Sebelum dia sempat merasakan apa pun, Lex mendengar dirinya mengerang. Perlahan, indera kembali dan dia merasakan seluruh tubuhnya sangat kaku. Di saat yang sama, dia merasa sangat kembung, seolah-olah dia sudah makan tanpa henti berhari-hari.
Dia mengerang lagi sambil perlahan mengangkat tangannya untuk menghapus pasir dari matanya.
"Apa yang terjadi?" gumamnya sambil membuka mata, dan menemukan penglihatannya kabur. Dia bingung, mual, dan lehernya sakit sekali. Rasanya seperti dia kembali ke masa kuliah.
Sayangnya, dia tidak mendapat jawaban, jadi dia hanya bisa menunggu tubuhnya pulih.
Untungnya, kondisi lemah itu tidak berlangsung lama. Dalam beberapa menit penglihatannya jernih lagi dan semua keluhannya menghilang.
Dia menepuk tangannya ke lantai untuk mendukung tubuhnya bangkit, dan keterkejutan besar, dia melihat lapisan kulit sangat pucat dan bening sekali menutupi tangannya.
"Mary, berapa lama aku tidak sadar?" tanyanya, tatapannya tertuju pada tangannya. Biasanya, butuh minggu baginya pulih sejauh ini.
"Hanya beberapa jam," jawab Mary, membuatnya gembira.
Dia memandang sekeliling dan melihat dia masih di dalam formasi, meski si imortal sudah pergi. Semua pakaian dan barangnya ada di sisi, dilipat rapi dan tidak disentuh.
Dia bangun dan memakai pakaiannya, meregangkan lengan dan kaki saat melakukannya. Semakin dia bergerak, semakin cepat pulihnya, meski perasaan kembung aneh itu tidak hilang.
"Terima kasih, senior," ucap Lex keras, dan membungkuk. Meski si imortal tidak di sana, Lex yakin semua tindakannya diawasi. Jika dia ingin bertemu, dia pasti datang. Karena tidak, itu semacam pamitan.
Setelah menunggu sebentar memastikan imortal tidak merespons, Lex berbalik dan pergi. Di luar, seorang pelayan menunggu untuk membawanya keluar istana. Meski perhatian, kesemangatan pelayan itu hampir membuat Lex curiga apakah mereka ingin dia pergi. Tapi bagaimana mungkin? Hubungan mereka bagus! Lex malah menganggap imortal Celestial itu sebagai kontak pribadi, meski dia belum tahu namanya.
Apapun yang terjadi, Lex punya tugas sendiri, jadi dia tidak menunggu. Keluar istana, Lex menuju kota ibu dan menyewa kamar hotel sehari. Di dalam, dia finally cek kartu yang diberikan Hix. Sayangnya, tidak ada tanda kemajuan dalam pencarian Barley.
Lex mengerutkan kening mempertimbangkan apakah harus berkonsultasi dengan salah satu oracle di Inn. Lagipula, dia hanya punya beberapa minggu sebelum Inn disegel. Setelah itu, dia pun akan terjebak di luar jika tinggal di luar, jadi dia harus menyelesaikan semua urusan sebelum itu.
Masalahnya, perlindungan tingkat Destiny di sekitar Inn mencegah ramalan untuk siapa pun di dalam. Berdasarkan logika itu, seharusnya juga mencegah siapa pun di dalam meramal apa pun di luar, kan? Menurut skala yang dia kenal, jika seseorang ingin menembus formasi tingkat Divine, ramalannya harus tingkat Death, yaitu tingkat setelah Destiny. Lex tidak mengerti dasar skala ini, tapi dia setidaknya tahu nama-nama tingkatnya.
Menggelengkan kepala, Lex teleport kembali ke Inn. Dia tidak punya cara tahu apakah inskripsinya benar-benar dihapus, tapi dia percaya sudah.
Kembali di Inn, hal pertama yang dilakukan Lex adalah cek statusnya sendiri untuk tahu kenapa dia merasa kembung.
Kondisi: Karena energi spiritual tingkat sangat tinggi melewati meridianmu, meridianmu bengkak. Akan pulih sendiri dalam 24 jam.
Catatan: Kamu terlalu biasa jadi kasihan, hal baik justru bikinmu sakit.
Energi sangat murni... mengingat kondisi fisiknya, Lex memutuskan tidak kultivasi beberapa hari biarkan tubuh pulih. Meski Sistem bilang besok sudah baik, dia tidak mau risiko. Lagipula, acara Vera sebentar lagi. Dia bisa menghabiskan beberapa hari mengawasi itu. Bisa juga coba masakan Kenta sebagai Leo.
Ide-ide makin banyak datang soal cara memperpanjang istirahat dari sesi kultivasi. Ini jenis kreativitas yang biasanya hanya muncul saat orang belajar ujian, tapi otaknya malah mikir hal-hal menyenangkan lain.
Teleport ke kantornya, Lex buka semua info soal acara mendatang. Sejujurnya, meski Lex mau banyak hal, itu acara Vera, jadi dia hanya bisa apa yang diminta Vera.
Acara berlangsung lima hari dan tidak terlalu menarik. Dasarnya, Vera booking venue, dan semua peserta masuk venue di awal acara, lalu disegel. Venue baru dibuka lima hari kemudian.
Satu-satunya tanggung jawab Lex hanyalah mensegel venue dan iklan setelah acara berakhir. Tentu tidak ada rencana jahat, semua peserta diberitahu sebelumnya venue akan disegel. Masuk atau tidak sepenuhnya terserah mereka.
Itu saja. Jadi teknisnya, Lex tidak perlu memperhatikan acara ini sama sekali. Masalahnya, jumlah peserta yang diperkirakan sangat besar, mencapai jutaan. Lebih-lebih, mereka semua إما oracle atau diviner, atau profesi yang berurusan dengan meramal masa depan. Dia akan merasa kelewatan peluang besar jika tidak berbuat apa-apa. Satu-satunya pertanyaan: apa yang bisa dia lakukan?
Before he felt anything else, Lex heard himself groan. Slowly, sensation returned to him and he felt that his entire body was incredibly stiff. At the same time, he felt incredibly bloated, as if he had been eating nonstop for days.
He groaned again as he slowly brought his hands to wipe the sand from his eyes.
"What the hell happened?" he managed to mumble as he opened his eyes, and discovered that his vision was blurry. He was disoriented, nauseous, and his neck was killing him. It felt like he was back in college.
Unfortunately, he got no reply to his question, so he could only hold on while his body recovered.
Fortunately, his debilitated state did not last long. In a few minutes his vision cleared up and all his ailments seemed to fade.
He slapped his hand onto the floor to pick himself up, and to his great surprise, he noticed a very pale and extremely see-through layer of skin covering it.
"Mary, how long have I been out of it?" he asked, his gaze fixed on his hand. Normally, it would take him weeks to recover so much.
"A few hours at most," she responded, to his delight.
He looked around and saw that he was still inside the formation, though the immortal was gone. All his clothes and items were on the side, neatly folded and untouched.
He picked himself up and put on his clothes, flexing his arms and legs as he did. The more he moved, the quicker he recovered, though the unusual bloated feeling was not disappearing.
"Thank you senior," Lex said out loud, and bowed. Although the immortal was not there, Lex was sure that all his actions were under the immortal's supervision. If he wanted to meet Lex he would have. Since he had not come, then that was a form of farewell.
After waiting a moment to make sure that the immortal was not responding, Lex turned around and left. Outside, an attendant was waiting for him to guide him outside the palace. Although it was quite thoughtful, the attendants' eager attitude to lead Lex outside almost made him suspect that they wanted him gone. But how was that possible? They had quite a good relationship! Lex actually counted the Celestial immortal amongst the list of his personal contacts, though admittedly he did not know his name yet.
Whatever the case, Lex had his own tasks to complete, so he did not delay either. Once he left the palace, Lex made his way into the capital city and rented a room in a hotel for a day. Once inside, he finally checked the card that was given to him by Hix. Unfortunately, there was no indication of any progress in searching for Barley.
Lex frowned and considered if he should consult one of the oracles inside the Inn. After all, he only had a few weeks left till the Inn was sealed. Afterwards, even he would be trapped outside if he remained out, so he had to conclude all his business by then.
But the problem with that was the Destiny level protection around the Inn. It would prevent divination for anyone inside the Inn. Based on that logic, it should also prevent anyone inside the Inn from divining anything outside, right? According to the scale he knew, if someone wanted to break through the Divine level formation, then their divination would have to be of the Death level, which was the level after Destiny. Lex did not understand what this scale was based on, but he at least knew the names of the levels.
Shaking his head, Lex teleported back to the Inn. He had no way of knowing if his inscription was really removed or not, but he trusted that it had been done.
Once back at the Inn, the first thing Lex did was check his own status to see why he was feeling bloated.
Condition: Due to extremely high level spiritual energy passing through them, your meridians are swollen. They will recover on their own within 24 hours.
Remarks: You're so used to being pitiful, good things make you sick.
Extremely pure energy… considering his physical condition, Lex decided not to cultivate for the next few days to let his body recover. Although the system said he'd be fine in a day, he didn't want to risk it. Besides, Vera's event was coming up. He could spend the next few days watching over that. He could also try out Kenta's cooking as Leo.
More and more ideas kept coming to him for how he could prolong his rest from his cultivation sessions. This was the kind of creativity that usually only hits someone when they're trying to study for exams, but their brain keeps thinking of various fun tasks to do.
Teleporting to his office, Lex pulled up all the information about the upcoming event. To be entirely honest, even though Lex wanted to do a lot with it, it was Vera's event, so he could only do what she asked.
The event would last five days and was not too exciting. Basically, Vera had booked a venue, and all attendees would enter the venue at the beginning of the event, after which it would be sealed. The venue would only open five days later.
The only actual responsibility Lex had was sealing the venue and doing the advertising once the event was actually over. Of course, there was nothing sinister planned, as all attendees would be informed beforehand that the venue would be sealed. To enter or not was entirely up to them.
That was it. So technically, Lex should not have paid such an event any attention at all whatsoever. The problem was, the number of expected participants was massive in the millions. Moreover, all of them were either oracles or diviners, or basically had some profession that dealt with predicting the future. He would feel like he would be missing out on a massive opportunity if he did nothing. The only question was, what could he do?
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