With increased fame and attention, however, came increased problems. The number of people who noticed Lex’s little trick with his karma began to increase. Although they wouldn’t tell for certain what he was doing, they could sense the influence of Tether, and so they could interfere with it, slowing down his progress.

At the same time, he had to fend off more attacks as well. By openly spreading his karma like that, Lex was also exposing himself and opening himself up to attacks from all around. While he could cut off his connection to his karma almost instantly, that small gap was sufficient often enough to cause him to suffer minor setbacks. Once, Lex even felt a formidable threat preemptively, cutting off his connection to nearly 90% of the karma he had spread via the rumors.

The crazy thing was, Lex was certain the threat wasn’t from a Dao being, meaning it was most likely some Celestial Apex capable of seriously threatening him had almost acted against him. It seemed that he had taken the Celestial Apex lightly.

In truth, while he had humiliated and hurt Chicken Wings somewhat, it was far from taking her down. A decisive fight with her would have likely taken a very long time, and the result was unpredictable. After all, who knew what secrets she might be holding back as well?

However, while he faced occasional threats, Lex’s progress was still rapid. Moreover, the occasional threat did not cause him to act more cautiously. Instead, it further increased his confidence.

It was basically just proof of how few there were across the whole universe who could harm him now. If he ignored all the Dao Lords and Demi-Dao Lords, would there only be a few million across the universe who could threaten him?

Maybe that number was grossly underestimated. But even if there were still a billion - heck, even if there were another trillion beings across the universe who were still a threat to him, considering how vast the universe was, that number was insignificant!

Of course, at this level, head-on fights also became rarer. Instead, fights transitioned from being individual combat to a collective, involving great armies, formations and generations of planning and setup.

Lex, if he was careless, could still be defeated by those even weaker than him. He would not forget how many people stronger than himself that he had defeated because he had the right tools, or the timing was correct, or because circumstances helped him. Since he had clawed his way to the top, he would not forget the lessons he had learned along the way, nor would he think that he was immune to the very strategies he had used against others.

Thus, his growing confidence did not mean he took things lightly. After all, he could not actually ignore the presence of Demi-Dao Lords and Dao Lords like he could for the sake of his self comparisons.

An entire year passed inside the Midnight Inn, and more and more workers started to find their way back, all revealing the same story - that the compasses just appeared in their hands and guided them back. Some of them even reported instantly healing from previous wounds, and others shared stories of being caught in intense fights only for their opponents to mysteriously vanish.

No one associated their return with the actions of the Red Moon Devil, although it became obvious to most that the Inn had finally taken some serious action to rescue everyone.

Lex, however, did not feel pleased by his progress. Instead, he sat next to a hot dog stand in a dream, eating and thinking with a frown.

So far, he had found no trace of Almira. That in itself was not so strange considering the size of the Dream realm. The thing that was causing him trouble, though, was that he picked up signs that someone was actively hiding Almira’s tracks.

If Lex hadn’t been actively searching for his karma connected to Almira, or the protection he left on her, he wouldn’t have noticed. The signs were subtle - so subtle in fact that he hadn’t detected them for months. Even when he did detect them, he thought he was simply making some mistake.

It was a while before he was forced to accept the inevitable truth - someone was actively hiding her trail, keeping her from finding Almira. That thought alone infuriated Lex, and not by a small amount.

Almost instantly, he thought of Damian! But after some simple divination, as well as upon checking the karmic plague he had unleashed onto the HOA, Lex found that it was unlikely to be Damian, or anyone from the HOA for that matter. Of course, he could be mistaken, and their tracks could be expertly hidden.

However, for the moment, it appeared like they weren’t involved. Considering that Lex could use their bloodline connection to sense if Damian was in the same realm as him, he genuinely felt like it wasn’t him - at least, it wasn’t him acting personally.

However, that begged the question of who could then be targeting Almira, and why? After going through his own list of personal enemies, he was forced to consider that maybe it was not his enemies who had acted, but Anita’s and Qawains.

A flicker of light flashed through Lex’s eyes as he stood up, and finished his hot dog. The only way to be certain was to find Qawain, and investigate.

Elsewhere in the Dream realm, Daekol stood in silence, blended into the background, undetectable by nearly everyone as he prepared the stage for his setup. To hide his actions from any Dao Lord was already tough, but to hide it from the likes of even the Innkeeper was a considerable challenge. Fortunately, the Dream realm helped make things somewhat easier for him.

Soon, it would be time to spring his trap. Improving his own system would bring him one step closer to achieving the Dao realm. One of the problems he had been facing since the start was finding a way to track Lex. But he did not need to trap him if he could bait him to where he wanted, and it seemed he had the perfect bait.

Within his vision, Almira slept soundly in a cradle, under Daekol’s influence. He had made sure not to harm her - yet. He needed her to be in perfect condition for when he needed to make sure of her.