The Innkeeper-Chapter 1613: Hungry jungle
At the very edge of the veil of where reality broke off, Lex studied the castle for a while longer. He innately felt that once he attempted to cross the veil, he would no longer be able to afford any distractions, so he had to set his mind at ease before leaving.
The first thing he noticed was that only the Celestial Immortal insects had names, and spoke amongst themselves. All others, even Heaven Immortal ones, all remained silent, and seemed to be mimicking their stronger counterparts more than anything else.
The second thing he noticed was these insects seemed to have a pretty elaborate, and probably sizable community. In spite of their varying actual races, they treated each other as one, and interacted as if they were quite used to each other's presence.
Lex had no idea how large this jungle really was, but imagining that it was large enough to host an entire society where Celestial immortals were akin to common citizens was scary thought!
While he was observing the situation, he heard Z ask the one question he had been wondering for a while.
"Sir Harriet Reginald III," Z called out the dung beetle. "If you don't mind me asking, why is everyone so nonchalant about the army gathering on the border of the jungle? One of the reasons we escaped into the jungle with the tavern was because of the army."
"Army? What army? That's just fertilizer. It delivers itself to the forest after every soul feast, right on schedule. It wouldn't be so bad if we got to fight them every now and again. But the forest is just as hungry as them, so it eats them all up. There's nothing left for us to do."
Z accepted the answer, as if it were perfectly logical, and did not mention it again - at least to the dung beetle! He went around and asked a number of the insects while serving them, but no matter who he asked, that was the answer he got.
For once, Lex and Z were equally bewildered. The army outside contained Dao beings - they were sure of it. Yet such beings were entirely unable to defeat the jungle, let alone its residents?
That was spine chilling information to hear - but at least the jungle treated them as one of its own, and didn't act against them. That was nice.
At the same time… it was incredibly bone chilling. What kind of entity had they encountered? What was this place? Why was it here?
Based on Lex's understanding, in the modern universe, the death of a Dao Lord was considered a rare thing, and verged on nearly impossible. Only in the true Heaven, or whatever land that the universe made up, would their deaths become easier.
Yet now he was supposed to believe that every time there was a soul feast in Abaddon, a number of Dao Beings lined up outside the forest to feed it?
Of course, he could tell that feeding it was just a joke. In truth, they fought, and were defeated. Yet defeated and killed were not the same thing. More importantly, where were so many Dao Lords coming from? How could Abaddon afford such expenditure of Dao beings if they died after every feast?
Lex received a new appreciation for how incredibly terrifying Abaddon was, and couldn't help but ponder on some of the things he'd learned or speculated on about this place. He theorized that Abaddon itself was a parasite to their universe. If that was true, then it was clearly on a level of power he could not understand.
He wondered if Abaddon could be considered alive, or if it was just some kind of parasitic version of a realm. In their universe, realms, Major, minor and all other sorts, gave birth to regular life that contained souls. If that was the case, and Abaddon was a special kind of realm from outside the universe, then it made sense that the type of life it would create would be different.
Since a Major realm could give birth to Dao Lords, as a parasitic realm, Abaddon might also be able to give birth to Dao Lords? But how could it make them so frequently? Could it mass produce them? That didn't make sense, right?
All of this was merely speculation on Lex's part, and wasn't necessarily true, so he stopped thinking about it. He couldn't ignore the fact that this place also hid a lot of potential secrets - such as secrets about the Forgotten Age, not that Lex really believed such a thing actually existed.
The point was… they were extremely out of their depths here in Abaddon, and Lex began to feel like it would be in their best interests to get out of here as quickly as possible. He didn't know how or why the Reaving Dread had survived here for seven years, but he had a feeling that, with his luck, surviving even one would be a challenge.
After all, there had been no shortage of new or unusual things happening since the moment he came here.
Assured, at least as assured as he could be given the circumstances, Lex turned his attention towards the veil. He was now wondering what entity took Fenrir and Little Blue. Chances were that it was far from simple. Yet Lex was not one who would leave anyone behind.
He grit his teeth and took a step forward, towards the veil. He didn't know what to expect, so he bolstered his defenses as much as he could. Domination was, of course, on full blast. He strengthened his skin as much as possible, used his tenet to wrap his body in some laws, wore his strongest suit, and even activated Heavens furnace, his self created strongest defensive technique.
The exact moment he touched the veil, his body ceased to exist, leaving behind a peaceful and quiet jungle, as if nobody had ever been there to begin with.
From atop a tree branch nearby, a figure that had been watching the veil narrowed its eyes.
"See ya later, mate."
