The Innkeeper

Chapter 2448: You can suppress humanity, but you can’t suppress me

"There’s no need to feel embarrassed. It’s perfectly normal to have performance issues the first time," said Lex as he grabbed the blade of the sword and moved it away from his chest, winking at the marble statue.

Before the statue, or even the Karmari behind the veil could respond, there was a clap of thunder above Lex’s body, and he began to fade away. Before he completely faded though, Lex left behind some words.

"Arch-Heaven may feel like it can govern the universe, and that’s fine, but it will sorely regret it if it thinks it can control me."

Lex disappeared completely, leaving behind a silent gallery, for neither the statue nor the Karmari knew how to respond to what had just happened.

Lex’s tribulation ended, and he reappeared in the Primordial Garden. A yellow light shone down from between tribulation clouds as Lex received the final feedback from his tribulation. He had, formally, stepped into the ranks of Celestial Immortal - but he had done far more than just that. He had also survived his first ever Primordial Dao Body tribulation.

Normal Dao Body tribulations did not have any real feedback to give - allowing the targeted person to live in itself was the reward. Lex, though, was not ordinary by any measure or standard, and neither was his tribulation.

As his body and soul experienced the final baptism of the tribulation, his cultivation technique activated on its own, steadily advancing his Dao Body directly using the laws of the universe as a source. The highest level of the universe’s laws were nourishing Lex at the moment, and his cultivation technique was absorbing far more from them than any before him.

Every time Lex had a Major tribulation, the universe had experienced various phenomena. Each time, the reasoning was unique. This time, too, there had been a phenomenon. Pangu had appeared in the Dream realm, and all the Dao Lords of the universe had witnessed the Innkeeper prevent a Universal Mandate from being broken.

That should have been all, right? Even that much was too much. Under what circumstances could there be even more universal phenomena? Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Lex was about to find out.

Eclipse was already watching Lex, for this new portion of the tribulation had been very interesting for her to watch. Yet in that moment, she froze. Nulli, who a single moment ago was entirely pink, returned to her blue state as she unleashed her power, but she was a fraction of a moment too late. Eclipse’s unseen, mysterious bodyguard had acted first.

Destiny had decided that the time was nigh for the fall of mankind, and so she had unleashed her many means against them. Ill-fate, bad luck, vengeance, betrayal, accumulated negative karma - whatever one called it, the humans began to suffer from it. All Celestial Immortal humans became targets for assassinations, or impossible obstacles. Death welcomed them too easily, and life gave up on them too readily. Even their tribulations become infinitely harder - but Lex, whose tribulation had mutated, did not experience it.

He never visited the Obelist within the Spirit tribulation, where her traps lay. He also found himself in the Primordial Garden, where he was able to avoid so much of her influence. But her master stroke, the new curse that lay upon the position of the human race on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum, could not be avoided.

The moment he became a Celestial Immortal, he became a key figure in defining the destiny and status of humanity’s position upon the spectrum - as if he hadn’t been that already. By becoming a Celestial, however, he became a target for her curse as well.

Guided by the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum, which spanned the entire universe, the curse found him even within the Primordial Garden. If a special barrier had been erected to hide him, he could have avoided it, but only as long as he stayed within.

Blocked by Eclipse’s bodyguard, Destiny was unable to sense where exactly Lex was. While his location remained hidden, what was happening to him was not. She did not even need to specifically investigate him because...

His cultivation technique was resonating with the laws of the universe, connected in the most direct and fundamental way possible. Thus, when the curse arrived upon Lex, it resonated with those laws.

Lex was no normal human. He was a Celestial. He was a Primordial. Most importantly... he was the best!

Lex felt it like a punch in the gut. Something was trying to latch onto him - to infect his karma, distort his destiny, and drag him down to his nadir. This was not a result of Destiny acting directly - if it was, Lex would have had no recourse or chance at resisting. This was merely something she did indirectly so as to get what she wants, but avoid being traced or detected.

Unfortunately, she failed in avoiding detection because not only had Eclipse sensed her, a projection of Lex appeared all across the universe.

It was not the Innkeeper, nor was it some indistinct feature such as his eyes. A figure of Lex appeared in the skies everywhere any Humanoid race existed, and upon that figure shone a holy, nurturing light, as well as a dark, corrupting taint.

The universe was trying to nurture him, and Destiny was trying to corrupt him. Lex himself, however, was absorbing both forces unimpeded, and using them for himself with his cultivation technique.

The discomfort of the suppression made Lex frown a bit, but he quickly calmed down. Although he did not understand what was happening, he quickly managed to gather that he was being suppressed by a force - perhaps the same force that had been leeching off humanity’s destiny, or perhaps another.

Great. He had literally just finished dealing with Daekol, and now there was someone else waiting in line to mess with him.

"You can suppress humanity, but you can’t suppress me," Lex said angrily, and forcefully accelerated his own cultivation technique. It seemed to be able to absorb the influence of the curse as well, so he might as well take that as fuel as well.

What Lex didn’t realize was that his simple words had reverberated across the universe... or that a much greater secret was being suppressed by Eclipse’s bodyguard, keeping it from being detected.

"I suppose you were right," said Nulli as she looked at Lex’s body. "The Innkeeper really is preparing to go to that place."

Eclipse nodded, though her gaze was fixed on the corrupting force trying to influence Lex.

Destiny... Eclipse had finally found her.