The Innkeeper

"Stop that human!" yelled a statue in the shape of a jaguar as it drove through the terrain. It was, for some reason, in the shape of the car - not the animal. Lex did not have the mind to care about why these statues were taking the shape of vehicles from earth. All he cared about was running.

"Don't worry, I'll stop running as soon as I lose you guys," Lex yelled back as he dodged a javelin someone threw ahead. Then the javelin opened its eyes and glared at Lex. Lex, too busy to care, glared at the javelin back, and then leaped forward.

"Cease this nonsense," the commander roared, losing his patience. While teleportation was off limits for Lex, the commander stepped through space and appeared in Lex's path.

"Avoiding the army was a part of your own skill. It can be considered as a successful clearance of that obstacle. But if you wish to reach the pool, you must attain my permission."

Lex stopped, and sighed.

"Why must you do this? Isn't it better to let things go naturally. If we-"

The commander slashed his sword through Lex, only to reveal that he once again was facing an illusion. Lex had somehow bypassed him once more, irritating the commander once more.

Yet, instead of revealing his anger, he smiled.

"Good. Very good. Keep it up and maybe you'll really manage to trick your way into the lake," the commander said, his voice echoing through the land.

By now, the army had stopped chasing, realizing that they couldn't catch up to Lex. As such, instead of chasing him, they started to take out recliner seats and picnic blankets, sitting down to watch their commander fight their target.

The commander appeared in front of Lex once more, and this time instead of talking he attacked directly.

Lex sighed. Why did everyone like fighting? He was a lover not a fighter. But since the fight had been picked anyway…

Naraka clashed against the commander's attack. The attack was not a punch, or a beam, or anything of the sort. Instead, Naraka cut through the influence affecting the laws of condemnation that were bearing down on Lex.

"Do you think I was running for my own sake?" Lex asked, his gaze landing on the commander. "No, I was just sparing you the embarrassment of failing in front of your soldiers."

While he spoke, Lex began to analyse the situation in detail. At the Heaven Immortal realm, a fight was no longer a competition of sheer strength, skill or ability. Instead, it was about ingenuity. At least, as far as Lex could tell.

The strength and vitality of a Heaven Immortal was much greater, making it very hard to kill them. Moreover, the means available to them were almost limitless. Not only did you need to anticipate how the enemy may attack, you had to outsmart them in defense and offense.

Lex had not yet had enough time to develop new Lawcrafts, let alone tricks and techniques that might be useful as a Heaven Immortal. His opponent, however, was not only a Primordial, his cultivation level might even be that of a Celestial, allowing him access to even more laws.

That was the complexity of the situation. However, there was also a sense of simplicity in it. Lex had absolute confidence in his body. All he needed was to land one good hit - the trouble, now, was making that hit somehow happen.

"You have done well to make it this far, human," the commander said, his eyes fixed on Lex, this time not allowing for any illusions to distract him. "Perhaps you can even overcome this obstacle. Like I was saying, all you need to do is impress me, and I will allow you to proceed."

"How generous," said Lex, rolling his eyes, before beginning.

His left and right eye both activated their abilities. With his left eye, Lex read every move the commander made, studying every law, anticipating every attack. With his right eyes, Lex summoned a massive formation all around them, filling it with arrays and Glyphs. Since the environment in the Primordial Garden was special, it was even more receptive to the influence of the characters from the Book of Changes.

In an instant, their battlefield was set. They were in a cage fight, and above them tribulation clouds were gathering - or at least what looked like tribulation clouds.

Using his arrays and formation, Lex recreated the tribulation he himself experienced, or at least recreated an attack that was similar in appearance and power.

That earned a reaction from the commander, but the lightning trident forming overhead was merely a distraction - though if Lex got lucky enough that the attack landed, he would not complain. The real attack would be hidden amongst the numerous assaults that Lex himself initiated.

Instantly, they both launched themselves into battle. The commander was clearly not used to having to rely on his body in a fight, not that he was weak by any means. Through causality laws, he interfered with the aim of the formations targeting him, and through laws of echoes, he multiplied his own attacks.

Lex was immediately pressured in the fight, and was on the losing end, but he was also learning a tremendous amount each moment of the fight.

For one, he noticed that the commander used laws a lot more straightforwardly than Lex expected. He lacked the ingenuity and slyness Lex had learned from Cornelius, the human king. Instead, he walked the path of brute force. Since he was a Primordial, he could through brute force get the laws to bend to his will.

To a degree it was effective. However, since he could not beat Lex outright, he was destined to fail. He was more familiar with laws, but his application of them was even more limited than Lex's own.

A gleam flashed through Lex's eyes as he planned out his next move. The lightning trident finally fell, and with it, arrived the next step of Lex's plan.