Two more years passed inside the Midnight Inn before Lex learned how to control his Dao Body. Fortunately, that was not too much time inside the Dream realm - one of the main reasons he wanted to keep the Midnight realm inside an early or development phase.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Charles regularly brought back the information from Taro’s journal, which had taught Lex a few things.

As the upper limit of a realm grew, and as a realm became capable of supporting stronger entities and manifesting stronger tribulations, the flow of time would automatically slow down. This was because of the way the realms process energy.

Due to the higher and more complex requirements a more Mature realm had, more of its energy was diverted towards maintaining its operations, causing the flow of time to slow down. It was not just a matter of energy though, or it would be far too easy to speed up the flow of time in a realm.

The complexity of the laws within a realm also affected the flow of time. The easiest analogy Lex could make of realms and time was that a realm was like a pipe, and time was the water flowing through the pipe.

The amount of water flowing was the same, so if the realm grows, meaning the pipe gets bigger, the rate of flow of water within the pipe reduces. At the same time, the laws of the realm acted as various blockages and restrictions within the pipe itself, reducing the flow further.

This was, to a very large extent, an over-simplification of the relationship between the flow of time and the maturity of realms. There were other factors that came into play as well. Lex was learning them all because he preferred if the flow of time within the Midnight Realm remained faster than normal Mature realms.

That was, however, a concern for later. At the two year mark, with his progress sped up due to the Innkeepers Scent Diffuser, Lex had barely learned how to keep his Dao Body from reacting to his random intentions.

To be clear, he had not even come close to learning how to consciously control how his Dao Body affected the laws of the universe - all of that still happened subconsciously, which is why it could have unpredictable results. He had merely learned how to keep his intentions to himself.

Although it was too soon to say this since he was nowhere close to the real thing, he could understand why Dao Lords suffered such difficulty in controlling their powers. What he had access to could only be considered a replica of the effects of Dao, at best, and he was already struggling tremendously.

Then again, he was merely a Heaven Immortal.

To make sure that there were no accidents, and that he had genuinely learned how to keep his Dao Body from reacting to his intentions, Lex underwent some intense testing within the Temple of Fasting - meaning he had the temple use various means to beat him up.

It was also a pretty good way of estimating just how tough he really was, because to accommodate his request Mateo had to wake up another instructor within the temple - one that was at the peak of the Celestial realm.

Although the instructor was somewhat disoriented, and weaker than normal, due to being in a hibernative state for an uncountable number of years, it should have been enough to beat up Lex. It wasn’t.

Although Lex’s progress in developing his Dao Body was at 25%, the level of resistance it had given Lex was beyond anything he could have imagined. He was, in fact, sure that even Regal Embrace might not have given him the same level of resistance this did! Or maybe the Regal Embrace might have also led him onto the path of developing a Dao Body!

The eight ruling laws were extremely powerful, and although Lex could indirectly control them, his being should not have been at the level where he could resist their power so easily. But he did. To the immense frustration of his sparring partner, even a direct assault from the law of Anchor could not break Lex’s skin.

In the end, instead of sparring, Lex had to just stand there and let the peak Celestial Immortal instructor smash him repeatedly until Lex bled... at which point exposure to Lex’s blood, with its healing properties restrained, directly injured the instructor!

For reasons he couldn’t quite grasp, Lex felt that his Dao Body was quite a bit stronger, and more robust at its current level than what the instructors at the Temple of Fasting told him it should be. In the end, Lex figured that the gap might be a result of the fact that the instructors had been sleeping for a long time, and weren’t up to date with the laws of the universe.

In truth, it was simply because there were no records of a Primordial Dao Body in existence. How were they supposed to speculate on something that had never existed before?

Of course, Lex did not let this get to his head for there were a few things that had led to this outcome. The instructor was weaker than his usual peak while Lex was in his peak state. And... and... okay well, that was really the only thing but Lex still didn’t let that easy win get to his head because he was extraordinarily humble and down to earth.

What was even the point of being able to resist a Celestial Immortal while standing there, letting him attack as he wished? A single sneeze from a Dao Lord was still enough to destroy Lex down to the last atom.

With that done, Lex teleported out of the Temple of Fasting and back to the Midnight Inn. Keeping in theme with a humble, down to earth attitude and mindset, Lex decided to unrestrainedly mess up the Dream realm for the over a decade of stress it had given him!