The Innkeeper

It was well into the night when Lex finished his cultivation session. His body felt slightly bloated, but that was excusable when one considered that he had basically absorbed a tub worth of tea into his body. Or, more specifically, he had absorbed the energy contained within that tea into his body.

The sense of bloating was both good and bad. It was good because it basically meant that Lex' estimate about using this particular tea was accurate, and all he needed to do was slightly reduce the amount of tea he used the next time.

It was bad because cultivation was not a mindless process of absorbing energy. Each and every realm served a specific purpose, and cultivating within that realm had to adhere to the logic upon which that purpose was dictated. Qi training, for example, strengthened the body by absorbing Qi, and prepared it to be able to absorb a stream of spiritual energy rather than individual strands of it. The Foundation realm absorbed spiritual energy and, instead of strengthening the body, fused with it.

The fusion process of spiritual energy with the cultivator's body was roughly divided into three different realms, which made the beginning, middle and late stage of the Foundation realm.

The first stage was fusing spiritual energy in all the muscles, tissue, blood, fat and other, relatively simpler parts of the body. The middle stage was fusing energy with the bones, and the final was fusing with all the organs.

In essence, it was as simple as that. There was no higher or deeper meaning to it at all. At least, that was the case if your only purpose was to simply advance your base cultivation. As Lex had taken some courses teaching the basics of cultivation, he had a deeper understanding of it than what the Regal Embrace informed him of. After all, that was only a cultivation technique, and would not contain the deeper, more sophisticated intricacies of cultivation.

A very simple explanation of this was that the process described previously only entailed the changes that took place in spiritual cultivation, and not in body and soul cultivation, as well as in the true path. Moreover, from the Foundation realm onwards, cultivation began to be influenced by the sentience of the being cultivating.

The explanation of cultivation was beginning to get abstract, and would continue to get even more complex with each successive realm so comprehending exactly what it entailed correctly was very important.

Simply stated, the purpose of the Foundation realm was to build a foundation for the cultivator to be able to achieve higher realms of cultivation. By having the body fuse with spirit energy, it used the body itself as a foundation for a higher, more concentrated energy used during higher realms.

Similarly, in body cultivation, it strengthened the vitality of the body itself to be able to accommodate a body that would be drastically stronger, maybe even larger, and much more complex.

For the soul, it was even simpler, making it stronger in every sense, lessening its dependance on the body, and allowing the cultivator to tap into more soul energy.

The true path achieved all of these in a more comprehensive and unified manner, ensuring that the changes all complemented one another.

But that left the question of what role sentience played in all this. In theory and in practice, this was all that was needed for a human to raise his or her cultivation. If that was the case, and the act of cultivation was so simple as to simply follow a set pattern of actions to achieve ascendance, then surely sentience didn't matter at all.

In fact, one could use various technologies or techniques to put an unlimited number of humans into suspended animation, and then have their bodies perform the required actions. That way, it would be like going to sleep, and when you wake up, your cultivation would be much higher, without requiring you to put in any effort.

Not only was this something many scientists had theorized, many organizations had put it into practice. Even the Raskals that attacked the Inn had gone through a similar process to some extent.

But while on paper, this achieved results, the end product would always be cultivators who would always be the weakest within their own realm. No amount of resources would ever make them apex predators within the same realm. They would only be good for hunting lower level enemies.

This was precisely because, from the Foundation realm onwards, it was not just the cultivation technique that determined your strength, but you as a person. While the cultivation technique established the foundation for higher realms, the cultivator himself had to set the foundation for what kind of cultivator he or she wanted to be.

What exactly that meant was something Lex had not been taught. All he was told was that it touched upon certain traits of cultivation that were best he did not dwell on for now. He had, however, been guided on how he could develop his foundation as a cultivator. It was fairly simple.

It was to select one, or a few fields which interested him and spend considerable time on it until he achieved what he considered decent progress. There was no metric for this other than his own self evaluation. For example, a painter could paint, a writer could write, a marksman could practice his aim, a fighter could refine his technique, and so on.

For himself, predictably, Lex had chosen to practice arrays.

Anyway, Lex's thoughts had gone on a tangent. In summary, the reason why feeling bloated was not good was that he could not force his foundation to form. It had to be a natural process, and any excessive pressure could end up having the opposite effects.

Lex took a warm shower once he was done, and decided to check up on the Inn and tavern. To his surprise, despite the late hour, there were still a few people sitting in the hall. Specifically, it was all the adults from the 2 families that had moved in today. They were not talking, or eating, or even drinking. They were simply sitting in silence, allowing their weary bodies and minds to slowly recover.

It was not just the kids that had caused tem endless exertion, and drove them to the edge of sanity. It was the few days they spent in the darkness. Were it not for the fact that they had roads to follow, they would have never found a way to any town. During that time they could not rest for even a moment, as they had to protect the carriages. Their families as well as the beasts pulling the carriages.

Moreover, they were all in the Foundation realm, so they weren't exceptionally strong either. They were just a group of families who had timed their vacation poorly.

Upon observing their exhausted faces, a sense of pity filled Lex's heart. He decided instantly to welcome his first guests into the tavern's backyard.

Silently, and without attracting any attention, a new door appeared in one of the walls of the hall, very close to where the families sat.

At first, nothing happened, for no one noticed anything at all. But, after a few minutes, the man who had previously talked to Lex, George, noticed something amiss. He looked beside him and saw a door he hadn't noticed before.

For a moment he was confused, for he didn't recall there being a door here. But he attributed it to him being too tired or distracted to notice. But then, his wife saw him staring to the side and took a look as well.

"Was this always here?" she asked as soon as the thought occurred in her head, bringing everyone's attention to it.

"I… don't remember… but it must have been, right?" replied George.

"I wasn't paying attention. I'm still reeling from that medicine the doctor gave me. My stomach is still burning."

"I don't recall it, but then again, I wasn't paying attention."

The conversation repeated itself a few times before George's wife stood up, deciding to sate her curiosity.

"Don't," said George. "What if it's someone's room?"

"I'll apologize," she replied offhandedly, and opened the door. What she saw caused her to tremble and weaken in the knees.

A small, cozy wooden room with a couple of changing sectionals on the side appeared before her eyes. But what really caught her attention was the hot tub right in the center. Steamy mist was floating up the bubbling water, inviting her in to rest her weary bones, while a relaxing, soothing scent oozed out the door.

The darkness had brought with it cold as well, but just the warm gush of wind that escaped the door seemed to drive the cold right out of he body.

Mesmerized, she forgot to inform George. She even forgot to change her clothes. Before she knew what she was doing, she dipped herself in and a long, deep moan escaped her lips.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on the edge of the tub. What husband? What kids? Right now, she forgot all of it and simply savored the waves of pleasure, washing through her body.