Lex did not feel the shock of the boom, nor did he even hear the explosion. In fact, for him, one moment everything was fine and the next moment the entire landscape had changed, all the Dao Lords were watching either him or the giant spider in the sky. The change was so instantaneous that Lex thought he must have blacked out somehow, or that his memories had been erased.

He turned to look at the two Dao Lords who seemed to be attracting the most attention, and saw them awkwardly glaring at each other like two kids from kindergarten who were trying to kill each other through their gazes alone.

A lot had happened in the fraction of a moment that was so small that Lex, despite being as strong as he was, could not even detect it. That is why, by the time he gathered enough information to actually understand what had happened, a lot more had already happened!

While the inn and tavern could suppress aura that was passively released, if it was released on purpose the system did not block it. Thus, when the spider up in the air suppressed all the Dao Lords, they were all influenced by it!

The Innkeeper, naturally, was not included in the suppression so he felt nothing.

"You have dishonored your hosts with such a shameless display. Yield, and accept judgment, or judgment shall be passed onto you!" the spider in the sky announced, its voice booming across the Primordial Garden.

The sight was just as impressive as the aura that the spider released, and the darkened sky was a clear testament to the severity of the killing intent radiating from it. So the question Lex had was... why were so many of the Dao Lords looking at him instead of the spider?

"Dammit Brenda, that was not a gas cylinder explosion, it was a damn fight between the guests! Get back in the kitchen!" Pierre's voice suddenly roared through the air, seemingly entirely out of tune with the intense scene playing

out.

Lex looked towards Pierre and saw him dragging a girl down the stairs while she struggled with a fire extinguisher. Where in the tavern did she get a fire extinguisher from? Wait, how had they survived whatever had destroyed the tavern? Speaking of that, how did he survive?

The reason Lex neither felt nor heard the explosion was because the butter knife perfectly cut its energy, preventing him from feeling even the tremors in the ground, let alone hear the explosion or feel the shockwave.

Lex glanced at his system and, yup, there were no notifications there either. He was about to glance towards Mary, hoping to find some answers there, but a very pink Nulli quickly found her way to him, dragging behind her an Eclipse that was holding onto some blankets that covered Nulli.

"Innkeeper, the way you used that butter knife to slice through that energy was just so... so... so handsome!" she exclaimed, retaining none of her previous enchanting and mature charm. Now that she was pink, she had turned into an entire fan girl, radiating the youthful exuberance one could only expect from a young girl newly in love.

"Butter knife?" the Innkeeper repeated, and pulled out the knife in his pocket. When Lex looked at it, he discovered that not an ounce of energy was left in the knife. Its recent charge using Dao materials had all been used up!

When Nulli and the other Dao Lords saw the butter knife, however, all they saw was a simple knife that lacked any and all bearing of a treasure. It was as if he had literally picked it up off the breakfast table and put it in his pocket!

Such a thing made his feat even more amazing! Nulli became even more breathless, and in her eyes the world started to fade, leaving only the Innkeeper in her gaze. If Eclipse hadn't been holding her back, she might have thrown herself into the Innkeepers arms!

"Nulli control yourself, I have business to conduct with the Innkeeper," Eclipse scolded, half because she genuinely had business and half because even she could no longer handle the second-hand embarrassment of pink Nulli.

"I can think of a business venture I'd like to-" Nulli was saying, leading to something most likely inappropriate which is why Eclipse did a hand gesture to her secret body guard who promptly kidnapped Nulli and made her disappear.

Even now, no one saw or sensed the body guard.

While all that was happening, Lex finally understood what had happened. Two Dao lords had gotten into some kind of argument, and the ensuing clash of energies had nearly killed him and the others from the Inn. Somehow, that had triggered the butter knife which had barely been able to save them by attacking the energy attacking them with such skill and precision that it shocked many.

In truth, Lex understood the gist of it, but he could not even begin to imagine just how much he had underestimated what the butter knife had done. Its application of laws had allowed it to use Demi-Dao energy to barely cut open tiny pockets within actual Dao energy overflow.

That was a level of skill that had shocked and impressed them all!

"Innkeeper, I will allow you to pass judgment first," Eclipse said, her expression and tone becoming serious once more. "This disrespect, I will not tolerate, but since your tavern was destroyed, I will allow you to determine how you wish to deal with the offenders. For what it's worth, I'm glad you managed to save your staff, at least. It's quite remarkable, actually."

Lex looked at Eclipse, and then at the two Dao Lords. To be honest, he felt like he might still be in shock because his emotions had not caught up with the reality of the situation. More than anything, he just felt disbelief, followed closely by immense relief that he had accidentally survived that alongside everyone else.

What would he have done if he could never hear Pierre screaming at Brenda again?

As soon as he had that thought, his emotions caught up with reality, and a hint of anger started to well in his chest. Yeah, that's right. What would he have done if he never saw any more of Brenda's shenanigans? Those two Dao Lords nearly killed her, and everyone else!