The Innkeeper - Chapter 1240: Unholy laws

“There’s a change of plans,” Jeffrey said as he furiously flapped his wings through the turbulent winds. Black clouds had covered the entire zone, and the lightning tribulation was only getting bigger and bigger.

Ironically, because of how much energy the clouds were sucking up, the amount of chaos in the zone was not nearly as bad as it should have been. It was as if the excess energy that filled up the zone was being sucked up into the tribulation cloud, stabilizing the place. Though, at the moment, it still looked like the world was ending.

“Instead of catalyzing the eruption of the zone, killing everyone in it, we have to refocus our energies towards eliminating a single, anomalous immortal.”

There was no indication of who he was talking to, or if he was using some kind of device, but the stern expression on his face was quite revealing of the kind of response he was getting.

“It’s that Lex Williams, Damian’s grandkid. He’s even more aberrant than the dragon that entered the trial. The dragon was literally forced to its knees.”

There was another period of silence, before he spoke again.

“Yes, I think so too. I’ll keep him occupied while you…”

The Wyvern suddenly turned mid-flight and looked above himself when he saw the flash of a lightning bolt. Lex was right above him, standing in the air with his hands in his pockets, ignoring the lightning strike as usual.

“Go ahead, finish your call. I’ll wait,” he said.

Instead of responding, the Wyvern growled. Much like the dragon, Jeffery’s scales started to turn into brown flames. At the same time, the Wyvern summoned a suit of armor that appeared over its flaming body.

Its aura became more powerful, and Lex’s casual expression turned more solemn. Still new to things, he couldn’t quite understand what happened, but the previously weak Wyvern suddenly became dangerous. There was a certain law embedded within the armor, though Lex couldn’t recognise it at a glance. Whatever it was, though, it was incredibly potent.

Jeffrey took the initiative and attacked. At the same time, a bolt of lightning struck Lex. The timing would have been really good if Lex weren’t ridiculously strong.

Aware of his overwhelming advantage, Lex took this opportunity to better understand his new realm. He raised his hand and used a very common technique to put up a barrier in front of him, while simultaneously trying to add the law of defense to it.

He noticed that the technique itself seemed to have certain laws within it, yet when Lex tried to impose his own laws, the existing laws resisted it. The resistance was not strong enough to succeed, but it was enough to make his application of the technique seem clunky and unskilled.

Jeffrey crashed against the barrier, and was thrown back as if he ran headfirst into a trampoline, which was strange because that is not at all what Lex imagined happening.

Before he could investigate, two sensations distracted him.

The first was his instincts, this time guiding him to use his left eye on the Wyvern. The second was, once again, his instincts, but this time it was warning him about the incoming lightning bolt.

Even as an immortal, Lex could not actually complete with the speed of lightning, so by the time he processed the danger, the lightning bolt already struck him. For the first time, Lex groaned.

It was not the powerful impact of the lightning itself, nor the burning of his flesh, that caused him to groan. Rather, it was the furious imposition of the lightning on the laws that made up Lex’s own existence. It was as if the lightning was trying to smite those very laws!

He looked up and noticed that the clouds above him were mutating. They were no longer just absorbing the chaotic energies of this zone, but also being influenced by the chaotic laws themselves.

Lex grinned. Back on earth, he’d read many books that depicted powerful beings and cultivators who became too powerful, or had lives that were too long, and as a result became depressed, or lost their emotions.

Nothing could stimulate them anymore, and they grew bored with life. But the opposite seemed to be happening with Lex. Not only did he not get bored with his existing life, but his life continued to become so much more interesting the more powerful he became.

The universe was so interesting. The challenges, the secrets, the obstacles it held were all so stimulating. Since Lex could see the fluctuations in the laws, he could understand how bizarrely complex they were, and felt supremely insignificant in front of the vastness of the universe. But that feeling of being small did not demoralize him. Instead, it let him know that there was still so much more to explore. Even if he spent a lifetime trying to understand laws, he could never grasp them completely.

Fortunately, he was immortal now. Until the Nascent realm, the average human cultivator had a lifespan of 500 years. But from the Earth immortal realm onwards, there was no lifespan anymore. He would live until he was killed.

So he could take his time and fully experience everything this world had to offer.

Suddenly feeling invigorated facing the increased threat of the lightning tribulation, Lex stopped holding back – to an extent – and unleashed his aura.

“Come on, old man. Show me more of this realm that I have stepped into. Show me all of your tricks. Just be mindful not to run out of tricks before me, or it might now end well for you.”

Lex activated his right eye while looking at the armored wyvern, and suddenly he began to gain a deeper understanding of the law that was infused with his armor. He still wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but it was close to something that felt like festering decay. Perhaps there was no one word in the English language that could accurately describe what that law was.

But it was intriguing how a concept could become a law. Lex suddenly felt the urge to try as well, and the grin on his face faded as he reached out deep into the universe and tried to personify the one most unholy of laws that he deeply identified with.

Against the flaming, armored wyvern trying to kill him, Lex unleashed the law of capitalism. He wanted to see what effects this could bring about.