The Innkeeper

Chapter 1677: Bold steps

Lex spent several hours going over everything he had learned about the Go board in his mind, and placing pieces and everything else, yet he could find nothing to suggest that there was any correlation between it and It. In fact, his opponent hadn’t even placed a single bead on the board in a while.

But he could not shake the feeling that the sudden shift in how It behaved was not normal. It was suddenly a lot more active in trying to hunt him down, and was possibly even laying traps for him. After all, if the chimera really were as formidable as claimed, then their capture was way too easy.

Whatever the case, Abaddon was becoming increasingly dangerous for them, and the more time they spent here, the more dangerous it would become. With that said, Lex turned his attention towards his clone and began to study it.

He studied how he had been influenced by the ruins, the remnant energies on his body, the influence of time, and how the frequent use of those characters had affected it. Most important to Lex’s own research was studying the remnant auras still lingering on the clone’s body.

That, alongside the studies Lex had done through his clone on the ruins themselves, would help Lex better understand how Abaddon treats constants.

According to Lex’s theory, while Abaddon was in a constant flux, there were certain constant points within it. The jungle they had come from was one such point, and the ruins were examples of other such constant points.

Lex believed that the location of the chalice was yet another such constant point. Once Lex understood more about these points, finding them would become easier. All Lex would have to do then was figure out how to influence the ever changing landscape to those constant points. How hard could that be?

Very hard. Although Lex joked about these things, the way Abaddon operated and its underlying principles were far beyond what Lex could comprehend at his level. What he had to do was find patterns at the lowest level, which was a nigh impossible task since the very nature of Abaddon was chaos.

Time seemed to pass by quickly, the minutes and days melding into each other. As an Immortal, the passage of time had less meaning, and so it was easier to get lost in deep activities. Years did not mean nearly as much as significant events, so most Immortals did not measure the passage of time by years, but rather by events. Yet another reason why Lex was only 25 years old – because years literally stopped mattering after that.

The night was approaching an end, and It had slowed down the attack since the chimera were captured. As a result, there was a relative ease everyone felt. In fact, they started to prepare for their departure once the day came. It had been a while since the mercenaries searched Abaddon for their goal, and it was about time they resumed their search.

It was around this time, right before the break of dawn, that something finally changed for Lex. He was naturally using the state of Flow to help his study of the aura remnants on his clone, sifting through the traces of the laws, when he sensed something completely alien.

Lex scrunched his brows and tried to recall what he sensed, for it had been fleeting. But even the memory of it was strange. It was like he was trying to capture mist within his fist. It just wasn’t possible.

Then he sensed it again, and this time the feeling lasted longer. At steady intervals, the feeling came and left, almost as if it were mimicking the rhythm of a beating heart.

“What the bloody hell?” Lex muttered as he stared at his clone, unable to identify what the feeling was and why it was coming from his clone.

“What have you been up to?” he asked his clone, who looked at Lex lamely.

“I was relaxing on Lovers Island,” the clone responded sarcastically. “What do you think I’ve been up to? Nothing! That’s what.”

The banter between Lex and his clone was just a random way to blow off steam – something he usually did as Jack, but his fairy clone who was searching for divine ore while plagued with a wretched stink, could not really blow off a lot of steam these days. Either way, the situation completely bewildered Lex.

Until, at last, the feeling became much stronger, lasting much longer, which caused Lex’s tenet to ache, as if it was being overused. Suddenly, Lex had an epiphany, even as he relaxed his concentration and allowed his tenet to rest.

Lex was ready to become a Heaven Immortal, but was resisting the call of a higher realm which was affecting him. The presence of the Pineapple seal especially allowed him to last much longer in a lower realm, subsequently causing the call to become ever stronger.

The longer Lex resisted the call, the greater his influence and understanding over laws would be. It seemed now that he had crossed some kind of threshold, which finally allowed him to sense the deeper, hidden laws of the universe which normally only Heaven Immortals could sense.

Since his mind hadn’t been tempered by the tribulation, he could not yet understand those laws. That didn’t change the fact that he could now vaguely sense them. It was just that such an exposure affected his tenet severely, but not to the level where it was dangerous.

Lex smiled, and planned out his training regime. If he kept exposing himself to these higher laws like this, his cultivation technique would allow him to adapt and get used to its pressure. This way, he could peek at those laws that were out of his reach, and maybe uncover some of Abaddon’s secrets.

At the same time, he felt a new bead being formed in his mind, so as always, he placed it on the Go board, encircling his opponents beads. One way or another, he would resolve the situation with Abaddon and conquer this Go board as well. Neither of those things were going to happen by being shy, so he would have to take bold steps.

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