Chapter 2453: Pathetic Mathew

A hint of pity flickered through Velma’s eyes as she watched the ’powerful’ and ’mighty’ Grand Conqueror trying to crawl through the ground and evade Lex. Unfortunately, while his defenses were impeccable, all his other techniques were sorely lacking.

"I’ve found a way to pass through the defenses in his soul," said Moon, who appeared right beside Velma. Or, more specifically, the mirror appeared beside Velma with Moon’s reflection in it.

"To be specific, I can’t harm him, but I should be able to get you to infiltrate his memories through his soul rather than his spirit. Just have Lex continue to beat him for a while - the impact of Lex’s attack seems to break through all his defenses at the point of impact."

Velma nodded, and quickly slipped the information to Lex. The reason it was imperative to search through his memory was because that was the only reliable way of finding out Z’s location.

Lex held out his hand, and the Grand Conqueror appeared within it, held upside down by his foot. The man was bleeding from his head, and his armor had been torn apart. He looked up - well technically, since he was upside down, he looked down - at Lex with shock in his eyes.

Lex had teleported him over like it was nothing, and he hadn’t been able to resist even in the slightest.

"I can read your karma like a book," said Lex, his voice completely plain and bored. "You’re a former guest of the Midnight Inn. You lived as a refugee from Earth. Exactly what aspect of the Midnight Inn did you look at, and think it would be a good idea to mess with it?"

Before he could answer, Lex slammed his body onto the ground, using the Grand Conqueror like a whip.

"Or what? Did you think that because you got a few tricks, that you were suddenly all powerful? Or did you genuinely think that someone would defend you from the Innkeeper?"

In truth, if the universe wasn’t in such complete chaos, Lex wouldn’t have dared behave the way he did. Any single Dao Lord could completely screw him over even now - such as the one who had interacted with the Innkeepers projection just now.

It was just that no one wanted to mess with someone with such complete mastery over teleportation at a time when they could not get any backup that Lex dared to behave the way he did. Moreover, he had a much more complete understanding of Dao Lords now.

They often thought in extremely complex and layered ways, such that every action hid many potential plans. They were far more careful than they appeared, and considered many factors that non-Dao beings couldn’t even consider. Thus, Lex was very blatant in his actions, and completely convinced himself that the purpose of his actions was to provoke any kind of reaction so that the Innkeeper could justifiably retaliate.

He was clear. Inaction was far more dangerous than action given his situation. The fact that the Innkeeper hadn’t reacted immediately was already incredibly dangerous, and Lex had thought of multiple possibilities to explain why that was. That was for later, though. For now, he would enjoy the part of his performance where he got revenge.

The Grand Conqueror grit his teeth and tried to activate his system, but he could not connect to it at all. Lex, however, noticed and immediately realized what he had been trying to do.

He lifted the Grand Conqueror and pierced his chest with his hand, except that there was no blood. Lex did not reach into his chest, but into his soul. Unlike Lex, the Grand Conqueror had fused the system with his own soul, making it much harder to separate or remove. Lex, however, would settle for simply stopping it from working.

"How did you..."

The Grand Conqueror’s eyes constricted as he realized what Lex had done, but for some reason he could not complete his words. Even Lex hadn’t really been stopping him from mentioning his system, but he just couldn’t ask the question.

Lex snorted, and then pushed the Grand Conqueror away and clapped his hands, as if cleaning them.

"I’ll give you one last opportunity. Resist. Impress me. Show me what made you so confident," said Lex as he stood still. Internally, he’d already decided how many seconds he could continue to spend here. Due to the increased speed of the flow of time in this realm, he could do this properly and ensure they gained the information they needed on Z.

The Grand Conqueror looked at Lex, at the sheer audacity and arrogance of the man, and found that... there was nothing he could do about it. Was it really arrogance if he really couldn’t do anything against Lex at all?

Lex, in the meantime, couldn’t help but compare this guy to Daekol. They really weren’t even on the same level. It was such a tragedy that Regal Embrace had fallen into the hands of such a person.

The Grand Conqueror tried to teleport away, relying on some kind of escape talisman, only to find that he was slapped back out midteleportation by Lex. The shock of that slap gave Moon the opening she needed to access his soul, allowing Velma to begin reading his memories.

"His name is Mathew Barn from Arizona state, developed male pattern baldness extremely early in life and only ever had one girlfriend who broke up with him because..."

Lex glanced at Velma who realized she was speaking out loud and suddenly went quiet.

Lex groaned. He didn’t even feel like fighting anymore - this was just pathetic.

Before Mathew could recover from the shock that his memories had been read, Lex grabbed him and poked his forehead, causing him to get stunned. He could not think, he could not move, he could not resist. The Grand Conqueror, the person who received a legacy from an ancient Human King, and had received a sponsorship from the Humanoid Alliance, could not put up the slightest resistance against Lex.

"You have about one hour," said Lex, calculating how many seconds that would be in a Mature realm. "You need to read all his memories by then. If you’re not finished, you’ll just have to bring him back to the Midnight Inn with you. Oh, and have everyone evacuate this realm as soon as possible."

Velma looked away from Mathew toward Lex.

"Why? Is something about to happen?"

She had sensed it from his urgency earlier, and had avoided asking back then. Now that she saw how easily Lex controlled the situation, she asked him since she was sure it wouldn’t distract him from a fight. After all, if something bad was going to happen, she needed to prepare for it.

"Yes. This entire realm is steeped in sin and negative karma, so I’m going to use it as fertilizer for my own realm. After about one hour... this place will be too unstable for most immortals to survive in."