The Innkeeper

Chapter 2000: Seraph of Calamity

Lex looked like a piece of overly charred barbeque when the puppet with the golden key appeared, meaning his entire body was blackened from being burned by the lightning bolts. Of course, the damage was only skin deep.

Ever since Lex discovered that the origin of his body was closely linked to dragons as well as phoenixes, he had changed the direction of the Lawcrafts he was creating. Instead of external powers and abilities, he targeted his body itself.

Lex had designed a Lawcraft called Eternal Rebirth, based on the supposed legendary healing power of phoenixes, as well as the healing properties of his own blood, and combined them. Although the technique was in its early phases of development, and required further refinement, the concept was to allow himself to heal at ridiculously speeds using his own internal energy.

Right now the technique was far from ideal, and used up way more energy than Lex thought was necessary, but in essence he was healing just as quickly as he was being damaged. A nice side benefit of this technique was the ability to immediately regrow all hair and skin he may lose or burn off.

He could also use this technique to heal others, but since it would require using his blood as a medium, he didn’t see himself using it often.

Just this one technique alone had drastically reduced the actual difficulty of crossing his tribulation. Once Lex figured out how to turn Domination, which was just a fancy name for his own aura, into a Lawcraft, Lex imagined that he would be able to weaponize his mere presence. How awesome would that be?

The answer was, obviously, very awesome. But that didn’t matter for now. The moment the puppet with the golden key appeared, Lex sensed its presence. Alongside it, however, Lex sensed a near fatal danger.

It appeared like a flash of lightning in a clear sky - swift and unexpectedly. Unlike his tribulation, which scaled with Lex’s level and strength, this danger far surpassed his current level. Unlike prior near fatal dangers that Lex had faced, such as the aura of a Demi-Dao Lord or a skin devouring curse, which were passive in nature, this was a very direct and very active danger!

Lex almost felt like he was about to encounter a fight for his life and death right then and there. Yet just like a flash of lightning, it came and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Lex felt confused because he could not tell where the danger had come from, nor could he tell where it had gone. Obviously it had something to do with the puppet, but at the same time, his instincts told him that there was nothing wrong with the puppet itself.

Confused, wary, and now completely alert, Lex decided not to delay things. All it took was the slightest bit of effort on his part to send a guided attack towards the puppet to destroy the golden key, sending the Heavens Puppet to the Midnight Inn and completing his quest.

He heard the sound of his notification alerting him to the completion of his quest, yet Lex dared not divert his attention towards it at all. His focus was split between the tribulation as well as searching for any signs of any threat. He thought that maybe something within the Primordial Garden may have reacted to the second puppet, or maybe the presence of two puppets in one tribulation caused some reaction within Arch-Heaven.

Whatever the case was, the danger did not return. Lex went through the tribulation one lightning at a time, and though each bolt was a struggle to get through, it was nowhere near as difficult as it felt when Lex first went through them. Considering that the wait between each bolt was many hours, it actually took Lex several days to get through the lightning tribulation alone, yet the danger never revealed itself.

The Fire tribulation, despite claiming so many lives throughout history, was something Lex never took seriously at all. Between his own affinity for volcanos, his affiliation with dragons that breathed fire, and phoenixes which were reborn in fire, this was a tribulation that was destined to never bother him. With Eternal Rebirth, passing the Fire tribulation became merely a matter of passing the time.

Right up until the end, when Lex became a level 3 Heaven Immortal, nothing happened, confusing him. Yet since the danger did not reveal itself, Lex stopped thinking about it... not!

Since he still wasn’t able to discover where the danger came from, Lex decided to move up a few of his plans. He was setting up multiple contingencies in case he ever faced a danger he could not overcome, and building the Midnight Castle inside the Nexus and hiding the Chamber of Rebirth within it was merely one of them - even if it was his most important one.

Since the necklace made of the divine ore had shown its connection to him, and its ability to heal and recreate itself, it was now time to put it to the use he had originally intended for it.

He also needed to create even more layers of defense for the Midnight Inn since it was now attracting universal attention. Lex was not one to silently wait for danger to show up at his door before reacting to it - at least, he wasn’t like that anymore.

Lex returned from the Primordial Garden to the Midnight Inn. It was time to finalise his taverns, and it was time... for the Innkeeper to make his greatest appearance yet.

*****

Within Arch-Heaven, a figure wrapped in a golden cloak stood upon the terrace of his sanctuary, looking down upon his demesne, lost in deep thought. There were few things which could cause Daekol, Lord of Pathways within Arch-Heaven, Seraph of Calamity, Chosen of the Path of Chaos, natural born Sovereign of the Universe, to be lost in thought. An unexpected obstruction in his hunt for his targeted system wielder was one of them.

Yet this obstruction had merely caused him to be lost in thought, not seriously troubled. After some time pondering, the answer came to him.

The reason he was able to sense the aura of the powerful system was as a result of a combination of a few things. Firstly, as a Sovereign, he had a natural affinity for all things that could touch upon the deepest laws of the universe, and that included systems. Yet not all systems were the same, and more powerful systems could hide themselves even from Sovereigns.

Then came into play his status as a Minor Lord in Arch-Heaven. Despite the name, a Minor Lord was one of the most powerful posts which could be achieved in Arch-Heaven as it was now, with only a Judge superior to them. Even positions such as minister were beneath him. As the Lord of Pathways, his authority was tremendous, and that, when combined with his status as Sovereign, allowed his senses to extend to an unimaginably vast area.

Then, combined with his status as a system user, and someone who has studied systems extensively, he was able to pick up on traces that would otherwise be completely hidden. Anything with even the slightest hint of the system he was searching for would alert him.

That is how he was able to sense the system’s trace, and realize that it was on a puppet leaving Arch-Heaven. Yet the moment the puppet left Arch-Heaven, Daekol could no longer sense its location. In fact, he could not even sense where the puppet had gone.

That was the obstruction he faced, yet he now realized why that was. Firstly, it was likely that the puppet appeared in an area controlled by a powerful entity, with protection that Daekol couldn’t peer through. Considering that Daekol was not yet a Dao Lord, that was a reasonable outcome.

Furthermore, the system itself probably functioned a lot better outside Arch-Heaven, making it harder for him to trace it directly. The system user, too, seemed to have many powers hiding him from detection through common means.

Thus, it was only natural for him to lose track of the system user. But that did not discourage Daekol, nor did it excite him. His mind was singularly focused on this task, so any difficulty or ease in the pursuit of that task were inconsequential. He needed to merely divert more attention, and more effort towards completing it.

Since his target seemed to have left Arch-Heaven, then it was time he too returned to the universe. The timing was just right. With the fires of war spreading, and the influence of the Path of Chaos quietly increasing, it was time for him to exert his dominance and claim what was rightfully his.

He was no longer satisfied with being a significant member beneath the Dao Lord realm. It was time that he ascended, and there was no better time, nor a better place than within the chaos of conquest.