The Innkeeper

Chapter 1184: Mop

Lex followed Giselle without hesitation. After all, now he knew what the strange feeling he got from his innate ability was. If he ran into any more time fractures, he could identify them himself even if her watch failed to detect it.

The room that they had broken into looked like a store room, as odd as that seemed. It just felt a little mundane for an ancient temple hiding a secret, powerful treasure to have a room filled with dusting cloths and mops among other things.

In fact, Lex grabbed a broom and observed it closely.

”Youʼd think they would use arrays or formations to keep things clean in this place. Whatʼs the point of keeping a mop?”

Giselle, who was walking past the mops paused, and turned to look at him oddly.

”Werenʼt you the one who was telling me we donʼt have time to waste?”

”Oh, yeah, sorry,” Lex said as he placed the mop back. ”Iʼm too used to doing these kinds of things alone. With another person around, I couldnʼt help but voice my random thoughts.”

”You visit time bubbles often?”

”Time bubbles? No, this is my first time. But explore underground tunnels and caverns hiding a power that can easily kill me? Itʼs almost a hobby.”

They didnʼt speak much after that. The inside of the pyramid, as it turned out, was not too dangerous in and of itself. This was most likely because, a few billion years ago, whenever this temple was from, the cultivation standards of the realm were probably low. The traps would have been dangerous for mundane Nascent soul cultivators, but that standard was so low that Lex expected every single participant in this Temple of Frozen Dawn stream to be able to surpass it.

There were a few formations, but they were so immature even Lex could resolve them without having to use brute force.

The only real danger were the time fractures, but fortunately they were few and far between. But while the traps were not dangerous to them, as they proceeded deeper into the pyramid, the paradigm of the traps began to change drastically.

Lex and Giselle found themselves standing in front of a door with two handles, one white and one black. Each handle was radiating a powerful and potent energy.

More importantly, the wall in which the door was placed was covered by a barrier that was most ingenious. Breaking it by force would not be impossible, but exceedingly difficult owing to the two unique energies in the handles, which also served as a power source.

Of course, there was a much easier way to get through which was to simply open the door. But doing that would require turning both handles.

”This is divine energy, that much is obvious,” Lex said looking at the white handle. ”But Iʼm not familiar with this one.”

The energy radiating from the dark handle was, predictably, sinister and malevolent in nature. Lex felt like even touching it would cause his skin to melt.

This was a very good defense mechanism, because they key lay in these two high level energies. This was no longer a matter of cultivation realm and power, but rather the ability to handle these specific energies.

”Itʼs called Profane energy,” Giselle said. ”If divine energy is used by Deities, then Profane energy is used by Defilers, which are the exact opposite of Deities.”

”The exact opposite of Deities? So they get their power from people… not believing in them?”

”What? No, thatʼs not- the important thing is that Profane energy, while not as widely known as Divine energy, is equally as potent and has unique destructive properties.”

”Do you think we need to get the two energies to cancel each other out?” Lex asked. Although he had no affinity for Profane energy yet, he was sure he could tolerate it. He wondered what would happen if he grabbed both handles at once.

”Unlikely. The energies, while perceived as opposites, do not cancel each other out. Most likely, they just both have to be drained.”

Giselle looked at her watch, and then frowned.

”We have less than 100 hours left, this is bad. I can deal with the Profane energy, but the divine one is going to be time consuming.”

Lex raised an eyebrow, and then placed a finger on the handle containing divine energy. He just absorbed it all into his body, and then diverted it towards his Butter Knife.

Giselle looked at Lex once more, but this time she thoroughly observed him. She had gotten the sense that he was far from ordinary, but the ability to absorb divine energy was beyond just simply extraordinary. Only two beings were known to be able to do that: deities and angels, and Lex was clearly neither of them.

But then again, she was not exactly in a position to judge.

She grabbed the dark handle, and the Profane energy quickly gushed into her body as if it was greedy to enter her body, rather than her pulling it in herself.

Yet what Lex found most curious was that while the name of the energy and its associated being, Profane energy and Defiler, projected very strong visualization of the nature of this energy, not to mention the creepy vibes it naturally gave off, as Giselle absorbed the energy, her body gave off an aura of profound purity and clarity.

It was even purer than divine energy, and reminded Lex of the strange ethereal feeling she gave off whenever she danced.

He was curious, but he did not ask any questions. She had been respectful enough not to ask how he absorbed the divine energy, so he could only reciprocate.

The door opened, revealing the final staircase leading to the heart of the pyramid. The two quickly descended and entered a hallway that continued towards two opposite halls.

His instincts were guiding him left, but before he could say anything, Giselleʼs watch beeped and pointed towards the right.

It seemed the time had come for them to split up again. Lex didnʼt mind. It was nice having some company on one of his adventures for once - company that was not residing inside his body or equipment - but now they had more important things to do.