The Innkeeper

Chapter 2128: The sanctuary

Lex took a moment to inspect himself. His sudden control over the Dao part of his Dao body originated from his control over laws, based on what he had learned from Regix. In that sense, Lex could control it by sealing or unsealing his tenet. However, as long as the tenet was unsealed, the Dao body seemed to resonate on its own with his newly acquired understanding of laws, thereby creating a weak yet definite effect following whatever his intent was.

While on the surface this seemed like a good thing, without being able to control the effects of his Dao body, Lex was actually playing not with fire, but with a nuke. In theory, there definitely was a certain safe distance at which he could toast a piece of bread using a nuclear explosion, but in practicality he was more likely to eradicate the bread itself than to perfectly give it a light brown toast.

In truth, he still did not understand Dao, or the influence of it, or what it even meant. Suddenly producing side effects as a result of fluctuations in his Dao body was very unsafe. Yet, without continuing to do so, he also wouldn’t be able to learn and improve his understanding of the Dao, and his own Dao body. It was a real conundrum.

"When the blessings come, they really do start pouring," Lex said with a weak smile. Which Heaven Immortal in the history of the universe had been too worried about being able to use Dao?

Actually, Lex was so underprepared to face this situation that he didn’t even know what the correct terminology for this was. Was he using the Dao to create an effect? Was his Dao causing fluctuations? Was he using a Dao technique instead of a spirit technique? Truth be told, he had no idea.

For now, he decided to label his Dao body reacting to his intent as a type of Dao technique that he didn’t know how to control, or turn off. He could only restrict his tenet to prevent himself from influencing laws to indirectly stop his Dao technique.

After pondering a bit further, he decided to name the technique Dao Intentions - the technique whereby his Dao body produced real, tangible effects and consequences based on his intentions. He wasn’t sure what the limits of this ability were, and he would need to test it out.

For now, he needed to focus on the Inn first. Although he had sent a voice message across the Inn, subduing the consequences of the war temporarily, it was not enough. He needed to see if there was some way in which he could resume the teleportations, even if only temporarily. Besides that, he needed to build a consistent reminder to keep all his guests in line.

He sighed. Originally, he did not plan to do this, for he had many uses for Dao materials. However...

In the garden behind the Midnight Manor, Lex designated a massive spot far away from any guest attraction or service, and opted to build a Sanctuary of Dao.

Unlike all other structures, the sanctuary would not appear instantly, and its construction would occur over phases. At the same time, its construction would only be complete when a whole fifty Dao materials were submitted, but even before its completion the sanctuary could serve an important purpose!

While that was not the original intended use for the sanctuary, Lex had every intention to use the natural aura of the Dao materials used to build the structure as a deterrent for the guests, reminding them that there were Dao Lords here.

Thanks to the gifts that the Dao Lords gave at the end, Lex had nearly 200 Dao materials, though the exact number was below that. It was enough for now.

He immediately selected the 10 with the weakest auras and submitted them towards the construction of the Sanctuary of Dao.

At that moment all the guests were still coming to terms with what they had learned, whether it was about the war or them being unable to teleport back for a while. Or they were thinking about being able to stay in the Inn for free, or that the Innkeeper’s voice alone increased their chances of becoming Dao Lords. There were relevant and mind numbing surprises for every respective cultivation level.

Yet no matter what anyone was thinking, they all woke from their thoughts when a visible ripple traveled through the space of the Midnight Inn. The Midnight Realm was not too strong in terms of space and laws. Thus, when the system began to form the Sanctuary of Dao, the mere addition of the foundation of the building sent a ripple through the space of the realm, causing it a slight disturbance.

Naturally, the system never did anything unsafe or unsure, so the realm would suffer no permanent harm from the addition of a Sanctuary of Dao. However, it was impossible that the sanctuary had no consequences whatsoever.

The ripple in space felt incredibly awkward, especially for the mortals, yet it caused no real harm to any of the guests. Before they could even begin to consider what had caused such a phenomenon, a massive structure in the north of the Inn began to reveal itself, appearing as if it were the skeletal frame of a dome like structure.

For now, the appearance of the structure was quite blurry, as if it had not yet come into completion. Yet over the next few years, the structure would continue to form until it was completed, or until it reached the point where there were no longer any Dao materials present to fuel its construction.

Yet even as a pale mirage of what the final structure would be, it gave off an undeniably powerful aura that was equally terrifying and awe-inspiring. Fortunately, the aura did not last long - at least not across the entire Inn. Only by going to the dome itself could one feel the terrifying might of the sanctuary.

This was one of Lex’s plans. The mere presence of the sanctuary was a far greater deterrence than all the bodyguards and mercenaries inside the Inn. If only Lex knew how badly all the Celestials wanted to join the Inn, instead of causing problems for it. They would volunteer to protect the Inn even if Lex did not need it.