The Innkeeper

Lex's sweat and blood had long since evaporated, leaving no trace behind. His suit was phenomenal, so it would not show sweat stains either. Moreover, Lex's entire back was covered, so nothing of his miserable state was actually shown in barleys recording.

By now, he didn't even need to waste any energy wiping the sweat off his face, for it would evaporate right on his skin. The dark impurities exiting his body evaporated as well. Oddly enough, however, since they were only considered impurities now that Lex had grown much stronger, after evaporating they didn't release a putrid or horrid smell, but actually smelled fresh and relaxing. After all, his body had been refined by the lotus many times, so even the dirt in his body was valuable now.

All of this combined to create the ultimate scene for Barleys recording, so much so that even the dwarf had not realized it yet.

Time seemed to lose meaning as Lex marched. At some point, without Lex realizing it, the difficulty of his task went from absolutely impossible to only almost completely impossible. The drastic reduction in difficulty was due to various factors, but when they combined together they allowed Lex to finally gather up the energy, and he began to jog.

Every inch of his entire being was aching, but Lex had a smile on his face because his increased speed finally allowed him to feel a bit of wind on his face. Although the wind itself was searing hot, like air coming out of a burning stove, it was still an improvement for Lex.

The pleasant sensation further fueled Lex's motivation, and soon he broke into a run. To be clear, it was not that it had become easier to traverse the area so he was running, but that he was forcing more out of himself. After all, he knew that if he wanted to achieve what he had in mind, the difficulty was going to get much worse.

Although it seemed an eternity, especially to Lex, eventually he reached the dragon!

He slowed down, panting and heaving, as he approached the dragon's face. By now he could no longer rely on his eyes to look at the dragon, even his left eye, for the strain was so great he felt he would go blind if he did. He had to use his spirit sense, and even that suffered from mild burns as it came in contact with the dragon's scales. 

He had to lift his face to look up at the dragon properly. Just to reach its lower lip, Lex would have to climb dozens of feet. It was hard to determine the exact size of the dragon, for the Dragons Might was messing with his perception. Even this close, he could not tell just how big it was.

He did not spend any time admiring it, for the hardest task was still in front of him. What he had done so far… was only the warm up. He reached forward and touched the dragon scale, his skin sizzling due to the scales heat, but he didn't withdraw it. There was also the sound of a mighty roar inside his mind that nearly made him fall unconscious, but fortunately it did not last.

He raised his hand till it met the groove of one scale ending and another beginning. There was barely enough space for his fingertips to grip it, but that would have to do. It was at this moment he cursed himself for weighing more than 700 pounds. He knew he would regret that sooner or later.

But he had no time to lament, for the longer he took, the more of his skin burned, literally! He lifted himself up… and fell back to the floor. What 700 pounds? Right now, it felt as if Lex weighed 70,000 pounds! What's more, it was not easy to leverage the entire weight only on his burning fingertips.

Lex blew out air from his nose, dissatisfied with the situation. Then he licked each of his fingertips, moistening them a bit, and began again. This time, he did not fall, and he began to climb slowly and steadily.

Just as he was making steady progress, and he was about to reach the lower lip of the dragon, the crown on his head cracked, and spirit pull began influencing him again, if only a little.

But Lex was a single minded beast now, so did not stop climbing nor did he stop cultivating, even if his thoughts had drifted elsewhere. The only redeeming factor in this situation was that the treasure that was tainted with the dragon's obsession was a little far from the dragon, and so he was not facing spirit pull at its worst.

The Lotus on Lex's back was stimulated, just a bit, by the dragon's aura, but it was too exhausted from healing that strange poison for Lex's system, so it did not wake up.

The castle above Lex trembled, and dust fell from the roof, but he did not notice. He just kept climbing, crossing the lower lip and then the top. Only a little more, and he would reach the snout, which would make his remaining journey easy, at least by comparison. But then, the crown on his head suffered another crack, and Lex got lost even deeper in his thoughts.

The strange thing was, the deeper Lex got lost in his thoughts, the faster he would climb, as if he was instinctively ignoring the copious amounts of pain in his body.

Unbelievably, Lex managed to reach the snout, and stood up on it, his posture perfectly refined. His cultivation technique began circulating even faster, and the effects on his body were noticeable by now.

Lex did not pause for long, and continued to walk, the crown suffering even more cracks. What was strange was that he should have diverted his path as he was influenced by the spirit pull and gone towards the treasure, but instead Lex never changed his path.

Lex had formed an obsession of his own while fighting against the dragon's aura, and now his obsession was competing directly against the dragons.

Finally, he reached the forehead.