The Innkeeper

Lex carefully removed all the debris that had crushed the fairy using his spirit sense, revealing a frail, withered body devoid of all life. Looking at the deplorable state that the tiny body was in, Lex could not help but feel a tinge of pity.

Although he knew it would be useless, Lex took out a drop of his blood, turning half of it into the soul state, and dropped it on the body. The drop of blood was quickly absorbed, and the body began to recover at a visible rate. The crushed bones quickly recovered, the skin smoothed out, the wings that were broken healed, and all the bruises on its body vanished.

In a matter of seconds, the fairy's body was restored to its peak state, but the body still remained lifeless. The half of his blood that had been turned into the soul state remained hidden within the body, unabsorbed by anything. There was no soul left to heal. The fair was thoroughly dead, even if its body was restored.

He sighed. It was quite tragic. He had come so close to freedom, and in fact delivered it to his brethren, but was unable to see it himself.

Lex carefully lifted the body and placed it aside. Once he was done here, he would return the body to the other fairies so that they could bury it, or honor it in whatever way they deemed fit.

Then he began lifting all the debris off the ground. He could tell that previously this chamber had been surrounded by a powerful protection, so that even he would have had trouble getting through it. But whatever had occurred in this chamber not only destroyed the chamber itself but also those protections. That made life convenient for Lex, since he could tell that the chamber was built right over the resin. It was too convenient to be a coincidence.

Lex did not even have to dig too deep. After removing a single layer of debris he discovered a bowl shaped, hollowed out area, and within it lay a small piece of amber colored resin that could easily fit in the palm of his hand.

It did not give off any aura at all, and only wafted the slightest aroma. But just that gentle whiff was enough to arrest Lex.

His limbs froze as the mixed sensation of absolute fear mixed with enormous greed assaulted his mind. Domination trembled within his body, as if it was being affected by its roots of Dragons Might.

Lex's mind, which had grown enormously after his recent growth, was stunned as it was overwhelmed by the presence of the resin.

Most of all, Lex's instincts were warning him in the clearest way possible. It was almost as if they were directly speaking to him.

The resin in front of him had the potential to put him in incalculable trouble and danger, the likes of which he had never experienced before. Of course, this was only subject to the limit that his instincts could respond to. For example, when Lex had encountered the mysterious man who had just entered his room somehow, his instincts hadn't been able to detect him at all as that person was just too powerful, and beyond the scope of what his instincts could calculate.

Maybe even now, his instincts were failing to grasp the true extent of the danger associated with this resin. But besides warning him about the danger, there was also an insatiable greed. His body wanted it! His soul needed it! The resin would change things forever!

It took Lex several minutes of just being frozen still to get over the initial shock of just smelling the resin.

As soon as a semblance of control returned to him, Lex immediately sealed his sense of smell, allowing his body to recover slowly. The resin barely gave off any other aura, which is why his body stopped reacting to it.

His heart was racing and sweat began to accumulate on his brow as he considered what to do. The strong reaction from his body was tempting him, but his mind was telling him it was more important to first check if it could restore his system.

There were other bits of resin in this realm that he could get his hands on, so it wasn't like he was suffering a permanent loss if he gave it up now. But just having such a thought was an extreme burden on him, and took an immense amount of willpower.

It seemed like perhaps giving the resin to his system might not be the easiest thing. Lex slowly sealed his other senses, including his sense of touch, as he prepared himself to interact with the resin.

If the system could absorb it, then he had to accept it as quickly as possible and not allow the resin to stay in contact with him for too long.

"Mary, is there any way I can automate the acceptance in case the system can absorb this resin?" he asked.

"No, unfortunately, you cannot. It is one of the protocols to protect hosts. You have to manually accept it when the prompt comes up."

Lex gulped, feeling oddly nervous. Even with almost everything sealed, his instincts kept warning him. The consequences of touching the resin would be far from simple. But he had no choice.

Lex psyched himself up, and then reached forward, ready to accept the system's prompt as soon as it appeared. His finger touched the resin, and he heard a familiar sound. But it hardly mattered.

Pel had told him that the Amber Chaos resin was a Dao level ingredient. That meant that, in a way, touching the resin with his body was the same as touching a Dao lord with his bare body. There was no way he could get away unscathed.

At the same time, the resin was meant to be extremely gentle, and could be absorbed by any living being. That meant Lex would not come to harm. But that did not mean there would be no side effects at all.

A golden light emerged from within Lex, one that was more deeply connected to him than anything else he had ever revealed, even Domination. All the inscriptions in Lex's body and soul were erased, and his Empyrean Resonance physique was unsealed completely.