Chapter 1474 — Chapter 1474 I don't adhere to common sense

"How much longer until the Midnight Games end?" Lex asked. He knew the answer, obviously, but he asked anyway.

"Three months," Mary said.

"And how many workers are we sending to the Temple of Fasting at any given time?"

"Well, considering the massive crowds we've gathered, and the increased influx we're expecting for the finale, we prioritise those who need to immediately breakthrough. Besides those, we send a few more, so that at no time do we have more than 2000 workers at the temple."

"Alright, after the Midnight Games end, we need to increase that number drastically. We need to talk to the trainers at the temple and figure out a timeline. Within a 100 years I want more than 50% of all workers to be Earth Immortals, and within 1000 years I want at least 10 Heavenly immortals."

Mary snorted and rolled her eyes. "I think your easy success has gone to your head," she said frankly.

"Easy? What's easy about my success? No wait, that's besides the point. What's wrong with my timeline?" Lex asked with a frown. "I studied the Artica realms history. Although the realm matured 3000 years ago, the Bank formally initiated their relationship with the Artica race only a 1000 years ago. During that time the bank no doubt helped them a lot, but they've also begun setting up the pieces to potentially undermine the Artica realm.

"I don't know what their specific objective is, but I can surmise that if they have any standard operating procedures for such things, then it probably involves using the first thousand years to establish a good relationship with mutual benefit while positioning themselves for whatever they really want.

"But one use case is not enough to determine a pattern. They might begin with the Inn before a 1000 years, since it represents the power of a single Dao Lord rather than an entire Major realm. Which is why I set that as a deadline. The sooner we amass power, the better we'll be positioned to respond to external threats."

"I'm not saying your reasoning for choosing 1000 years is lacking," Mary said. "But your demand for when you want Heavenly Immortals by is beyond ridiculous. You remember General Ragnar from Jotun? He is considered a genius of the human race for achieving the Heavenly Immortal realm in 3,500 years! Do you understand? A genius for achieving it in three times the time limit you've set."

"Yes, but he didn't have the advantage of the Temple of Fasting and the Midnight realm," Lex explained, as if he failed to see the issue.

"This is what I meant by your easy success has deluded you. Just because you've quickly achieved the peak of the Earth Immortal realm, you've severely underestimated the difficulty of the process. Just think about Qawain and Anita. What are their ages? What are their cultivation levels?"

That gave Lex pause. Anita was over 500,000 years old, white Qawain was a little over 130,000 years old, yet both of them were merely Earth Immortals.

"The advantages of the Midnight Realm are many, and they especially speed up the first leg of the cultivation path, which involves reaching the Immortal realm. But after that, it is very difficult to artificially speed up growth. Why your growth is so fast, I cannot answer. But I guarantee that such a feat is not replicable across the entire universe, regardless of the race.

"Growth in the Immortal realm is about understanding laws and strengthening tenets, both of which are very difficult to externally influence. The entire Jotun Empire, which controls numerous galaxies, only has a handful of Heavenly Immortals. You usually end up meeting a lot of geniuses and lucky people, which is why you think that such a realm is easily attainable, but it's not."

"You said they're very difficult to influence externally, not impossible," Lex caught on to the hidden meaning in her sentences. "How do we do that?"

"There are many ways. Obviously there are many ways, for every force in existence will always want to strengthen their own people. But it is a slow process. You cannot hope for quick results.

"The first, most common method is to discuss the laws with peers, as well as receive lessons from seniors. However, each person perceives laws differently, so any lesson or advice can only be taken as a reference. Your own individual comprehension is extremely important, which is why a majority of all those who achieve the Immortal realm never even make it to the second level of Earth Immortal."

"But I thought being in a new realm was supposed to help with the comprehension of laws, and speed up growth. Isn't that why Dao Lords value immature realms? So that they can witness the process of it maturing?"

"That's true, but you need to understand that speed up does not mean it can happen within a thousand years. You still view time through the lens of a mortal, probably because of the immense sense of danger you always feel. Across most of the wider universe, among immortals anyone below the age of 100,000 is still considered a child, and between 100,000 and 1,000,000 they are considered to be maturing."

"None of this helps me right now," Lex said, diverting the topic back to the matter at hand. "So far, the Inn has faced some serious threats, but never an organized and well planned out threat from a powerful, universal force. Unless I can get my hands on another full powered Butter Knife, I don't see us escaping from it without accumulating strength. So the question isn't about why it's so hard to achieve 10 Heavenly Immortals in 1000 years. The question is how can we make that happen, and potentially even increase that number."

"Hey, I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying that you should have realistic expectations going into this."

"Nothing about my life makes sense or adheres to basic common sense. I don't see why it should start now," Lex said firmly.