The Innkeeper

Chapter 2328: All new Domination

When Lex came to, there was no forest around him. There was nothing, not even the ground. Instead, there was a deep, circular pit in the shape of a dome, for everything within a mile (1.6 km) of the necklace had been sucked into it.

Lex was not surprised, though. He’d been in a trance, not asleep. He was aware of everything that had happened. Everything within the Gilded Hollow was an extremely valuable resource - everything! He didn’t know the exact reason, but he had a few theories.

If the Gilded Hollow truly was the last vestige of the universe known as Pentagal, then there was a chance that it existed in a state of profound compression, with every remaining speck of its being forged into material of astonishing purity and quality.

For years already, Lex had been using low level, rare resources to build a faint foundation for his necklace to alter it in the way that he wanted. In matters like that, it wasn’t just about getting rare resources, but they needed to be the right ones that appropriately complimented the existing structure of the necklace while moving it towards the direction Lex wanted it to go in.

Over here, however, Lex had done something odd and unique - something he would not be able to replicate without the help of the universe itself. He had destroyed the resources, and remade them into exactly what he needed. In a sense, it didn’t even matter what it was he was absorbing - just the level of the resource itself.

In a way, it was an ability similar to what Lotus used, except this was less energy intensive since he wasn’t creating something from scratch. Yet whether it was Lotus’ ability to create items using only energy, or the current ability demonstrated by the laws of the universe to destroy and recreate, neither of them were things Lex could perform at a whim.

Even now, the only reason he had been able to do it was because he had been resonating with and replicating the actions of the universe itself. The fact that he was even able to do it was likely some kind of reward from the universe for using him as a beacon to affect the laws in the Gilded Hollow.

Moving forward, unless he encountered a similar situation, he wouldn’t be able to do the same.

Lex turned his focus towards the necklace, and observed the changes it had undergone. Its shape had been somewhat altered, looking now like it was a crystal key pendant of some sort. Was he so used to keys that he subconsciously changed the shape of the necklace?

It didn’t matter. The shape of the item wasn’t something he paid great attention to. Instead, he focused on the quality of the necklace itself.

Its stability was off the charts, and its strength had grown tremendously. Lex wasn’t sure he could scratch the necklace even if he used Naraka to attack it!

He smiled faintly. While increasing the necklace’s stability hadn’t been his primary goal, it was something to celebrate nonetheless.

With all other issues addressed to varying degrees, there was just one more mystery. Why had he detected the same aura as the Axis Eternum from the coin, and in fact, what was the coin to begin with? He got it from that temple, so he could conclude that this whole thing was not some great mystery to Nuwa, but it was to him.

The aura had disappeared since entering the Gilded Hollow, but that only increased his curiosity. Could it be that the Origin realm’s Axis Eternum also contained a piece of Pentagal? Or was there some other connection between these two?

He wasn’t sure.

Lex thought about it some more, but couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation. To be specific, he could come up with many explanations, but there was no way to verify any of them at all, so it was best not to assume lest it affect his judgment in the future.

With that put behind him, there was just one thing left for him to do. He had to find and absorb the most valuable resources that he could, and take this opportunity to develop the necklace to the best of his ability.

It would not be easy to find so many high quality resources again in the short term. Thus, it would be best if he formed a nascent form of his own system within the necklace, or at least upgraded the necklace until it was in a state where he could use it to combat Stalker, his enemy.

A thick, overwhelmingly strong spirit sense surged out from the necklace like an unstoppable tsunami, covering thousands and thousands of miles all around it, surveying everything as if a lord was observing his domain.

Spirit sense was usually illusory, able to sweep past any without being detected at all. Yet when Lex unleashed his own spirit sense, it carried a very real weight with it, as if trapping all beings in a pool of quicksand. They could move, but doing so would be incredibly difficult, and they had to resist the spirit sense for every bit of movement.

That palpable, oppressive pressure was followed by an extremely domineering and overwhelming aura of royalty and supremacy. Every insect, every animal, every plant, and even those that did not fall within those categories, all felt a feeling of submission emerging from the very core of their being. It was no longer a matter of bravery and cowardice - they could not even conceive resistance.

After so many years, Lex’s cultivation had not increased at all, but that did not mean he hadn’t gotten stronger. With years and years of free time, Lex had pondered the laws, observed how they affected mortals and immortals alike, and deepened his own understanding about the universe.

All that was before he studied the overwhelming way in which the universe overwrote the laws of reality within the Gilded Hollow!

Lex’s Domination, once a technique used to copy Dragons Might, had now reached a whole new level. Dragons could use their Dragon’s Might to control and somewhat affect the universe itself. Well Lex had veered from that path, and instead used his Domination to exert Supremacy over the area within his spirit sense, and take control of it. Within the scope of his Domination, Lex was like a Sovereign and a monarch. This was his territory, and there could be no doubt about that.

Lex’s eyes flickered. His progress was great, but it wasn’t enough. He didn’t know how it would hold up against a real Sovereign, and he didn’t care to find out, because as far as he was concerned, this technique was still incomplete. It was still far from reaching the ideal state he had visualised in his mind. Soon, he would correct that.