Chapter 1616 — 1616: Desperation

A bout of nausea hit Lex, and he doubled over, vomiting one more time, before he once again continued his run. He was feeling weak and strong at the same time, and as if that dichotomy was not enough, he was also feeling extremely excited and incredibly regretful at the same time.

All around him were treasures. Some of them even radiated auras of vitality so strong that he was certain eating any of them would go a long way towards healing the many injuries he had accumulated, if he didn't heal entirely altogether.

Simultaneously, flowers, herbs and natural treasures were sprouting from the ground, and if even one of the ones carrying a trace of Dao aura touched him, he was a goner. The Amber Chaos resin was an exception. Despite being a Dao level ingredient, it had an exceptionally soft and docile nature, allowing even mortals to fuse with it.

As if that was not enough to tantalize his faint heart, he kept getting the same notification over and over again!

New Notification: Treasure discovered that can repair the System within the Hosts vicinity!

The fact that the notification was repeating was not a bug. Rather, it was because he kept finding treasures that could be absorbed by the system. In just a brief moment, the notification had been triggered at least six or seven times! As he continued to run, he caused even more notifications.

It was such a sweet sorrow, such a painful joy to be surrounded by so much treasure knowing that he couldn't have it. To be specific, he could take any and all the herbs besides the ones with the Dao in them, yet as new herbs and flowers and grass and leaves began to absorb the aura, he had new obstacles to dodge.

Maybe once the mist ended, and new treasures stopped forming, he could try his hand at grabbing a few things here and there. But for now, it was more important to get away from anything at all that showed signs of developing Dao aura.

Truthfully speaking, if Lex were in a better condition, physically and mentally, he could have come up with a better way to avoid the Dao aura than just running around. However, given the migraine and his severely damaged spirit, this was the best Lex could do.

On top of it all, he needed to focus on sealing his cultivation!

Lex exerted his strained mind, trying to come up with a proper and appropriate recipe for a seal that would work on him. It wasn't like he could whip it out merely because he wanted to. He needed ingredients that could tolerate the strength of his cultivation as the most basic ingredients of the seal, and then forming the seal itself would be his second issue.

As Lex searched through his spatial ring, he found countless things to help him increase his cultivation, but almost nothing to help him bind it.

Lex took in a deep breath, and almost immediately regretted it because he inhaled a bunch of the mist. It was formed of an energy Lex was completely unfamiliar with, and was entirely incapable of controlling. It seamlessly merged into his body, strengthening it, healing it, helping it grow.

Amidst his desperation, Lex decided to throw caution to the wind. Although he wasn't necessarily in such a bad state just yet, he could not handle pressure so well while his mind suffered from the consequences of fragmentation.

Lex ran towards a tree in the jungle and grabbed ahold of its bark, ripping it free even as the tree grew stronger and more valuable. He took a big gulp of the tree's sap even as he ran forward to grab another tree, taking away more bark.

He gathered leaves, sticks, herbs and everything he could find, and began refining them together. He used the immense vitality in the numerous plants to treat the three bark, even as he processed it to become thinner and more malleable, almost turning it into a fibre.

At the same time, Lex crafted the crudest, most brute force seal he could at the moment. The seal would use the vitality of the plant itself to function. As it continued to seal Lex's cultivation, the vitality would be used up in maintaining the seal. Once the vitality was used up, the seal would break.

It wasn't the best solution, but it would at least delay matters for a bit.

In barely a dozen minutes, Lex refined all the bark into one, long piece of cloth fibre, and wrapped it around his forehead, mimicking rambo.

Finally, for a brief moment, Lex felt his cultivation freeze, and resist the urge to upgrade. Yet the mist all around him was still being absorbed into his body, as well as into the headband he was wearing, continuing to strengthen it.

Through the headband, Lex felt a cooling, relaxing sensation, as if his spirit was being healed.

Lex's eyes reddened, and he came up with a drastic idea. He surveyed the ground around him, and after making sure there was nothing even remotely similar to Dao aura nearby, sat down on the ground cross legged and began cultivating at full force.

Lex's body rapidly started to absorb the surrounding mist, forming a tornado, feeding his body. But since his cultivation was sealed, the energy instead focused on healing Lex and bringing him back into his peak state. At the same time, his headband also started to absorb energy, yet at the same time it was using up a tremendous amount of vitality to keep Lex's cultivation restrained.

A delicate and transient equilibrium formed, yet Lex did not care. Like a mad man, he continued to absorb the energy, brute forcing his way into health, allowing himself to quickly return to his peak state.

But he was not there yet. Unfortunately, time waits for no man. The final Midnight match ended at that exact moment. The Midnight Games had finally come to the end, and now, as the Innkeeper, he not only needed to conclude the event, he needed to give out rewards.