The Innkeeper

"It has been a pleasure," Bedford said as he walked the group to the door of the palace. "Don't forget to visit the Well of Frozen Wishes before you leave."

"Likewise," said Lex. "I don't know if we'll have an opportunity to meet again any time soon, considering you're locked in here, but when we both become Dao Lords maybe we can catch up."

"I'll hold you to that," Bedford said with a chuckle, though he did not really believe it could happen. Forget the fact that there were no known human Dao Lords, there wasn't even any guarantee that Bedofrd could become one. The trial he'd have to undergo to transition from a Celestial Immortal to a Dao Lord was far from harmless.

The others also said their farewell, before exiting the Baptism Palace, and finally getting a reprieve from the onslaught of the azure field. They had spent about a day chatting inside, and at this point Gerard was incredibly fatigued, Velma was beyond exhausted, and Lex looked like the color red came to life.

"Shall we meet back in the city center in a week?" Lex asked.

"That sounds agreeable," Gerard said.

They had already planned it out, and even consulted with Bedford. After leaving the palace they all needed a rest, but what should they do after that?

Lex was going to go on a date, but Gerard wanted to race and Velma wanted to explore. So they decided to split up, and meet once more when they were ready to leave the realm.

The Well of Frozen Wishes was something Bedford strongly recommended they try out. It was a naturally occurring phenomenon in the Artica realm, similar to an underworld, except instead of souls, it collected unfulfilled wishes of dead warriors.

They could apparently get an immense reward for completing one of those wishes, though the first time would yield the greatest reward.

Beyond that, Bedford had shared a few other interesting facts about the realm, and also mentioned some cultural tips so that they don't accidentally offend the locals. For reasons Lex could not comprehend at all, the color red was considered extremely offensive, and wearing anything red while meeting someone would be as bad as going up to someone and spitting in their face.

Considering that none of them wore red, it hardly mattered. He just found it oddly curious.

Velma and Gerard went towards a hotel to grab a good night's sleep while Lex went towards a cultivation chamber.

Within the asteroid field, cultivation chambers had taken on a unique form that Lex quite linked. They'd found asteroids which contained spirit stone mines and created artificial channels for the mines to develop into, creating a natural formation that filled a certain room with concentrated pure spiritual energy leaked from the mines.

These rooms were basically infinitely usable, as the mines naturally regrow any spirit stones that were drained during the cultivation process, albeit over a course of many years.

After renting one, Lex sat cross legged and began to channel his cultivation technique, forcing it to adapt his body to the kind of damage he had sustained.

Despite how energy rich the room was, it was a definite downgrade from Lex's usual cultivation room, outfitted with his cultivation mat/dragon. Speaking of which, now that he was almost a Heavenly Immortal, he needed to upgrade his cultivation mat.

It was kind of rude to use one of his workers' forehead as a cultivation mat. What he needed to do now was find a Celestial Immortal monster, preferably similar to or even stronger than a dragon, and use that as his new cultivation mat.

The options were limited but- Read exclusive adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

Lex's eyes flashed open as the image of the Go board suddenly reappeared in his mind. A new piece had been put on the board, and this time it was a white one.

But instead of looking like a regular oval bead, it looked like a tower, reminding Lex of the rook piece in traditional chess. Yet this rook was not placed on an empty point, instead it was placed right atop the piece carrying a hint of sword intent that Lex had previously placed.

The black piece was instant crushed, and for the first time in his cultivation journey, Lex experienced a cultivation deviation.

Cultivation deviation occurred through a number of ways. The most common was when someone cultivated their technique incorrectly, which usually happened due to an improper understanding of the technique or an incomplete or improper technique itself.

The second most common way was when a cultivators body was ill suited to the technique, and they kept forcefully cultivating it. It could also occur when one reached the limit of their natural ability, but forcefully pushed on. Their meridians would become unable to support the flow of spiritual energy and rupture, or the flow of energy within the body would destabilize.

A simple comparison would be if someone's blood started flowing in the wrong direction - one didn't need to be a doctor to know it would be bad.

Then came less common, and more cultivator specific versions of cultivation deviation. This could range anywhere from issues with the energy, issues with the technique, with the body or spirit, and even go as far as excessive negative thinking turning into a Heart Demon which took control of the spirit.

In Lex's case, the trigger was external. When the rook piece crushed Lex's bead which carried a hint of Lex's sword intent, the sword aura hidden within his soul that he had been slowly whittling down with his own sword intent broke free of all its restraints.

In fact, not only did it break free, it was also empowered somehow. It even began to attack Lex's own sword intent, devouring it to replenish itself.

Even though Lex was no longer in the Origin realm, the aura of the sword came from the Deity of Tribal warfare, Azilo. It attacked Lex with all the ferocity associated with its originating Deity, and began to wreak havoc within his soul where it resided.

Lex reacted immediately, only to discover that his actions seemed subdued to an extent. The most effective and direct way to combat the sword aura was his own sword intent, but as Lex tried to control it he discovered that his control over it had deteriorated by exactly 50%!

That included the intensity of the sword intent, its swiftness, its sharpness, its precision, and every other aspect of it. In fact, while Lex controlled his sword intent, every other aspect of himself was also reduced by 50%!

This attack was insidious, and if Lex's soul hadn't been especially durable, having a rampant sword aura wreaking havoc inside his soul might have been enough to kill or, at the very least, cripple him. This was especially because ordinarily, those who pursued sword intent were swordsmen, and their intent was their strongest weapon.

If there was something wrong with it, they would have limited tools available to regain control of it. Fortunately, that was not the case.

The list of abilities Lex had was immense, and he could choose any one of them. So naturally, he drew Naraka and chose to face this threat with sword intent alone.

This was not even about supremacy and acting in accord with his tenet. Instead, it was about pride, the little that Lex had. His mind, soul and body were his foremost domain. He did not even let his system, his strongest asset, influence those three, so how could he let some feeble aura left behind by a Deity inside another realm influence him?

As for that Nas, Lex acknowledged that this was a good move. He would respond to him as well, just as soon as he understood more about the board. But first, the sword aura!

"You have been a guest in my soul long enough," Lex's voice echoed inside his soul. "But unlike the Midnight Inn, there's no Pro Bono stuff going on here. It's time to pay."

Lex's body turned into the soul state, and with him so too did Naraka. It had been a long time since the sword tasted victory against a formidable foe. The aura of a distant Deity would have to suffice for now.

Lex's body slowly lost shape, turning instead into an indistinct floating orb, while inside of himself began an ultimate clash. Even with every aspect of himself weakened by 50%, Lex's momentum did not shy away in front of that of the sword aura.

With Naraka in hand, Lex clashed against it, using only his sword and sword intent. He used none of the strength of his soul, nor any other advantages he boasted.

The reason he hadn't eliminated the aura himself by now was because his sword intent wasn't of a high enough level. Well now, he would do just that with an even weather sword intent, using only his inhumane tenacity to keep going.

This would become his crucible, and he would come out of it a stronger swordsman.