The Innkeeper

"Does it matter?" asked another soldier, who was too preoccupied with his own assignment.

The first soldier shrugged and continued with his work.

*****

Entering the pagoda did not feel like teleporting at all, though his intuition clearly told him he was in an entirely new area. It felt as if he just walked into another room.

The air was surprisingly fresh, though the area looked like a massive hall made from large stone blocks with no windows for ventilation. Closed glass lanterns were attached to the walls, illuminating the hall with dim yellow light. But the range of his sight seemed to be limited for he couldn\'t see the end of the hall as it seemed to fade into darkness.

Lex drew a parallel between his situation and the visibility of video game characters when they roamed the map. Only a certain area around them would be visible to the player, while the rest of the map would be a mystery.

He looked down and saw a thin yet prominent line drawn in the ground. Somehow, without the need to be informed, he knew that his trial would begin the moment he crossed the line. It suddenly occurred to him that he should have polished up on new techniques before entering the pagoda, but then he shrugged.

Despite his train of thought earlier, he didn\'t genuinely believe that he\'d be able to complete the pagoda on his first try, regardless of how powerful he was. That was because the limitation sustained by the pagoda for entry was one of age, not the cultivation realm. He was sure there were others out there much stronger than him at his age, so out right firepower shouldn\'t be the defining factor that allowed one to reach the top of the pagoda.

But then again, maybe it was. He still didn\'t think it would be so straightforward, however.

There was only one way to find out.

He took a step forward and crossed the line before continuing to walk ahead. Nothing seemed to have happened, but his intuition told him otherwise. The air had been filled with some kind of sedative, though Lex did not bother trying to filter his air.

Not only was he confident in his own body\'s capabilities, but his intuition let him know that it was unable to affect him at all.

As he continued to walk forward, more and more gasses were mixed into the air, all with various effects. He figured that anyone with a weaker physique would suffer greatly, and even if they decided to hold their breath, it would only last until they faced some action. But there were too many ways to filter the air, so this was still not impressive enough.

But all of that changed when he saw a single figure emerge from the darkness up ahead. Lex\'s face paled as he saw the figure and identified what, or rather, who it was. It was himself.

The first trial in the pagoda… was to face an exact copy of himself. Lex did not need to draw assumptions as the pagoda somehow directly planted the information inside his mind, the way it had done about the line in the ground.

The Evil Lex, as he decided to call him, was completely identical to him in every calculable measure. That meant, much like himself, Evil Lex would have an outstanding intuition that would warn him about any incoming attacks, any plans Hero Lex made, how to avoid them and how to take advantage of them. He had all his techniques, which fortunately he did not update, and all his gear, which consisted of nothing but his clothes. He also had Hero Lex\'s boundless shamelessness, and would not feel any hesitation in defining himself as the hero and the other as evil.

As if that was not enough…

"You know we suck at attacking and are incredibly strong at defense. Why don\'t we have a chat instead?" said Evil Lex, with his signature evil and malevolent smile, which in no way was a result of Hero Lex projecting his hate onto him. Hero Lex did not need to reply, because he knew Evil Lex had his sixth sense as well, and could determine Hero Lex\'s mental state just by talking.

Hero Lex took a deep breath and said,"Let\'s get this over with."

He used Home sweet home to throw himself at the evil Lex and punched him right in the face. True to his completely arrogant nature, Evil Lex did not even bother moving and allowed the punch to land, confident in the knowledge that it could not harm him.

As predicted, the punch was unable to harm him, but if things were so simple, Evil Lex\'s expression would not have suddenly changed. Yet it was too late.

The ridiculously severe flaw in this unnecessarily common cliche, that Lex felt often ruined anime finales, was that as the original, no one was more familiar with his own weaknesses than Lex himself.

The biggest weakness Lex had was his overreliance on his intuition, and the biggest flaw his intuition suffered was that it was unable to warn of things related to systems. In the last moment before Lex\'s punch connected, a golden key appeared between his fingers. The key naturally was not able to break through Evil Lex\'s skin, and instead broke itself due to the strength of the clash.

Evil Lex disappeared and Hero Lex remained, feeling like he had overcome the most ridiculous and overused challenge. If what the pagoda had in store for him was more of this, he would be seriously disappointed.

Though, just to make sure he had Mary check if an Evil Lex showed up to the Inn. He didn\'t. It seemed the moment the clone or projection or whatever it was exited the pagoda, it ceased to exist.

With a snort Lex continued forward. A staircase leading to the next floor revealed itself from the darkness, allowing him to go to the next floor.

*****

Larry sat across Marlo in his private jet as the man shared plans of their incursion. The \'prison\' where all the prisoners were being held was in India. It was far away from any settlements and hidden through the use of formations.

Larry did not know what Marlo did to get his hands on this information, but the man had a general layout of the kind of defense they had, and it honestly scared Larry a bit. There were quite a few Nascent realm guards posted, not to mention defensive formations, spirit tech and more!

But if, despite knowing all that, Marlo was confident in going, Larry decided to trust him. This was not an opportunity he would get again. Perhaps it showed a hint of desperation that he was following such a crazy plan, but he\'d spent way too many years suffering because of what happened to his family.

He no longer had any hope that he would miraculously discover that they were actually alive, being held somewhere waiting for him to rescue them. He was convinced they were dead. He just wanted revenge. It would also help if the constant assassination threats against him would stop.

He played with small, metallic beads in his hands, unaware of the pressure he was exerting on them. Every time he would swipe his thumb over them, one of them would disappear while the other beards became larger, only to return to normal with the next swipe.

Such a small detail would escape most, but not Marlo. The man was extremely meticulous, especially now that he was constantly racked with pain all over his body.

But in exchange for pain, he was stuck with a new issue. His new form of cultivation depends on him continuously overcoming difficult and dangerous trials. Only by putting his life on the line would he grow stronger. Unfortunately, there were almost no such dangers left for him to face on earth.

The one exception… was the place he was about to arrive. Everyone thought that he was going to get justice for the numerous wrongs that prisoner subject earth to. Instead, he was going because there was no one left on this planet for him to pick a fight with.

A wide, maniacal grin painted his face.