The Innkeeper

Chapter 1460 Rook

Chapter 1460  Rook

War. War never changed. Except for when it did. The current war Lex was embroiled in was fought within his soul, against a foe that was actually just the remnant aura of a sword dipped in the blood of a Deity. That didn't exactly fit the normal archetype that wars were fought in.

Then again, the premise was the same. Kill the enemy, and try not to die while doing it.

Aura, despite sometimes seeming like it, was never a solid thing. Instead, aura influenced various aspects of perception, and sometimes actual reality, to demonstrate its various applications. Yet the clash between his waning sword intent and the rising sword aura felt very physical.

Sword intent was not an external thing. It was very much linked to Lex's own abilities, fueled by his comprehension of the intent and strengthened by both the power of his spirit and his soul, oddly leaving his actual physical strength out of the equation.

That meant that even as his sword intent was being drained, Lex could recreate it for his own use as long as he had the energy to spare. Eventually though, either his soul or spirit, or maybe even both would get drained.

For now, though, it would hold. It was fortunate, because brute force would not work unless he used more of his abilities, which he was being too stubborn to do. That meant he needed to hold off long enough till he came up with a solution.

Lex employed the full capability of his immortal mind, reaching into the depth of his knowledge and experiences to come up with a solution, and came up with one almost immediately. Of course, that was not because the idea was simple, although it was simple, but because of the speed of his thoughts.

Lex's cultivation technique was all powerful and ever changing. It could allow him to grow strong proportional to the effort he put in. Like the Regal Embrace, that put him on a fixed path to becoming unbeatable, his new cultivation technique would only take him as far as he willfully walked.

This was yet another reason he often put himself through so much torture - not because he was a masochist, but because he was dedicated to growing stronger.

So all he needed to do was chip at the aura, absorbing its tiniest fragments during his cultivation.

The plan should work. There was only one caveat. If the aura remained under the influence of a sentient being, it would not be absorbed by his cultivation technique, which meant that the piece of aura broken off had to be so small that it was completely free of the influence of the Deity.

There were few things his cultivation technique could not absorb directly into Lex. Things that would immediately kill Lex, for example, could not be absorbed for obvious reasons. Things he could not touch or influence in any way also could not be absorbed by his cultivation technique. Abstract concepts, despite having very real consequences in the real world, could not be absorbed.

Certain forces, such as gravity, could not be absorbed. Oh, also certain laws that were beyond his comprehension and understanding, like Karma. Or Time. Or Death, and Life.

Lex had already tried to use his cultivation technique to absorb his immense amount of Karma to no avail.

He still felt like Lex might be able to absorb the law of Karma itself, if a piece of it were embedded in an item. But as far as actually digesting his own Karma, he could do nothing.

It was peculiar, because he thought his cultivation technique would do anything and everything to make him stronger, and wasn't absorbing and digesting positive Karma a good thing?

The only answer he could come up with was that there existed a hierarchy of things, and his cultivation technique could not absorb things above itself in that hierarchy. Or else, couldn't Lex just absorb the universe itself?

A more realistic assessment was that what Lex could absorb was dictated by his level. As an Earth Immortal, the law of Karma which stumped even Dao Lords was well beyond his reach.

But sword aura, now that was fair game. So Lex began his onslaught, taking great pleasure in even the slightest bit of damage he inflicted on the sword aura. Since everything was happening inside his soul, the speed at which Lex attacked was dictated solely by the limits of his mind.

In short, every single second that passed by was filled with what should have been hours of attacks.

Meanwhile, Lex's cultivation technique churned at full force. It absorbed energy at an immense pace, fueling Lex's equally drastic consumption. At the same time, it absorbed the specks of aura that he chipped free, one piece at a time.

It should not have happened. It absolutely did not make sense, and yet that's exactly what was happening. Lex's affinity with divine energy helped tremendously, for even the aura itself seemed made entirely of divine energy.

Lex absorbed the lot of it, and stored it separately from his normal energy, for he couldn't just replenish divine energy like he could with normal spiritual energy. He either needed to absorb it from divine sources, or get it from those who followed the Masked Tyrant and the Butter Knife Deity.

But that divine energy was now pointed towards his weapon and his mask, so he personally had to get divine energy from elsewhere.

It was a very useful thing, for divine energy behaved in ways that were even more magical than ordinary spiritual energy.

Outside of his soulscape, time flowed by slowly. Each second was an eternity, so a minute was a duration of time so vast it was beyond what words could communicate. In that one minute Lex had taken more actions than he had in weeks, yet he could not stop.

He smashed against the sword aura a million times, then ten million, then a hundred million.

The hundred million and first time, he no longer smashed, but carefully chipped. Lex's sword training underwent a drastic evolution, becoming better and faster at an unbelievable pace, yet the price was also great.

It was rare for Lex to become exhausted even before he became an immortal, yet now he was reaching a point of exhaustion even his cultivation technique could not help him with. Dark circles were forming under his eyes, and his well proportioned body started to seem frail, yet he did not stop.

A billion times he clashed against the sword, whittling it down with nothing save his weakened sword intent - except that it was not so weak anymore. Whether it was through digesting the sword aura, or his own evolution of his sword intent, or through Naraka's influence, his sword intent had undergone a qualitative change, becoming much stronger.

It was akin to a law of its own, carrying with it a sharpness that could sever anything. In a distant part of his brain, Lex felt like if he kept developing his sword intent, one day he could use it to sever actual laws even without the use of his tenet.

For now, though, he could at least fight against them.

After a billion, Lex lost count of how many times he fought, simply because he did not have the mental power to spare for any thought other than wearing down the aura and winning.

Time seemed to lose meaning as he fought, until eventually he reached a point where there was no aura left.

Lex did not feel confused or lost. He was not stuck in the loop of attacking mindlessly. The moment the sword aura was completely absorbed, Lex fell asleep, maintaining the last stance he took while still awake.

What was remarkable, however, was that even in his sleep he maintained his cultivation technique, not letting it slow down.

Just because he had whittled the sword aura did not mean he had digested it. That would take much longer.

But for now, Lex slept, finally having overcome the problem of the sudden cultivation deviation, though he did it in a much more difficult way than was necessary. He also finally rid himself of the latent danger hiding in his soul.

The only thing he didn't do was regain the piece he lost on the Go board. There, the rook still proudly stood over the remains of Lex's black bead.

Elsewhere in the Artica realm, Axios looked towards the board with interest. He got a distinct feeling when the trial was over, and since the game was continuing it seemed like his opponent hadn't suffered a tremendous loss. At the very least, he'd tested out his newest piece, and his opponent had lost a single piece on the board.

For now that was not a big deal, but as their game progressed, the presence or absence of a single bead could change the entire outcome of the game.

It was unfortunate that the rook piece had such a tremendous price and a long cooldown. He got a feeling that if he had put down a bunch of them at once, the game would have been over right then and there.