The Innkeeper

Lex's achievements in life were not insignificant, and his skill and knowledge were far beyond his own level. But no matter how impressive he was, he was thoroughly out of his league right now.

In fact, even though he did not understand anything he was seeing, he could feel that even with his lack of comprehension, his cultivation realm was somehow... it was not increasing, but getting deeper whatever that meant.

Though, with his soul, he could feel time passing by, he lost track of exactly how much time had elapsed. The white light seemed to extend into infinity, and had encompassed all of reality. Perhaps a part of his mind was numbed so that he would not feel the effects of what felt like years passing by, or maybe the light only lasted a brief moment, but the light overwhelmed his brain, causing it to lag, just like his old pc used to.

He could swear that, somewhere in the back, he heard the Sovereign turtle say "oh dear". But at the same time, the concept of sound seemed strange. As if sound itself did not exist yet.

Someone snapped their fingers, or maybe it was the universe, or this new realm that snapped into place. The next thing Lex knew, he was standing above beautiful lands that extended into the horizon.

A part of Lex's mind realized that at some point, he too had become dazed like many of the guests, and he was finally waking from it.

He looked down, directly below him, and the world seemed to be moving incredibly fast. It was like someone was playing a city builder video game and wanted to skip the building part, so they hit the fast forward button. Only, time was not flowing two or three times faster.

No, it was moving thousands of times faster.

He could see the landscape changing underneath him. The greenery he saw was not plants, but instead it was something he was much too familiar with. It was lava! It was moving and flowing, forming the contours of not just the land, but the very laws that governed them.

Birds flew in the sky, and turned into water and rained down. Snakes slithered out from the skies and exploded into fireworks, forming the stars. Ants traversed space, and created trails in the nothingness, so that laws had paths to flow.

Lex entered another daze. This time, when he came to, he really was floating above land. This time, it was not metaphorical land, or some energy or abstract entity. It was solid land, made of dirt and rock and countless other things.

But there was no life on it yet. Water flowed, yes, and tectonic plates shifted, but there was not a single hint of life yet. But the process was not over. Time still moved faster than Lex could comprehend.

Storms hit the land, stronger and more devastating than anything Lex had ever experienced. Not even the missiles he stole from Pelvailin could match a single clap of thunder in those storms. Lex had a feeling that if he experienced just the sound of that thunder with his physical body, he would be turned into minced meat.

The winds were... they were visible, if that made sense. It was not that they had color, but that Lex could see as they sliced through whatever obstructed their path, leaving behind chopped fragments.

Hail fell onto the ground like carpet bombs, leaving destruction in their wake.

The sunshine eviscerated everything it touched.

The night left everything frigid cold.

The land seemed a victim of all of nature's designs, but its resilience was unparalleled, for no matter what it faced, it survived.

Lex felt like he had an epiphany, and his cultivation technique began to work on its own. His eyes were still locked onto everything happening down below, and his brain was recording everything. But his body was cultivating, and evolving at a visible rate.

His concept of defense and toughness were changing, and even the way his body recovered and restored were being altered as if to mimic everything he was seeing.

But the change was all too much. Lex did not realize when he closed his eyes, or when he blocked off his senses. He did not realize what was happening all around him, because even before his body touched an iota of the energy he was expecting to experience in the new realm, his breakthrough began.

It was the most seamless experience he ever had. There was no obstruction as his realm changed, and the energy within his body began to come out of his core and fill every single inch of his body.

But there was a problem. Every breakthrough required a massive amount of energy, but the isolation barrier was preventing him from touching upon any of the energy in the new realm. It had judged that the energy was, as of yet, too potent for any of them. It only made sense, for not even the Mythical beings associated with the birth of a new realm had been born yet, that is how chaotic the energy in the realm was.

But his process had begun, and his body required energy. The isolation barrier around him, functioning solely on predefined programs, thinned just enough to let the slightest sliver of energy through.

Much in the way that Lex's body had turned to ash when it touched the chaos energy released by dissolving space, his body began to turn to mush as it touched this new energy.

But that no longer mattered. His cultivation technique was working in full, and it was channeling the energy into his body, not his Golden core, so Lex did not immediately die.

This was not a coincidence, as the moment he sensed danger, Lex woke up from his epiphany and took control of his breakthrough.

He had lost a small opportunity by waking prematurely, but at the same time, his cultivation technique was using the energy that created new realms to create his new body, so he also gained a massive opportunity.

The Lotus on his back also trembled, and exited his body for the first time since it had latched onto him. It too wanted to break through to a new realm.