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Chapter 752 Son's girlfriend's father's mistress

Despite the absence of light, or even eyes, the Frigal had not forsaken the appearance of their town. The streets were wide and even, with pavement on either side. There was a surprising amount of vegetation for such a cold, dark planet, in the form of bushes that had been planted every dozen feet or so.

The buildings were designed to be completely symmetrical, with an inordinate amount of design even on the outside. The use of precious ores to decorate the buildings was also a very prevalent practice.

Yet as gaudy as the town appeared to be, the mood of the citizens did not seem to match. There were only a few Frigal's moving about in the streets, but each and everyone seemed like they were expecting death right around the corner.

The unusual mood and the encounter with a potential assassin made Lex aware that there was something extremely unusual going on - most likely. When he extended his spirit sense from his hiding place to try and learn as much about his environment as he could, he discovered that his suspicions were entirely correct.

"Do you have any confirmation yet?" one Frigal whispered to another, speaking in their unusual language that consisted of various throaty growls.

"You know how hard it is to get confirmed news, but this is as solid a lead as any were going to get for a while. I got the news from the nephew of the neighbor of one of the palace guards. The royal family is acting extremely oddly, and the king has been to the Lord Dragons chamber multiple times in the last few days. No one knows what's happening, but security has been drastically increased around the castle. I've heard that even the king's son from a random maid has a bodyguard now."

"So they are acting strange, that doesn't mean that the Lord Dragon is dead! The Lord Dragon is immortal and everlasting! These damn foreigners are causing problems for no reason, spreading such vile rumors. I say we should execute them all."

"I also don't believe that anything can happen to the Lord Dragon. Who doesn't know of the Lord's immoral might? But… I can't help but think that something is going on! Even the king has never been allowed to enter the Lord's chamber so frequently."

"I think the King has finally convinced the Lord to act against the Icy abominations coming from the south! As soon as the Lord makes a move, we'll finally be freed from this unrewarding war."

"All praise to the mighty Lord!" the Frigal exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Lex listened in to a few more conversations, and understood the gist of what was happening. Suddenly and spontaneously, some foreigners appeared on the planet and began claiming that the Mighty dragon had died. Such statements were received with predictable disharmony, and those foreigners were said to have been imprisoned, although the public seemed to be curious as to why they had not been publicly executed yet, as would normally be the case.

Though there were very few Frigal's on the streets, most of them seemed to have the same or similar beliefs, which was that the dragon was infallible. Only after squatting in the same place for well over an hour did Lex encounter someone with a differing view.

"I'm telling you. My son's girlfriend's father's mistress works as a maid in the royal palace. The royals all know that the dragon has passed on and are taking this opportunity to raid the Lord's treasury."

A dragon's treasury…

Although Lex was not sure how he would confirm if this planet really was the planet that the mystery man meant, if there was treasure to be found anywhere, a dragon's treasury sure sounded like the place.

His original plan was to wait on this planet till the Inn connects to it, after which he would begin to explore all the 89 planets using his ship's extremely thorough and powerful scanning tools.

But, upon hearing the intrigue surrounding the dragon, Lex was tempted to investigate. To be clear, while the information about this planet was very limited on the Henali portal, there was slightly more information on the dragon.

The first and most important thing was that all dragons, true dragons that is, were in the Earth Immortal realm from the moment of their birth. It was literally the lowest level they could be at, and any 'dragon' that claimed to be one but was below that realm was actually a mix-breed creature that resembled a dragon.

The exact realm of the dragon was unknown, but it had a strong reputation so there was a solid chance that it was at a higher realm.

Lex didn't believe an immortal could die so randomly or quietly. After all, immortal was in the name of their realm, right?

But it was clear that something was definitely going on, and his curiosity had been piqued. He focused on gathering information on the location of the castle. Just to be safe, since the castle was bound to be a high security area, Lex summoned Fenrir before the two bolted.

"Listen buddy, you better use your powers to the best of your abilities. There's probably going to be many immortals where we're heading."

Fenrir snorted, but at the same time Lex could tell it had begun to use its full power. Although it might be foolish to head to such a dangerous location, it wasn't as if Lex was going to head straight in without a plan. First he would take his time to scout the area out, and only after this planet had established its connection to the Inn would he venture in.

With his own suit, and Fenrir's remarkable abilities, they should be able to avoid attracting any attention. The only real possibility of them being detected was if there were immortals there, and Lex could only guess that there might be.

At the same time, he wondered what those 'icy abominations' that were mentioned were. There was no such information mentioned on the portal, and this planet was supposed to be under the thorough control of the dragon, so who could possibly be stirring trouble? Or did this just count as internal strife, which the dragon could not be bothered to care about?

The source of this content is 𝙡𝓲𝙗𝒓𝙚𝓪𝙙.𝒄𝒐𝙢

Chapter 753 Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum

The planet was, as its name subtly hinted, frigid cold. The warmest he had experienced so far was -10 celsius (14 Fahrenheit), and the average temperature was far below that. Lex was far beyond the point where such temperatures could affect him, but since this was a 3 star planet, even the cold was tinged with a hint of spirituality which did make Lex feel like this place was the perfect weather for a nice nap in a cozy blanket.

Yet what surprised Lex the most was that for a supposed 3 star planet, the spiritual energy was surprisingly diluted. Compared to earth, there was a great deal more, of course, but it was still below that of the Inns. Perhaps there was more to the star ranking than just spiritual energy concentration. Maybe it was the various precious ores present on the planet.

Another surprising thing, though, there was a noticeable lack of snow for such a cold planet, which was strange. It would have made sense if there was no water on the planet, and the local lifeforms had evolved to not rely on it, but as he crossed the countryside… uhh, did they even have countries on this planet? Would this then be called planet-side? Whatever.

Not letting the random intrusive thought distract him, he once again began focusing on the fact that as he crossed the empty and uninhabited terrain leading towards the castle where the Lord Dragon resided, he picked up many steam vents, and even a couple of hidden hot springs deep within some caves he crossed.

There was a surprising amount of flora, with roots that went deep far beyond the limit of his spirit sense. They must have adapted somehow to keep the water from freezing within them. Some of them gave off a gentle, blue light, which was the only source of light he had seen on this planet so far.

From time to time, Lex would see other towns or even cities, but he managed to avoid them though he could increasingly detect the growing acrimony even from a distance. He avoided the main roads, preferring to remain hidden. He had already encountered one assassination attempt, and the locals weren't exactly fond of foreigners at the moment, so he wouldn't be making any friends if he was spotted.

Since he was in no rush, he did not mind the fact that it took him nearly two days to get near the castle, and even that was also only because he landed relatively close to it. It was not because the castle came into sight that Lex knew he was close, but because of a subtle pressure he felt, weighing him down.

He had read about this as well, and knew exactly what it was even if he hadn't. This was Dragon's Might! Although, reading up on it had educated him on exactly what this aura was. Dragons were a race with a very high level in the natural hierarchy of existence within the universe. This was the very same hierarchy that was raised each time that a cultivator broke through, but the starting point of dragons was so high that even if a human reached the Heaven Immortal realm, their level might still be below that of a dragons.

It was while doing research for this very planet, and then studying the dragon, that Lex learned more about this very hierarchy, which was officially called the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum.

The Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum was a manually compiled list which denoted the usual hierarchy that a race was born with, and the significance of it was similarly explained as well. The higher along on the list one was, the more they would gain benefits from the universe itself, and be able to wield higher forms of spiritual energy.

Dragons, for example, were born at the Earth Immortal realm, exuded a terrific and oppressive aura known as Dragon's Might, and had an inborn affinity which allowed them to discover valuable treasures. This placed them very high up on that list. Comparatively speaking, humans had no innate advantage except their learning capabilities and adaptability, and had weak and fragile bodies. This was because they were very low on the same list.

So, even if a human became an Earth immortal and faced a new born dragon, they would be at a disadvantage or face great difficulty, because even in the same realm, they were not on the same level. That of course did not mean that humans could not overcome that difficulty and beat the dragon, just that there was an undeniable advantage that dragons would always have. This was also one of the reasons Jotun did his best not to get into a direct fight with the devils.

The only fortunate thing was that beings could raise this level, not only through cultivation, but also other means, elusive though they may be. Lex's cultivation technique happened to just be one such way.

As such, when Lex finally encountered the Dragons Might, he did not feel the usual fear or oppression that it brought along. Instead, he just found it to be an interesting challenge.

The closer they got to the castle, the stronger the effects of Dragons Might became, though they were still manageable for now, for Lex and Fenrir both. But did this mean that the dragon was alive? Or could dead dragons exude the aura as well?

The reason Lex was wondering such a thing was… the closer he got to the castle, more hidden assassins he discovered with his soul sense. They never saw him, and he never saw them, but he could tell that they were all headed in the same direction. If the dragon were truly alive, would these assassins really have the guts to go and pick a fight right under its nose?

Or were they just trained so well that they did not care about their own life and death? Moreover, who was sending them, and what was their purpose? Since the journey was so long, Lex could not help but muse along these lines.

Chapter 754 Mountain range

As the hours passed by, and Lex came nearer to the castle, the aura grew stronger. While it was well within the range that Lex and Fenrir could tolerate, Lex found it interesting that the assassins also remained unaffected. As a subsidiary race of the dragons, weren't the Frigals supposed to be even more vulnerable than others to this aura?

Based solely on what he saw, that did not seem to be the case.

As the hours wound by, another question took hold in Lex's mind. What was 'aura' exactly? He himself had an aura, and more than one. The first and most obvious aura was that of the Innkeeper, but that originated from his Host Attire. It gave others great mental pressure, and within the Crystal realm even affected the environment.

Based on that he could study the effects that aura could bring about, but he was wondering how aura was nurtured and its effects differentiated. The second aura that Lex had was his own. It was heavily influenced by his time spent as the Innkeeper, and could evoke feelings of confidence, competence and warmth. It was also influenced by Regal Embrace, which nurtured the sensation of indestructibility and gave one the confidence to face anything and everything. His state of flow, for some reason, also affected his aura from what he could tell.

Lex had used his aura to influence certain actions and reactions from others, even though he did not understand it fully.

Lately, he had even felt his aura grow when he was cultivating his foundations once again, as well as during the first few moments when he was fighting insects and his fighting instincts awakening.

Based on this analysis, aura could be innate, such as that of dragons, but could also be influenced by environmental factors, as well as the actions of the person who owned the aura.

He wondered, did his act of biding his time, time and time again in the face of insurmountable opponents affect his aura, or had it not? Maybe it was because he made those decisions out of pure logic instead of fear, but there seemed to be no trace of the will to retreat in his aura - yet!

The more he marinated in the Dragons Might and fought against the auras effects, the more he began to wonder if he could influence the growth of his own aura, and what benefits it could bring.

As an experiment, he closed his eyes and focused, summoning his aura forth in its most raw form. But he quickly discovered that such a generic state of mind caused the aura he summoned to be very loose. He summoned it, but it dispersed quickly under the impressive Dragons Might.

Although such a result was predictable, Lex frowned.

He summoned his aura again, but this time in defiance of the Dragons Might. As powerful and influential as a dragon may be, he was not insignificant either. Yes, he had the help of the system, but even the most awesome tool in the hands of an incompetent man would yield no results. He never thought less of himself for relying on the system.

This time the aura he exuded was more focused, and did not disperse under the weight of the Dragons Might, though it was heavily suppressed and was limited to just a few feet around him.

Lex felt a subtle, additional strain on him as he maintained his aura, and felt that if he continued to fight against Dragons Might in such a way, he would soon find himself drained of energy. Yet, odd as it was, he could not identify what energy was being exhausted, for it definitely wasn't his spiritual energy, nor was it any other energy he consciously cultivated.

Over the next 30 hours, he continued to perform such experiments, until the castle finally appeared within sight.

The 'castle' was in fact an entire mountain range that had been carved to form the most elaborate and majestic building Lex had ever seen - and he could not even see all of it!

Though, what he could see was the epic fight being fought at the foot of the mountain range.

Even from a distance, Lex could tell that the conflict was between armies that were hundreds of thousands in numbers, and was incredibly fierce. Neither side had a clear advantage, and from the number of assassins who kept arriving, it seemed like the size of the fight was only destined to grow. Fortunately, the 'castle' was extremely large, so Lex could just circumvent the fight and still approach the castle.

The Inn had already established its connection by now, so Lex was no longer concerned about escape. He simply continued to approach, though it seemed entering would not be as easy as he initially assumed.

This close to the castle, the power of the Dragon's Might was practically a physical force pressing them down into the ground. Although Lex and Fenrir still had no issue resisting the aura, the sheer might of it was interfering with Fenrir's stealth abilities.

The pup could no longer guarantee if they were even working at all or not, so they had to rely on conventional stealth to approach.

That meant that they practically held their breaths and stepped as softly as possible during their approach, making sure to be as far as possible from any potential guards. One drawback of turning an entire mountain range into a singular castle was that there were too many areas that were left unsupervised.

After they finally approached the castle, due to the pups reluctance to depart mid-adventure, despite Lex's many assurances that he would summon it again shortly, the pairs actions gave birth to a very unusual sight. A man and a wolf climbed the vertical walls of the castle carefully as they tried to approach a window. 𝒍𝒊𝙗𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅.𝓬𝒐𝓶

As odd as it was, there were no protective formations anywhere around the castle. Perhaps the dragon never felt like it needed one, so they were able to enter completely unintended. Now they just had to navigate what was surely a labyrinth to find what they were looking for.

Chapter 755 Introspection

Lex spread his spirit sense in the pitch dark corridor he had entered, trying to understand the layout as well as detect any nearby Frigals. One of the most important considerations Lex had during this period was how dangerous this specific adventure was going to be.

Surprisingly, so far, he had not faced any significant challenge, though Fenrir could take most of the credit for that. His instincts, too, did not warn him of any overwhelming danger looming around the corner. To be clear, there was plenty of danger about. If Lex was not careful, he could be besieged by countless Frigals, not to mention whoever they were fighting.

But the 3 star planet he was on was showing a surprising lack of immortals, who were the greatest threat to Lex. Either they were not nearly as common as he had assumed, and his frequent encounters with them could be attributed to a skewed probability of facing them due to how many unusual circumstances he faced.

He made a mental note to look up such information when he got back. Considering the fact that he encountered Earth Immortals so frequently in the Crystal realm, and saw so many immortals coming to his Inn, Lex thought that there would be immortals anywhere with enough spiritual energy, but that might not be the case. Perhaps the tribulation also played a role in their absence.

But, the most significant thing was that despite the Dragons Might being much stronger now, Lex's instincts still did not warn him of any lethal danger. In fact, the poison on Polebitvy was about a million times more dangerous than anything he was feeling currently.

Of course there was also the possibility that his instincts were failing him, or that they were unable to detect a certain type of threat, such as those that involved systems. Lex still had to be careful.

Unable to decipher the ridiculously large labyrinth that was the interior of the castle, Lex decided to use his instincts to search for any good leads. His instincts were unable to directly tell him where to go to fulfill his purpose, but it did point him in the direction of the nearest item which could be considered a treasure.

"Any idea which way to go?" Lex asked Fenrir, just in case the pup had any other abilities he was unaware of, but the pup only shook its head. The Dragons Might was affecting it much more than Lex, and causing it to become agitated. Its general temperament was rather friendly and mild, at least in the presence of those that it trusted, but it was still feeling challenged and aggressive. It was as if the very blood in its veins was angered that a dragon was daring to display its might within Fenrir's presence.

Unfortunately, regardless of how noble the instincts in its body, it was nowhere near as strong as the dragon. At least the dragon was born in the immortal realm - Fenrir, despite its noble bloodline, had been born a mortal.

That thought gave Lex pause. Fenrir should have had a very high position in the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum, so then why was its cultivation at birth so low? Why was it still unable to speak, even if only through spirit sense? The mysteries surrounding the pup were not few, but right now was not the time to ponder them.

Without any other lead, Lex decided to move in the direction of the nearest treasure. The corridor was, just as the Frigal town had been, elaborately decorated across every inch of its length. Precious ores had been used to add color to the carvings in the walls, even if no one could see those colors in the dark, and spirit stones had been embedded every so often, keeping the ambient energy within the castle high.

Lex felt like he had encountered something he had no knowledge of, for there were no formations in place nor did the alignment of rooms or corridors seem like they merged to form a massive character, like in Valesco, but the deeper he walked into the castle the more impressive it seemed. The spirit energy was the least of it. It seemed like every step he was taking, he was walking on the physical manifestation of history itself.

Countless beings of incredible importance had once passed through these halls, and world shaking decisions had been made in nearly every room. Although Lex did not have enough information to judge, he guessed that perhaps the influence of the dragon whose home he was walking in was larger than he had first thought. Maybe the dragon held a great position in this galaxy, but information of that level would not be easily available on the Henali portal.

For a massive portal that was supposed to cover the majority of the explored realm, it was surprisingly strictly monitored and controlled.

Also, now that Lex knew a lot more about the universe, the size of the Origin realm surprised him greatly. After all, long before Lex knew of the concept of realms, he assumed the Origin realm was the entire universe. It was then that Lex came across the concept of the 'known universe' which should now accurately be called 'known realm'. This was because a large part of even the Origin realm remained unexplored.

Lex did not know if such a term counted the Henali as well, or if they truly had explored the entire realm, but he definitely knew that the devils, at least, had not explored the entire realm yet.

Lex suddenly stopped, and frowned. He noticed something unusual. He was undergoing a lot more introspection than usual, and his thoughts seemed to be becoming more and more random. Why was he thinking about the Origin realm while exploring a potentially dangerous castle?

Something was silently influencing him, and he had not even noticed! When exactly did this start? Was it when he first entered this planet, or did it only begin after he started to resist the pressure of Dragons Might

Chapter 756 Watching the show

It did not take long for Lex to realize that his thoughts had been a lot more random since the very moment he arrived on the planet, long before he began to contest against the Dragons Might. But he still could not be sure this was caused by something external. After all, he could just be in a thoughtful mood. Moreover, he had felt no threat, nor perceived any lapse in his attentiveness to danger or his surroundings. At most, he was just a little more pensive than usual.

Lex made a mental note to focus on his state of mind a little more while he was here, and continue his journey.

He was a lot more observant towards the interior of the castle as he moved deeper into the labyrinth, and finally noticed two things. First, if he moved away from the outer wall of the castle, and ventured towards its depths, there was a slight decline in all paths. It was as if he was slowly descending into the bowels of the castle. Second, the temperature was increasing the deeper he went.

Soon, the two encountered their first door. The halls which had built up the castle so far had all been open and interconnected, forming an open outermost layer. But it seemed they were about to enter the second layer of the castle.

Lex prepared for trouble as he attempted to open it, but surprisingly found that there was no problem at all. The door, which was nearly 20 feet (6 meters) large, opened easily, leading to yet another series of halls. But these halls contrasted from the previous ones in that they were filled with various carpets, decorations, statues, paintings and more.

There were also some Frigals patrolling, though they all looked incredibly weary and exhausted, as if they had not rested in a long while. Despite their drained condition, Lex could tell that they were doing their best to be as attentive as possible. If it weren't for Fenrir, Lex would not have been able to escape their scrutiny. Or the detection of the few assassins he saw as well.

What the hell was going on, and how were there so many assassins with such incredible stealth capabilities? If it weren't for his soul sense, Lex would never know about them. In fact, even Fenrir had failed to detect them.

As it happened, one of the assassins seemed to be going in the same direction as Lex, so perhaps he would get an answer soon. As the odd group navigated the ostentatious halls, Lex could not help but wonder what the life of an assassin was like?

Did they have friends? Did they like to read books or watch plays? Did they snack from time to time? He imagined that, regardless of the stereotype of being cold-blooded, they would need to enjoy life sometime, right? He wondered if assassins got married and had little assassin babies.

The thought was so odd that Lex once again caught himself, and realized that his thoughts had wandered again. He frowned, and redoubled his efforts to stay attentive.

Soon they reached the room Lex's instincts were guiding him to, and it seemed like it was occupied. A couple of Frigals were inside talking, though Lex found it difficult to assess their age and genders just by observing them. It was tough to do these things with a race he had only just met. He moved closer to try and hear what they were saying, as did the assassin.

"... is only a matter of time," said one of them.

"Is it really? It's already been weeks, and my memory has not recovered, nor has anyone else's. No one knows what truly happened, and the royal family is acting too strangely."

"How do you expect them to react? Who could have predicted that an army of those icy abominations would suddenly rise from the ground and attack the castle? They have to fight with all their efforts, or if the Lord Dragon is disturbed, the royal family will be too ashamed to continue on living."

"I don't know why the Lord Dragon doesn't just kill them with a single swipe. It's been over six months since these creatures suddenly appeared in the south, and they've been a growing nuisance since!"

Lex was immediately intrigued. 'Over six months' was the translation of what the Frigal had actually said, and it had automatically been translated into terms that Lex was familiar with. The more important thing was that the timing seemed to be similar to when the mysterious man had told Lex to come here.

"More than those icy creeps, I wish the royal family would just kill those foreigners! How dare they blaspheme the great Lord by claiming he has died? Can they not feel the magnificence of his aura gracing this world with its presence?"

One of the Frigals, the one fanatically praising the dragon, grabbed something from its belt that immediately attracted Lex's attention. It was a strange, orange colored vine that was emitting a soft glow. The vine had been snipped off of wherever it originally grew, and was dying, but nonetheless it gave off an intimidating aura. This was exactly the thing that his instincts had guided him to.

Lex was not the only one who noticed the vine, as the assassin started to make his way towards the Frigal as soon as he brought out the vine. Instead of interfering in the matter, Lex decided to just sit and watch. He was interested in learning what exactly was going on here, and perhaps observing their interaction would give him some clues.

As soon as the assassin came close, something unbelievable happened. The light emitted from the vine actually managed to reveal the assassin's figure, alerting the two Frigals of the intruder.

Immediately they began fighting one another without holding anything back. In the corner of the room, Lex and Fenrir comfortably sat on a couple of sofas and watched the fight as Lex summoned out a bag of Doritos.

"Want some?" he offered the pup as he pointed the open bag towards him. Very politely taking out a pair of chopsticks, so as to not dirty its paw, it took a few. That was the moment Lex realized his pup also had a spatial treasure!𝑙𝒾𝘣𝘳𝑒𝒶𝒹.𝑐𝘰𝓂