The Innkeeper

Chapter 2459: Don’t take it personally

The Dao of Lucky Break was so immensely powerful and effective that ever since Bourdow had become a Dao Lord, he’d never really encountered any issues. That was because he was very careful about how he used it.

Thus, for so long, he was very calculative about the luck he stole, and how he used it. He always, always made sure that he had an immense reserve left regardless of his situation.

Even when the Dream Arena used up a lot of his luck, in truth it was only about 15% of his reserves. However, as it happened, the luck he used up was the one he created and accumulated himself, whereas the luck he was left with was the luck he stole.

Even though he stole the luck, he purified and refined it countless times until it was indistinguishable from his own. No one should have any claim left to it. Unfortunately for Bourdow, he had placed too much trust in that ’should’.

All his luck turned... there was no word for it except sour. Even if it had turned into bad luck directly, he might have been able to control it. He would have been able to keep it from triggering. Yet when it turned sour, the luck acted against him as if it held a vendetta. It was almost as if the luck had a mind of its own.

Just in the way he could occasionally trigger a Lucky Break, this time he automatically triggered an Unlucky Break, and its effects were instantaneous.

Not only did Wu Kong notice him, he triggered some kind of trap on the Dream Arena which launched a flare over his head, alerting everyone of his location.

As if that was not bad enough, his soured luck began to break down and devour his body like a greedy parasite. Bourdow coughed out blood as his internal organs were ruptured, and he had no choice but to burn all the luck he had. That was not an easy choice because without any luck to use up, he would immediately become the weakest he’d ever been since becoming a Dao Lord.

"Are you following me?" asked Wu Kong who appeared beside Bourdow, grabbing his body as if to steal something.

Either Wu Kong was extremely lucky, or Bourdow was extremely unlucky, for Wu Kong swiped the strongest protective tool Bourdow kept on his person to protect himself.

"Oh?" said Wu Kong, clearly not expecting to steal something so valuable so quickly.

"Dammmit!" exclaimed Bourdow as he pushed himself back and activated a teleportation device.

Yet it seemed that luck was not on his side because he tripped when he pushed himself back - something he hadn’t done in his entire life - and the device broke before activating.

Wu Kong became even more interested in this fellow for he couldn’t understand what was happening, but he could tell that it would benefit him. He swiped again, and this time he stole a whole lot of Dao Essence.

Bourdow, well aware that he couldn’t continue on like this, immediately decided to give up and contact Destiny to extract him, but it just wasn’t his day. For reasons he couldn’t understand at all, he was unable to connect to her.

"What the hell is going on?" he exclaimed, this time teleporting away with his own power. The reason he’d used his device before was because it had a fixed destination that even the Dream realm wouldn’t interfere with. Now, he was teleporting at random, and he didn’t trust his luck to guide him.

But he was forced to act, for wherever he would go would be better than being in front of Wu Kong, right?

Turns out, he was terribly, terribly wrong.

Bourdow appeared in the center of a massive formation, each and every ounce of it giving such immense Dao Radiation that he had no doubt that he had stumbled onto the core of the Dream Arena.

The ground beneath his feet was painted with a large and ominous pattern, one that frightened Bourdow even though he couldn’t understand the reason why.

If that was all, he would not have been nearly as afraid as he actually was. The thing that frightened him the most was not the core area, nor was it patterns on the ground. Instead, it was the sight of the Dream Master, standing there, waiting for him to gather his bearings.

What made the situation worse... was that he recognised the Dream Master!

"You... what are you doing over here?" he asked even as his mind raced and he thought of a way to escape. But it was no use. In the presence of the Dream Master, he could not muster any strength at all. It was as if he were a mere mortal.

"Waiting for you, obviously, " responded the Dream Master as she waved her hand, causing countless chains to emerge through the ground and pierce through Bourdow’s body.

The chains then withdrew, pinning Bourdow to the ground with taut chains.

"You know, I’ve heard that you’ll be lucky for as long as you live," commented the Dream Master as she walked up to him and guided the blood on the chains onto the formation beneath him.

"Seeing the state that you’re in now, I guess it’s time for you to die."

Bourdow trembled and tried to use any means at all at his disposal. Unfortunately, in front of her he had no means available at all.

"No, please, don’t do this. I... I can pay you. I can pay my own ransome," he pleaded, but the Dream Master just heard his words with an air of indifference as she continued to do her work. "Don’t take it personally," she said plainly.

"A lot of races paid for too many years with too much of their luck to trap you here. It’d be a real disservice to them if I let you live after all the sacrifices they made for me."

Chills traveled down Bourdow’s spine as he realised that when he thought he was being clever, he was merely walking into a trap that spanned over an age.