The Innkeeper

Chapter 1277  Contemplation

After the Dao Lord left, Lex remained seated for a long time. He hadn't realized it at the time, a part of his mind automatically eliminating any negative thought originating from the Dao Lord, but his body had been subjected to quite a lot of pressure while the Dao Lord was there.

It was physical pressure, like one felt when diving deep into the ocean. It pressed on him with enough force to crush a star, but the reinforcement of the sofa itself kept Lex safe. It did take a while for the actual reinforcements to fade though, so he just sat there, and thought about things.

Much of his plan had worked, and much hadn't. He knew that the Glaticus Necropolis and HOA were his leads to finding Damian and the rest, most likely, but discovering what they meant was not going to be easy.

He meant what he said to the Dao Lord. He would take all the staff into the Chamber of Secret, and seal away knowledge of the Necropolis - for now. One could not take half-hearted measures when it came to a Dao Lord's request, and Lex hadn't missed out on the correlation between the Necropolis and everything else.

As soon as Lex had Mary inform the Henali about Glaticus, the Dao Lords struck and ended the fight. Moreover, he was visited personally by the governor of the entire realm, who literally told him to keep it a secret.

Until and unless Lex had the actual backing of a Dao Lord, or the strength of one, he could not look into it anymore. Hopefully, then, the HOA would be a good lead.

Lex also thought back to what Lilith had told him. She had said that he had done something that others should not have been able to do - interfere in the plans of a Dao being. That caused Lex to frown.

Lex was deeply familiar with all the benefits the system had afforded him, and messing with Dao beings wasn't one of them. Replicating the aura of the Innkeeper within the system, and on his personal items, was about the limits of what it could do.

Even the aura of a Dao Lord that he had left behind on the cloning facility he'd discovered, which ended up killing some people, was not provided to him by the system. Sure, he might have been able to use the Innkeeper's Business card to replicate his aura, but since he was allying himself with the Henali anyway, it was much simpler to negotiate a deal with them to cover his tracks.

So he wondered what exactly had helped him do that. The system obviously helped! Planning and plotting everything where it could not be sensed or detected was a massive boon, and knowing who to take advantage of at the opportune time provided excellent results, but that was not enough to explain that anomaly.

Obviously, the first thought he had was that this was an effect of absorbing the Amber Chaos Resin. The tiny piece of resin had elevated his body far beyond its level, and even now as an Immortal, he was far stronger than he should have been. It enhanced him in other ways he did not yet know, so it was entirely possible that it had allowed him to touch upon the Dao without severe consequence.

It would be similar to how he was exposed to laws before the correct time. But he refused to believe that it was so simple and easy to touch upon the Dao.

From the moment he'd started his cultivation journey, he'd seen naught but pure reverence and fear towards Dao Lords, and for good reason. They were the very epitome of cultivation as he saw it, and the absolute leaders of entire universal races and factions. The position of a race on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum was also affected by how many Dao Lords they had.

The influence of a Dao Lord was beyond imagining. Lex did not even try to imagine. So how, or why, had he done the unimaginable? Even he did not know.

The resin might be a part of the reason, but Lex genuinely and seriously doubted that it was all of it. The system may have played a role, but it had never been much of a help outside of its own territory, save to help with teleportation.

Everyone thought that the Innkeeper was protecting Lex, but he knew that wasn't true. Unfortunately, he did not know what exactly the reason was either.

But while Lex had once embarked on his cultivation journey, uneducated and lost, he was no longer as such. He had spent a lot of time in the Midnight realm studying, expanding his horizons, and learning about new topics. Ever since Cassandra had told him about the realm wars, and Lex realized how truly tiny he was, he'd done his utmost to expand his understanding of the universe.

The Origin realm, which was where he had spent a majority of his time, and was the main realm that the Inn was connected to, was too small and insignificant to play a part in the realm wars which were wreaking havoc across the universe.

Occasionally, through the two rhinocentaurs, he'd also learned something interesting about the other realms. It really put everything into perspective for him. If his life were a video game, then the Origin realm was the starter village where he got a tutorial on how to play. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Reaching the immortal realm brought him up to the minimum level needed to explore the rest of the video game, which in this case meant the universe. But being at the minimum level also meant he'd likely die anywhere he went, so first he needed to get even stronger.

That started with understanding what was special about him.

"Mary, can you compile a report for me about the phenomenon that occurred when I broke through the immortal realm," Lex asked as he finally stood up from the sofa. "Also arrange a meeting with Jotun, and give me an update on the battalion's progress. In the Crystal realm, the Midnight Tavern once received an unexpected gift from the Kraven. Soon, it'll be time we return the favor."

As of right now, Lex's best guess about what made him special was his cultivation technique. But to be certain, he'd need to run a few tests.

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