1580  Return my flower

"...lastly, just manipulating laws is actually the wrong way to go about things," Lex told Z, his lecture so far detailed and educational. "Directly using laws might sometimes be appropriate, but for the most part is a telltale sign of a new immortal. The correct thing to do is increase your understanding of laws enough to create Lawcrafts."

All around them was silence. The armies that the castle had summoned had disappeared, and there were no locusts in sight. This was because once Lex was satisfied with his test for the castle's weapons, Lex told Luthor to stop, and began testing out the other means at his disposal. That meant the Midnight Battalion was deployed, who did a very decent job at killing the locust king and the hordes of enemies.

Still, that was not enough to cease the onslaught. According to Kaemon, though there were many enemies in Abaddon, they did cease attacking after a time. Usually it was better to just run away though.

Naturally that is not what the tavern did. Instead, Lex asked Luthor to attack. Now, Lex wasn't expecting Luthor to just go ahead and end the fight. In truth, he was just testing out the powers and abilities at his disposal so he knew what to do when the time came.

Lo and behold, Luthor did something that Z had been trying to do and transformed! He used his Hellfire, which granted him an ability similar to the devils which allowed them to assume their devil form.

Devil transformations usually allowed them to take on a shape similar to Hellions. That included famous Hellion races such as Ifrits, Iblis', Hellspawns and so forth. What Luthor transformed into was similar to an Asura - the universally known race for having anger management issues, and the strength to back it up.

Back up the reputation of Asura's he did. As it turned out, Luthor had gained special expertise in fighting against large groups of enemies while he worked in the dungeons with Ereboth.

Combined with his bloodline that granted him near limitless power, Luthor just went out and wiped out all the locusts. There hadn't been a single one for a while now, which allowed Lex to educate Z in detail.

Luthor, on the other hand, retreated to the Recovery pod. Using his bloodline was like borrowing power from his future self. Whenever he wasn't fighting, he liked to pay off his bloodline debts as quickly as possible. Maintaining them meant that he had to continue using his bloodline, which in itself was draining, requiring him to take on more debt.

So, whenever he ended a fight, he would go into a Recovery pod and expedite his recovery while paying back the largest amounts of energy as quickly as possible without crippling himself.

"Just as when you began cultivation, you had access to Qi instead of spiritual energy, becoming an immortal means getting access to laws. The way Qi training cultivators fight is to use Qi to empower themselves. But the proper, more effective way to fight is to use spiritual techniques. Similarly, Lawcraft is using a law, or multiple laws to create a unique set of rules or effects. Think of it as a spiritual technique on steroids.

"Learning another's Lawcraft is extremely difficult, for it would require gaining a minimum level of understanding of specific laws equal to that of the person who created the Lawcraft. Considering how tenets make everyone perceive laws differently, it's almost impossible to gain the same understanding of laws as someone else. That is why it is important to create your own Lawcraft."

"Yeah, but I can't just craft a new Lawcraft out of nowhere," Z stated. "Even the techniques I use, each transformation I show, all of it requires hours, days or weeks of testing, theorizing, studying and even then my techniques are flawed. I can't make one up on the go."

Lex looked at Z and tried to hide the look of pity in his eyes.

"When you go back to the Inn, you can go meditate on the new Brimming Dream Lotus. A special Meditation room is being designed just for it to inspire enlightenment in whoever uses it. That should help you create your techniques. Until then, do as much research and learn as much as possible so that when you encounter your enlightenment, you have enough material to complete your technique."

While Lex tried to hold back the pity in his eyes, Z tried to hold back the irritation. Lex was talking about enlightenment like it was a beverage he bought in a cafe on the weekends.

"Actually, finding enlightenment within Abaddon is quite easy," said Kaemon as he walked up to the two. There's a black flower that grows in the wild here and eating one of its petals causes instant enlightenment. Eating two petals causes extended law comprehension. If someone eats the whole flower, their entire spirit will be purified, such that their ordinary thoughts become akin to a low level, weak enlightenment."

Z and Lex both suddenly stared at Kaemon with intense eyes, filled with an intense hunger and also anger.

"Kaemon, why don't you tell me what other, valuable opportunities can be found in Abaddon?" Lex asked, straining to keep his tone civilized.

No wonder a Joint quest didn't offer any rewards. In fact, Lex was increasingly feeling like coming to Abaddon itself was a huge reward. He was planning on spending the next century or so in the Earth Immortal realm to maximize his strength and enhance his understanding of the realm.

However, if he could get his hands on a couple of those black flowers and whatever else Abaddon might have to offer, then the Heavenly immortal realm might be just on the horizon for him.

"Hey, just because it exists doesn't mean it's easy to get. The flower is protected by-"

"Listen, Kaemon, you don't understand," said Z very seriously. "It's very rude to burden others. If someone out there is straining themselves protecting my flower, then it's only right that I should make haste to relieve them of that burden. You don't need to worry about how they'll react, for you see, Lex is very convincing when he talks to others. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to return my flower to me once he has a chat with them."