The Innkeeper
chapter-1256

His cultivation technique automatically informed him about how cultivation changed now that he was in the immortal realm. For the most part, cultivation was now divided into two steps. The first, as usual, was to absorb energy into his body and refine it, though that too had become more complex than it was before.

Basically, prior to the immortal realm, cultivators in general just generically absorbed spiritual energy. Yet that was no longer sufficient within the immortal realm. Now, he needed energies of a higher level to cultivate. If, for example, he were in an environment such as Earth, which only had low levels and concentrations of energy, not only could not cultivate at all, but replenishing his energy reserves would also take much longer than usual.

In essence, a planet with a 2 star rating would barely be sufficient to sustain his level, but he would need the environment of a 3 star planet to be comfortable, and have sufficient energy to cultivate to reach a higher realm.

One of the reasons Lex did not need to absorb energy to directly reach level 5 Earth Immortal realm was because his body was already oversaturated with the highest quality energy he got from cultivating within the Midnight realm.

The cultivation technique did not give him a breakdown of energies, how they were ranked and differentiated, but Lex could simply inherently feel their differences. This was something he would need to study in greater detail, for what the cultivation technique did inform him of was that his growth will be affected by the type of energy he absorbs.

It also let him know of the most powerful and highest ranked energy in the universe: Protos Energy. How could he forget it? That was the energy he absorbed, in the smallest quantifiable amount to end up evolving his cultivation technique.

Something told Lex that it would not be easy to find such energy once more, or that he should depend on such an energy for his cultivation. While it might make him incredibly powerful, there was one drawback to cultivating with increasingly powerful yet rare energies.

Getting enough of it to help continue to fuel his growth would be difficult. For now, Lex did not delve too deeply into this matter. The energy within the Midnight realm was more than enough to support his growth.

The second aspect to cultivation was a deeper understanding of laws. So far, Lex had a lot of very surface level comprehension about laws and how to apply them in general, but he could not be considered knowledgeable on a deeper level in any law, including defense. His understanding was, at best, better than other new immortals, but it was a far cry from that of even Earth immortals at the peak of the realm.

By increasing his understanding of laws, he could directly increase his power without even raising his realm. By absorbing higher level energy, he could directly increase his energy reserves, but more importantly, his immortal body and its parameters.

All of that was the traditional way one cultivated within the immortal realm. Lex, of course, had an additional way of training due to his unique cultivation technique, and it was what he had been doing all along.

He could absorb the strengths of any treasure he consumed, any energy he absorbed or anything he was touching. So by sitting atop the dragon, and cultivating, he could more effectively draw the strengths of dragons into himself and make himself stronger.

This was very important, for Lex was not truly as arrogant as he had presented himself to be in front of the dragon. He had not forgotten that a majority of his newfound strength and abilities came from absorbing the strengths of dragons. That was not even considering the fact that Glyphs, which had become an integral part of his combat capabilities, were essentially just a way for dragons to learn to use their powers.

The way that the laws of the universe naturally just willingly changed around dragons desires was actually quite scary. Lex knew for certain that the powers dragons could wield was greater than that. After all, he had spent years with Pel in his ring.

The only reason he had even given that ring to Moon to begin with was because he had upgraded it slightly, giving Pel the ability to launch a powerful soul attack. It could act as a secret protective weapon for her.

Regardless, the point was that a more mature dragon, at the peak of the Earth immortal realm would be much more dangerous and challenging than the one he had faced in the Trial zone. Not that he was increasing his strength to fight dragons. He was increasing his strength to become the best. Once he had absorbed everything he could from the dragons, he would move onto other powerful races.

He'd already made a list of some impressively powerful ones he'd learned about, including Raiju, Phoenixes and even Djinn. But getting his hands on their corpses, the way he had with this dragon, would not be simple. These were matters for another time.

Lex closed his eyes and began cultivating. It felt so easy. It felt so simple.

When Lex was a mortal, spiritual energy traveled in his body via meridians, but now that he was an immortal, it flowed freely through his body, yet that did not cause any chaos either. There were patterns to the flow, traveling through a certain sequence, orbiting his Golden core, which was also the seat for his tenet when it was inactive. Lex felt his mind tremble as he came to a realization that the outline of the flow of his energy formed the array character for supremacy.

As the flow of energy within his body gained momentum, his body subtly started to absorb energy from outside. His cultivation technique kicked in, absorbing the strongest, most powerful attributes that the dragon underneath him could provide.

Yet, almost immediately, Lex felt a certain blockage. Something deep inside of Lex sensed that the gains he could get from the dragon were limited by his own body, and though his technique could strengthen and enhance his body beyond anything he was supposed to ordinarily achieve, it could not change what his body was on a fundamental level and so ultimately remained restricted.

This sensation did not come from his cultivation technique, but something deeper and more inherent to his existence.

Then his physique activated, in conjunction with his cultivation technique. Lex was under the impression that his physique could only work on other humanoid beings and not himself, yet that's exactly what was happening.

His physique was actively and subtly changing his body, allowing his cultivation technique to absorb even more from the dragon than it was already doing.