The Innkeeper

Lex continued to observe the battle without a single shift in his expression. It was as if the death of those countless spirits did not affect him at all. Nor did he respond to the fact that, with every single kill, the aura of the members of the Midnight Battalion increased ever so slightly.

It was, as if, as they killed the spirits, the universe itself was rewarding them, imparting onto them a fleeting trace of good karma. Since they did not know how to utilize karma, their bodies instinctively absorbed it and transformed it into cultivation.

The only reason Lex could tell all this at all was because of the new ability he gained to see karma. Yet the truth was, even if he himself received that karma, he was unsure about how else it could be used.

He also pondered on the fact that something as illusory as karma could directly be converted into something tangible, such as cultivation level!

This was something he needed to look into. But, more importantly, he wanted to understand why killing those things could reward positive karma. The same had not happened when the locusts were killed.

As he continued to study the scene, Lex tried to use a system ability he had not used in a long time. He tried to activate Realm law replication!

Regrettably, the ability failed to work, though Lex already expected as much to a certain degree.

New Notification: Realm law replication failed! According to the systems analysis, the ability has failed for the following reasons:

– Host is not inside a realm

– Laws in the region are not fixed and thus cannot be replicated

– The presence of Universal Rejection is detected

Quest update: optional objective ‘Discover the secrets of Abaddon’ partially updated. The existence of Universal Rejection has been detected within Abaddon. Discover the reasons behind Universal Rejection! Discover more secrets of Abaddon!

New Notification: Universal Rejection is a phenomenon where a being, item, phenomenon, energy, or ‘other’ have their existence rejected by the universe, but for reasons unknown continue to exist within the universe. Helping correct Universal Rejection results is increased positive karma and/or universal affinity.

New Warning: The System(s) hereby affirm and warrant that they are in full and strict compliance with the Universal Mandate as it exists within the Primary Realm. Furthermore, the System(s) shall not engage with, provide support to, or operate in association with any Host(s) who are, for any reason whatsoever, subject to Universal Rejection. Such Host(s) shall be deemed incompatible, and any affiliation, direct or indirect, is expressly prohibited henceforth.

Lex raised both his eyebrows in shock as he read the warning, not only because it was the first warning he’d ever gotten, it was also because of the mention of the Universal Mandate!

Lex remembered that the Versalis Bank, in their mission statement, mentioned that they always adhere to the rules of the Universal Mandate.

Back then, Lex had not taken it too seriously because he thought it was some matter of morality or law set up by some organization or power. Yet now even his system was taking the matter of the mandate very seriously!

It seemed that the phenomenon of Universal Rejection had something to do with the mandate. It was possible that going against the mandate resulted in the rejection, but following the mandate was hard when he did not even know what the mandate was.

In fact, even Mary did not know the mandates despite having been a Dao Lord previously.

He also took note of how seriously the system took the matter of Universal Rejection, as if it was afraid of it. Why was the system afraid of that rejection, while the wraiths attacking the castle seemed perfectly fine existing with that rejection?

He also found it interesting that Abaddon did not qualify as a realm, or that the laws that governed this place weren’t fixed. Maybe the reason why Abaddon seemed so bizarre was because the laws of this palace kept changing, resulting in unusual events.

Lastly… what the hell was universal affinity?

Lex narrowed his eyes, feeling like this was probably one of the most important secrets he had stumbled onto.

“Hey Mary, do you have any idea what universal affinity is?” he asked.

“It’s the name of a popular spa back in the Celestial Court,” she said, appearing on his shoulder. “The tag line was something along the lines of ‘after a treatment from here, you’ll be shining like the universe’s favorite idol’. I’m paraphrasing, I don’t remember the actual line.”

Lex was silent for a moment before responding.

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s the universal affinity I’m asking about.”

Mary shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn’t help with the matter.

“Just because I was a Dao Lord does not mean I know every secret of the universe. You know, I had my own things going on as well.”

“What were those things, if you don’t mind sharing?” Lex asked once he knew he wouldn’t be getting an answer. He was used to encountering mysteries without getting answers.

“Can’t say,” she said, shrugging once more. “Girls stuff. Boys aren’t allowed to know.”

Lex rolled his eyes. What she really meant was that the system was forbidding her from telling.

Lex continued to chat with Mary as he observed both the fight outside and the guests within the tavern. Now that there was nothing specifically for him to do, he summoned a bunch of clones, all of which began studying, meditating, or working on the many tasks that he had piled up.

The majority of his focus, besides the tavern and the fight, was on studying and pondering karma. Since he could see karma, his comprehension of it had increased drastically, even though he didn’t understand it just yet. The more he pondered on it, the greater he would understand.

The next thing that took up most of his attention was lawcrafting. Lex’s understanding of numerous individual laws was good enough, so now he needed to combine them in a way that best made use of them. He could not help but think back to his fight with Cornelius – the man who introduced the concept of lawcrafting to Lex.

He used that fight as a reference to try and develop his own lawcraft. In this moment, besides adhering to his responsibilities, Lex was doing his utmost to grow far stronger than he already was.

Clearly there was too much he didn’t know about Abaddon, but he understood now that the ominous feeling he had been getting was from it which observed him from the darkness. He had a feeling that it was facing far greater Universal Rejection than the wraiths, and that it would be a great obstacle for him.

Under his gaze, the hours continued to pass by. As the castle continued to withstand the invasion from outside, the mercenaries within restored their strength and recovered from their wounds.

The hours turned to days, and then weeks. For those in the Midnight tavern, everything was normal, but for the Reaving Dread mercenaries, a miracle was happening. For the first time since they arrived in Abaddon, they began to see hope even though their experiences told them that they should dare not hope.

Like that, six weeks passed, and the darkness slowly turned to light, revealing a bright red sky once more.

What interested Lex was that as the run rose, he discovered that they were no longer in the canyon. Instead, the castle was now situated atop an island surrounded by a deep purple liquid, filled with aquatic locusts.

Kaemon was confused by their teleportation, for it had never experienced such a thing before. At the same time, he was not surprised at all, because of course Abaddon would do something new.

He merely told Lex that after one more week, the Reaving Dread would be as recovered as they could be in a short period of time, and so they would resume their journey. To recover completely, they would have to spend years within Recovery pods, which was impractical.

While so much time had passed within Abaddon, mere days had passed within the Midnight Realm.

In that exact moment, however, a silence had spread over the Midnight realm unlike any other. It was not just the living beings who were quiet – even the wind dared not blow, the ground dared not rumble, the sky dared not move.

It was as if, across the entire realm, an incredibly solemn aura had spread out, demanding the respect of all that existed.

Back on Earth, while it was still in a dead zone, the death of a Golden core cultivator used to cause a phenomenon where the sky turned red. That was actually as a result of the planet absorbing the concentrated and pure spiritual energy released from the body of a dead Golden core cultivator which was actually purer than ambient spiritual energy.

In that moment, a similar scene was about to unfold in the Midnight Realm as a Celestial Immortal was about to die, and fertilize the realm with his blood.

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