The Innkeeper
chapter-1178

"Mary, considering how nonchalantly you're acting, does that mean that resolving time bubbles is easy?" Lex asked as he flew towards the distant hill, various thoughts running through his head.

"Traditionally, resolving a time bubble is actually very easy," Mary said. Her projection, tiny as ever, was sitting on Lex's shoulder, with one leg crossed and one dangling down. She looked like she was out on vacation.

"Consider it this way. The law governing time is the strongest in existence. Although sometimes it might encounter issues, it is the inclination of the law to automatically return to its most stable state. The law itself will do most of the work for you. You just need to give it a gentle push.

"Of course, that does not mean that it is not dangerous. Remember, there is nothing in the universe that time cannot eradicate, so the tiniest bit of carelessness can result in your death. Also, just because it's generally easy doesn't mean there isn't a chance you may end up encountering an incredibly tough situation."

"That makes sense," Lex said calmly. "With my luck, I already expect to face something ridiculously tough. That's why, even though I've been flying for a few minutes, that hill isn't any closer."

Lex stopped flying forward, and came to a stand still.

"Not to mention, with my eyesight, how far would that hill have to be for me to only vaguely see it? There's something obstructing me from reaching it, and I am completely incapable of sensing what it is."

Mary, however, was not alarmed by this statement. They were in a time bubble. Although she said it was easy and simple, that was based on her perception. She was born a Celestial. The universe was her cradle, her oyster, her everything. To top all of that off, she had a system with her when she was alive. So her perception of things was skewed.

"Can you really not perceive it?" she asked casually.

Lex frowned, then spread out his spirit sense and activated the abilities in both his eyes. He used every Glyph he knew and listened to his body. There was nothing. Then he checked his latest quest.

The time limit read 720 hours, 59 minutes, and 57 seconds. How had only three seconds passed? Lex had literally been flying for at least a few minutes!

"The flow of time is messed up? No, that doesn't make sense. My perception of time is messed up. No, that still doesn't make sense."

Lex had spread his spirit sense as wide as he could, and so it encompassed many participants in this same trial. At first he was not paying attention to them, but eventually he picked up an anomaly. Those who were moving in the same direction as him, meaning towards the hill, were moving at the same speed as him. Those going literally anywhere else were moving faster.

"Is everyone being affected by different flows of time?" he mused.

Mary still didn't answer, not that he was expecting her too. She was limited by the system, which meant that although she seemed like she was sitting on his shoulder, what she could perceive was dictated by the system.

That meant she could only offer guesses, not provide him accurate answers.

Lex closed every other sense he had, and focused only on his left eye which could perceive laws, then turned his back to the hill and walked away from it. He studied how he was being affected by the laws, and how everyone else was being affected by it.

The more he studied the odd behavior of the laws, the more solemn his expression became. Eventually, Lex did something he hadn't done in a long time. He entered the state of Flow.

He needed to maintain an absolutely rational state of mind, for while only a few seconds had passed for him, he could tell then dozens of hours had already passed for some people down below.

Each and every single one of them was experiencing a different flow of time, and that flow depended on whether or not they were trying to approach that hill. It was as if this very place was conspiring against all of them.

Lex had a suspicion that as soon as a single one of the participants experienced 721 hours, the anomaly would occur. It would slow down the flow of time for anyone trying to approach the epicenter of the anomaly, thereby preventing them from reaching it in time, and speed up time for anyone going away from it.

That way, the time limit would be reached long before anyone could ever reach the point of the anomaly.

Suddenly, Lex had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to this palace that met the eye. That much should have been obvious to begin with, but what he was referring to was the Henali's intention in trying to resolve the time bubble in this place.

He felt like someone had hidden something from them in this place, forever keeping it out of reach, or at least delaying them by billions of years. Considering this place could even kill Dao Lords, even the Henali did not dare venture in here, which is why they used the contestants from the tourney.

Lex suddenly became interested in the various other streams. He wondered what else they were having others help them achieve under the guise of holding a tournament? Considering that he was doing the exact same thing with the Midnight Games he could not really judge them. In fact, he felt like he should be taking notes.

This was the perfect capitalist mentality. It was like a company organizing a hackathon, and using genuine problems the company needed to resolve as the theme of the competition, gaining a solution for free from the winners.

"Mary, you said that I can find treasures radiating the aura of time here. You think I could find something that would help me alter the flow of time for myself?"

"Of course."

A very, very daring idea began to develop in Lex's mind.