While Lex terrorised the Dream realm, mainly because the realms suppression of him was based on his cultivation realm rather than his strength, he found it quite interesting that he randomly learned a bit about devil lore!

Apparently, prior to conquering Garvitz, Devils had a much worse reputation! They were evil incarnate, indulging in mass slaughter, carnage, deception of all kinds with insatiable bloodlust. However, as if by some magic, the nature of the Devils suddenly changed after taking over Garvitz.

They became business oriented, focused on conducting trade - albeit a trade of souls and spirit, but trade still. If the buyer was smart and wary, it was entirely possible to conduct business with Devils without coming to harm, which is why their reputation had spread across the universe.

However, Lex did not think that they had changed at all. Instead, they had adapted their innate evil tendencies to exhibit in a different way. Lex hadn’t forgotten that Devils in the Origin used planets occupied by humans as farms for their demons. He had not forgotten their ruthlessness either.

They simply had learned how to hide their evil intentions better. Perhaps they learned that if their base instincts weren’t controlled, it wouldn’t be long before they were eliminated from the universe as well. Thus, they chose cunning over ruthlessness.

It was funny, though, that Lex was being compared to the devils of old. It was mainly because Lex had openly displayed his ability to devour dreams to feed his spirit! While dreams could not be considered alive, so devouring them had no effect on his conscience, those who witnessed him didn’t know that.

All they knew was that there was a stylish devil around who could face even the most horrendous nightmare, who could face even the loveliest of dreams, and devour them whole without so much as flinching!

It wasn’t just about the will to do such a thing, but the power to actually continuously achieve his goal, while resisting the influence of the Dream realm as well!

Since his identity was a complete secret due to the mask, and his traces couldn’t be detected because of the Masterless technique, Lex acted without restraint. Every minute of every day was spent scouring the Dream realm.

Lex wasn’t actually interested in devouring dreams. At least, dreams of this level had no actual use for him or his cultivation. He was instead focused on finding even the slightest trace of Inn workers. It was just that if any dream deigned to stand in his way, he would devour them whole!

As a result, Lex often encountered dreams which had many others trapped in them as well. When he would devour them, the others would be freed from their restraints. This happened once, twice, a hundred times, a thousand times, all in quick succession, causing the rumors to spread like wildfire!

The Dream realm, temporarily unable to stop Lex, made use of his likeness to scare others trapped in the Dream realm, making it difficult to tell which was the real and which was the fake. Thus, the rumors grew to the devil being truly devilish, sparing none and devouring all!

The rapidly spreading rumors would have bothered most if they were the ones being talked about, but Lex did nothing to clarify the truth. It wasn’t because he was indifferent to fame and fortune.

Instead, he had fused his Karmic Bead into the rumors. Since the rumors were technically about him, they carried a faint karmic connection to him. It was just that, because of the Masterless technique, the karma had not connected itself to him because the karma itself did not know who to connect to.

That didn’t change the fact that it belonged to Lex, or that he could use it if he wanted! Thus, the spreading rumors became tools for Lex to use to scour the Dream realm! Everyone who spoke the rumors, and everyone who heard the rumors were faintly exposed to Lex’s karma.

Using the karmic bead, Lex could sense each one of them. Thus, it was on his second day that Lex found Brenda and Pierre!

Of all his workers, he expected they would be the hardest to find. Instead, they became the first!

What he found completely interesting was that Brenda seemed entirely immune to the effects of vitality theft of the Dreams, and was able to extend her protection to a few others around her. How interesting.

Lex used his Karmic bead and disappeared from where he stood, traveling through karma to appear in the dream which contained Brenda and Pierre.

The dream, instead of trying to devour their vitality, appeared like a normal dream one might have whilst asleep. It was of a strange, dystopian future in the wild west where cattle consisted of robots, guns shot lasers, and everyone ate burritos from one Mexican foodstand that seemed to never run out of food.

The dream included a small town which centered around an old, wooden bar that was simultaneously the sheriff’s office, jail, courthouse and gunshop. Pierre ran the bar, and Brenda was the sheriff.

It seemed like a peaceful life at first, but Lex only needed to glance at the town for a few moments to see through all that they had been through over the past year. While this dream had stabilised, they were constantly attacked!

What’s worse, their attackers weren’t other dreams, but other groups who were also roaming the Dream realm!

Lex found it quite interesting that he was now so powerful that a single glance could allow him to see through so many things. It helped him realize just how useful the Host Attire had been in protecting his identity, for without it he would have been exposed a billion times over the moment he met Bastet.

Lex shook his head. He did not meet Brenda or Pierre, nor did he rescue them. He did, however, send both of them a compass to find their way back to the tavern on their own. For now, this would have to be good enough.

As for those attacking this small town... they would help Lex spread the rumors of the mad devil terrorising the Dream realm!