The Innkeeper - Chapter 2241: Pain

Chapter 2241: Pain

The moment Lex returned to the Dream realm, he ventured far away from the position he arrived in, until he reached a dream where he sensed no other living being. Once he was sure that there wasn’t anyone around he could accidentally hurt, he braced himself.

Before returning to the Dream realm, Lex had gone to the Innkeepers office and had used the scent diffuser alongside a Celestial level item to elevate his mental state. If this attempt didn’t work, then he would go back and use a Dao material if he had to.

Letting his enemy dictate his actions was setting himself up to fail. It was time to put finesse and technique behind him, and use good old brute force!

Without any concern that he may harm someone around him, Lex let go of all restrictions on his Dao Body, letting it act and react as it pleased. If he knew how to, he would have even forcefully increased the activity of his Dao Body, but that was still beyond him.

Lex emptied his mind – emptied it of all things save his one, single intention to trace the karma between him and Almira. He took out his Karmic Bead and recalled the time he saw the strings of the Eclipsecrawlers Sentinel – the very literal Karmic strings that it seemed to create.

He recalled everything he had learned, and all the things that were entirely beyond his comprehension, and then channeled them into his string… his string that seemed to go nowhere. It could not find the object it was supposed to connect to.

But there were no real secrets in the universe – only layers of deception. Eclipse herself had told him that the complete, entire history of the universe was written in the fabric of reality in which they existed. If that history existed, then it also included Almira’s location, and the karmic connection between the two. If that history existed, then whatever means were being used to hide Almira were just another layer of recorded history in it.

Lex did not need to tap into that history – he had no idea how he would do that anyway. He just needed to know that there existed ways for him to find Almira, and then force his karma to find one of those ways!

His single-minded focus, his unwavering intention, and his dedicated effort did something that he had not expected. Lex entered the Flow state. Flow was basically a part of an ability created by William to help him understand and manipulate laws with greater ease and efficiency that his level should allow.

It was the intense complexity of his ability which made it so difficult for that ability to translate into a bloodline for his descendants to activate. Lex, however, had long surpassed the need for Flow. In this moment, however, Lex’s Dao Body did something he had not anticipated at all.

It used the instincts, and bloodline, in his body to activate his Flow state instinctively, and then the Dao Body enhanced the Flow state to a point beyond what William himself had ever achieved.

Because of their connection, once Flow was improved, William himself started getting feedback, causing him to feel stunned as his technique seemed to improve on its own, easing the bottleneck he’d been feeling, allowing him to approach the next realm.

Lex did not know about that, nor did he care. In his moment, he was focused on finding Almira. He had hoped that the Dao Body would react to his intention and supercharge his karmic abilities, but that’s not how his Dao Body had reacted at all. Fortunately for him, it had still resulted in Lex’s ability to search for her improving drastically!

While his strings still could not find her, the weight of his Karmic bead kept moving as it searched, and that was not a weight that could be lightly ignored.

Daekol was patient. He had every intention of making sure everything was in his favor before he acted. Yet in that moment, his senses as a Sovereign reacted when he felt something in the universe going against his will!

He had decreed that Almira could not be found by Lex. He had erased her traces, and had used multiple other means to hide her. Yet in that moment, he felt an unstoppable force breaking through his restrictions and pushing against his will, trying to create an outcome contrary to what he had planned out.

That… was unprecedented, at least ever since he had become a Celestial. When he was weaker, those with a much stronger cultivation than him could still go against his will. However, now the only ones above him were Dao Lords!

Even Demi-Dao Lords did not count because Daekol himself had the ability to become a Demi-Dao Lord, but he had reverted that power, keeping himself firmly at the peak of the Celestial Immortal realm!

Now, though, something unprecedented was happening! He even sensed the existence of the law of precedence itself acting up as it recorded this outcome, paving a possible way for the future!

He felt an urge to act out to stop it, but he couldn’t. He was hiding himself. If he took any action, it would only reduce the effectiveness of his camouflage. Thus, he allowed the intrusion to happen.

In fact, since something unexpected was happening, then he would also have to change his plans accordingly.

Damian’s clone, which was in an unconscious state, opened its eyes and looked towards Almira. The clone smashed its own chest and coughed out blood, allowing it to fall upon Almira’s crib, covering it.

Mere seconds later, a visible string appeared in the air, connecting from Almira and extending all the way back to Lex.

Lex smelled it – a familiar scent, and a white hot rage threatened to consume him as he finally realized that Damian had been the one behind everything. But the Dao enhanced Flow state subdued his emotions and kept him focused on what mattered.

The next second, Lex traveled through his Karma and appeared in front of Almira. He sensed Damian, and realized something was wrong. This wasn’t the real Damian – this was a clone. Lex’s mind worked overtime and quickly scanned the area for traps, but found nothing.

Logic dictated that wasn’t possible, but that didn’t matter for now. Lex picked up the crib, in a hurry to rescue her, when he felt something Lex hadn’t felt in a long time. Pain.

He felt pain as he saw a hand rip out from his chest, holding his heart inside of it. Lex never even sensed the attack coming.