The Innkeeper

Chapter 1999: Positive thinking leads to positive results

Lorelei was actually quite fun and positive, and Lex wanted to show her around himself. But first, he needed to summon a Heavenly Puppet to the Inn. It shouldn’t take too long. Yet before he did that, he quickly hopped on over to the Galactic Sovereign turtle and passed the Star Dust Dandelion seed, as well as all the relevant information he had on that.

He told the turtle that he needed 12,000 seeds from the plant which would sprout from that single seed, and that the turtle could do whatever he wanted with the rest.

The turtle was quite pleased to have a new seed to plant, and especially such a rare one. He did not bother looking at any of the instructions or carefully gathered manuals on planting the seed that Vox gave to Lex. He simply threw them away and then did as he pleased.

Lately, he had been making decent progress with his Heaven project, even if he hadn’t found any new Heavenly trees lately.

The turtle assured Lex that the seed would be planted safely and that it would grow to be healthy. Lex sincerely hoped so, because he would have to pay for damages in case the turtle failed.

But he was a positive thinker now, so Lex looked forward to a positive result and headed to the Primordial Garden with only good things in mind. It seemed like having a positive mindset made all the difference in things.

Normally, Lex would rest and bring himself back to his peak state before undergoing a tribulation, but he was basically at full strength as it was so there was no need.

Minor tribulations, even the Primordial kind, for Heaven Immortals only involved Lightning and Fire tribulations. Since he was still early in the Heaven Immortal levels, he did not expect the difficulty to escalate too much.

Still, since he remembered just how tough the tribulations were the last time, to the point where he almost died, he would not take them lightly at all.

In fact, Lex had even done research into this new, Primordial tribulation. The actual tribulation, despite the name, had nothing to do with Primordial energy itself, although that was also a prerequisite for its occurrence. The Primordial energy simply served as a way of initiating a tribulation which attracted more feedback from the universe.

When Lex became an Immortal, it was the lightning from the tribulation which slowly transformed his body, soul and spirit, allowing him to bear the weight of laws. A similar kind of feedback happened in the Heaven Immortal tribulation as well, which allowed the cultivator to access deeper, stronger laws. Well, the Primordial tribulation, in essence, was just a way to get a whole lot more of that feedback. The cost, on the other hand, was the increased difficulty of the tribulation.

In fact, the difficulty was so high that in modern days, no one even pursued them because the potential gain was not worth the cost, which for most was death. Considering that even Lex was literally on his knees, fighting tooth and nail to stay alive, he could understand why it was so.

Regardless, the presence of Primordial energy alone was not enough to cause the tribulation to fall. The target of the tribulation itself needed to attract such a level of tribulation, which may be why so many beasts and creatures within the Primordial Garden too only had ordinary tribulations.

But while others avoided it, Lex was not willing to give it up now that he had experienced it. For one, if others in the past had survived it, then Lex saw no reason why he, with all his advantages, could not. Secondly, that’s what he needed to summon a Heavens Puppet.

Once Lex arrived back in the Primordial Garden, the abundance of Primordial energy once again put tremendous pressure on Lex.

He did not mind. In fact, he enjoyed the pressure, and even more, he enjoyed being able to resist it properly with his full strength. Arch-Heaven really was the bane of his existence.

He searched around the area he arrived in, intending to find an isolated or at least somewhat secluded area wherein to have his tribulation. To his surprise, although he arrived in what looked like the middle of the forest, all the nearby animals and beasts seemed to be heading away, giving him all the privacy and safety he needed.

It seemed like... a positive attitude had more than just a few simple benefits. Of course, Lex did not blindly just begin his tribulation. A positive attitude wasn’t going to block lightning for him.

Instead, he began to set up a formation around him, intending to use it to help him pass the tribulation. This was the first thing Lex had ever done regarding tribulations which could even remotely be considered normal. Not only did Lex do that, he made a few additional preparations in his surroundings to help him overcome the tribulation.

Once everything was ready, Lex looked up in the sky. He suppressed his excitement and calmed himself down. He was not yet at the level where he could easily dismiss the primordial tribulation.

Black clouds began to gather above him, indicating that the tribulation had begun to gather power. In this tribulation, Lex expected to face 27 lightning strikes, and he had no intentions of letting any more tribulations stack or happen concurrently, or anything of the sort.

Eclipse, naturally, could tell that Lex was back simply because of the Primordial tribulation that was visibly brewing. Since she had sealed all her powers, she could exactly sense his arrival or departure.

Yet she could not go out to meet him for she was busy using the energy from Lex’s previous tribulation to further adapt her garden. This was her art, and she could not treat it lightly.

Eventually, after a few hours, the clouds began to part, revealing a sea of lightning. Yet instead of raining down upon him, the lightning began to change form, slowly turning into an arrow.

A hand appeared from within the clouds, and out walked a Heavens Puppet - one that Lex was not familiar with.

Lex smiled. Now all he needed to do was wait for Vox to send down the puppet he had given the key to, and send it to the Inn - all while undergoing a life threatening tribulation. Should be fun.

With Naraka in hand, he looked up at the clouds challengingly, waiting for the arrow. The puppet smirked, as if mocking Lex, before pulling the lightning arrow.

"Why is the aura so much more dangerous than I remember?" Lex could not help but mutter out loud. No, he must be imagining things. Positive thoughts. It couldn’t possibly be-

His instincts said otherwise, and Lex listened. Even before the arrow was launched, Lex activated the formation around him, and entered into his dragon form, sword still in hand.

When the arrow fell, it did so with unfathomable speed. Fortunately Lex had begun to resist even before the arrow fell, so what awaited its descent was not a defensive formation.

Nay, for once, Lex had opted for another route. The formation was meant to augment and enhance his attacks, not help him defend.

Dragon Lex unleashed his Golden Inferno, channeling the full depth of his power, not holding anything back. What was unleashed as a torrent of flames passed through the formation and turned into a flaming sword.

Naraka trembled, as if resonating with that flaming sword, and Dragon Lex slashed forward.

A fiery sword and an arrow of lightning crashed, resulting in a massive explosion - or at least that’s what it felt like to Lex. As always, the Primordial Garden had a way of suppressing things, so the ultimate clash between mighty powers was akin to no more than a loud firecracker in the forest. Not even the leaves of the nearby trees burned.

The lightning bolt, or rather, the benefits of the bolt landed on Lex’s body, leaving him feeling like there was something burning inside of him.

Within Arch-Heaven, Vox was still musing on Lex’s visit, hoping that he would be able to properly plant the Star Dust Dandelion, when he sensed something. Had Lex already begun his tribulation? That was much quicker than he had expected.

He turned towards the puppet, sitting in his room, and sent it a simple command.

"Well, I guess it’s time for you to go," he said, and activated the powers he had as a minister, sending the puppet away.

He wasn’t sure what Lex’s purpose was, nor could he begin to understand. All he really cared about was that his Dandelion was planted properly.

Elsewhere in Arch-Heaven, the man in the golden cloak continued to search without rest, doing his utmost to find the previous system user he had encountered, when he suddenly picked up a hint of that system’s aura.

Vox was not the only one with a high ranking position, so when the puppet, with its golden key, passed through the channels of Arch-Heaven, the cloaked figure finally detected the aura of the key.