The Innkeeper

Chapter 2327: Destruction & creation

The teleportation ended, and Lex found himself inside a forest... except all the plants were made entirely out of stone. He spread out his spirit sense to get an understanding of his surroundings, and assess for any dangers. It was clear that he was far from the only living being in the region.

Yet before he could concentrate on the oddity of his surroundings, or the buzzing of countless insects, or the deep footprints in the ground left behind by massive animals, Lex realized that there was something very wrong with this place on a fundamental level!

To be clear, the laws of this place were foreign and alien to Lex in ways he’d never encountered before, yet that was far from all. Lex’s very presence in this place started to immediately affect the laws all around him, as if he was assimilating this realm around him.

Yet clearly he wasn’t doing that. Instead... it was as if he was being used as some kind of transmitter for the laws of his universe to amalgamate everything within the Gilded Hollow.

Suddenly, Lex froze. Yes, his universe. That’s why the laws felt so different. They were clearly different from the laws of his universe, but were being converted right in front of him in real time. Did that mean that the Gilded Hollow was actually a remnant from another universe?

There was a very specific reason why Lex reached such a conclusion. Once, he’d used a Life level token to receive a reward, and one of the rewards available for him to get were the scraps of the Mantle of Pentagal.

According to the description, Pentagal was another universe. It was not explicitly stated or mentioned anywhere, but Lex strongly suspected that Pentagal was a universe that had been absorbed by his own universe somehow. Or at least parts of it had. Now, standing inside the Gilded Hollow, watching its law be changed before his very eyes, Lex’s mind began to race as countless thoughts came up in his mind.

Was he witnessing the devouring of a universe before his very eyes? Was that why no resource could exit the Hollow? Because its very existence depended on the alien laws of this place?

No, that didn’t make sense. In front of his very eyes, the laws that constituted these resources were being rewritten, and they still continued to exist. So why?

Clearly, the answer was beyond the limits of his imagination. That didn’t matter though. As Lex stood inside the forest of stone, he entered a trance. The process by which the alien laws were being changed was a type of destruction and creation Lex had never even thought possible.

Watching it, Lex’s first thought was to memorise it and learn as much as possible from it as he could. When he did that, insight into the eight ruling laws began to flood his mind faster than he could actually absorb and comprehend, leaving him just standing there.

In fact, his comprehension of these laws was evolving at such a rapid pace that if he had been outside the Hollow, he would have immediately triggered a tribulation, even in his necklace state.

Within the Hollow, however, the laws of the Heavenly tribulations sensed his changes, but did not act for some reason. It was as if they were suppressed by laws of a higher order.

Lex sensed even that, allowing his understanding of the universe’s laws to enter a whole new level.

For a few hours, nothing happened. He just stood there, observing, recording, learning, as the laws of the world all around him continued to change. This was not a quick process, or one that would end in a day or two.

Then, as if spurred on by the very creation and destruction that caused the laws around him to change, the necklace which actually acted as his vessel began to exert a pulling force on everything around it.

At first it was slight, barely causing the stone leaves of the surrounding trees to flap as if by the wind. But with each passing moment, that attractive force became greater and greater until the first spec of dirt from the ground flew up and into the necklace.

Even that speck of dirt, as it turned out, was an invaluable treasure. It contained an abundance of energy, not to mention vitality. It could even be called soil with fertility high enough to plant herbs able to affect even Heaven Immortals.

Then another speck of dirt was absorbed by the necklace as it was pulled up and into the necklace. As Lex witnessed the final struggle of a universe long dead, and the unstoppable, victorious spread of another one, he saw two futures for himself: one where he met his end despite his best efforts, despite all that he had achieved and all that he was, and other where his victory was unquestionable, unstoppable, and overwhelming.

Another speck was absorbed into the necklace, destroyed the moment it was absorbed, and then recreated as a part of the necklace itself. The force of attraction from the necklace... the force of gravity exuding from it grew as Lex mimicked the actions of his universe itself, and used the final vestiges of Pentagal’s corpse to recreate himself into something far greater.

In the forest, there were countless living beings, and all of them were ready to undergo the baptism of the new universe, and be welcomed into their new home. Yet they no longer thought of that as they all ran, causing a stampede. They ran in any direction at all, as long as it was far away from the terrifying aura growing in the very heart of a forest that had stood for an unknown number of years... a forest that would soon cease to exist.

Within the Dream realm, inside the dome created by Lex’s aura, Daekol was still working on breaking the barrier around Lex’s body when he heard the faint sound of tribulation thunder, and frowned.

He looked around, but found no tribulation in sight, nor did he sense any tribulation laws being triggered. He looked down at Lex, and the expression in his eyes became even more solemn.