The Innkeeper
chapter-976

Originally Lex wanted to ignore delving into his new abilities since he wanted to focus on the realm instead. But the unexpected rise in his cultivation realm forced him to pay attention to the changes.

The first and most basic change was that with his increased soul strength, the amount of strength he could display while using the same amount of spiritual energy increased exponentially. This was a straightforward increase with no hidden complexities.

But, as a result of this increase, Lex could finally do something pretty cool. He had not felt the lack of this particular ability just because of how he was nearly omnipotent within the Inn, and had other means outside of it such as teleportation.

Regardless, now he could use his spirit sense to fly!

There were a couple of ways of going about it, which he would have to experiment with to see which yielded better results. Not to mention, he had already prepared a whole host of manuals and techniques for himself for the Nascent realm from the emporium. He could also consult them for advice.

Basically, the two ways of flying he could think of right now either depended on ambient spirit energy or the ground. He could use his spirit sense to push himself off the ground, and fly around. As long as his spirit sense was touching the ground, he could control himself relative to it.

The second way was to use spiritual energy and sort of latch on to the spirit energy in the air around him, and use that to fly.

This was cool, and Lex would definitely recreate any number of superhero poses with it later in his free time. But for now, he could not dwell on it as more information entered his mind.

The spirit energy Lex absorbed from the air would undergo a change and would develop according to Lex's own unique mix of affinities, making his energy distinctive. Once it could have been called Regal affinity, but as of right now, it had no name as Lex had to name it himself.

The important part of that was that previously, through the use of Impervious Hands, Lex could touch any number of intangible things. While he still would have to rely on the technique for other things, Lex had gained the ability to interact with laws on his own. That interaction could be through spiritual manipulation or through physical touch.

Technically speaking, his influence over laws was still premature, since that was something would gain proper mastery over when he became an Immortal. But for now, he could at least interact with it.

The next ability he gained was to enter into a soul state. This was pretty much expected, but what he did not expect was to gain the ability to enter the soul plane directly in his soul state! In hindsight, it should have been obvious, but he had not considered it. This presented numerous opportunities for Lex.

After all, back when he was traveling to save the battalion, due to unstable space he had not been able to teleport over directly. Instead, he traveled through the soul plane using a treasure he got from the emporium. Now, that was something he would be able to do on his own without the need for external aid.

Another quite predictable ability he gained was to directly influence the souls of other beings. Whether it was through his attacks, physical touch or even his aura, he could not use any and all of them to directly influence the souls of any living thing. At the same time he could do the reverse with soul based techniques, such as Evisceration. Instead of harming his target's soul, it could now directly harm their physique.

This was not something all Nascent soul cultivators got, but was specific to him due to soul state ability.

He was, at the same time, much more sensitive to items within his soul. For example, he could feel the presence of the system, as well as the sword projection in his soul at all times. He could also feel how unstable the sword projection really was.

This was a latent danger he needed to address quickly before something went wrong.

Finally, one last ability Lex gained, that he strongly suspected had a lot to do with the latest influx of spiritual energy from the new realm, was having his blood turn into some kind of elixir. It contained boundless vitality, so much so that it increased his healing many fold. But, even beyond that, his blood could heal others as well! Even more bizarre was how his blood could be subject to his soulstate as well.

Basically, if used in its normal form Lex could use his own blood to heal others physical injuries. But if he took out his blood and then applied soulstate to it before giving it to someone, it could heal their souls!

Theoretically, this was a very useful ability to have. He could heal his allies, and even heal the infamously difficult soul injuries. But giving out his own blood… felt strange. It would have been a lot easier if his spiritual energy gained a healing trait or something along those lines.

These were the main new abilities he got, alongside the usual ones such as being faster, stronger, with a quicker mind and an increased capacity for comprehending the abstract.

He always found it interesting that raising cultivation levels increased his mental capabilities without ever making him smarter directly. Perhaps increasing one's intellect was even more difficult than cultivating.

Once the influx of information finally ended, Lex could finally just focus on absorbing the energy as much as possible so that he could return his attention back to the realm. His connection to the system was once again strengthening, which meant that soon he would regain control of the system and its features.

One thing that disappointed Lex about his breakthrough was the fact that his body remained that of a babies. He was hoping that the sudden increase in cultivation realm would somehow return him to how he was, but no such thing happened.

In fact, he could feel that due to the immense vitality coursing through his body, his aging had been slowed down considerably. At any other time he might have enjoyed this, but he did not want to spend the next decade stuck as a baby. But, at least for now, there was not much he could do.

Eventually, he managed to absorb all the energy without further raising his cultivation level. With great anticipation, he opened his eyes and once again looked at the realm below him.

By now, the flow of time had reduced considerably, and only passed at about a hundred years per second.

The continent had undergone massive changes, and it seemed like signs of previous civilizations were once again removed. Instead, nature had reclaimed the continent, and the few living races were once again brought to basic settlements without signs of progress.

Even the massive tree seemed to have suffered under the latest storm, with its aura greatly withdrawn, though its body remained unharmed.

But such a state did not last long. After destruction came rebirth, and new powers once again started to rise. Lex, for the first time, saw signs of humanoid races, though he could not say for certain that they were human.

They repeated a similar cycle, of expanding outwards before developing inwards. Monuments began to rise, pyramids were built, the power of nature was harnessed, and finally, when two growing empires met, borders were drawn.

But before Lex could witness yet another war between major powers, the flow of time started to slow down rapidly.

Lex's connection to the system also strengthened rapidly until, finally, he heard a sound all too familiar.

New Notification: Midnight Realm has stabilized. The Midnight Inn is ready to once again become operational.

New Notification: ErRoR! Erro..&92**

New Notification: Emergency protocols initiating! Issuing emergency quest!

Emergency Quest: System failure detected! Immediately restore the system to minimum 35% functionality before permanent system shutdown!

Quest time limit: 399 days!

Quest reward: Return of normal system functionality!

Quest failure: Permanent system failure! Permanent Loss of all Midnight Inn services and features!

Remarks: Due to massive operational load, the system cannot function. Many integral system features are inoperational.

New Notification: Due to severe overload, teleportation functions are inoperable.

New Notification: Due to severe overload, Chamber of Secrets, Fire tempering room, Fishing well, Greenhouse, Guild room, Hot tub room, Inheritance lounge, Lightning tempering room, Meditation room, Mystery trial, Recovery rooms(including pods and organic reconstruction rooms), Security room, Training room and other Inn services are inoperable.

New Notification: Due to severe overload, Host Attire will stop working in 10 days.

New Notification: Energy reserve for basic functioning of system services has been allocated. The operational size of the Midnight Inn will be 1 million acres! Please select the location for the deployment of the Midnight Inn.