The Innkeeper

Chapter 2460: The Nexus Event I

Within the Folklore realm, Jack opened his eyes in shock as he felt his power skyrocket for no apparent reason. His Paladin powers became stronger on their own, and as they strengthened, so did his abilities and senses.

Before he could savor the feeling, though, the formation he was sitting in triggered, shocking him even more! The Nexus event wasn’t supposed to start yet, but it had. Across the entire universe, all destinies were being rewritten entirely. In fact, Jack even felt that the position of the fairies on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum had increased substantially.

Lex, meanwhile, had done his best to attack as many realms as possible within his time limit. Yet about 10,000 seconds before time was up, he discovered that there were no more devils who could help him teleport across the universe. Whether it was because their actions had been noticed, or because something else was happening, Lex didn’t know.

They all just disappeared, withdrawing even from the Midnight Inn. Velma told him that they had all gone back to their own realm, but even she didn’t know the reason why. Thus he was forced to stay inside the Midnight Inn until the time was up, using that period to process the growth in his cultivation and Sovereign realm.

When the time was up, though, Lex too flashed his eyes open. Not only had his own Paladin powers also increased, he received a strange system notification. Just as he was processing that notification, he felt the position of humanity skyrocket on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum in a way he’d never felt before!

The strength of his instincts grew exponentially, to the point that he sensed two significant things. First, there was something hidden within the Midnight realm that was dangerous, and had eluded his senses and detection so far. The second thing he sensed was that the seal on his forehead loosened on its own, and a flood of memories came rushing in. It seemed like the Timekeeper also knew a great deal about the Nexus event.

In the memories, Lex discovered that he was sitting across his doppelganger talking about it. "The next Nexus event is going to be special," Said the doppelganger as he puffed his pipe. "Unlike the previous ones, it won’t just be the trigger of the Nexus event which will wipe away all destinies. This time, the entire duration of the event will wipe destinies, which is an opportunity of a lifetime.

"You see, I have a lot of time on my hands, and it needs to be released during the Nexus event. Doing so will give you a tremendous amount of positive karma, and improve your destiny, but despite what it seems like, that’s not such a good thing. "With such a rise in karma and destiny, it will attract attention, and questions. Questions like where all this time came from - questions that neither you, nor I can afford to answer.

"Half the time released can be used up by you however you wish, and only half needs to be released into the rest of the universe. With that, you can speed up the development of a valuable fruit, grow a treasure, expand a realm, whatever you want. It just can’t be used to increase the flow of time in a soul - besides that, it’s entirely up to you.

"But, before the Nexus event, you need to discreetly release a bit of time in advance so that the universe can acclimatise to it. I have a few trillion years worth of time set aside, and the more of it you release before the Nexus event, the more effective the time you release during the Nexus event will be. It’s just a matter of how much of that time you can smuggle in using your soul."

After talking to his doppelganger a bit more, Lex had accepted the deal for two main reasons. The first reason was that the value of so much time could not be estimated, and it could help him a lot, even if he didn’t exactly know what he would use the time for just yet.

The second reason was that at the time Lex was extremely weak, and the mysterious Timekeeper was strong, so he didn’t dare refuse this deal. As soon as he was done viewing the memories, Lex knew exactly how he was going to use that time.

Around the same time, a veil seemed to be lifted across the universe, revealing many secrets. All at once, countless Dao Lords sensed that it was not just a few, but thousands of Mature realms that had been destroyed! Yet, oddly enough, the universe did not mourn the destruction of every Mature realm. In fact, it seemed there were actually very few realms the destruction of which caused the universe itself to shudder!

In comparison, the majority of realms that were destroyed relieved a tremendous amount of strain, and a separate kind of burden that gave off the feeling of wrongness.

None could explain it, for none could understand it, but what they all realised was that there was something wrong with those destroyed realms. Within Arch-Heaven, the dome which had trapped hundreds of Dao Lords shimmered, and its surface became transparent, allowing anyone to peer inside. Yet the sight they saw was terrifying!

Each Dao Lord lay on the ground, a painful expression on their faces. Black veins covered their bodies, as if poison coursed through their veins. Yet the most terrifying thing was that above each of the Dao Lords’ bodies, there seemed like a warped, terrifying soul, wrapped up in chains. The mere sight of those souls gave off a feeling of wrongness, as if they did not belong to this universe.

The agents left behind by the Sage races to watch and report the situation on the dome were horrified the most, for they realised what those souls were. They were parasites, occupying the bodies and replacing their original hosts! It was unimaginable that such a thing could happen to Dao Lords, which meant that all these people had been infected by these parasitic souls before they reached such a level.

They then reached the Dao Lord realm and began infecting the universe with their corrupted Daos. The question was... where did so many of such parasites come from? They certainly did not know. They tried to report it immediately, but the universe was far more tumultuous now than it had been in ages. It was also at this time that a wounded Romulus left the Gilded Hollow, and entered the universe once more.