The Innkeeper

Chapter 1868: Up one spot

"Look at you, stealing from Heaven itself. Oh, how the young grow up so fast," Lex said as he grabbed Naraka with both hands and held it above himself. A fraction of a second later, the trident slammed into him, missing the sword completely, and buried Lex 666 feet underground.

The trident was too fast for Lex to even spot, let alone effectively block, so he thought about holding his sword up to block the trident based on its previous trajectory. Unfortunately, it did not work.

The right half of Lex’s chest was completely burnt to a crisp, this time including his lungs and other muscles beneath the bones, yet his body healed just as quickly. More than that, Lex could feel how the terrifyingly powerful lightning trident reforged his body. Even the ordeal within the volcanic forge was nothing compared to each and every single bolt of lightning.

Yet, while each bolt could damage him tremendously, the damage was equivalent to surface level damage for an immortal. Even ignoring the fact that his entire body wasn’t being burned, even if it was, immortals could even survive without a heart or brain, so a burned body was far from lethal.

"But you know, stealing from Heaven ain’t going to be so easy," Lex said as he recovered from looking like an undead zombie. "The tribulation is far more than just lightning. There will be a Fire tribulation, as well as a Spiritual Tribulation after this as well. I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on preserving the energy in my body, so you’ll have to be the one to do it. There’s also no guarantee that there won’t be other kinds of energies in the next two rounds of tribulation as well, so it won’t be easy for you to hold on either.

"Of course, I could simply let this form dissipate, and you could give up on the energies from the other two tribulations... if that’s what you want."

The lotus did not immediately respond, and Lex didn’t mind either. This time, he slashed the lightning bolt and absorbed 0.02% of the energy in the bolt. Despite taking double the amount, Lex didn’t increase the amount of energy in his body, and sent all the extra to Lotus.

He wasn’t joking when he said that excess energy might kill him. He might be strong enough to survive the lightning bolts, but not even a Celestial Immortal could contain as much energy as a whole realm!

It was precisely why, even though Moon didn’t have an actual realm inside her yet, Cassandra assumed that she might become a Demi-Dao Lord the moment she stabilizes!

The ability to actually contain a stable realm inside oneself was something not even someone as insane as Lex could achieve. He was only barely holding the status equal to a realm based on a technicality.

Eventually, Lotus answered Lex.

"Alright, I’ve constructed stable energy storage units in the Midnight Realm which will be able to hold this kind of energy," Lotus answered. "I’ll be able to contain the energy there. I’ll just need to make changes to the storage containers for the next two types of tribulations, and I’ll be able to contain that energy as well. We can put the plan in motion."

Lex grinned, and looked not at the clouds, but the heavens themselves. Laugh at him, will they? He’ll give them something to laugh about.

Lex activated the ability of both his eyes, using his left eye to lock on to the trident, and his right eye to manipulate arrays, Glyphs and the characters from the Book of Changes.

Once again, the trident was thrown faster than he could see or follow, but once it entered within a mile of Lex, it entered the zone covered with the changes he had made.

Lex didn’t try to block the trident, no. He simply tried to slow it down enough so that he could spot it.

Yet the trident was a thing of absolute carnage. The battlefield Lex had prepared didn’t slow the trident at all, and instead was torn to shreds. This time, the trident burned up the left side of his chest, turning his heart into a crisp. If Lex still had a working tongue, he might have made a joke about getting heartburn as he aged.

Instead, he focused on improving the surrounding battlefield. Surviving the tribulation was not what he was focused on at all - he wanted to catch that trident before his tribulation ended.

When the next strike hit, he absorbed 0.03% of the energy, transferring it to the lotus to use as it pleased, while his own body once again burned and was reformed.

But by now... Lex could feel it. He could feel the new kind of strength coursing through his veins. He could feel the ascension of his power as he stepped higher on the cultivation path. Lex could feel himself gaining more control of his power, and at the same time, he could feel his power able to influence the universe more and more.

The feeling... calling it a high would be an understatement. It was the adrenaline rushes of all adrenaline rushes, the highest high of all highs. It was the feeling of becoming stronger with each passing moment, each pulse of agony in his body, and it filled him with more excitement than ever!

The trident tore through his arrays and formations once more, but this time... this time it slowed as it entered the area of his Domination. Lex saw it... and if he could see it, then next he would catch it!

As Lex’s body and soul were baptised in the energy that only tribulations could provide, so too was his tenet. The stronger it became, the stronger Lex’s influence became on the universe, and the stronger his Supremacy became...

*****

Primary Realm, Ruins of Ascension

The monument upon which existed a list that, silently and unwittingly, governed the hierarchy of a majority of living beings in the universe stood tall, and with an unquestionable might. Around the list was an aura so immense that not even Dao Lords could approach it, which is why Wu Kong’s feat of doing just that made him so frightening a Dao Lord. No one knew how he did it - and it didn’t matter anyway. Even from afar, the list could be seen normally.

"There’s a change," said one of the Primals tasked with watching the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum as he wrote down the change. "The human race has moved up a spot."