The Innkeeper

Chapter 2444: Holy sh-

There were too many issues, so Lex simplified them. He made a list of issues that needed to be dealt with in the order of importance and urgency. The system’s absorption of Primordial energy was clearly a major issue based simply on the fact that it showed Lex a fake system report.

From the day he got his system, he’d been distrustful of it, but no matter its intentions, it always adhered to the rules and structure that governed its operations. He had not come to trust the system, for its intentions were to use Lex for entertainment purposes, but he had come to trust the holistic nature of the guidelines that governed the systems actions.

If by absorbing Primordial energy the system could bypass those firm boundaries, then everything he had built using the system was at risk.

The severity of the issue would cause anyone to panic, feel anxious, and treat it like an issue that needed to be dealt with immediately. Lex, however, had been dealing with life-threatening, urgent issues basically his whole life, so he did not panic.

He figured out how to deal with the system, and once that was done, found that there was room for him to take advantage of the system’s current state.

Yes, Daekol was a lingering issue, but with his connection to his system reestablished, he had every confidence that he could take Daekol down sooner rather than later.

Mary understood better than Lex how urgent the situation was, but she was also not some inexperienced amateur. Her understanding of Lex and his capabilities was perhaps second only to Lex himself, which is why despite what logic told her, she put her faith into Lex.

She also tested herself, and found that the restraints that the system had put on her for so long had all loosened by a lot.

In a single moment, she gathered all her thoughts and channeled them into Lex’s mind, which was much quicker than speaking.

"Focus on the system core. Externally it seems like a single, cohesive entity, but in truth its structure is far more modular than you can imagine. You cannot normally see the internal structure of a system until reaching the Dao Lord realm, but that doesn’t mean you can’t interact with it.

"Back then, I suffered an injury so grave it nearly shattered my Dao and my soul, and the system suffered alongside me. We were both critically wounded, but I realized something crazy. Even when damaged, the system followed a set of protocols, as if the creator had even designed what to do in such a state.

"That meant that even injured, damaged and on the verge of being destroyed, the system already had the means to protect itself and recover. Considering the... unique nature of my location, and the injury I suffered, I had no delusions. I knew I would face death sooner or later, so I played a last, desperate gambit.

"I used a treasure I’d gotten from the system before to preserve my damaged Dao, placing it inside the treasure as if it were some physical item, and attached a segment of my soul as well. Then I used that treasure and inserted it into the system as a temporary energy source.

"That means, for all these years, the reason that the system has been able to operate above its grade and level is because it was operating on an energy source based on a genuine Dao - even if it was fragmented. But that energy source is also not originally part of the system, causing internal operation problems.

"Preserving the energy source is a medium-priority task in the system’s internal operations directory, but if you can trigger a high-priority, self diagnostic and repair task, the ’battery’ will be officially detected as a foreign object.

"That means when you scan the core of the system, you’ll be able to sense the core as one, whole item, but also a contradictory, foreign aura within it. You’ll need to lock onto that foreign aura and forcefully pull it out of the system immediately - or else the system will crush the ’battery’ and use it as a material resource to repair itself properly. In short... if you miss the timing, or are unable to do it, I’ll die"

There was a pause in the message, as if to let Lex absorb what she had said, and let him evaluate whether or not he still had the confidence to go through with this.

Then she began to guide Lex on the intricate method by which he could force the system core to trigger a high-priority self-diagnosis. To be clear, this was different from the other self diagnosis that the system usually performed before telling Lex the percentage damage that it suffered.

The problem, however, that Lex immediately identified was that Mary’s method to trigger the self diagnosis might work while the system is working normally. Now that it had an issue, even the system itself seemed to have enough self awareness to try to hide its predicament.

In such a situation, why would it trigger a self-diagnosis? Because Lex would order it.

Lex wasted not a moment. As soon as he was done listening to Mary’s instructions, he unleashed his Sovereign realm to the best of his ability, and condensed it to only exist up to one millimetre outside his body - approximately the size of ten hundred dollar bills stacked atop one another.

He focused on the system deep within his soul, and inside the Inn, he used his projection to focus his power on the system panel as much as he could manage.

Across the universe, every single Dao Lord in the universe saw the Innkeeper. They knew that it wasn’t that the Innkeeper was the one breaking the mandates, but the stele singled him out nevertheless. Maybe he saw facing the one breaking the mandates, or maybe he was facilitating it. Maybe he was the only person who could hope to stop it. They did not know the details - they just watched.

The Innkeeper, appearing as calm as he always did, opened his mouth and uttered a single word.

"Stop."

That was it. The vision ended. The stele stopped vibrating, and everything went back to normal, leaving all those who were watching stunned.

What had just happened? Had the Innkeeper stopped the mandate from being broken with a single word or... or had he directly stopped the stele from showing his vision?

For a single, unified second, all Dao Lords across the universe froze in shock as they tried to understand what had just happened.

"Holy sh-"