The Innkeeper

Chapter 1243  Calculated risk

Lex felt the hair on his body rise as his instincts tingle. The first three tribulations, for Lex, were hardly a problem. Besides the last attacks, which required his attention, he could largely ignore them.

Yet even before its first strike, Lex felt danger from the fourth tribulation. This was also something he had known about. While the immortal realms were divided into levels, each set of three formed a small group.

From level 1 to 3, an immortal was considered to be in the early stage of their realm. 4 to 6 was the middle of the realm, while 7 to 9 was the peak of the realm. At the same time, the difficulty of the tribulation for each stage increased proportionally.

Now that he was facing the fourth tribulation, Lex actually felt threatened. This was not because Lex wasn't strong enough to take it. Far from it. It was because after becoming an immortal he hadn't had an opportunity for his body to heal and recover to its new peak. Even though he was in no danger, the Fire tribulation had weakened and exhausted him severely.

It was also a little unfair to ask someone who had just entered the immortal realm to face a fourth level tribulation.

Let alone learning about how to effectively manipulate laws, Lex didn't even understand the limits and abilities of his body yet. He was more than certain that the things he could do were far more than what he had explored so far. After all, he had absorbed a Dao level ingredient. He was sure the mutations to his eyes had something to do with it. Exploring further would yield even more results.

But fair or not hardly mattered. Since the tribulation had come, he would face it. In fact, he suddenly recalled something.

He had tribulation rooms in his Inn, but to improve them further he needed to collect various types of lightning and fires himself. He wondered if he could capture genuine tribulation lightning.

Lex accessed his spatial ring and took out an inhaler and sprayed it in his mouth. This was one of the many items he had prepared beforehand for this fight. Lex was not arrogant enough to believe he could take on such a massive organization without aid, so he had procured the best and most effective medicines for Earth immortals available at the Infinity Emporium.

Instantly a rush of energy filled him, and began to heal him. Speaking of healing, shouldn't his own healing be even better than before? He'd have to experiment to find out.

He turned his gaze towards Jeffrey, who had run away. But distance meant nothing to Lex. He teleported over to Jeffrey, his sword fully coated in sword intent and Domination, and slashed with the same strength and intensity as the one he used against the lightning beast.

He wanted the wyvern to think that Lex was feeling pressured because of the tribulation, so he was in a rush to eliminate him.

Yet, to Lex's immense surprise, this time his sword did not cut through the wyvern despite being stronger than any of his previous attacks. A gray shield appeared in front of Jeffrey, protecting him.

"Got you!" the burnt wyvern said, his voice strained and heavy, his eyes completely red.

Thirteen other figures appeared around Lex, each of them in the middle of the Earth Immortal realm, each of them radiating a powerful aura, as if they were holding back powerful attacks.

There was no pause, or time for Lex to react. A cage formed around them all, trapped Lex in, before they unleashed their attacks. At the same time, as if the clouds themselves were coordinating with the attackers, the first of his 36 lightning strikes for the fourth tribulation fell.

Jeffrey, who had secretly been afraid that Lex wouldn't fall into their trap, let loose a roar as he unleashed his own attacks, venting all his emotions.

"This cage is a little small. Let's make it bigger," Lex said through his spirit sense, making sure all his attackers heard him.

His figure was not visible under the barrage of flames, sword strikes, missiles, divine punishment and lightning strikes, yet his voice was clear and relaxed.

"Heaven's furnace," his voice echoed through the cacophony, and the barrier trapped all of them within. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The others felt nothing, but Jeffrey suddenly felt like he was being eyed by a predator. It was a feeling he had never experienced in his life!

While Lex was holding back with Jeffrey, there was no reason to do so with the others. This might be good practice in getting used to killing immortals. While he had been taunting Jeffrey, his questions were genuine. Killing immortals was far from easy, and he did not have a hang on it yet.

What exactly was it that supported their life? For mortals the body, the mind and the soul all could be attacked and used to kill, but for immortals he felt like it was more complicated. Their application of laws was unpredictable, and there was no way to know if they had prepared some kind of backup somewhere. After all, even Lex had a clone before he even became an immortal, so the means available to an immortal should be greater. He was glad he had someone to experiment with.

He eyed the figure right next to Jeffrey. Each of the thirteen immortals had their figures hidden, as if they were trying to hide their identities, but some things couldn't be hidden. The one Lex was targeting was wearing a black coat, yet a long, sleek tail emerged from behind the coat, swinging through the air.

With this figure he decided to try out the limits of Golden Inferno. He teleported to the figure, bypassing the countless attacks raining down on the shields he had erected around himself.

There were no one-liners, no monologues or anything of the sort. Lex immediately breathed out Golden Inferno, targeting the figure's entire body, yet a familiar gray shield appeared in front of him, blocking out the flames even as they hugged onto the shield itself.

"It's futile!" Jeffrey roared gloatingly. "Do you think taking us on is easy? These shields were produced by a Heavenly immortal! No matter how strong you are, you can't…"

Lex didn't give him time to finish. Since these shields were produced by a Heavenly immortal, they genuinely were above his ability to surpass at the moment. But Lex was not unprepared.

He summoned a massive missile above him - one of the many he had stolen from Pelvailin, and threw it at another figure. At the same time, Lex teleported out of Heavens Furnace, just in time to catch a lightning bolt to the face!

Lex groaned, but didn't stop running away! He did not want to test himself against a Heavenly immortal level attack!

Suddenly Lex stopped. Or rather, it would be more specific to say that his teleportation ability was forcibly stopped as the space within the zone trembled. Even the tribulation cloud seemed slightly affected by the change happening, though the tribulation just became stronger until it could ignore the external influence.

Lex looked back just as he felt Heaven's Furnace collapse, and his pupils constricted! He saw… nothing!

There was nothing to see, for the tiny black hole that had appeared began sucking even light inside of itself!

Lex instantly changed to his soul form and tried to escape through the soul plane, but it was pointless. The blackhole existed within the soul plane as well, and slowly Lex began to feel himself being pulled towards the blackhole. It was at that moment Lex wondered if using the missile might have been a little overboard.

But he had taken a calculated risk, and he was certain that Jeffrey would have a way to stop this. After all, Jeffrey was a lot closer to the blackhole than Lex. In case he wasn't already dead, he would stop the blackhole. In case he was… then Lex would be returning to the Midnight Inn promptly!

A lightning bolt struck Lex, somehow resisting the pull of the blackhole, yet it was the only thing that could resist that pull, and even then it was because the tiny blackhole's gravitational pull was less than 1% of a real blackhole.

The ocean of lava that covered the massive landmass suddenly began to rise altogether, while the landmass itself began to morph.

Lex couldn't decide whether to be afraid or impressed as he saw that even the laws within this place were being pulled into the blackhole, becoming a part of it, and making it stronger. Yet before the blackhole could really begin to gain momentum, it abruptly came to an end.

It vanished, as if it wasn't there to begin with!

Lex's eyes gleamed as he teleported over to his original location, and saw the devastation. Surprisingly, of the thirteen figures, eleven were still there. Their gray shields were all gone, and so was their camouflage, but at least they seemed unharmed.

For once, Lex was impressed. But he did not intend on asking them how they did it. Instead, he once again unleashed Golden Inferno.