Chapter 1577 — 1577: Meanwhile I

While the armies of the castle tavern fought, while Z learned from Lex how to be more unreasonable, while the three beast twins played around with the mercenaries, the universe had not come to a halt.

In fact, Lex was aware of the fact that the flow of time within Abaddon was unusual, and variable. From one second to the next, the flow of time in Abaddon could change compared to the rest of the universe without rhyme or reason.

One moment it could be slower than the Midnight realm, and the next second it could be double the speed of the Midnight realm. That made it incredibly confusing to keep track, and very unpredictable. Fortunately, Lex's immortal mind could keep track.

Within the Midnight Realm, at that time, the Death Match between Jotun and the ruler of the Fiery Mammoths had begun. As per the Henali Convention, this was how battle between Galactic civilizations, meaning civilizations where travel between galaxies was possible, was to be conducted.

Such fights put the burden of conquest on the top few of both civilizations instead of the bottom many, and allowed the outcome to be determined with minimal damage to the galaxies and star systems.

So far, there had been twenty four Death Matches. Eight of those fights were between Heavenly Immortal Generals of Jotun, and similarly ranked Beasts. Sixteen of those matches had been between Earth Immortals. The last fight was to be between Celestial Immortals.

The Jotun Empire had won 13 of the previous 24 fights, but lost 11. Considering that these were Death Matches held within the Inn, such a ratio meant that both forces had suffered greatly.

If any one of the civilizations had won 70% of the matches, then the final match between the rulers would not have taken place. However, since it did not, the fight had now begun. The reason that the Henali convention was organized in this way was to dissuade fights between civilizations. They wanted the Origin realm to prosper, not get involved in unnecessary fights.

Unfortunately, sometimes, these fights were unavoidable.

Emperor Jotun appeared on a barren stretch of land that seemed to go on forever, with a pitch black sky above him. There was vast amounts of nothingness all around, which was fine because if anything existed within that space, it would have been destroyed anyway.

The ruler of the Fiery Mammoth stood before Jotun, its body an enormous well of power the mere sight of which could destroy an ordinary Heavenly Immortal!

It was not without reason that, with only a single galaxy at their disposal, they had managed to confront the Jotun empire which had so many galaxies.

The fact that they had been able to produce so many Heavenly Immortals using the resources of a single galaxy was, in truth, even more formidable than the spread of the Jotun empire.

Most galaxies in the Origin lacked a single Heaven Immortal altogether! This wasn't because of lack of talent, or even lack of resources. Instead, it was because even a single galaxy was an incredibly vast space to search for immortals. In truth, enough resources existed to promote numerous Earth Immortals to Heaven Immortals, yet in most cases, those resources could never be found, or their worth was unidentified.

Relatively speaking, it was easier to simply occupy another galaxy where Heaven Immortal grade resources had already been found than to look for them within one's own galaxy.

Of course, there were incredibly complex ways to induce the birth of such resources, or attract them over large distances, but that was not something just anyone could do.

"Daoist Burhan, you should have never crossed the Jotun empire," Jotun said as he summoned a large, gold axe.

"Why not? It will soon be my domain, and humans will have to assume their rightful place as slaves," Burhan, the Mammoth ruler stated, not a shred of doubt in his voice.

Jotun merely shook his head.

"You may think that I was chosen as a representative of the Henali due to my dashing good looks, but actually, it's because of something else. Let me show you."

Jotun began to casually step forward, his skin turning obsidian in color as his body changed from organic into something else entirely. What Jotun was displaying was the unique bloodline he had created. He called it… Black Hole.

"I thank you in advance for contributing to my rising cultivation," he muttered, his voice alone carrying with it the power of Firmament, one of the eight ruling laws of the universe.

The mammoth was not afraid, and turned his body into Star fire. In that moment, his mere body alone could replace a star in a functional star system without issue.

A hush fell over the Midnight Inn, as everyone could feel the auras of the two Celestial beings without being suppressed by it. All eyes were on the screen, as a fight between Celestial Immortals was not something seen everyday.

In fact, even a number of Heavenly Immortal dragons, and one particularly obese Celestial Immortal dragon had also shown up to the Inn to watch the fight.

Besides them, a number of extremely prominent and powerful races had made their way to the Inn, including Zarqon, the previous winner of the Henali Tourney, and a Djinn - one of the rarest races in the universe.

It was because all eyes were on the match, or on the arrival of the truly famous guests, that no one seemed to notice that in a corner of the Inn, the latest lich guard was standing before Anita, the Inn's very own lich.

The two said nothing, but had a silent confrontation nevertheless. The guard was a Celestial Immortal, and a traditional lich, while Anita was the very personification of beauty and holiness.

Not only was her very appearance counter to a normal lich's appearance, she was even giving birth to a non-undead entity which was highly controversial. Lastly, she seemed to lack a phylactery, which just didn't make sense for a lich.

Despite her many oddities, she was definitely a lich, for the guard could feel a certain threat from her that only a lich could produce. She could, if the circumstances were right, steal control of his many undead soldiers!