The Innkeeper - Chapter 1235: Disappointing

Larry genuinely thought he got over the trauma of meeting that old, mature man back on earth. The very one he and Marlo had gone after to capture… the one who set up the entire Dershaw family’s demise. The one who kidnapped those who remained. There were days where Larry genuinely felt like he got over the memory of that man telling him that he had left earth while kidnapping all of Larry’s family.

Jeffrey, that old sick bastard, had set up countless wars on earth just for his amusement, and as he left the planet was the one responsible for inciting the A.I. invasion that ultimately led to the present circumstances on that planet.

A majority of its original residents were gone or dead, and the remaining ones were devout followers of a few deities who used them to farm divine energy to fuel their own war against the A.I.

But no matter how much he tried, he could never actually forget. That is why, when he was suddenly contacted by Rafael, Marlo’s son, who claimed he had a lead on Jeffery, he did everything possible to follow Rafael’s plan.

Apparently, Rafael wanted to stop Jeffery because he had secret information that Jeffery was going to do something countless times worse than what he did on earth. Larry didn’t care. He just wanted revenge… and maybe to actually find out if his family was even alive.

Rafael had been more than clear that Larry himself could not harm Jeffrey, as he was not anywhere close to his level of strength. But there was something Jeffrey could do that no one else could which would be a tremendous help in taking him down.

So he approached the monstrous Wyvern in the distance, finding it a little hard to believe that it was the same as the man who had orchestrated the destruction of Larry’s entire life. Then again, Larry himself was no longer a simple human, so it was not difficult to imagine that others were far from simple as well.

Larry turned his entire body into metal, eliminating any and all organic matter in his body, thereby hiding any and all signs of a living being. This was a simple thing for him, but it was surprisingly effective in hiding from higher level cultivators. Their spirit senses would often just sense him as a piece of metal that blended in with the ground.

Like this, he was able to approach Jeffrey without being noticed at all – especially since the Wyvern was distracted. Then, silently, he lay on the ground, his body morphing into mercury, which then slowly made its way to the Wyverns’ feet.

This was the most crucial part. Larry released from within his liquid form a greenish metallic liquid which he lightly scraped on the ground around the Wyvern. As long as the Wyvern moved even a fraction of an inch, it would be marked by that metal.

A few moments later, due to a particularly intense quake, the Wyvern adjusted its feet, stepping onto the green metallic liquid without realizing it. Unknowingly, it had come one step closer to its own demise.

Lex, meanwhile, was chilling. Sure, his mind, body and soul were being burnt to a crisp, but pain was inconsequential to him now. After he lost control over his body, soon after his entire body was infected by the heat that was burning him. More and more black smoke escaped from the cracks within his skin and Lex felt like to exist was to suffer.

He also felt like there was an off switch available to him. As long as he wished, he could press the off switch and the pain would end. His suffering would come to an end. He would get the sweet release of death. While he could understand why others might be tempted by it, he just couldn’t really be bothered.

It wasn’t even that long. He didn’t even enter into a mindless trance where time seemed to lose meaning, or something like that. Soon enough, he felt his mind returning to his body, and instead an endless emptiness, he could focus on his body.

The first thing he noticed was that he seemed to have lost weight, which was good. He no longer dared to check his actual weight, but he was sure it was already over a literal tone.

But besides that, he noticed that the process of conversion that had begun with the lightning had been brought further along by the fire tribulation.

It was as if the lightning only started the process in the outer layer of his body, while the fire tribulation completed it deeper within. Only that it wasn’t complete.

Lex could slowly feel his control over his body returning, and he felt that his condition was terrible. It was genuinely incredible how thorough and evenly spread out the burning was. He could see how this would kill almost anyone else.

For better or for worse, he could feel the burning process come to an end, and his body forming some kind of connection to the universe itself, and a massive surge of vitality feeding into his charred body, filling it with strength and life anew. But at the same time, it felt hollow.

As someone who had been dealing with laws for a while already, he could tell that his body could deal with laws now. But since he had an affinity for laws, he could always do that. He was just better at it now.

It was… disappointing and confusing. Lex expected so much more.

He tried to figure out what was missing when the vitality came flooding in, and his internally charred body began to morph into something much greater.

Yet more importantly, the vitality, if that was even the right word for a kind of energy that would perfectly rebuild his body, mind, and soul and elevate them to a whole new level, began to condense into something solid within him, yet just as it was on the verge of formation, his connection to it became stronger, and Lex suddenly realized what was missing.

His body had been converted, but his tenet was not formed. Now, with this immortal vitality under his control, he could directly form whatever tenet, or tenets, he wanted. Yet there was a catch.

The amount of energy he had access to was limited, so for each tenet he formed, he would be dividing the energy equally.

It did not matter. He already knew what he wanted, and it was a single tenet. The energy converged, and Lex finally gave form to the tenet he had been trying to decide on for a long time.