Loki begins to systematically exploit his newly acquired temporal loop to optimize his starting conditions within the Four Directions Sect. He realizes that when he rewinds time, his physical age continues to advance, meaning he cannot loop infinitely without wasting his natural lifespan. To maximize his efficiency, Loki targets other talented initiates during the awakening ceremony. He kills Craig to devour the Sword Heart Metac, and in another loop, he slays a mind hunter to steal the Telepathy Metac. Each devoured Core Metac expands Fenrir, adding extra energy chambers that double and triple his total internal energy capacity far beyond human limits. Loki also enters the sect's gambling dens, using his knowledge of future beast-fight outcomes to turn a meager hundred-energy-stone loan into a staggering fortune of eighty thousand energy stones. He uses this wealth to purchase rare Cloudy Dates—cultivation fruits that rapidly advance his energy chambers to the peak of rank one. However, his sudden, massive wealth draws the predatory gaze of the Rein family's older cultivators, who break into his quarters at night to forcefully enslave his mind. Loki is forced to trigger his Rewind ability seconds before being subjugated, realizing that he must carefully balance his greed, hide his true strength, and find a way to bypass the watchful eyes of both his former masters and the corrupt instructor Muni, who is more than willing to sell out weak disciples to the highest bidder for personal profit. To test the boundaries of this ruthless world, Loki enters a dangerous transaction with a scummy mechanic named Tommy to buy the secrets of upgrading his Telekinesis Metac. Tommy repeatedly fleeces him, using fake contracts and outright lies, teaching Loki a bitter lesson about the absolute lack of trust among cultivators of the same pathway. Armed with this dark knowledge, Loki decides to feed the six Cloudy Dates to Fenrir and loop once more, returning to the past with a cold, refined plan to systematically murder Tommy in a future timeline and steal his rank two Core Metac. But as he wakes up in the past once more, he notices a terrifying detail: his physical age has jumped to twenty-two, proving that his mortal clock is ticking down even as he cheats death.

With his energy chambers optimized and his temporal loop stabilized, Loki must face the grueling twelve-month initiation program designed to forge the survivors into cold-blooded tools. Instructor Muni reveals the horrific reality of the Four Directions Sect, explaining that the bottom fifty percent of initiates will be culled and sold at auction as raw materials, high-protein beast feed, or refined into the very Cloudy Dates that others consume to advance. To prevent their minds from shattering under the strain of their Metacs, the initiates must undergo torturous training to refine their Dao Heart and build stone-cold willpower. Over the course of several months, Muni subjects them to systematic physical and psychological torment. In the first month, they must willingly step forward to have their limbs severed by water blades, learning to dissociate from physical agony. The torture escalates to skinning, fire ant needles, and prolonged psychological warfare where they are stripped of clothing, starved, and forced to sleep in mud. They are drilled in impulse control by holding burning hot coals, forced to torture monkeys, and finally ordered to slaughter innocent children and pregnant women to erase all traces of human empathy. While his peers weep, vomit, and commit suicide, Loki uses his background as a brutally whipped slave to endure the horror, using his suffering as fuel to polish his mind into a sharp, unyielding weapon. By the end of the year, only thirty-four of the original one hundred initiates remain alive, their minds transformed into logical, emotionless engines of survival. Loki successfully hides his peak-rank-one cultivation and perfect energy manipulation skills, choosing to forfeit the early rewards to prevent Muni from examining his divine Fenrir Metac. Yet, just as the final trials approach, Slav Rein uses his family's immense wealth and influence to hire ruthless assassins within the sect, setting a deadly trap that threatens to permanently end Loki's life before he can even graduate. Slav, terrified by the constant aura of danger Loki radiates, coerces his family's powerful rank two slaves to ambush Loki in his quarters, completely ignoring the sect's strict rules against violence.

Loki enters the final phase of the initiation program with a clear objective: secure a rank two Core Metac to break through his bottleneck while completely destroying his mortal enemies. He realizes that the normal methods of upgrading Core Metacs do not work on his unique divine Fenrir Metac, which can only be upgraded by devouring a rank two Core Metac from another cultivator. Loki targets Simon Rein, Slav's powerful elder brother who has been sent to assassinate him. Utilizing his perfect energy manipulation, the Telekinesis Metac, and a heavy suit of plate armor forged from his Liquid Metal Metac, Loki ambushes Simon in the dark. The battle is fierce, but Loki's superior mental strength and physical preparation force Simon to flee for his life, completely shattering the Rein family's perception of Loki as a helpless former slave. To fund his rapid ascension and secure his freedom, Loki executes a brilliant scheme of temporal arbitrage. He enters the high-stakes gambling houses run by the Viking Blade Society—the very organization backing the Rein family. Armed with his flawless memory of the future gambling outcomes, Loki bets with absolute precision, snowballing his funds until he drains the society of over ten million contribution points. This massive financial heist allows him to