For about a little over twenty minutes, Lex continued to absorb the mist, using it to fix and heal his body rather than further his cultivation. His condition, which would have required months to heal with the help of the Recovery pod, was already near perfectly healed, showing just how remarkable the mist really was.

But as Lex's condition improved, he realized that he had drastically underestimated the value of the mist. Anything in the universe that was even remotely connected to the Dao was immensely powerful and rare, and if exposure of this mist could allow random plants to develop an aura of Dao, then this mist's ability exceeded anything he had ever heard of.

In fact, it would be in his best opinion to absorb as much of it as possible, and even store it for later use. Unfortunately, he could not store it in any way.

Actually, it also finally occurred to Lex that he had no idea what the effects of the mist were, and that it might be adverse to him - like maybe trapping him in the forest. But it was a little too late to consider that now.

What's strange was that, for once, neither his body, spirit or soul were showing signs that they wanted it. For example, when he encountered the Amber Chaos resin, he was actually overwhelmed by how much his body wanted it. Now, though, there was nothing.

But from the rate at which he had healed, not to mention how it had forcibly pushed his cultivation towards the next level, and the fact that it had nourished an entire jungle, he could tell that it was incredibly valuable.

Oh, there was also the little thing about his dragon heart going absolutely crazy over the mist. It was fortunate that he had complete control over his body, or else he feared that his heart might develop its own consciousness and tear itself out of his body to get at the mist.

Before he could discover the mystery of the mist, however, it finally thinned out, returning the jungle to the way it was.

Lex opened his eyes and studied the jungle. He discovered, much to his relief, that the Dao aura that the weed in front of him disappeared alongside the mist. It was still incredibly powerful, but it had returned to acting as a simple weed, showing no indication of being sentient - or more importantly, being angry at Lex.

Seeing how calm things were in the jungle, and seeing how nothing ridiculous had happened within the Midnight Inn, Lex shrugged. Maybe the mist wasn't as incredible as he thought it was. Or, much more realistically, the effects of the mist would take much longer to show themself.

What Lex did know, however, was that without the mist, his headband stopped replenishing its energy. It would not last long, and he needed to come up with a decent seal before that happened.

Lex was not ready to break through to the next realm just yet. The Immortal realms, he'd concluded, were much more about mastery of control over laws than anything else, and he hadn't reached the pinnacle of his control over laws just yet.

If anyone else heard Lex, a human who could unleash a Domain as an Earth Immortal due to the immense control he had over laws, state that his control over laws was lacking, they'd whack him in the head.

But the thing was, Lex wasn't comparing himself to other ordinary immortals. He was comparing himself to the best of the best, the most mythical of the Mythical races, the prime of the Primordials, the crème de la crème of the universe, and among those, he was still ordinary.

Lex flexed his hands, trying to see if he got some secret power up but didn't notice, yet discovered nothing for now.

He turned his attention to the white hill in the distance - the V.A.N. That is where Fenrir and the others disappeared, and by now Lex could pretty much guess that whoever took them was most definitely a whole lot stronger than Lex.

If he decided to continue the chase, the chances of actually being able to confront such an entity were… nil.

"I really wish I had the strongest Butter Knife on me," he muttered, and looked away. No matter what, he was not going to abandon Fenrir and Little Blue without at least trying to get them back. If there was one thing he had learned in life, it was that nothing was set in stone.

The words he had spoken as the Innkeeper, though somewhat delirious, reflected his true thoughts.

He would follow them into the hill, but first, he would see what he could salvage from this jungle.

Just to test things out, he plucked a single blade of grass from the floor and sent it to the Gift shop. It successfully disappeared.

He glanced at the Gift shop, just to read its description before removing it, but paused the moment he did.

Suddenly, Lex remembered what he had been told about Joint quests. The reason they had no reward was because the ability to go on such a quest was the reward itself.

He looked down at the ground, covered in grass, and let his greed overflow for a brief moment. Then he controlled himself. He did not believe for even a second that a treasure as valuable as this jungle was just left unprotected for anyone to take advantage of.

Upon slight reflection, the ban on absorbing the mist into the system was likely a subtle warning to him to not overdo things.

That also likely meant that there was some limit to which he could harvest things from the jungle without causing a backlash or restriction.

While Lex was thinking of how he could maximize his gains from the jungle, a dragon walked into the Gift shop, led there by its instincts.

The dragons had come to watch Jotun fight, and had stayed back because the Midnight Inn was a proverbial treasure horde just waiting to be plucked. Of course, after seeing the Innkeeper, the dragon didn't even dare to think of plucking this treasure, which is why it came to the Gift shop to grab some souvenirs.

Naturally, as a dragon, he started by looking at the most expensive item available, and that's when its jaw dropped.

Blade of Eternal Echoes - 1,000,000 MT