The Innkeeper

The hoard of a dragon was much vaster than anything Lex had imagined, and he would have been extremely surprised by how deep he descended into the planet were his mind not occupied by random thoughts. Besides the usual gold, jewels, treasures, herbs and spirit stones, there was also art, music, sculptures and other entities that Lex lacked the senses to even observe.

This particular dragon's favorite part of its hoard, however, was at the lowest level, and Lex was about to approach it. Currently, the chamber he was walking through was the second to last, and was the part of the hoard where the dragon collected members of various races!

Throughout the universe there were countless unique or mystical races who had unparalleled power or unbelievable abilities that made them extremely special as well as valuable. They too were a part of the dragons collection!

Various prisons lined the walls that Lex walked by, most of them made of glass so that the prisoner, or rather the 'specimen' was visible. Some, however, for extremely unique or unusual races required special prisons that were made from other more protective materials.

Though they were all extremely different, currently many of them shared one thing in common: they were extremely weak!

They were deprived of spirit energy inside their prison cell, and since the dragon had died many months ago, no one had fed them either. A few of the prisoners had even died. But, one prison cell made out of an unusual gray material even the Fancy contact lenses could not identify, had a broken wall.

Lex, however, did not notice any of that as he continued to walk. Lex had been extremely confident in his cultivation technique and even himself, which is why he opted to continue the exploration. He was not wrong to be confident, for his defense and self protection abilities were truly phenomenal. But, ultimately, there was a limit to what they could protect him from.

The spirit pull ability, technically, did not harm Lex in any way which is why his spirit's self defense failed, although the matter was more complex than just that. In the beginning, his strong mentality allowed him to retain lucidity, but the closer he got to the dragon, the worse it became.

Although Lex had numerous times even survived an attack from an Earth Immortal, if he were lucid now, he would be able to feel that the aura being radiated from the final chamber was much stronger and deeper than any Earth Immortal he had ever met. In fact, it was even greater than Ragnar's, and he was a Heaven Immortal!

So then, how could he, a Golden Core cultivator, stand a chance?

But, since spirit pull was just a passive ability brought about by the strength of the dragon's obsession, and was not purposefully focused on attracting everyone, there was a chance to break free. For example, the various dwarf corpses that Lex had crossed. In their final moments, right before they died, the threat of death had woken them up. But by then, it was much too late.

As Lex crossed the final dwarf corpse which belonged to the leader of the dwarves, he attracted the attention of a massive creature. It had eight legs, with four on each side of its body, much like a scorpion, but that is where the similarity ended. It had a long protruding neck covered in purple scales, a maw filled with rows of teeth dripping with blood and twelve reptilian eyes, each one suddenly focused on Lex.

The creature did not have arms or claws, but it did have unusually shaped wings protruding from its back, and the joints in the wings could readjust at a whim, making them dangerous weapons as well. It also had a long, thick tail that it could exert perfect control over.

The creature was extremely skinny at the moment, as if it had been starved near to the point of death, and feasting on dwarves did not seem to have done much for it.

But Lex's body… his body radiated an aura so attractive that the creature dropped the body it was currently feasting on, and slowly approached him. Unlike the rest, the creature was immune to the effects of spirit pull. In fact, were it near full strength, it would not have wasted even a glance on such pathetic prey. But the dragon had starved this particular creature for years, and so it was at its weakest.

It would not die so easily, but at the same time it could not exert all its strength either. Otherwise it would not have hid from the King every time he crossed, and would have preyed on him instead. But it did not matter. Slowly and steadily, the creature would regain its strength.

After studying Lex thoroughly, and concluding that he was only in the Golden core realm, the creature pounced. Like the dwarves, it expected the threat of death to wake him from the effects of spirit pull in the last moment, but oddly enough, that did not happen.

The creature did not ponder over what that was and furiously bit at his neck, its teeth digging in… something odd happened. There was no gush of delicious blood in its mouth, or the taste of flesh.

The confusion had barely registered when it felt an otherworldly grip around its neck, nearly causing a fracture in its current frail bones. Its face was forcefully pulled back, and what awaited it was a gaze filled with raging fury.

"Were you licking my neck, you creep?" Lex asked between gritted teeth as he struggled to understand what happened. He felt like was just assaulted by a pervert, and the sticky sensation of the creature's saliva on his neck grossed him out so much he finally woke from the effects of the spirit pull!

Before the creature could respond, or more likely retaliate, Lex could no longer hold on to his revolution! Still holding onto the creature from its neck, he picked it up and slammed it onto the ground!