The Innkeeper

Chapter 1841: The plan

"How is this possible?" Giselle spoke, feeling confused and horrified. "I was only gone for a few hours. With the increased flow of time at the Inn, I was barely gone an hour according to the time here. How did things change so drastically?"

"My rule of thumb is, imagine the worst possible outcome, and then prepare for something worse," said Lex lightheartedly as he looked up at the world ending sandstorm. It was actually quite impressive, and felt even more threatening than Katrina, the living natural disaster he recently met.

"How can you be so casual about this?" Giselle asked, turning towards Lex. "A lot of people will die from this... It could end up actually destroying the whole planet itself if it continues to grow stronger."

"Relax, the situation is not as bad as it seems," Lex said as he continued to study the storm. "As far as I can tell, the storm is not too large just yet. It’s barely covered a thousand miles or so, and its strength seems to be related to how far it spreads. Look at the lightning: at a glance it seems like it’s destructive. But, if you pay attention, you’ll see the lightning is actually siphoning spiritual energy from the natural spiritual leylines within the planet and feeding the storm.

"The Defiler, for whatever reason, is planning on harvesting all the spiritual energy within the planet using the storm as a tool... so all we really need to do is contain the storm, and prevent it from accessing the planet. We can even use this to lure out the Defiler, without needing to search for him."

Giselle felt no urge to scoff at Lex’s remarks, regardless of how unbelievable they may be. Immortals were strong, and Lex was particularly strong even among them. But even Immortals had to stand aside in front of the awesome power of nature - of the universe itself.

Celestial Immortals could control planets on a whim, Heaven Immortals could drain a star dry of its power over time, and Earth Immortals could all destroy planets, even if not necessarily in one go. Yet destroying a planet, even through the course of hundreds of attacks, was much simpler than containing a world destroying storm!

After all, to contain such a storm, the immortal would have to make use of laws, and to use those laws he would have to use his own energy. But a storm, whether formed naturally or unnaturally, derived its energy from the very laws itself. Containing it or stopping it was very much like a mortal standing in front of a moving train and expecting to push it till it stopped.

Of course, theoretically there was a certain amount of energy which could push a moving train to stop - but for that energy to be packed inside a mere mortal? Impossible.

At least if he was an ordinary mortal. If he was special in some way, just as Lex was special among immortals, it might be possible.

"Alright, so how do we do this?" she asked, letting Lex take the lead.

But, for once, Lex had no intention of leading. Although he had done his own research, Giselle was clearly an expert in the field of Defilers, so he let her decide what to do.

"That’s up to you. I can contain the storm one way or another. How to use that to our advantage is up to you."

Giselle paused, turned to look at the storm, and then everything around them. She took merely a few seconds to concoct a viable plan.

"The Defiler we’re after has a history with me. He knows me just as well as I know him," she said, though Lex more or less had guessed something like that already. "That also means it’s easier to manipulate him into thinking he knows my intentions. In a situation like this... if it had started before I came to find you at the Inn, I wouldn’t have bothered with anything else, I would have directly gone to save as many people as possible. So going off that, what I need you to do..."

Giselle explained her plan which was not complicated, but required Lex to act a bit.

As soon as he understood the plan, the two of them dashed forward towards the storm, both of them blasting their auras, wearing troubled expressions.

Of course, the aura Lex revealed was not his full strength, but merely what one might expect from an ordinary peak Earth Immortal.

The closer they approached the storm, the louder it became, drowning out the sounds of screaming civilians trying to run from it. Some of the smarter ones knew they could not outrun it so they sought out underground shelter, but even that was a desperate hope. Above all, there was chaos - not just of the incoming storm, but from the people on ground as well.

"I’ll try to hold it back! You evacuate the people," Lex roared over the sound of furious winds, and Giselle merely nodded as she separated from him.

Lex turned his attention away from her, and onto the incoming storm. With a grave expression, as if he was staring death in the eyes, Lex summoned a barrier.

To date, defensive techniques remained his best, so when Lex summoned a barrier, it was bound to be impressive... except that this time, he made it weak on purpose.

Instead of completely covering the storm, it merely built a wall in its path, blocking off a hundred miles in length to keep the storm from progressing this way. He grit his teeth as he made a show of reinforcing the barrier just moments before the storm hit it, and then waited.

A few seconds later, the storm and the barrier clashed, the impact from their meeting as real as could be. A shockwave traveled away from the storm, shaking trees, knocking down anything in its path, jolting all the civilians.

The plant was made up of most Qi training cultivators, with a few Foundation level cultivators here and there. An entire city might only have one Golden core cultivator, if it was a big one. So the sight of a barrier stopping armageddon, even if only for a moment, stunned everyone.

"Hurry up, he can’t hold on for long!" Giselle yelled as she ran through the town, gathering as many as she could.