The Innkeeper

As the Juggernaut vessel docked into the command carrier, Ragnar thought back to his most recent visit to the Inn. He just learnt that the Innkeeper was gone and, for the first time, felt a little curious what the Innkeeper did when he was away. Was he opening up another Inn? Or maybe he was dealing with a few problems. Well it was a pity that they could not meet, but there was always next time.

But perhaps it was for the best that Lex was not there for Ragnar's last visit. Otherwise he would have drowned in a sea of sorrow for not increasing the price of the golden keys, even just a little more than their cost price. After all, Ragnar just bought 300 million keys to distribute among some of the important personel on his command carrier. After all, in a war zone, having a safe place to retreat to was invaluable.

*****

Lex cultivated all night long and, just as he suspected, reached 99 Qi seamlessly. 99 Qi strands was the absolute limit of Qi training. There was no such concept as Lex absorbing more Qi strands than normal just because his body could sustain the pressure - mainly because it was redundant. Whether it was 100, 200 or even a million strands of Qi, individual strands of Qi could do nothing against spirit energy in its natural state.

Which is why, the process for the breakthrough to the Foundation realm began at the 100th strand of Qi. Once it was absorbed, under the careful guidance of one's cultivation technique, the remaining 99 strands would blanket it, until the strands began to merge, and instead of Qi strands, they would form a spiritual energy stream.

Once the stream was formed was when the actual process of the breakthrough would begin, as the single stream would attract more and more spiritual energy.

One might think that, since only a short while ago, even a moderately high concentration of spiritual energy was poisonous, absorbing so much energy would be bad for the cultivator. This would make sense if that's all there was to it. It was important to remember that cultivation and cultivation techniques were actually quite complicated, and a description of the behavior of Qi or spiritual energy was just the surface most layer of what was actually happening.

So, the spiritual energy a cultivator would begin to absorb after forming an energy stream was not absorbed to increase cultivation, but to fuel the change that took place as a cultivator entered the Foundation realm. In simple words, the cultivator would be undergoing a process of literally reaching a higher realm of existence, which would be fueled by the energy absorbed.

This is also why Lex was given spirit water for his breakthrough. By drinking it at the time of his breakthrough, the conversion would be more thorough and provide him with long lasting benefits. For Lex in particular, the conversion would be much greater, since it was affecting more than just his spirit.

It was for that reason that he was taking so long to absorb the last strand. But, after making sure he was in peak condition for the third time, and making sure none of the Qi he absorbed was acting volatile, he absorbed the last strand of Qi.

Everything that followed seemed to happen on autopilot. The Qi was guided to his chest, and the rest of the strands that were spread throughout his body started to move towards it on their own. The Qi strands began to join together and, in the smoothest way possible, fused to form a stream of spiritual energy, flowing throughout Lex's body.

It was an endless stream, with no beginning and end, and flowed through Lex like an endless loop. Spiritual energy ebbed and flowed into the meridian branches leading to Lex's extremities.

Lex almost lost himself in the ecstasy of spirit energy filling his entire body, but somehow managed to remember to drink the spirit water. That's when the hurricane began.

Normally, the absorption process of spirit energy would be slow and measured, since the attracting force was exuded by the limited energy within the cultivator's body. But, fueled by the spirit water that Lex drank, the pull was turned from a gentle breeze to a natural calamity.

The flow of spiritual energy in Lex's entire building was affected, and many people had to stop cultivating because the energy had gone into a frenzy!

Lex could feel every inch of his body slowly getting stronger, somehow being enhanced into something… beyond what he already was. This was also true for his meridians, which were already incredibly resilient, made from the special alloy as they were.

He felt his consciousness being altered, and amidst the bizarre sensations that flooded his body, he felt more alive than he had ever been. Considering the fact that life was a product of a soul, and that his soul was literally becoming stronger, his feeling was technically true.

The breakthrough, even as bombastic as it was, would not last too long and then it would be time for him to get accustomed to his new realm. But fate had different plans.

Amelia finally checked her message after one of her classes and was ecstatic to learn about Lex's return. She made her way to his apartment to catch up and ask him all about his trip. Since she was coming directly after a class she was dressed quite normally, but someone familiar with her may notice a light sparkle around her eyes and a gentle blush on her cheeks, an unusual addition. She was wearing something called Fantasy skin, the equivalent of make up in this realm.

She noticed a particularly eye-catching girl enter the building before her, with beautiful brown hair and captivating green eyes. Amelia only caught a glimpse of her, so she did not think much of it, but when she reached Lex's floor, she saw the girl again.

The girl was not alone, and was discussing the unusual behavior of spirit energy nearby with one of her two followers. When Amelia entered the floor, she and that girl exchanged glances for a moment, before looking away again. Neither of them were interested in the other, as they were not in the habit of snooping on random passersby.

But, when they both stopped in front of Lex's door, they realized they had the same destination.

Amelia froze, for she did not recognize this girl, but she knew all of Lex's acquaintances well. Since he was such a focused and dedicated worker, he barely socialized with anyone other than her and her friends at the academy, so who was this? A hundred different thoughts ran through her head, of which 99 were some form of girlfriend.

Cwenhild, on the other hand, deeply analyzed Amelia quite openly. She recognized the Fantasy skin, as well as the fact that Amelia was quite an amateur in the field based on the way she used it. She checked her cultivation, her demeanor, her appearance and everything else before she snorted mentally. As a daughter of Cornelius, she had lived her whole life surrounded by people trying to get close to her because of her father. As such, she was extremely skilled in detecting people who had such intentions, and currently, Amelia was ticking a lot of boxes.

"Hello, my name is Cwenhild. I'm looking for Lex, is this his apartment?" she asked, politely. This was absolutely not Cwenhild's normal attitude, but since she was coming to see Lex, a person who had pulled off something even she could not, she humbled herself a little.

"Hi, I'm Amelia, Lex's friend. Yeah, this is his apartment. How do you know him?"

"I have some business with Lex. He has an… impressive record."

Amelia felt this girl was strange and clearly had some kind of agenda. She looked a little younger than Amelia, but her piercings and tattoos screamed that she was bolder than her age would predict.

Deciding to simply nod, Amelia knocked on Lex's door, which was followed by an awkward silence where no one responded.

"Maybe he's in the restroom," Cwenhild commented as she stayed put, not indicating any sign of wanting to move. Naturally, if their cultivation was high enough, they would be able to detect that the spirit energy was being pulled into his room and deduce that he was having a breakthrough. As things were, they could only sense its odd behavior, not the direction of its flow.

And so the two girls waited outside Lex's room, staring at one another.

"And how do you know Lex?" Cwenhild finally asked as well, trying to fill the silence. Her two followers maintained silence as if their only job was to stand guard.

"It was quite funny actually, we met due to a misunderstanding," Amelie said with a smile, as she thought back to the moment Lex sat beside her for the first time. She was sure he was a shameless stalker. Lost in memory, she didn't even realize as she began to regale Cwenhild with her story, filling in the blanks with her own misunderstandings and commentary.

Did it seem like she was trying to show off the depth of her friendship with Lex to a potential rival? A little bit.