The Innkeeper

Chapter 1899 Vanishing Tarantula

Eclipse looked at Lex with surprise.

“Okay, now I’m impressed. For a mere immortal, you’re quite interesting,” said Eclipse. “Is the friend on your back the lotus tattoo? Tell him the spread of the realm is deliberately done like that. The realm is constantly changing as a result of day to day events, so I’ve deliberately created a cycle where the flow of laws goes towards a certain direction of the realm every century.

“This way it constantly keeps the realm fresh and the laws stable. Designing a self maintaining system is much better than creating rigid laws longterm. That is as simply as I can explain it currently. If your lotus is interested in learning more, I can give him a detailed explanation, but it will take a long time so we can schedule it for later.”

Lotus understood what Eclipse had said in a broad sense, but it could still not understand why it was necessary to make a realm so uneven.

“Thank you for explaining” Lex said. “You don’t need to pay too much attention to Lotus, he’s just a curious fellow.”

“It’s not any trouble. I hadn’t realized earlier, but that fellow is from the Primordial Origin Lotus series, right? It’s rare to see mutations in anything linked to the Primordial. Just like it’s very uncommon for a tribulation to turn into a Primordial tribulation, and just like how rare it is to see a nephilim candidate. You have successfully piqued my interest, little Lex.

“Would you like to participate in a little game of mine? If you win, I can give you one reward from within the garden.”

Temptation, thy name is Eclipse. Any reward from the garden? Although Lex had no idea what the garden contained, he was still highly tempted by her offer. Of course, Lex was not one to be blinded by temptation.

Logic and common sense were telling him that he was already pushing it by spending so much time with a Dao Lord – any Dao Lord, let alone the strongest one. The fact that she was appearing so friendly and approachable did not, in any way, shape, or form, reduce the absolute danger he was putting himself in.

Also, attracting her attention might not be the best idea. What if she started to experiment on him?

That is exactly why Lex did the smart thing and ignored all logic and common sense, acting instead as he wished. Logic and common sense did not matter in front of a Dao Lord anyway, so why did he need to care about them?

“Can I ask what the game is?” Lex asked excitedly.

“Hmm, you can consider it an obstacle course with a small prize at the end. If you can reach the prize and take it, I’ll consider it your victory. I don’t want you to misunderstand the situation – the place is not dangerous or anything, and I made it myself exactly so that kids could play. But, well, you’re not a Primordial, and you’re only an immortal, and you’re not even a proper nephilim, so it’ll probably be very dangerous for you. Hmm, the more I think about this, the more I feel like I shouldn’t do this.”

Lex looked at her awkwardly, suddenly feeling it was his fault for not being born a Primordial, or not achieving the Dao yet. The next time he was born, Lex would take care to have an appropriate status.

“Do you mind showing me the obstacle course? I don’t mind a little danger as long as it’s not certain death,” Lex said, still hoping to win the offered reward. “Also… you’ve mentioned nephilim a few times but I’m not sure what that is.”

Eclipse looked at Lex for a while as she rubbed her chin, her brow slightly crunched. It seemed like she was genuinely concerned about accidentally killing Lex during the game.

“Alright, I’ll show you the obstacle course, but if it looks like too much, you don’t have to play the game now. You can come back after you live a little and grow some facial hair. It would be a shame if you died too young.”

Lex grabbed his chest, feeling like he’d been shot through the heart, and Eclipse was to blame.

“Here, take my hand, I’ll bring you along. As for nephilim… forget it, if I tell you, you’ll probably get in a lot of trouble. It’s not easy being an immortal, no need to attract unnecessary troubles.”

Even as she spoke, Eclipse grabbed Lex’s hand before turning around and looking at the horizon. She seemed to search for something for a few seconds, sticking her tongue out as she did. When she finally found what she was looking for, she turned to Lex.

“Hold on tight, and try not to die.”

Lex blinked.

“What?”

But there was no time to explain. Eclipse just jumped forward, yanking Lex along as her body flew through the sky in a long arc, before slowly falling towards the ground. Lex felt incredibly awkward because he could totally just fly. Being in the garden hadn’t taken that ability away from him, but he dared not disrespect the Dao Lord by flying if she wanted to jump.

So, he just left his body limp, and let himself get pulled along as he questioned his life and everything in it.

“The obstacle course is a distance from here so I’ll have to jump a little harder,” Eclipse yelled, her voice drowning out by the sound of the raging wind.

True to her word, her next jump was a lot harder, and Lex suddenly began to feel pressure. They had entered a new portion of the garden that was really dangerous.

As he looked down, he saw an army of a million spiders, looking up at him angrily, all led by a Vanishing Tarantula – a Dao Lord. His aura was undeniable, and his anger palpable, yet he made sure not to affect the human since he was so close to Eclipse.

Lex gulped, and decided not to look down anymore.