The Innkeeper

Chapter 1012 Pop goes the...

Lex decided not to measure time and instead just focus on his search. Such a mentality, alongside the fact that it was perpetually sunny in the Midnight realm made it so he really could not tell how long it had taken him, eventually there came a time that he scanned the entirety of the region, but was unable to discover the resin or anything else that might hint at it.

That meant he would need to conduct the search underground - how wonderful. He did not need to think back to the time in the Crystal realm when he got buried underground, or the dragonʼs basement, or basically any time he went below the surface, to know that this would not be a pleasant experience.

If for no other reason than because he had no way to easily travel through solid ground, this was going to be a tedious journey.

But then he paused. No wait, it seemed he really had a way to travel through solid objects. If he changed his body from its physical form to his soul state, couldnʼt he travel through the ground? He could avoid entering the soul plane, which was something he would have to experiment with at a later time because he could not even begin to imagine how heʼd search for the resin through another plane of existence he had no experience with.

Whatʼs more, he could also… he could also turn himself into thought, and travel through the mind of the countless living creatures here, and search through their memories to see if they had any recollection of something that might hint towards the resins location.

For a moment Lex became disoriented as his perception of the world changed as he realized the scale and scope of his abilities. He was too used to seeing the world as he knew it from back when he was a mortal. Perhaps this was a drawback of progressing too quickly in his cultivation: he hadnʼt had time to reflect on the changes it brought him.

He also vaguely understood what Cassandra meant when she said that he needed to change his worldview before growing stronger, or heʼd always have limited strength. Of course, she had been more specific and mentioned the tenets of immortality and how they would be weaker if he didnʼt adapt.

But even in a broader sense, he began to feel how his old habits and outdated perceptions began to limit him. It was… something he definitely needed to take time out and reflect on later.

He held his hand out and looked at it as he willed himself to enter his soul state and then… he just did. But nothing seemed to change. He did not become ethereal or ghostly. He looked exactly the same. He even felt exactly the same.

To test out if anything had changed he put his feet on the ground and watched with intrigue as it slipped through. He also felt silly.

The whole reason he searched from the ground was because he didnʼt have a way to easily travel underground, only to realize that he did.

He did not admonish himself for the oversight. After all, he had spent 26 years with a physical body, and only just gained the ability to turn into a soul. It was acceptable for him to forget about it.

Slowly, he allowed his body to descend into the ground, which was a strange experience. Physically he felt nothing because, well, he did not have a physical body. But the moment he went underground, he became blind, with his eyes at least. His spirit sense still allowed him to see everything around him, even through the ground itself. The Glyph was also still active, so technically he should still be able to sense treasures.

Guided by his spirit sense, he began to once again travel after descending half a mile (800 meters) below ground, though he reduced his speed drastically. Even though he could travel through the ground, he didnʼt know if his soul would hit other things and thereby incur damage, which is why he moved slowly for now.

Just for the sake of experimentation, he allowed his body to brush up against another living thing. This deep underground, the ants, worlds, snakes and other creatures could not make their colonies or burrows, so the only living things he encountered were genuine, ground dwelling creatures, and there were many of them here.

Even though most of the space underground was occupied by larger boulders buried deep, or crush created from crumbling larger rocks, the ground dwelling creatures made use of the limited soil in between.

In fact, the soil became a sort of highway for these creatures to travel, and their homes seemed to be small caves that they drilled in the rocks themselves.

When Lex touched such a creature he finally felt some kind of sensation, but before he could focus on it, the creatureʼs soul popped, startling Lex! He didnʼt mean to kill it, buts soul had been too fragile to even sustain his touch. After offering a silent prayer for the dead… for the dead whatever it was, Lex decided to continue with his reduced speed for now.

He confirmed that touching another soul would result in some kind of hindrance, and though he would most likely be fine, the experience of popping another soul was quite unpleasant. He felt so guilty!

What was worse was the ectoplasmic soul go that was stuck to his finger from popping the soul. He had no idea how to get it off, and he didnʼt want to rub it on his pants.

Wait.

He looked down and discovered that he was still wearing his suit made by Geeves. Did he just… turn his suit into a soul, or was this an ability Geeves gave the clothes when he made them? Or… was the suit a part of him now? Was Lex a suit?

With the increasing number of mental crises he was experiencing, Lex continued to search for the resin.