The Innkeeper

"What are you watching?" asked Cide as he walked into the theater and joined Agemo and the others, looking at the screen displaying two figures standing face to face with their weapons drawn.

"It’s the latest live stream on Daoflix," replied Agemo without looking back. Daoflix was a streaming service that was only accessible to Dao Lords for it was transmitted via waves only Dao Lords could access. For the low, low price of 1 drop of Dao Essence per ten millennia, any Dao Lords could access the streaming service.

Other than a lot of entertainment material, Daoflix was filled with latest updates, research, and confidential information making it worthwhile for many Dao Lords.

In this case, Cide, Agemo and several other Dao Lords were living inside a vast ship they had created that forever traveled the Void while remaining hidden. They had run away from their Major realms when they started to be destroyed, committed to hiding until the universe stabilised once more.

They had brought alongside with them countless minor realms in which they carried their followers and families, and enough resources to last them a long time. This was not to mention that their ship absorbed chaos energy from the void to constantly produce a very comfortable environment within the ship for them.

With not much else to do, many of the Dao Lords began producing Dao Essence, or went to sleep, or just watched Daoflix to pass the time.

"That one, the one with a hammer, is a Celestial Apex from the Path of Chaos, and a Sovereign with a very high bounty. The one with a sword is a human from an organization called the Midnight Inn with a suspected prestigious lineage, but there’s no proof of that yet," explained Agemo.

Cide watched the screen for a few moments, and then looked at his companions in confusion.

"Why are we watching some Celestial Apex fighting when there are literal realm wars going on?" he asked in confusion. Yeah, maybe this fight was good, but could it compete with actual realm wars? Unlikely.

"Because of the betting pool," Agemo said without looking away from the screen. "I don’t know if you heard about the Primordial Tea party, but that was a big thing that happened a short while ago. Well, a lot of Dao Lords who attended it set up a betting pool, and all of them bet a tremendous amount that the human will win. It’s become so massive that someone has bet an Edolix shard on the human human winning.

Now countless Dao Lords are betting against him just to get a chance on winning that shard. The total value of the betting pool has surpassed the theoretical value of an entire Major realm. Did I mention that the fight started only four seconds ago? There’s no guessing how big this betting pool is going to become."

Cide’s jaw dropped and he looked back at the screen in horror. An Edolix shard? What the hell was the background of this human?

"How the hell are they certain that no one will interfere in the fight with a betting pool like that?" Cide asked.

"The Dao Lords from the Tea Party have taken charge of that, led by Ventura. Regardless of who wins or loses, no external Dao Lords will be able to interfere."

Cide did not know how to respond to such an absurd situation. How was it that in a universe where Major realms were literally being destroyed left, right and center, the biggest entertainment event was somehow a fight between two Celestials... no wait a minute, was the human undergoing his Celestial Immortal tribulation during the fight?

Cide himself did not know when he sat down to watch the fight, but all his attention was now focused on the fight, and the betting pool. There was a grand conspiracy involved in this, he was sure of it. But who cared? It wasn’t like his money was involved in this.

Lex, entirely unaware of the extent of attention his karmic storm had caused him to attract, looked at Daekol. Defeating him would not be an easy task, and killing him would be even harder. However, he did not doubt for a moment that he could do it.

First, he had to dismantle the universal feedback and nourishment that a Sovereign received constantly. He had done his research on how to kill a Sovereign in the time he was away, so he knew exactly what to do.

Lex’s figure suddenly vanished once again, and Daekol realized that Lex was not only moving at speed that made him too fast to follow, but that within this red tinted realm he could no longer see or speak to the laws Lex used.

"Hit," Daekol commanded as he waved his hammer, no longer attempting to speak to external laws, but the laws within his hammer. The hammer itself never made contact with Lex, but the moment Lex targeted a law touching Daekol’s body, the full force of the hammer seemed to transmit through the law onto Lex!

And yet... Lex lost not an iota of momentum. To influence even just a 51% Primordial Dao body, the amount of strength and the intensity of the laws that were required far surpassed what Daekol had imagined! That was merely to influence it. To actually stop it...

Daekol stumbled back, mainly from the shock his own hammer gave him, just in time to feel a seething blade cut through something far more intimate to him than his own flesh! Lex’s blade cut at his Sovereign authority - or rather, the connection between his authority and the universe itself!

The connection between a Sovereign and the universe was bound from the most pure law of Tether, meaning that it was not a subsidiary law like karma or fortune. It was Tether itself which tethered Sovereigns and the universe together. To even touch such a connection, let alone cut at it, required a level of power most Celestial Immortals could never hope to achieve.

Lex, however, was neither a Celestial Immortal, nor did he hope to cut that connection. He was just a man who let go of all his inhibitions, and let his Dao Intentions resonate with the core of his very intent!

The suddenness of the pain, and the severity of it caused Daekol to grunt and stumble back. For the first time in a long time, Daekol tasted blood in his mouth. It tasted like... weakness.

Daekol narrowed his eyes and activated a Lawcraft, enveloping his body in a purple aura, isolating his laws from Lex’s reach.

When Lex tried to cut at them again, he felt the purple light singe his very soul, causing him to jump back as he analyzed what had caused even the slightest hint of harm to his newfound body and soul. It was a Lawcraft made from pure Hollow.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!