Chapter 1615 — 1615: Too much treasure

The flow of time within Abaddon had changed. Prior to entering the jungle, the time in Abaddon for the Midnight group and the mercenaries was always flowing faster than the Midnight realm, and not by a small margin.

Yet the moment they entered the jungle, the flow of time seemed to synchronise with the Midnight realm, and sometimes even flowed slower. For the group, this was not necessarily a good thing.

While Lex was unconscious, he was truly and genuinely knocked out. His awareness of the Inn had also diminished, and thus his role as the Sage could no longer be acted out either.

Yet Lex had planned for that as well. Since he'd already encountered a situation where he was disconnected from the Inn, he'd planned out for his absence already.

In fact, this only served to make the Sage even more mysterious. Anyone who visited the white room in the temple now would no longer be able to access the foggy meeting room in the dark by sitting in the chair. Instead, they would merely see a plaque with the same information that Lex had given Hargreaves.

If they chose to accept the oath, so be it. Otherwise, they would lose their access to the event - meaning, they'd be kicked out of Obsidian.

Lex couldn't really enforce any actual punishment to anyone, which is why the only consequence was being kicked out of Obsidian. He made the oath one of two requisites for participating in the event, which is why anyone who broke it would no longer be able to participate. The first requisite was, naturally, an invitation for him.

The Inn, too, naturally operated without problems. The actual issue was that the end of the Midnight Games was mere days away, with the end of the final battle within sight. Yet Lex showed no signs of waking.

Hours passed, and then turned into days, and he did not as much as move a single muscle. Outside, within the jungle, over a thousand Celestial level insects were partying at the tavern. Naturally, such wonton celebration caused the tower to crack and break. It was not built to withstand such excessive use.

To the immense dread of the Reaving Dread, whenever that would happen, Luthor would show up and scold the Celestial level guests! A mere Earth immortal scolding Celestial Immortals!

Did he have a death wish? Did he want to die too quickly? Was he afraid that his life was too long? Apparently not, because just as soon as Luthor would come over, threatening to blacklist them from the tavern, Z would also rush over to smoothen things out.

As a result, those Celestial insects would pay a small fine as compensation. The fine? It was only to shed a piece of their shell, and have builder ants underneath them use them to fix up the castle.

Builder ants - especially those at the Heaven Immortal realm - were masters of crafting using high-quality materials. Though insect skin was not nearly as valuable as dragon scale, being skin shed from a Celestial Immortal, their quality had increased drastically, making the castle stronger.

Outside the jungle, the size of the army had grown considerably, and they finally began their charge. All, except for a particular black knight, rushed towards the jungle. Oddly enough, the jungle also began growing past its borders, racing to meet the army.

When the two met, there was no epic clash. The army seamlessly entered the jungle and then… disappeared. A tremor passed throughout the jungle, and countless tiny fruits began to grow on the trees across the jungle. Each one of them radiated an aura of power, and even a hint of Dao, driving most of the insects within the jungle insane with greed.

Yet the insects did not pounce on them just yet. They had to wait for the fruits to mature first.

Within the castle, all insects below the Celestial realm suddenly left, as if they were called by something infinitely more attractive than mimicking their superiors. The Celestial insects, however, stayed where they were, and watched with amusement.

The whole jungle was suddenly filled with an air of excitement which would continue to build until the entire army outside entered the jungle.

As this happened, within the inner layer of the jungle, a thin mist began to form, filled with a particular aura.

Lex, who had up until now not shown any signs of moving, suddenly opened his eyes! Something incredibly strong within Lex had stirred - it was the recognition for valuable treasure!

As the owner of a dragon's heart, Lex also had a hint of a dragon's instincts. One of the things that made dragons so powerful was that they could derive actual, tangible strength from the value of their treasure hoard.

Although Lex had only inherited a few things from dragons, such as the strength of their bodies and their dragon aura, and he did not inherit things such as gaining strength from his hoard, he did get their sensitivity towards treasure!

But the moment he opened his eyes, Lex was also hit with a mind bending migraine! The reason he was unconscious was because it was a protective instinct of his body to protect his mind until he healed.

By waking up prematurely, Lex had to deal with the consequences of his mind having been partially unravelled.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed as he struggled to pick himself up.

Though the pain threatened to nearly overwhelm his mind, he didn't have time to think about that. The Midnight Games were mere hours away from ending!

Much more important than that, though, was that right now Lex felt like he was swimming in treasure! The very air here was more valuable than even in the Midnight realm, filled with a quality of energy he had literally never felt before.

What's more, Lex could feel the surrounding mist seeping into every fiber of the jungle all around him, turning them into treasures. Some herbs, sprouting out of the ground, even gave off a mild aura of Dao.

While others might think that was a good thing, in truth, it was one of the worst things that could have happened to him. The Amber Chaos resin aside, Lex could not come anywhere near close to anything that gave off even the slightest hint of Dao.

He needed to get away.

More importantly, he needed to immediately seal his cultivation! The mist that was enriching the jungle was also seeping into Lex's body, and he could feel that he was mere moments away from triggering a Major tribulation. Now was not the time to enter the Heaven Immortal realm.

Unfortunately, he might not have a say in the matter.