The Innkeeper

Chapter 2388: Two months

At first, it only felt like the liquid was helping Lex refine his absorbed resources. Whether they were at the Immortal level, or Dao level, all materials and resources gave up all resistance and acted according to Lex’s will, giving him a glimpse of what it truly felt like to be a Sovereign - to have uncontested, unquestionable supremacy!

In a universe where he wasn’t remotely close to being the strongest, getting a taste of true, genuine supremacy was extremely difficult. Yet within that pool, Lex could feel it in a way he had never experienced before, bringing him a whole new depth of understanding about his own tenet, and advancing his control over it.

That, however, was merely the beginning. When his soul began to evolve and his Primordial Dao Body began to develop further, Lex was stunned. The feedback did not reach his real body because of Daekol’s excessive isolation, ensuring that neither he nor Lex’s main body could be reached from the outside. That didn’t mean the feedback didn’t exist.

In fact, the evolution process from a normal being to one with a Primordial Dao Body was far more thorough than before, reaching and affecting even Jack. The process was a lot more streamlined, smooth and thorough.

Just these two would, themselves, be enough to elevate whatever consisted within the pool to an amazing resource that was most certainly at the Dao material level. However, that was not the end of what it did.

Being within the pond elevated the quality and level of Lex’s spirit temporarily, giving him clarity of thought at a level he had never felt before despite his amazing cultivation technique. His understanding of laws grew at a rapid pace, but that in itself was merely an aftereffect of him focusing on developing and refining his necklace into the treasure that he had imagined.

With this newfound clarity, his ideas for developing the necklace became far more refined, and the effectiveness of his work increased immensely, narrowing the gap between his actual ability and the result he had envisioned.

Lex dared not imagine the grade of the liquid he was submerged in, or what could prompt such treatment from the Fortune Lord. It was not his place to guess the thoughts of a Dao Lord as powerful as him!

The effect carried over to Jack as well, which meant one thing. The effectiveness of his ability to convert divine energy into his own paladin cultivation exploded! Entering the next realm should have been a very difficult endeavor for him. But, with the help of the feedback from the liquid in the pool, it became all too easy!

The tribulation came right within the Mirage where he was. If his advancement was unusual in any way, or if it would have caused any phenomenon was entirely uncertain, for within the Mirage the Dao Lords were protecting him. That meant that any irregularity was suppressed by them so that none would be able to detect it.

It wasn’t entirely out of charity or good will that they were doing this, but out of consideration of the greater picture. Currently the universe was in chaos and the future was unpredictable. The Folklore realm needed to shore up its strength and prepare for whatever was to come - even if they were certain about their existing strength.

The tribulation Jack faced, for some reason, wasn’t nearly as difficult as the one Lex faced. Using his enhanced clarity, Jack studied the behavior of the laws and concluded that the reason for the weaker tribulation might be because the universe recognized that Lex had already undergone a tribulation for the Heaven Immortal realm once before.

Of course, this was under the premise that Jack hid his identity of being a fairy within his back using Back of Atlas. He had a feeling that once he let go of the technique and revealed his race while being within the Heaven Immortal realm, there would definitely be a massive reaction.

Now was not the time for such things, though, Jack could not afford any unnecessary attention due to the mission he was about to undertake, so he underwent the tribulation all the while hiding his race.

Lex also concluded that the difference in difficulty was due to this being an ordinary tribulation as compared to the Primordial tribulations he’d been experiencing with his main body.

Thus, it was no surprise to Jack at all that he easily surpassed the tribulation and finally reached the Heaven Immortal realm. Of course, what was a normal, and maybe even a little boring tribulation by Lex’s standards was still far beyond the tribulation normal Earth Immortals experienced.

All those watching the tribulation were stunned and in awe of the fairy who underwent the entire tribulation with his arms folded.

Only Jack and Bob seemed to think that the process and end result were a matter of fact. The only thing worthy of note was that his Spirit tribulation was fundamentally different from what Lex experienced. There was no obelisk. In fact, there wasn’t even anything related to fairies. Instead, there was only a towering sword, radiating a pure, divine sword intent that pierced his spirit, and tested his resolve. It felt almost like... it was similar to his paladin powers.

But that didn’t make sense. Tribulations were determined by race, not cultivation methods.

Maybe this was a result of him hiding his race. But even if it were related to cultivation methods instead of race, the paladin path should not have been at the level where the universe used it inside a tribulation. He sensed that there was something critical and crucial that he was not understanding about his own tribulation.

Even with his enhanced clarity, this was not something he could understand at the moment. Considering that resolving this mystery wasn’t so important at the moment compared to his other tasks, he discarded it from his thoughts entirely.

With his newfound realm, Jack was now ready to carry out his plans. He needed to do a few unsavory yet necessary things to maximise the benefit of the impending Nexus event, as well as finalise the formation.

Naturally, he could not make the formation under the watchful eye of so many Dao Lords, so he asked to be sent away.

Thus, within the two months where Lex was refining the necklace, Jack began to carry out the tasks he had planned for a long, long time.

However, he wasn’t the only one acting on plans that were long in the making. Rockefeller Rothsfather watched with hollow eyes as Bouldadin, the stone hydra who had kidnapped him long ago, finally began to execute the plan he and others had composed against the Midnight Inn.

He knew... regardless of whether the plan failed or succeeded, his own end was near.