the disaster that they were to all the cultivators of lower ranks, not to speak about all the mortals that kept up the civilization cultivators benefited from.
"So you just want to use them to repopulate the continent?" Levi asked, opening his eyes wide.
The idea itself was... ridiculous. The number of survivors was huge only from the perspective of our group. All in all, there were less than two hundred of them.
A mere drop in the ocean of people that I believed lost their lives in the disaster of the mirror continent falling apart.
"We have to start with something," I said. "And to be honest, now that the world is changing, making them into our allies would considerably boost our strength in the long run."
Those survivors... were the people who reached ranks high enough to protect themselves from falling through the dimensional rift. As such, even if they were to lose most of their mana, their foundations were strong enough for them to quickly recover their usual power.
"Okay, I understand it all," Levi said, raising his hands in a gesture of accepting everything that I said so far. "But you didn't answer my question," he then pointed out. "Do you think they are worth giving up the power you claim to be able to obtain from this fight?"
"Normally, I would still say to prioritize their lives," I replied, only for a small, smug smile to appear on my lips.
"You have something in a store," Mia then pointed out with a huge smirk on her lips.
It wasn't the first time for her to see me act like that. And in her eyes, I likely was someone who was breaking everyone's common sense to warm up for some morning exercise.
"A surprise that turns the situation around, of sorts," she then added, releasing a lovely giggle as she ran up closer and wrapped herself around my arm. "Am I right?"
"How could I ever claim you are wrong?" I replied, turning my eyes to Mia's lovely face. "Even if you were, I would break the world to make sure you would turn out to be right after all," I openly promised, ignoring Levi for a moment as I focused on the little flirt between the two of us.
"Just like I thought," Mia's grin turned even wider. "What's the trick, then?" she asked, leaning her head over my shoulder.
"It's simple," I said before exhaling the air from my lungs. Then, I raised my eyes at Levi's face. "I can absorb all the anti-mana on this field while feeding on the resources left by the first wave of monsters," I revealed the idea.
It's been a long while since my last fight with an anti-mana monster. As such, while I still had some left, my stock of anti-mana was starting to show the bottom.
Obviously, the amount of anti-mana scattered around was way greater than what I could absorb in one go... that's why I could simply use the pure mana to advance my cultivation rank a bit before consuming all the anti-mana around!
"And how is this going to benefit the two of us?" Levi then asked while pointing his hand at the girl attached to my arm.
"Well, that would force me to break our promise," I admitted, turning my face to Mia. "Would you allow me to do so, dear?" I asked.
Rather than asking for forgiveness after doing the deed, I needed to obtain her permission beforehand.
After all, if I took my promise of not growing my cultivation any stronger before she would catch up lightly... how could she expect me to take my marriage vow seriously?
"You should know that I won't stop you from doing what's necessary," Mia replied, her face souring somewhat.
"Dear, it's not necessary," I quickly replied, hoping to stop her mood from sinking. "At most, it would be... wasteful."
Mia took a deep breath only to release it in form of a heavy sigh.
"I'm a cultivator too," she stated. "And wastefulness is something that you know very well I don't stomach well."
"Okay, your girl is going to do whatever you want," Levi admitted while rolling his eyes. "But that still leaves me out of the equation!"
I could understand why my former master was getting heated over the topic. I could understand why he couldn't see the benefits of saving those people.
After all, he lived in a world where exploiting others was the right way to do things for way too long for just a few days of living with me to change his approach.
And as someone who arguably contributed the most to our recent fight, he had more than a fair right to a just share of the spoils.
"The fact that I will absorb this energy doesn't mean I will assimilate it," I explained. "That's why, once we will find ourselves in the right time and place," I took a momentary pause to force Levi into focusing on what I would say last.
"I will surely help you become a true cultivator capable of wielding the true mana, instead of the inferior stuff you are using right now."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l