The Innkeeper

Chapter 1959 Half Sage, Half Jorlam Dao Lord

Lex was not bothered by the slightly hostile, slightly curious gazes that he was getting from the other guards in the vicinity. Instead, he took this moment to assess their levels. Most of them were below 7%, with only a couple who had reached that point.

Lex wished he could have asked them how long they had been here so he could get a better understanding of how long it took people to raise the power percentages so much. Neither he, nor the fish, nor Fenrir were good benchmarks, each for their own unique reasons.

Once Mango released the guard, and Vox had de-escalated the situation, their group continued towards the town. Lex took that opportunity to ask a question that had been bothering him since he came here.

“What’s up with the limiter and the power percentages?” he asked through his spirit sense. “It doesn’t make sense. How can percentage matter more than our levels or personal power before coming here? Like, would an Earth immortal with a higher percentage power than a Celestial end up being stronger here?” Vox shrugged.

“I have no real answer for that,” he said casually. “Arch-Heaven doesn’t really come with an instruction manual. It just is the way it is, and everyone else just figured out how things worked along the way. There are many theories, though, and there’s one in particular that makes sense to me.”

Vox held out his hand and summoned a small, blue orb containing chaotic energy. Lex looked at the ball that was oddly reminiscent of an attack used in a very popular anime, and felt the powerful aura contained within, and saw it slowly dissipate as it left Vox’s hand.

“Do you know what makes Immortals immortal?” he asked. “It’s the laws. The moment they become capable of touching laws, they have transcended to a higher form of life. In a sense, they attain their immortality not from within them, but from the very laws that they can touch.

In short, Immortals are not immortal because of themselves, but because the universe sustains their immortality.

“A deeper dissection of that very concept has led many to believe that the power that we, immortals, have is not really ours. It is the universe’s, and we are merely borrowing it. If that’s the case, then why does it matter what your realm was before coming here? Once here, all are equally beholden to the benevolence of the universe.”

Lex considered that theory for a moment, but then dismissed it.

“It’s a nice theory,” he said, not bothering to enlighten Vox as to his real thoughts. In truth, Lex highly doubted the theory for various reasons – not in the least because he saw how scared or at least wary the universe was of anything from outside the universe.

Lex suspected that the power they gained was taken from the universe, and the universe was merely attempting to chain cultivators to itself to keep that stolen power under its own control.

Of course, that didn’t mean Lex treated the universe as a living thing. Instead, it was an unimaginably complex ecosystem, and existed on a scale where the mere system that kept it existing was so complex, and so comprehensive that it naturally took account of such things.

But, like all things that operated within a system, there existed ways to tamper with the normal operations of things. That’s what Lex believed Sovereigns did.

Their very existence was so beloved by the universe that for them, it altered from its normal operations. To some extent, the same was true of dragons. They were beings who could bend the universe to their will, or perhaps the universe favored them. Regardless, Lex had experienced too many things, and had too vast an experience to be easily swayed by any random theory he heard. After all, he had talked directly to a being who could influence the very development of the universe itself according to her whims. That was not the kind of exposure ordinary people could have – even a Minister of Arch-Heaven would be lacking in front of that.

Not that it mattered. From the earliest days of the Inn, the most important thing Lex had learned was to find loopholes in any and every situation.

“So you’re saying that if I were to meet a Dao Lord here, and had a higher percentage power than them, that I could over power them?” Lex asked. Vox stopped for a moment, and looked at Lex.

“You remember how I said I know some secrets of the universe? Well, I also know that you have ingested Jorlam blood. Do you care to guess what race I’m from?” he asked, locking eyes with Lex, despite not having eyes.

“No way. You’re a Jorlam?” Lex asked, taken aback.

“Not exactly,” Vox. “I’m a halfblood, meaning I’m only half Jorlam. The other half of my race belongs to a Sage race known as Laoer. So I am a half Sage, half Jorlam Dao Lord, who has lived most of his life in Arch-Heaven because the moment I leave I’ll be killed, taking help from a human who has 1.1% power. So understand this, Lex. In Arch-Heaven, not even high percentage power is enough to grant you true power, because the waters run deep, and even the secrets have secrets. If you want to overpower anyone here, or maybe even just survive, there are only three lifelines for you: official positions, white marble buildings, and the rules that make them special.”

Vox was quite casual about revealing his background to Lex, yet in his words Lex could detect an unspoken message. If Lex had suspected Vox of being desperate before, now he was certain that Vox was beyond just desperate. He was fighting for his life in a battle that extended far beyond what Lex could

perceive.

More importantly… holy shish-kebabs! He had been walking with, chatting with and even negotiating with a Dao Lord face to face, and he never even knew it! Lex suspected nothing, nor did he sense even an iota of his power or aura. But the more it was like this, the more Lex started to feel like Arch-Heaven was not a good place. Instead, it was a place for the desperate. It was a place for those who were hiding from things.

At that thought, he could not help but turn and look in a certain direction, towards two karmic lines which were approaching him. He could not help but wonder who or what his parents were hiding from.

A flicker of curiosity flashed through him, but it was not enough to distract

him.

“Let’s get to that ferry,” Lex said, pushing aside all unimportant things.