The Innkeeper

Primary Realm, Gaia's graveyard

Outside a cottage made of the most sublime wood, an old man was watering the ground from a common watering-can. The can was completely and totally normal, and not made from the bones of the Juggernaut King - whose body was identified as the hardest existing material in the universe.

The water, too, was ordinary well water, and not the dew condensed on the surface of the Tablet of Life, a divine item some believed was the source of all life in the universe.

It was this old man's habit to spend his time doing such mundane things, as they filled him with a sense of simplicity. There was no ulterior motive in his actions at all whatsoever.

But, today, something extraordinary happened in this otherwise, completely ordinary and not at all fantastical place. A closed scroll began to materialize in his hand, at first just as a vague image, as if it was naught more than a mirage. But slowly, it began to solidify.

The man smiled and kept the scroll in his vault which was filled with other miraculous things. In front of the scroll was a small plaque that read 'Regal Embrace'. This was a cultivation technique of an extremely spectacular status, and could only be practiced by one person in the universe. After all, the 'strongest' was not a title that could be replicated, or else it would no longer be the strongest. Similarly, there could only be one person who had the best defense.

But even the Regal Embrace, a cultivation technique which could allow its cultivator to survive the destruction of the universe itself at its peak, did not require a resource as rare and powerful as Protos Energy. At the point at which Lex absorbed this, his cultivation technique used the spectacular features of this wondrous energy, and evolved beyond the Regal Embrace.

No one could say for certain what it would evolve into in the future, not even the humble old man in the cottage. But, since it surpassed the limits of what Regal Embrace could achieve, the Regal Embrace was naturally once again available for cultivation.

Their parting had been so short, much shorter than the last time someone tried to cultivate the Regal Embrace. The only difference was that this time, the cultivator did not die prematurely.

*****

Midnight Inn

As of late, Lex had started to feel the effects of his busy schedule on his cultivation. He barely had any time to cultivate, but in his earlier realms the effects of such an act was always mitigated. Either through absorbing the abundant energy of a claimed Minor realm, or discovering a magical plant that boosted his cultivation, he would always speed up his cultivation.

But in the Golden core, it was a lot harder to suddenly boost his cultivation. He had also been a lot busier, and so could not randomly go on an adventure and gain spectacular results. When he did cultivate on and off in his free time, he could only lament his slow growth.

Of course, only Lex could say he was cultivating at a slow pace, and anyone else in the universe would beg to differ.

But despite his many complaints, only now that he was forced to cultivate dedicatedly, and without distraction for a long time that he realized that done a true disservice to his cultivation.

Though he cultivated with peace of mind, as he had become used to meditating, he had never reveled in it. He had never thought about the mysterious flow of energy in his body, nor had he enjoyed the process it was a part of. His care was only for the results.

Though one could not really blame him for only caring about the results, he realized that he needed to give more attention and respect to the process as well. It was the process by which he was undergoing an evolution. It was laying the foundation for his future. It was extremely mysterious. It was… it was… also extremely boring.

Sitting still and unable to do anything else as his cultivation technique ran on its own, Lex had countless thoughts. Although he did realize the drawback of not giving enough time to his cultivation, he also realized that it would be much harder to do so if he didn't thoroughly enamor himself with the process in the future.

As he cultivated further, and his mind evolved, his processing power would increase tremendously. While previously all his focus was spent on his cultivation, eventually he would reach the stage where a large portion of his mind was free to have random thoughts, and also to be bored.

It was something he would have to overcome. For now, he could only occupy his mind by focusing on the changes his technique underwent. Despite his secret hope, absorbing the Planck Protos did not make his cultivation explode, like it did back in the Foundation realm. In fact, his cultivation level did not move at all. Instead, it seemed like his technique was evolving with each cycle it went through.

Lex's newly improved memory allowed him to easily identify even the subtlest of changes, and memorize exactly how it changed each step. Although for now he could not understand its relevance, maybe one day in the future he could look back and learn or discover something from it.

Like this, an entire day slowly went by, and then the better part of the second day. It was only when dusk was beginning to fall that Lex's cultivation finally finished, and he regained control over his body.

To his disappointment, his cultivation did not change at all. It seemed he would not be getting a shortcut to a higher cultivation level any time soon. But he simultaneously could not say that there was no change at all.

Like when he first entered his new realm, his cultivation technique barraged his mind with a stream of new information that allowed him to understand many things in greater detail than ever before. Moreover, he also faced the revelation that his cultivation technique had evolved and had surpassed the Regal Embrace, and thus was nameless for the time being. Whatever it was called would be his decision in the future.

But that information was not nearly as important as what it signified. Regal Embrace gave Lex the best defense in the universe, but it achieved as much by putting heavy restrictions on Lex which would become even more obvious as his level grew. The most obvious restriction was his inability to learn attacks.

This was because the kind of laws that the Regal Embrace relied on were so heavily focused on defense that even the idea of offense was repulsed by the technique. For now Lex found a way to circumvent this situation by relying on arrays, but in the future he would have discovered that things were not so easy. One could not achieve the 'most' in any field without entering some kind of extreme.

His new nameless cultivation technique removed that flaw. At the same time, the traits of his future cultivation were extremely malleable. But a lot of it would depend on his own actions as well. If he now began to develop his cultivation technique to become strong, while reducing his focus on defense, then in the future he would no longer be able to achieve the status of having the strongest defense! This was because even though the technique had surpassed the Regal Embrace, its ultimate result would be dependent on himself.

It was like he gave up the option of a guaranteed good result, in exchange for the potential of a better one. But, alongside the potential of a good result was also the potential for a worse outcome.

Lex snorted. He was not afraid of getting a worse result at all. He had proven his worth time and time again with all the trials he faced, and in fact preferred things to be this way. This was because he did not want to think that he had achieved everything just because he had a good cultivation technique. Now, with the ability to influence the technique himself, he wanted to achieve an even greater height.

He remembered that Regal Embrace could survive the destruction of the universe, and had another technique beside it which could destroy the universe itself!

If that was the case, he wouldn't aim too high. He just wanted to achieve such incredible strength that he could even break the Regal Embrace at its peak, and have such a sturdy body that he could face Mo's blessings strongest attack without flinching!

Since he had this technique which could surpass the Regal Embrace, then he would make it so that neither the Regal Embrace or Mo's blessing could ever match up to his level.

Somewhere far off in the Origin realm, a celestial who was cultivating suddenly opened his eyes. For some reason… his cultivation technique felt like it had been challenged!