THE INNKEEPER

When the pain of the baptism finally subsided, Lex sighed. Those observing him thought he sighed in relief, finally free of the pain. Yet in truth, he was sighing because it was rare to find time to just sit and think for a while.

Now, he couldn’t say life was exactly perfect, but it was going swimmingly well before Licanderoth told him about harboring a fugitive. That had been troubling him, and Lex had really been thinking hard about what to do since then.

The best practical plan he could come up with was to return to the Inn and immediately complete some quests and hope for a decent reward. But hoping that he would get a reward that would help him counter a Dao Lord was just wishful thinking and he knew it.

He could hope that closing the Inn would keep the Dao Lords from finding him, but that was escapism and not a real plan. Unless he planned on keeping the inn closed till he became a Dao Lord, that wasn’t an option. Considering he had no idea when he would reach such a realm, and probably couldn’t keep the Inn closed for so long, that was not a practical plan.

Of course, he could just do nothing. Or he could ask for help from the Governor. Or, and this was somehow the craziest of his plans, he could go and confront that mysterious guest.

Confrontation did not mean asking the Dao Lord to leave. But getting an understanding of the situation of that guest. It seemed like, despite his best efforts, the Innkeeper had to make a return.

Sure, Lex could just choose to ignore the situation and hope it goes away, but he had suffered enough from not being proactive. Any concern at all relating to Dao beings was not something he could afford to take lightly.

Slowly, as he was not used to his newfound strength yet, Lex got up. As easy as it might be – though most would not consider excruciating pain the likes of which even immortals could not tolerate easy – Lex’s physical strength had broken through a threshold.

He was well beyond what an Earth Immortal should be capable of, and that included for very powerful races such as dragons.

Although, admittedly, physical strength was the least of a Heavenly Immortals abilities, Lex was now very thoroughly their equal in that regard.

He could feel the difference because he could feel the laws of the universe crushing against his skin, as if they were physical objects floating all around him. That was because every bat of his eye, every swing of his arm carried the potential to trigger a massive change in laws.

The sudden difference in strength was so great that Lex actually lost control of Domination, letting some of his aura leak. A layman might wonder what enhanced strength had to do with aura. The reality of it was that he was so strong, his very presence radiated a certain pressure.

It existed all around him, and could be felt by those who approached him, much like gravity could be easily felt the closer one approached a celestial body.

As he was, if Lex stood in front of a mortal human, they would instantly be pulverized into a meat patty. It had been a long time since Lex lost mastery of his body, but it couldn’t be helped. Some changes actually required a long time to get used to.

Lex recalled back when he held the first Midnight Games, there was an Earth Immortal Beast from Nibiru who had spent thousands of years sleeping because he couldn’t control his strength. Any casual move he made would cause space to rupture around the plant, causing untold devastation.

It was only after Nibiru started to rise in star level that the beast, a sloth that went by the name Golden Hair, could finally stay awake.

“It seems your baptism was very fruitful,” said Licanderoth as he walked up to Lex. “Worry not. A loss of control is a common phenomenon experienced by those who undergo a full baptism. If you would be so kind as to follow me, I will escort you to the Revival Garden, where you will be able to quickly master your new strength.”

Instead of nodding, or walking behind Licanderoth, Lex flew a foot above ground and followed Licanderoth while flying. At the moment, he couldn’t even trust his own ability to walk. In fact, Lex did not even trust his own voice right now. He had a feeling that his strength had transcended the realm of his understanding, and it would take some getting used to before he fully knew what it meant to have the strength of a Heavenly Immortal.

The Revival Garden, despite sounding like it should be some kind of clinic, was actually a place designed to help cultivators get used to their strength after a baptism.

In essence, the garden would quickly return to its former state after suffering any harm, so its occupants did not need to be concerned.

Moreover, there was a soft moonlight being shone down onto the garden that put whoever it was touching into a state of artificial enlightenment. While not as strong as a real enlightenment, it sped up comprehension well enough. Licanderoth brought him to the entrance of the garden, but did not follow in as it was an entirely enclosed space.

After entering the garden, Lex saw a golden, partially see through blob of jelly which he was supposed to enter. The jelly would resist his strength and help him regulate his power. Feeling like the garden was a safe space, he slowly lowered himself back onto the ground, and then extended his leg forward to take a step towards the jelly.

During that process he must have flexed his muscles or something, because one moment he was fine, and the next the clothes on his body burst to shreds, as if they had suffered an explosion.

Lex’s jaw dropped in shock of what happened, yet merely that action caused a distortion in the laws of space, bending the room unnaturally.

Lex froze still, entirely in the nude, mimicking a Greek statue as he tried to think of a solution. He quickly used an illusion technique to cover himself in some clothes, as he tried to understand what was happening.

Heavenly Immortals dealt with deeper, more powerful laws than he was exposed to right now, and so their entire being was designed to tolerate and influence them. It seemed that since his strength was so great, and his personal energy affinity was for laws, his body was directly influencing laws, bypassing his tenet.

Now, he already knew that using brute strength could influence laws. But he had always done it indirectly, by causing a change that would result in laws being affected. He had never directly bent the law of space as if it was a physical object he could touch.

Lex’s eyes narrowed in on the jelly, and he considered flying right into it, but then decided against it. This was also a form of practising his strength, so he gulped in preparation to face the hurdle ahead.

Just the mere act of gulping caused an earthquake, and the ground in the garden suddenly cracked. Lex was like an uncontrolled calamity, more fit to be an anime villain than anything else right now.

“I don’t have the time for this,” he muttered as he entered his Flow state, ignoring the fact that his voice smashed the garden into pieces like some kind of auditory bomb. Quickly, he entered the jelly and began to practice his newfound strength, hoping to quickly regain control.

To his credit, his enhanced comprehension, when paired with the Flow state and the artificial enlightenment of the moonlight, the process was sped up by a lot.

Simultaneously, inside the Midnight Inn, there was a highly anticipated Death Match coming up, and even many of the Inns workers felt a trace of anticipation as they looked forward to it.

On one side was a Fiery Mammoth, and on the other side was a noble of the Jotun Empire by the name of William. By now, many had realized that William looked a lot like a very famous Inn worker, who seemed to be missing quite conveniently.

A slew of new theories about how William, the Heavenly Immortal from the jotun Empire, and Lex the Inn worker, were actually one and the same.

“Don’t be ridiculous, that’s absolutely absurd,” said Z as he dismissed the rumour. “William cannot be Lex. William is a mere Heavenly Immortal. You think a Heavenly Immortal can do what Lex can do? William is clearly Lex’s long lost son.”

Z naturally knew that Lex had no son, and the timelines didn’t fit either since William had been around for hundreds of thousands of years. But since when did rumors care about logic?

More importantly, Z had been feeling increasingly irritated towards Lex when he heard from Gerard that Lex had gone out on a date with an elf.

Lex was supposed to be a forever alone kind of guy – at least in Z’s mind. Now that even Lex had gone out on a date, his own abysmal dating life irritated him even more. So Z had no shame in propagating more rumors about his boss. If anything, redoubled his efforts.

“I even heard that William is one of Lex’s 100,000 clones he’s spread across the universe.”

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