The Innkeeper



"I don't plan on planting it anywhere," Lex confirmed as he took the pot. "How long will the blade be fine in this pot? Can it last for a while?"

"Not for long," Zuri confirmed. "I have prepared the soil in the pot personally, so it should be able to support it in the short term. But at most, in four or five thousand years, the blade will begin to wither."

Without the Host Attire to help him, Lex could not control himself from twitching. Four or five thousand years was 'not long'. It was a matter of perspective, probably.

"Thank you," Lex commented, relieved that he wouldn't need to immediately consume this as well. The constant… 'cultivation' using the elixir had really worn out his body. He was glad to have a break.

"Before you leave, I have a small favor to ask."

Lex was genuinely startled, for technically speaking, someone at Zuri's level did not need to ask him for a favor. Even if she had told him she wanted something done, with his identity as Lex he would have tried his best to accomplish it, if for no other reason than to establish a good relationship with her.

"How can I help you?" he asked, very seriously.

"Will you be returning to the Midnight Inn?"

"Yes. In fact, I was planning on heading there now."

"As I have mentioned, I have a clone in the Midnight Inn, but it is still far away from waking up, so I will require your assistance for a matter. You see, although my clone is asleep, I can still sense its surroundings. The clone is being taken care of by a Galactic Sovereign turtle. I would like to invite that fellow to come and live on my planet. If you could communicate this request on my behalf, I would be very grateful."

Lex was now genuinely startled! She wanted to poach his worker! As annoying as he found the fact that the turtle could somehow manipulate his system, he was also extremely impressed by its work! There was no way in hell that he would give him up!

"Uh, you may not know this but… that turtle is a worker for the Midnight Inn. The Innkeeper might not appreciate your attempts to take him. I don't know the details but… but I've heard rumors that the Innkeeper is a Daolord!"

He was attempting to dissuade Zuri by telling her that she couldn't mess with the Innkeeper, but she did not seem dissuaded at all!

"If the turtle truly wants to leave, the Innkeeper will not hold him back, nor will he have any hard feelings about it."

This… why would she say such a thing?

"I can sense your hesitation. I understand you don't want to cross the Midnight Inn for something like this, but let me share a little something with you. Have you heard of 'Sovereigns' before?"

Lex had, in fact, searched up the relevance of such a title even at the emporium when he was buying information, but did not get any significant details. All he was able to get was that the emporium gave ultimate favor to any race with the term 'Sovereign' in their name, and that preference was even above his own VIP level!

"Not really, no," Lex answered.

"There are a lot of misunderstandings about the term. Many even believe it is the name of a cultivation realm even beyond the Daolord realm! But that is not true. This is one of the secrets you can only come in touch with at a very high level, but it's not a big deal if I tell you.

"The universe is extremely vast, and full of numerous incomprehensible things. Many people like to believe that the universe, on the whole, is a fair place, but that is not the truth. Some races are born as lifeforms of a higher level of existence. The higher the level, the more favor they receive from the universe. Well, that's not really true, but at your level you may as well understand it as such. Almost everything in the universe has more or less been categorized, from valuables, to races, to cultivation realms, to realms themselves and more. Each one follows a systematic and logical progression system.

"Except for the ones that don't. In the universe there exist some things that are completely and inherently unfair. Nothing about them makes sense, and they can seemingly bend the rules of the universe to their whims. Races with the term 'Sovereign' in them are races who have such an advantage. So, regardless of cultivation level, everyone sane respects the will of the Sovereigns and stays out of their way, Daolords included.

"I once heard a rumor about a Galactic Sovereign turtle. It was tending to many planets, as they usually do. They have a great fondness for gardening. But the star system that one of the planets it was tending was eventually destroyed, due to the fact that it was pulled into a black hole. Out of sheer anger, the turtle ate the black hole!

"Perhaps the absurdity of such an event will go over your head. You only need to understand that a blackhole is the personification of extremes in this realm, and even Daolords cannot easily interfere with it - let alone eat one!

"So you see, in this universe, cultivation is not everything. There are some things that cannot be achieved even with high cultivation realms. So, if the turtle really does decide to leave, the Innkeeper will not interfere. He may even be happy about it. After all, Sovereigns are unpredictable."

"I… I will convey your message," Lex said weakly, as he thought of ways to avoid having the turtle leave. If it really was as Zuri had said, the turtle was extremely awesome and Lex did not want to lose him. If it were a normal employee, Lex would not worry, as once someone became an official employee of the Inn, their loyalty would increase. But the turtle was clearly different.

Zuri chuckled, as if she could see the difficulty Lex was facing, but said nothing. She was confident Lex would not get in any trouble, so there was nothing to worry about to begin with.

"You may leave at your leisure. If you want to spend some time cultivating here, it will be extremely beneficial."

"Thank you for the offer, but I have to depart," Lex said.

Zuri did not stop him, and only watched from her wooden throne as he departed, one leg softly nestled over another.

Lex, however, did not worry too long about the matter with the turtle. Sure, Zuri was more powerful than him and had a planet akin to heaven, but the turtle had been at the Inn long enough to know what benefits it could bring, and what level it had the potential to rise to. Moreover, convincing people was his speciality. If he had known this before he would have entered a career in marketing instead of computer science, but none of that mattered now.

He teleported back to the emporium, and then began the second task on his agenda. He had several liters of elixir left, and its potency was quickly dropping. Originally, Lex planned on simply selling it off. Though the massive amount of liquid entering the market would reduce its price, it was better than getting nothing in exchange. Moreover, Lex had picked up the elixir for free to begin with.

But he had changed his mind after teleporting to the planet Zuri was on. Instead, when he returned to the emporium, he asked for something else instead.

"You want to look up methods to build affinity for space? You know, that is one of the rarest affinities to exist. Methods to artificially create it… are even rarer," said Powell with a troubled look.

"As rare as the elixir?" Lex asked, with a smirk?

In truth, he was not asking for this for himself. His affinity was already being taken care of by his cultivation technique. But if there were a way to do the same for his workers… that would only boost their chances of survival in the upcoming war.

"Point taken," Powell replied. "In fact, as it happens, there really does exist a way to do so that actually uses the elixir. But, for humans, it can only be used on cultivators with relatively low cultivation."

"Not a problem," Lex said, and conducted the exchange. In the end, he still decided to sell some of the elixir to the emporium. Even with the reduced potency, he managed to procure the teacup containing the law of femininity as well as get 100 million credits with the emporium.

Lex had no intention of using the tea cup for himself, but who knew when an item containing laws could end up being useful? Maybe he could even sell it later. In Lex's eyes, it was like acquiring an asset he intended on liquidating later.

He also managed to get his hand on the method to induce space affinity, and then quickly departed for the Inn. He had work to do.