The Innkeeper

Chapter 1313  Spar III

More and more, Lex began to notice that his sword intent was white in color. At first he used to think it was just bright flashes of light, but the pattern was too consistent for it to be anything else.

Anytime he attacked with his sword intent, the white flash of light was his sword intent. SO when he used the first move of Ten Tribulations, there was yet another flash of white light, this time it appeared in the shape of an electric arc, reaching out to Cornelius.

The King, who had only just landed from Lex's attack, raised a shield he summoned to block, trying to buy himself time, but it was for naught. The shield broke and his armor was cut through, leaving a massive red gash across his chest.

The King tried to groan, but before the sound could leave his mouth, he felt the suffocating pressure of a Domain once more. His eyes narrowed and he activated a technique, only for the Domain to cancel it out. Another one of Lex's fists smashed into him, but before he could fly off to the other end of the mountain range, Lex grabbed his leg and pulled him back.

"Don't push your luck kid!" Cornelius said, and activated an ability. Though within a small distance of Lex, all laws were pushed out, Cornelius was wearing armor which itself contained trapped laws.

Items containing laws were incredibly valuable, and even immortals couldn't just create them as they wished, so which is why immortals valued them. They came in handy during exactly such wars of law.

Lex felt a push, forcing him to release his grip, catching him by surprise. His physical strength was no joke, so forcing him to do anything was incredible.

Unfortunately, that brief moment was all the gap Cornelius needed to slip out of Lex's Domain. He immediately pulled out his bow and shot a real, physical arrow at Lex, except that time, instead of harming his body, it fused into it!

Immediately Lex felt like his tenet was wrapped in chains, making it impossible for him to move it. Before he could figure out a way to unravel the chain, Cornelius attacked again.

The ground underneath Lex's feet changed from solid rock to a bog which, when combined with Lex's enormous weight, caused him to immediately start sinking.

Except it wasn't water that Lex was sinking it - it was karmic debt!

Lex's left eye analyzed the technique that Cornelius had used, and realized that he had manifested the literal burden of leading an empire with billions of people, and manifested it into an attack. Every breath he took caused him to accrue a massive karmic debt, for there were billions whose very existence relied on him, yet he was doing nothing to alleviate their burdens, or ensure their survival.

In fact, every moment he spent doing nothing, not only was he taking on more karmic debt, sinking ever deeper into the bog, he was also accumulating the sin of negligence! Lex had no idea what it meant to be carrying a sin, but he was certain it was not good.

Caught once more in a trap that cleverly used laws, with his tenet tied down so he could not activate his Domain, Lex's greatest struggle was not how to escape, but which one of his many abilities to rely on to escape.

Well, since he was using his left eye to absorb all of Cornelius' knowledge, and pick up exactly how he manipulated laws to create what could no longer be called a spiritual technique, but law techniques!

No, that sounded stupid. These were no longer spiritual techniques, which used spiritual energy to affect reality. Instead, he was using the laws of the universe, weaving them together to create a new reality as he saw fit. This was… Lawcraft! Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Deep inside, Lex felt that the name was still cringe, but at least not as bad as law techniques.

Regardless, since he was using his left eye to learn this, he decided to employ his right eye's ability as well!

Cornelius had not moved far away from Lex, so he was easily trapped within when hundreds of arrays suddenly appeared in the air, forming a sphere around them. Each array worked with one another, forming a chain that connected Lex and Cornelius, pulling them to each other.

That action, taken by Lex, seemed to be the wrong move, which aggravated the bog even more, massively increasing his karmic debt and pulling him in deeper… except that Lex was being held back by Cornelius, who himself was resisting being pulled in from the chain.

"Very smart," he had only begun his response when it started raining a thick, viscous liquid atop him like a cloud burst, almost drowning him.

Although it was not the same as his own attack, it was effectively the same.

Cornelius immediately used his extreme familiarity with laws to change his environment, but Lex countered just as quickly with his eye ability.

The two quickly began attacking each other, going back and forth with their abilities. In truth, though their battle seemed devastating, and had in fact already destroyed their environment, neither Lex nor Cornelius were going all out. After all, if Lex used Domination then even without his tenet, the laws would bend to his will.

Cornelius, too, was no doubt holding back. This was, after all, just a spar. Lex's goal had never been to defeat Cornelius, but to learn from him, and he was learning much. But…

After an exchange of about a thousand moves, Lex didn't like the fact that he was constantly at a disadvantage against Cornelius, so he decided to get just a little more serious.

Other than laws, one of immortals most important weapons was the kinds of energy they could manipulate.

Well, once upon a time, when Lex was in the Temple of Fasting, Cassandra had taught him how to manipulate divine energy. He never used it too seriously, save to fight Ra. Now, on an impulse, he decided to see just how effective it could be.

He summoned his Butter Knife, the one imbued with divine energy, and flipped the board.