Chapter 2514: Mad Scientist

Lex was certain that these monsters, however they came about, had only reached the Celestial realm quite recently. That, however, wasn’t what was important. These things, despite their high levels, lacked the sentience that usually accompanied such a high cultivation level.

Instead, they had only a basic awareness of themselves and their surroundings, but were otherwise ruled by their ragingly violent instincts and impulses. Should these monsters ever escape this enclosed cavern, they could wreak havoc across the realm!

But the mysteries surrounding these creatures went deeper than just how they were born or created, and how they got stuck in here. If there had been thousands of Celestial tribulations, even if this was a remote part of the realm, Lex would have certainly noticed. That kind of law activity was not something that could be missed. Even if Lex hadn’t been present at the time of the tribulations, the traces left behind by them were something he would have been able to pick up.

That meant all these things reached the Celestial level without experiencing a tribulation. That was a frightening thought - but Lex could also see the reason for it. These creatures did not seem to have reached this level through genuine or orthodox methods, and as such, were extremely lacking compared to the genuine article. That did not make them less dangerous, for thousands of fake Celestial monsters would still be extremely difficult to overcome.

For humans, and most other races, each Immortal level corresponded to a certain degree of control or access to a higher level of the universe. Earth Immortals could touch upon and influence Foundational laws, which were the most widespread and basic level of laws. They basically covered anything and everything in existence.

Heaven Immortals, then, gained access to Relational laws, which were a step above, and allowed Foundational laws to exist in the first place. While they related to reality as well, their main purpose was that they allowed the connectivity and interactiveness that allowed the more common laws to exist.

Finally, at the Celestial Immortal level, one gained access to the Eight Ruling Laws. These laws were constants across the universe, and were the core of every other law in existence, and even all of reality itself.

They were incredibly, exceptionally powerful, difficult to control and nearly impossible to master. Lex had heard rumors and stories that even Dao Lords themselves don’t try to properly master the Eight Ruling laws because their final form was not yet complete, and they would continuously change until the universe matured.

All that aside, mere access to the Eight Ruling laws was the distinguishing feature of the Celestial realm, and the source of its power. These centipedal monsters, however, did not boast that ability in any form. Beasts, for example, usually gained specific bloodline abilities relating to one of the Ruling laws at the Celestial level.

These monsters, however, merely had a trace of Pulse within their souls - just enough to barely qualify them as Celestial beings, but not enough to allow them to make use of it.

Pulse, from what Lex remembered, was generally associated with life or intent, but that might be a very shallow interpretation of it looking at how these corrupted monstrosities did not reflect any of the features Lex generally associated with Pulse.

Within the darkness of that cavern, Lex had made no real attempt to hide himself, so all the centipedal monsters had detected him. Savage, mindless beasts they may be, but even they were not dumb enough to confront Lex, so they continued to swarm all over the cavern, simply giving Lex a wide berth.

If he wished, Lex could have easily killed them all. To him, this was no longer such an issue, but he did not do that just yet.

He understood now that the faint threat he had detected came from these monsters. Moreover, the threat was not to him personally, but to the Midnight realm and the Midnight Inn. The one thing he did not understand... was why these things were here, and who was responsible.

Lex tried to investigate, but whether it was by design or sheer coincidence, the chaotic actions of thousands of these monsters caused the karma of this place to become completely tangled and unreadable. Even his Karmic Bead could no longer untangle it, because the karmic strings had fused into one chaotic web.

Every other ability he might use to trace the origins of these monsters was also rendered useless. After all, even though they were mere imitations of Celestial beings, there were enough of them all behaving in such a manner that they covered or ruined all traces of their origins.

Lex took a step forward, and the monsters moved aside to constantly maintain a wide gap from him. Thus, Lex easily strolled through the cavern, unobstructed by anything.

At first, Lex did not expect to find anything here. After all, the mastermind had clearly done a good job covering his or her traces. Yet merely a small search revealed what looked like a lab for experiments.

It was carved right into the cavern, forming a long, warehouse type structure with massive cylindrical containers each one being pumped full of some thick, black liquid. There were countless records left in the lab of successful or failed experiments, demonstrating a level of awareness and cognisance over the development of these monsters that could only be expected from some kind of mad scientist.

The proportions of the lab and the tools contained within suggested that whoever or whatever was running these experiments was clearly not human, yet that was about all Lex could learn.

None of the records showed exactly how the development of these monsters was achieved, nor what the end goal of the one behind it all seemed to be.

After searching the entire cavern without being able to find anything, Lex decided not to kill the monsters. Instead, he left a silent, hidden probe within the cavern, waiting for the mastermind to return. He erased his own traces, but he was certain he wouldn’t be found for the very destructive nature of these monsters that hid their creator would now hide Lex’s presence and arrival.

Now all he needed to do was wait and see what turned up.