The Innkeeper

"Yeah, I'll just hop on over next time I send them a delivery," Lex said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. But a second later, he thought of a way he could really go there.

"Even if I do find a way to go there, will it be safe? You heard how happy that Heaven guy was causing problems for me during my tribulation."

"I… oddly enough, I don't remember much about heaven. Or maybe I never knew much to begin with. You will have to do your own research on the matter, but I doubt that Heaven itself is sentient. Perhaps, just as you were offered the position for Augur of Heaven, other people were offered various other positions, and the voice you heard is just one of them."

Lex sighed as he thought about it.

"We need to come up with a new name for the true, main Heaven. With the same name, it's easy to confuse it with the Heavens we found down here - you know, the one with the Seraphim and Angels and stuff," Lex said.

"If they have the same name, it's surely by design. Aren't you getting a little side tracked? Is this really what you should be wondering about right now? Shouldn't you be running the obstacle course?" Mary asked, feeling confused by the timing of this conversation.

"Yeah, you're right," Lex admitted. "It's just that my instincts are telling me this last part is going to be rough so, you know, just a healthy dose of procrastination. Not like I look forward to getting beat up or anything."

As amazing and unlikely as it was, both Jack and Mary rolled their eyes simultaneously, despite their different realms and flows of time.

"Just go and end this quickly. There's a lot of stuff that requires your attention. The monkey and I can't be the ones constantly accepting Dao Lord guests at the Inn. Sooner or later, something is going to go wrong. You need to hurry up and get back to work - in case you've forgotten, your main profession is innkeeping."

Lex groaned, and then dashed forward. Whether it was a coincidence or by design, right in front of the massive lake deep, within which was the belt Lex was searching for, was a massive, walled city. Well depending on the direction from which one approached the lake there were different things, but in Lex's path, there was a walled city.

The entire city, as well as the wall and its residents, were all made of a brownish grey stone. Furthermore, all of them gave off an incredible heat, and an aura that was eerily similar to Malevolent energy - the energy found in Hells across the universe. Many people considered Malevolent energy to be the opposite of Divine energy instead of Profane energy. Lex considered it to be a pain in his behind because…

The ground trembled underneath Lex's feet, not because of the tremendous force with which he was hurtling forward. Instead, it was because an army of statues was marching out to meet Lex.

The final obstacle, or at least the seemingly last obstacle, was just a small, teenie weeinie army to block his path. It wasn't like Lex hadn't fought armies before. But an army of Primordial statues?

At this point, it wasn't even worth it to ask or consider any one's cultivation techniques anymore. Lex had discovered that compared to the general populace of the garden, or at least the beings under the crystal shield, Lex was stronger. When faced with fighters and such, Lex still maintained somewhat of an advantage.

Yet against the army that was lining up in front of him, Lex had a sneaking suspicion that he was about to get an arse whooping.

Far behind the army, standing at the very back atop the city wall, stood who Lex assumed to be the commander of the army. His instincts were very clear about the fact that the commander was far stronger than Lex. As such, his plan was clear.

Lex summoned Naraka and put up a valiant expression as he ran directly towards the army, gathering more and more energy as he did. It was obvious at a glance that he was going for a massive frontal crash.

Outside, Harriot and Eclipse gave each other an amused look before turning back to the scene.

Lex was running, the sword was out, the aura was rising, the army was waiting. The momentum, the suspense, the anticipation were all building… and building.

At first no one noticed anything as they were all waiting for Lex's arrival, but after a few minutes of waiting, when it became blatantly obvious that despite running, Lex wasn't actually getting any closer, the army finally realized what was happening.

"It's an illusion!" someone exclaimed in shock. How realistic were Lex's illusions that they had fooled the entire army for so long?

The commander shot out an attack towards Lex which not only destroyed the illusion, but created a respectable crater in the ground. Considering how tough the garden was, even damaging the ground was considered a big deal, let alone leaving a crater.

To the city's right, Lex, who was silently hauling himself across the terrain under the cover of various illusions, was finally revealed. From the very beginning, he had no intentions of fighting at all - after all, this was an obstacle course, not a fighting challenge.

The army, and even the commander, enraged by how easily they were fooled by such a simple trick, attacked.

As Primordials, and especially as an army of Primordials, they had never come across an enemy they could not defeat.

Unfortunately, they had never been tested for catching up to an enemy, because Lex was absolutely not in the mood to be overwhelmed by an entire army of statues. While teleportation was out of the question, Lex drew inspiration from Eclipse and jumped, leaping through the air even faster than he could run. He did not try to actually fly, because as he had learned, flying would attract the attention of certain spirits and he didn't need that right now.

So, the much anticipated clash had suddenly turned into a somewhat comedic chase as countless soldiers ran after Lex, hurling taunts and insults as they ran.