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Chapter 764 Beatdown

So strong was the disgust that Lex felt that there was no indication of spirit pull affecting him at all. Lex was completely focused on completely killing the perverted creature that had… that had…𝘭𝒾𝑏𝑟𝑒𝒶𝒹.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Just thinking about it pissed Lex off even more! He summoned the sword he had recently taken from the dragon's hoard and swung it without hesitation at the creature's necks. Unexpectedly, the sword completely shattered and an unusual aura latched onto Lex before disappearing. Lex was momentarily disappointed, but he did not want to waste too much time on useless things.

Much in the way he had quickly improved in hand to hand combat, new and inventive ideas came to Lex for how he could possibly kill the perverted creature. Yet before he attacked, Lex quickly changed out of his stealth suit and into his defensive suit. If he had been wearing this from the start, the creature would never have had the opportunity to lick his neck.

The creature also recovered from the shock it had received and had retreated from Lex. Fortunately for it, when Lex tried to slash its neck he had to let go, otherwise the creature would forever be stuck in Lex's vice grip. Lex's physical strength was abnormal from the very start, let alone now that his cultivation technique had changed. Yet oddly enough, he had not been able to crush that creature's neck with only one hand. Maybe using two hands would get the job done, but just surviving even one hand was a testament to how strong it was.

The creature had barely recovered its strength after devouring the blood and soul of a few dwarves, so instead of attacking Lex directly, it used its innate ability and targeted his spirit. It hissed threateningly while it extended its wings, releasing a sonic attack that would disorient Lex - or that's what it had thought.

With the weapon failing him, Lex relied on nothing but his good old fist and smashed it into the creature's face. Unexpectedly, the creature didn't lose any teeth in that clash!

Lex was surprised by the sturdiness of the creature's body, while the creature was surprised by how ridiculous Lexs strength was. The creature's body was easily multiple times bigger than Lex, yet it was being thrown around like a plaything.

A similar scene repeated itself a few more times while the creature tried to retaliate and Lex tried to pummel it. Neither made much progress, though admittedly Lex was venting a little by beating the creature up.

Finally, the creature became fed up and used one more of its racial traits, though the cost of this was quite heavy. The creature, who had gained a momentary respite from Lex's beatings began to turn illusory, as if it was fading from existence. Lex did not want to give it the opportunity to escape so he attacked again, but his fists went right through the creature, as if it were just a mirage.

Despite the situation, the creature could not resist showing Lex a smug look, though of course Lex could not decipher its facial features. The creature had an unusual affinity for spirituality, and so could convert its physical form into one akin to spirituality! In simple words, it could literally turn itself into a thought.

But the smug look on its face froze when Lex tried to grab onto it, and this time succeeded. The effects of Impervious Hands were truly manyfold, and beyond what Lex even knew. He had no idea that he was physically holding onto an idea at the moment, nor did he care. He just wished to slap the creature, so he did!

"No, wait, stop!" the creature, still with fresh blood tainting its teeth, began to cry. "We're not enemies! That earlier was just a misunderstanding!" The creature tried to plead with Lex, but he adhered to a strict no association with perverts rule, so he was not interested in talking to it, and smashed his knee into its face.

But no matter how Lex beat it up, the creature did not even bleed. The creature could also similarly not even get past the defense of his clothes, let alone once again try to bite his flesh. The fight, thus, seemed to be going nowhere.

"I, I can help you!" the creature pleaded! "I know the dragon's secrets! I know where it hides its treasures!"

"We're inside its treasure hoard, idiot!" Lex finally spoke, and kicked it again. No matter what, he did not let go of the creature for he had a strong feeling that if it disappeared, he would not get his hands on it again.

If physical attacks didn't work, he would try soul attacks…

"No, that's not… I, I know how the dragon died! I have its secrets! Please, just stop!"

Although Lex was not hurting it, his attacks still caused its current weak body pain. Moreover, as he got ready to use Evisceration, a subtle premonition of danger filled the creature's mind, making it even more desperate.

Luckily for it, it finally said something Lex was interested in.

"How would you know how the dragon died? If you were nearby, how did you survive when the dragon did not?"

"I… I have a very special ability! I can tap into the energy released by others' thoughts around me! Although I was trapped in the prison cell, I could still read some of the dragon's passive thoughts from time to time. It was the only entertainment I had, so I always did my best!"

Lex narrowed his eyes as he wondered whether to give the creature a chance. It was most likely lying, but on the off chance that it wasn't…

"How did the dragon die? You better tell me everything, or trust me, I will make you join the dragon!"

"It… it all started a few months ago! A strange golden light filled the entire planet, even inside my cell. Later, I learned from the dragon that the same light seemed to have appeared around the entire realm, and that it was filled with mysterious laws it had never felt before. Unfortunately for it, that light was a lot more mysterious than even the dragon realized…"

Chapter 765 Screaming

Although Lex had been preoccupied by his own cultivation at the time, he had long since learned of the phenomena that had taken place during his breakthrough to the Golden core realm. He was informed of the Golden hue within the Inn by Mary, and later on he had heard various guests talk about the hue in their respective planets as well. It was also the subject of many conspiracy theories on the Henali portal, which is why Lex found it hard to forget the golden hue caused by his breakthrough.

He could not fathom why his breakthrough had caused the hue, nor why its effects were so grand and widespread. The hue had even caused countless new religions to sprout across the entire realm, as races with limited scope of knowledge or understanding took it to be a sign from a deity.

That had somehow sped up the collection of divine energy for his 'Wish' by the system, but it was still below 10% filled to grant him his wish, so Lex never thought of it.

Now, once again, he was brought face to face with yet another repercussion of the phenomena of his breakthrough.

"Studying the strange light allowed the dragon to have a few breakthroughs, so it went into closed door cultivation. For immortals, the chance for a breakthrough may come only once a million years, so once it comes they can forsake everything to pursue it.

"But what it didn't know was that the golden hue allowed him to see hope for a breakthrough, but it also… it also woke up a primordial being who had been asleep."

The creature trembled as it recalled the being it had seen. As it was able to read some of the thoughts of any being close to it, the creature had glimpsed into the mind of that… of that thing.

"I'm not too clear on the specifics, but I was able to read some of the beings thoughts while it was waking up. It had been trapped inside a crystal that the dragon had in its treasure. Outwardly, the crystal looked no different from any other spirit crystal, but contained within was an entity perhaps as old as this realm itself.

"It took a few months for the entity to wake up, but once it did…" the creature trembled once again. "I don't know what happened exactly, but the creature did something to the dragon, and I felt its thoughts completely die, yet for some reason the body is still alive. Then the creature disappeared, and I haven't felt its thoughts since. It probably left a long time ago. With the dragon dead, I could finally try to escape. I… I have no other intentions. I just want to recover enough energy to escape this planet!"

The creature was clearly lying about its purpose, but as far as Lex could tell using his sixth sense, it seemed to be telling the truth about the dragon and the thing that killed it. Of course, there was no way of knowing for sure.

While Lex was still lucid, he looked around and saw the various corpses on the ground. The creature had not eaten their bodies. It had merely bit into their flesh before eating something else. Lex had a strong feeling that the creature had fed on their spirituality.

Just as Lex was evaluating what the creature had told it, he felt something strange and the creature disappeared, even from within his grip! Lex was genuinely surprised, for this was the first time something had managed to escape the grip of his Impervious hands, but it did not seem to have gone away.

This was because a feeling of extreme danger surrounded Lex, even causing the hair on his body to stand on end.

He immediately extended his spirit and soul sense, but to no avail.

"Ahhh!" Lex could not help but scream as he fell to the ground on his knees as a mind rending pain filled his head. He felt like something had attacked his very consciousness, as if it was a physical entity to be touched.

Normally, that would just be a metaphor, but in Lex's case, due to his strange physique, that was an actual fact!

Gritting his teeth, Lex entered the Berserk state and pushed this unusual ability to the limit of what he could endure. In essence, the Berserk state was a state that drove his emotions to extremes beyond normal while simultaneously strengthening Lex's physical strength. It did this by feeding on the extreme emotions.

Normally, this was an excellent ability to wreak havoc when a lot of brute force was required and little brainpower, for the extreme emotions made it difficult to think too deeply. At the moment, however, Lex was using it to strengthen his body, and thereby his spirituality, while at the same time making his mind chaotic with extreme emotions.

A shrill scream filled the hall they were in, and the creature fell to the ground appearing in front of Lex, as if it had emerged from his body.

"I knew you were a pervert!" Lex roared, and lost all notion of holding back and gathering any information. This creature was too strange, not to mention dangerous.

Swinging his fist like a divine hammer, Lex smashed the creature with all his strength, giving it little time to respond. At the same time, Lex launched Evisceration, tearing into the creature's soul.

The creature screamed, and disappeared again. The reason Lex had not held onto this time was because he had clearly learned that the creature had entered his mind somehow because he was in contact with it. If they weren't touching maybe it would be harder for it to enter his mind, but that did not seem to be the case.

Lex suffered another rip in his thoughts, although the pain seemed to only elevate his extreme emotions. Since this creature was sensitive to his thoughts, he wondered if it would be affected by them too?

Immediately he thought of the deep aura he had felt when he tried to sit in on a meeting of Dao Lords. As the memory flashed through his mind, Lex suddenly became dizzy and weak. The creature, however, screamed much louder than before.

Chapter 766 Mindmeld

The creature's scream reverberated across just as it fell out of Lex's body once again. But this time, that was not all. The creature started writing on the ground like a poisoned insect. It used its own wings to beat its own body while its eight legs curled up and dug into its own flesh.

Lex was not able to take advantage of the situation immediately, as he himself was recovering from his sudden weakness and fatigue. Fortunately, he had only recalled that meeting for a moment instead of dwelling on it, or he might have once again succumbed to just the memory of it.

When he came to, he saw that the creature he had been unable to harm at all lay on the ground covered in its own blood, though it wasn't dead yet.

Lex had been forcibly brought out of his Berserk state by the mere memory of that meeting, which is why he retained the sense to not rush over and attack immediately. But that did not mean he gave up.

Physical attacks weren't working, and though Evisceration hurt the creature, it wasn't doing significant damage. It was at this moment he was really regretting not having a strong attack that used his spirit sense, for he had a feeling that such attacks would be most effective. But instead of lamenting what he lacked, Lex focused on what he had.

Lex entered his Flow state, and focused on his spatial affinity. Although he was not a master of it yet, he had teleported enough to learn tidbits about his affinity since he got it. Moreover, his increased analytical skills made it so that Lex could learn new skills much faster than before.𝘭𝘪𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝓂

lightsnοvεl.cοm The easiest thing to do would be to manipulate space to somehow cut the creature into pieces, and that's exactly what Lex tried to do. Unfortunately, creating a 'blade' out of morphed space was not exactly easy, let alone anything else.

Lex did, however, manage to warp space a little exactly where the creature was, causing it to suffer immense pain, waking it from its stupor finally. All of its eyes focused on Lex with a newfound viscousness, as the creature tried to disappear once again. But that was easier said than done.

Lex kept manipulating space within the creature's body, trying to tear space open, or use space to tear the creature open. Either one would do, though all he effectively managed to do was torture it.

"Wait, I'm sorry! I know the dragon's secrets! I can tell you!" the creature pleaded, but Lex was no longer going to fall for such basic tricks. Although he longed for the satisfaction of beating the creature up with his own hands, he had to rely on spatial affinity. He could also come up with arrays to harm the creature, but somehow he felt like he couldn't make arrays strong enough to do that.

Theoretically, arrays could achieve the strongest power level the universe could support, since the universe itself powered arrays. Practically speaking, Lex had hit a bottleneck when it came to his arrays. Maybe his way of making them was obsolete or faulty, or maybe he didn't know enough significantly strong characters. Either way, his arrays seemed to be limited to the Nascent level in terms of power for the moment.

"Lex Williams, don't push me too far!" the creature roared as it tried to get up. But its efforts were in vain as its legs were too weak at the moment. The creature had clearly read through some of Lex's memories, which chilled Lex's heart!

He absolutely could not afford to let the creature live now. Since keeping a distance clearly didn't help, Lex leaped forward and immediately put its head in a lock and placed his right hand on the creature's forehead. His intention was to scramble the things brain!

As if sensing Lex's intention, the creature roared angrily and resisted Lex, but in terms of physical strength, it was clearly below Lex. At the same time, it tried to use its ability to disappear once again, but clearly it was too hurt to do so. It seemed the memory of that meeting had hurt it a lot more than Lex expected.

They struggled for a few dozen minutes before Lex suddenly succeeded in causing a tiny tear in space, within the creature's skull! The creature died instantly, and Lex actually tripped because it had stopped resisting his strength so suddenly.

Lex groaned, feeling exhausted, but did not delay at all. He immediately stored the creature's body within his spatial ring and began teleporting back to the Inn. He could not risk becoming a victim to spirit pull again.

Yet the next moment, the sound of a notification distracted him.

New Notification: System feature 'Murderer' activated.

Immediately he felt the change, as he was reminded of the feature he had unlocked so long ago, yet for some reason never triggered.

Murderer: Every time the host kills someone stronger than them outside of system grounds, the host can learn one of the victim's abilities/techniques!

The ability had finally been triggered, and Lex could tell that the system was transferring some information directly into his brain. He had not suddenly 'unlocked' a new ability, but the method to replicate the effects of the creature's ability using spiritual energy was fed into Lex's memories.

The ability was one of the most bizarre abilities Lex had ever encountered. It allowed Lex to turn his body into a 'thought' and enter someone's spirituality. What did that entail, and what he could do once he achieved those details he was not given, but clearly this was far from a simple technique.

The next moment, Lex teleported to the Inn, finally leaving the hoard. The effects of the spirit pull on him disappeared, but Lex had not given up on the hoard yet. Since the dwarves had a way to protect themselves from it, the emporium surely did as well.

He put aside thoughts of his newly gained ability, which he aptly named 'Mindmeld' and teleported over to X-14. He had some shopping to do.

Chapter 767 Secrets

𝒍𝙞𝙗𝓻𝙚𝒂𝓭.𝒄𝙤𝙢

"William, if this lead is real, we won't need to worry about accumulating credit to help you heal at all. We can directly ask the Henali to help you recover to your peak state and still have some credit leftover."

"To be honest, even I am surprised by this outcome. Back then, I acted out on a whim, but who knew it would pay off," said William with a clear look of disbelief on his face.

Their three brothers, Batu, Henry and Nisar, also accompanied them. For them all to gather like this, outside of the Midnight Inn, where they could all teleport to, was a rare occasion and showed how significant this event was. If all went well, they could also gain a few benefits this time. But, more importantly, they had important matters to handle afterwards.

The Jotun empire had decided to move out of the Pendal galaxy for various reasons, and as the heads of the empire, they had to ensure that the most important and sensitive secrets of the empire were either removed or erased before their departure.

"It's about time one of our descendants did something worthwhile," said Batu. He was the head of the Togoldor noble family who managed the empire's military. Although he and the others had many descendants, and many of them were very powerful and had made many contributions, it was clear that Batu was not satisfied with the results. Their gains and victories were small scale, relatively speaking, and hardly ever influenced the entire empire. Although such a request might be too much to put on a few descendants, weren't the five of them handling the entire empire? They were human too, and in fact had much worse conditions when they were starting out. Yet none of their descendants were qualified to be their equals yet.

"If being great was so easy, everybody would do it," Nisar said softly. As the head of the Butt family, and in charge of the empire's finances, one would expect him to be more mild tempered than his brother. In fact, that was far from the truth. Although he looked of mild and tepid nature, Nisar had more blood on his hands than any of the other brothers. He could not be blamed either - after all, wealth begets greed, and he had the wealth of several galaxies under his control.

Before their conversation could continue, they finally reached their destination, and entered a room covered in isolation formations. Inside, a beast seemed to be waiting for them. Upon their arrival, the beast confirmed their identities before crushing a small trinket and disappearing.

None of the brothers found this odd, and waited patiently. A few moments later, another person teleported into the room.

Belle looked extremely pale and weak, in spite of the fact that she had been getting treatment for the past few weeks. Her eyes, however, burned with the same ever present ferocity that she normally exuded.

She looked at the five men in the room and recognized them all. Her direct ancestor, William, was the one she was supposed to meet, but she did not mind that he had brought along a few extra people. After all, they were the big shots of the empire!

She looked at William, already used to the fact that he looked identical to her brother. She had never commented on it nor mentioned it, because it was completely irrelevant. Looking like your ancestors was quite a common occurrence actually, especially among cultivators who could live long enough to actually meet their prior generations.

"Hiding in Ventura to erase all your traces, a remarkable plan," William said, feeling extremely pleased with Belle. "I only hope your efforts were worth it. As soon as we can confirm the veracity of your information, we can hand it over to the relevant people. You don't need to worry, your reward won't go to anyone else besides you."

"You can confirm it however you like," she said without any hint of deference. "Nor am I worried about anyone stealing my rewards. After all, without me, no one will be able to follow the lead. I had to use my bloodline ability to mark Jeffery's ship before it escaped into a wormhole. Only after the effects of my bloodline overdraft disappear, and I can use it again, will I be able to trace it."

lightsΝοvel.cοm William was already used to Belle's attitude, and the others didn't care too much either.

"Let me speed up your recovery," Jotun said as he reached out to her, but the moment he placed a hand on her shoulder he frowned, and withdrew his hand. His brothers all turned to look, and saw a single drop of blood escape his index finger before the pinprick on his finger disappeared.

Surprise and shock filled their eyes as a storm brewed in their hearts. Jotun was the strongest human in the realm, and in the highest realm that the Origin realm would normally allow: the Celestial realm!

It was not an exaggeration to state that a million galaxies would not be able to produce a single expert on the same level as Jotun, so powerful was he. Yet now, he had actually bled!

"There are… unusual inscriptions in your body," Jotun said, his voice filled with confusion.

"Yeah, my old man placed them there," Belle responded evenly.

"Your father? How is that possible? The sword intent used to carve those inscriptions even harmed me!"

This time, the most shocked was not Jotun but William! His descendant was so powerful, so why had he never heard of him?

"My old man has too many secrets. My mother… she has even more. Last I saw my father, he was merely in the Nascent realm, but even I dared not mess with him. His sword intent… no, his Sword Dao is too powerful. He's a bona fide freak."

She took a deep breath, and before anyone could ask anything, spoke again.

"Don't bother asking any questions. The answer will most likely be that I don't know, and besides, I'm not here to talk about my family. Contact whoever you need to contact, and let's get this show on the road. I've already wasted too much time recovering from my overdraft."

"NO NEED," spoke a deafening voice in all their minds, and a figure appeared in the room alongside them. "HIDING IN VENTURA TO ERASE YOUR TRACES WAS SMART, BUT THE MOMENT YOU RETURNED, SO DID YOUR KARMA. ANY DAO LORD STILL LOOKING FOR TRACES OF THE TERRORISTS WOULD EASILY FIND YOU."

Before Jotun, or anyone else, could do anything, the figure disappeared alongside Belle. Jotun paled, and immediately contacted the Henali. He could only hope that the figure that appeared was working for them or else they might not only have lost the lead to Jeffery, the mystery surrounding the mysterious swordsman would also remain unsolved.

While he did that, William once again retrieved the files in his family related to Belle and her immediate family. Perhaps it was time to pay closer attention to this group.