Chapter 2442: Because of course

Only after his outburst did Lex realize that his surroundings had changed. That realization was quickly followed by an awareness of everything that had happened. That one axe attack had nearly killed him outright. Lex had rarely ever encountered such irresistible might, to the point where no defense or preparation mattered.

His mind raced, not only to observe his surroundings and understand his situation, but also to trace Daekol. An attack like that was more than enough to kill anyone, but Lex refused to believe that Daekol was dead.

Though his interactions with Daekol were limited, he understood enough about him to know that the guy was meticulous. If Lex himself had prepared contingencies in case he got in trouble, how could Daekol lack them?

Even in his weakened state, fully aware that the tribulation might not be over and that he might still have difficult trials to face, Lex did not fully commit himself to healing. Half of his attention - the part that he had originally used to assess his situation - was used to focus on healing and understanding the role this strange liquid played in helping him recover.

The other half of Lex’s attention was used to summon the Karmic Bead and leverage the deeply intertwined karmic connection he’d built with Daekol to find him.

At first glance, it seemed like Daekol was truly and genuinely dead. A simple search for his karma returned only traces of the past - no present. Yet Lex was not so easily convinced. Not only did he not give up the search, he increased the amount of energy he put into it.

In his current state, Lex did not have much energy at all, but that was also why he needed to search right now. If Lex was in such a state, he didn’t believe that Daekol would be any better. If he was alive, he would also be severely injured, which made this the best possible chance to find him.

Yet no matter how he searched or how he manipulated the karmic bead, he found nothing. For a moment Lex felt a hint of genuine doubt. Could he be overthinking things? Was he truly dead? Was Lex the kind of person who would buy a haunted house in a horror movie just because it was cheap, then go into the dark basement alone when there’s no electricity?

No way in hell! Even if the Karmic Bead did not give him any feedback, Lex trusted his own experiences. Even his instincts could be fooled by systems-

Lex’s eyes widened as he realized something. Yes! Daekol had a system! If he was using his system to hide or survive somehow, it would be much harder to find him! But now that Lex had an idea of what to look for, at least he had a direction to search in.

His instincts completely ignored systems, but he’d owned a system for most of his life by now. He was intimately familiar with the workings of a system, its aura and most other things about it which could be observed and sensed.

If Daekol’s system was weakened, or not operating at full capacity, then maybe Lex could still find him. This was an enemy he absolutely could not let escape, or else Lex would never know when he might strike again.

Lex closed his eyes and even reduced his focus on healing, instead concentrating all effort on the Karmic Bead to locate Daekol via his system!

In a state of such intense concentration, time seemed to lose all meaning. Whether he spent seconds searching or hours or maybe even longer, he did not know. What he did know was

that once he began searching for signs of Daekol’s system, he finally seemed to get a lead.

His Karmic Bead, which could find no trace of any active karma at all, suddenly seemed to sense something. It was like the kind of thing that was hard to notice at first, but once noticed was hard to ignore.

After a short while of searching, all at once the Karmic Bead turned into a thick, black thread and shot out into the distance, beyond the realm he was in and far, far out into the universe.

Lex nearly collapsed. Daekol was too far, he didn’t have enough energy. Yet now that Lex was awake, there was much he could do. Lex focused on Jack, and discovered that the fairy was not dead - he was merely in a state of shock due to the intensity of the Primordial Dao Body tribulation.

He forced his tiny fairy body to wake up and send over the divine energy he had accumulated. Though Jack too needed some time to recover properly, right now no time could be spared and extreme measures were required.

He forcefully sent over the item, causing much of the divinity to be wasted, but Lex couldn’t care at the moment. Using the divine energy that flooded into his body, Lex did two things.

First, he channeled a great deal of it into the Karmic Bead. If a miracle is what it took to reach out to that damn Sovereign, then a miracle is what he would perform!

The second thing Lex did was use the divine energy to try to forcefully remove whatever kept himself disconnected from the Midnight Inn System! As soon as the system came back to him, he could-

Lex’s eyes constricted the moment the blockade broke, and a barrage of emergency notifications flooded his mind.

"LEX THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SYSTEM!" Mary’s voice yelled in Lex’s mind, but he’d already figured that out by the time she screamed!

He needed to merely glance at the notifications to know that the system was prompting him that Primordial energy was leaking into the system, and that it was about 22% corrupted due to it!

However, even weakened as he was, Lex was a Celestial Immortal now, and his senses were far better than they used to - especially for something within his own soul. Although the system was showing him 22% corruption, the actual figure was around 93%!

It had absorbed far more Primordial energy than it was showing him, and already it was going against its programming, lying and deceiving him!

Lex could have been anywhere in the universe when he discovered something like this and it would have been a terrible and grave situation. However, since he was inside a tribulation, and more specifically inside a miniature Tribulation Pool, the situation automatically became a whole lot worse. Because of course, how could anything ever be normal with Lex?

<anno data-annotation-id="dddca98c-4f46-6fe2-20d3-b426d448f29a" data-title="Within the Primary realm, the stele containing the Universal Mandates trembled.">Within the Primary realm, the stele containing the Universal Mandates trembled.¹</anno>

<annotations style="display: none;">The Universal Mandates were mentioned and discussed in ch 1433 and 1584. Read both of them for context on Universal Mandates.</annotations>