Chapter 1609 — 1609: Particular set of skills

The exact moment that the spiritual links detached from the three, they combined together to form a single light, which then transformed into a projection of Lex. The projection had no power whatsoever, not even an aura. After all, it was not even a cloning technique, but rather a technique to keep track of his targets.

That did not change the fact that Lex could remotely use the projection to understand what was happening.

All Lex saw was the three of them get pulled into the V.A.N. and the opening close behind them. A spiritual sense emerged from the white hill and covered Lex, as if observing him, just as he observed the hill.

Countless thoughts ran through his head, and Lex even confirmed that he was unable to summon Fenrir back to his location, before he turned his attention to the spiritual sense observing him.

"I don't know who you are," Lex said, his voice deep and slow. "I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have any spare souls on me. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.

"If you let my friends go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Lex did not show impatience or anxiety at the disappearance of the three as he spoke, nor did he try to display any threatening body language. He remained perfectly calm as he wanted for a response.

"Good luck," finally the spiritual sense said, before crushing Lex's projection.

Within his Recovery pod, Lex opened his eyes. He had genuinely tried to resist entering the jungle and focus on healing instead, but it seemed that it was impossible.

He exited the Recovery pod and left the castle. With Z and Luthor taking care of protection, the castle would be safe. Yet the three scouts needed his help. With a single step he reached the edge of the forest, and another one led him past the periphery.

Instead of using stealth, Lex simply withdrew all his aura, and concentrated Domination onto his skin. He would not hide from anyone, yet with his aura withdrawn he would be tough to find anyway. If he was detected by anything, the strength of his Domination would deter any aggression.

If even that failed, and they decided to get in his way, Lex would not spare them. Although Little Blue was now officially a member of the Inn, he was first and foremost the Galactic Sovereign Turtles pet.

Should anything happen to him, Lex couldn't say what the consequences would be, and he didn't want to find out either.

But as Lex followed the path that the three of them had taken, he soon arrived at the border of where reality had broken. The only problem was, unlike Fenrir and the others who fell into a daze that protected their minds, Lex maintained complete mental clarity.

Passing through that barrier would be a challenge, even for him.

*****

Much to his immense surprise, Fenrir discovered that within the white hill… was another jungle! This was the innermost layer of the jungle, hidden from the outside through the use of reality breaking barriers, insect hordes and more.

It was as if, even within a place as hidden in Abaddon, someone or something had taken great effort to hide a huge secret.

Now, the three of them had reached the innermost layer of the jungle, but that didn't necessarily mean that they had reached anywhere near the secret at all.

The trio looked around at their surroundings, filled with much more ordinary looking trees, their size not nearly as towering as those outside. There was a soft, warm breeze flowing through the humid air, and regular, mortal flies and mosquitoes flew around.

The scene was very unnerving though the trio did not understand why.

"Come to the lake, deary," said Mrs. Big-fat-guy, her voice now audible to all of them. "Just follow the path. I have a snack ready for you, and I can prepare something for your friends as well."

The trees moved aside, revealing a dirt path for them to follow. They didn't really have much of a choice, so the trio followed the path, though they prepared themselves to use their greatest abilities.

Yet as they walked down the path, it slowly became abundantly clear that they were hopelessly outmatched. They felt a soft aura wrap itselves around them, protecting them as they walked through the forest. At first they were confused. Why would they need protection, and from what?

The answer soon became clear when they came across a massive, white bone jutting through the ground, reaching farther up into the sky than they could see.

The bone gave off an aura they had all felt before, and an aura they all recognized. It was the aura of a Dao Lord.

In front of them was a bone, jutting out of the ground, that once belonged to a Dao Lord. The aura that was wrapped around them was protecting them from the influence of the Dao!

In front of such a thing, all three of them became very timid, walking slowly past it lest something go wrong.

Yet their 30 minute detour did not grant them any reprieve from the horrors, for they encountered another, equally large bone.

As they walked past one bone after another, Little Blue suddenly came to a realisation. Much like how the Galactic Sovereign Turtle used bodies to fertilize its garden, these bones belonging to Dao Lords were fertilizing the forest, allowing it to grow ever stronger and full of more and more vitality!

Fortunately, the lake that they were supposed to head towards appeared soon, so that they were spared from the burden of learning secrets they dared not learn. Unfortunately, the lake which seemed larger than most oceans, too carried some bones.

But the thing was, these bones were far enough in the distance that the trio could make out the shape of the thing it belonged to.