The Innkeeper

Chapter 2446: Should’ve killed me when you had the chance

After seeing that the pendant was absorbed into the new body, and that a pulse of ’life’ seemed to emerge from the body, Lex allowed his projection to disappear. He did not bother giving Vinei any more instructions - what could one even expect from a phoenix? It would be good as long as he managed to help a little.

Lex turned his focus to his system. The warnings were abundant - don’t let systems absorb Primordial energy. Bad things would happen if he did. Honestly, Lex had no idea how long his system had been absorbing Primordial energy. Maybe it had been doing so far longer than Lex was aware of.

Maybe, back when he was too weak to sense it, his system was already secretly siphoning some of the energy. Then it could have shown him a low or small percentage whereas in truth it had absorbed a whole lot more.

Lex was curious why Primordial energy was such an issue for systems. In fact, Lex wanted a deeper understanding of Primordial energy than simply saying it was ancient energy and that it was powerful. Why was it powerful? What made it special or unique?

Ever since Lex became a Primordial, he noticed that his weight increased by a lot - not just his literal weight, but the weight his very existence put on the laws that interacted with him. Why did the Void react to Primordial energy in such unique ways? Why could the Primordials back in the day be so strong even without becoming Dao Lords?

Lex did not have the answer for that, but as Celestial energy filled him and fueled his Primordial soul, he started to feel like there was no upper limit to his power. While previous realms such as Earth and Heaven Immortal realms had a theoretical upper limit, the Celestial realm seemed to have none - at least for Primordials. It was curious, but unimportant at the moment.

For now, Lex looked within himself, his gaze falling upon the system. It was impossible to read Lex’s emotions, and just as difficult to discern his thoughts from the gaze alone. It felt detached and indifferent, as if the actions taken by the system.

His system - the one that governed a realm, controlled the Inn, and wielded such incredible power that even Dao Lords could not see through it - felt stressed under that unwavering gaze. The reason was simple.

All that power, all those abilities, they were not something that the system could do according to its whims. It could no more deploy the Butter Knife itself than a mortal human could choose to activate healing in a certain part of his body. Although mortals could heal their bodies from minor or even moderate wounds, that was done by the body itself, and the mortal could not control it. At most, the mortal could provide the correct environment and fuel for the body to perform its functions optimally.

"I will allow you to keep 30% of the Primordial energy you’ve absorbed up until now," said Lex, as if a ruler issuing a decree. The system felt as if it had been pardoned, though the system itself could not understand why that was. A foreign sensation filled it that it could only define as... relief?

"However, the moment I learn that you’ve exceeded that 30%, or that you’ve lied to me again, I will personally make sure you’re never able to absorb Primordial energy again - even if I have to hand you over to that glass orb called Regix to do it. Understand?"

As if to respond to Lex, the system began pushing out a tremendous amount of Primordial energy - energy which was then absorbed by Lex as if it was the most pure healing elixir, allowing it to heal at a visible rate! His muscles started to reform, his bones started to regrow, and his skin began to appear once more.

In fact, his regrowth was so fast and intense that Lex even grew a small, wild beard.

Everyone had clearly warned him not to let his system absorb Primordial energy, but there was a reason Lex let it keep 30%. First, his personal experiences had led him to believe that not everything was as concrete as he was always led to believe.

Until he understood the story himself, he would not blindly rely on others. Second, as long as the system had Primordial energy within it, Lex could sense that it wasn’t nearly as cohesive and perfect as it normally appeared to be. At least Lex could now read the system’s emotions much in the way that he could read the emotions of his guests.

It wasn’t that Lex was being arrogant - it was that in this way, he felt he had more control over the system than less. After all, previously, all control over the system depended on the operations of the system’s design and the intentions of the creator. Like this, there was a wild element that could disrupt that design. Like this, his system was more like a living being, and Lex had plenty of experience in dealing with living beings.

With his Sovereign realm remaining constant, he could feel just how much Primordial energy the system had left, and the system had very faithfully released all Primordial energy up to 29%, not even risking that 30%.

As if Lex wasn’t scary enough, that mysterious glass orb known as Regix posed a far greater threat.

Lex did not reveal an ounce of emotion on his face, but internally he felt greatly satisfied. He had just learned that upon reaching the Celestial Immortal realm, Primordial energy had become a great tonic for him. He could heal directly using it, which meant his healing factor had improved many times over.

In truth, his healing ability had been improved due to him inheriting more abilities from Phoenixes, but Lex conveniently ignored that.

Instead, he opened his eyes and found that by now, the liquid in the pool was merely up until his ankles. When the liquid disappeared, the tribulation would enter its next stage. Before that... Lex summoned his Karmic Bead once more.

The Primordial energy released from his system had healed him even faster than the liquid in the pool, which meant that at the moment, he was close to his peak strength. He held out his Karmic Bead and placed it in the air in front of him, as if he had placed it atop an invisible Go board.

A Karmic string shot out from the bead into the distance, crossing an impossible distance, reaching to a hidden pocket realm somewhere out in the Void, and connecting to what appeared like a broken puppet.

The puppet opened its eyes, shocked, and discovered that he saw a projection of a human standing in front of him. It looked like Lex, but more rugged, and somehow more... defined.

"You put up a good fight, Daekol. You’re a worthy opponent. But that is all," said the illusion of Lex that appeared in Daekol’s eyes.

Daekol had used a system ability called Debt Protection, which meant that since his debt to the system was so huge, the system was protecting its investment. The consequences of such an ability were, naturally, immense but it should have ensured his survival. It had managed to protect him even from that final tribulation strike, which is why he had no idea how Lex had been able to pierce through its protection.

"You are not smart - you proved as much when you kidnapped Almira. You are not wise - you proved as much when you targeted me. Your sole destiny... the culmination of your entire life is nothing more than becoming a name I cross off my list. You should have killed me when you had the chance - I won’t make the same mistake."

Before Daekol could speak, before he could resist or employ some ability, the illusion of Lex disappeared. The karmic string from Lex’s bead reached the thick web of karma Lex had sowed with Daekol, and shattered it.

There was no build up, no suspenseful fight or struggle. Even though Lex had not become a full Celestial yet, he was no longer someone Daekol could resist even at his full strength, let alone in his current, weakened condition.

Not a trace of emotion passed through Lex’s eyes as he killed Daekol. Instead, he simply searched once more, scouring the universe for any sign of Daekol’s karma, but there was nothing.

Lex wrapped the puppet that was acting as Daekol’s body with his karmic string, as well as the system hidden within, and pulled it towards himself. Sovereigns were hunted even by Dao Lords, so Lex would definitely not give up this opportunity to get his hands on one.

As for making use of it, or trying to absorb the system into his own, those were things Lex would have to do later. For now, he had to face the final aspect of his tribulation, for the pool finally ran out of the tribulation liquid.