The Innkeeper

Laying inside the Organic Reconstruction Room (ORR), as his skin was slowly being regrown atop his body, Lex's mind was furiously working. It was not just the matter of having his entire skin removed that unnerved him. It was the absurd scale of the fury he felt back on Frigra that astounded him.

No matter what had happened, regardless of how angry Lex ever got, he never lost himself completely in anger. That was not his way of doing things, and with the number of mistakes he made back when he had a tumor, he was very particular about at least trying to anticipate the repercussions of his actions.

Slowly, he recalled everything that happened, from the very first moment he arrived on Frigra. He thought about every action he took and every subsequent reaction. Given that he already knew of spirit pull now, all his actions until he arrived at the dragon's hoard seemed logical and natural.

He thought about how his greed was stoked upon arriving and seeing all the treasure, especially the mountains of gold. He was not sure if that was a normal, logical reaction anyone would have upon seeing so much gold, or if he had been affected by something else.

After thinking about it Lex could not be certain, but he eventually concluded that his actions then were the result of the influence of his life as a mortal on him. After all, he lived most of his life as a normal person unaware of the cultivation world. In that case, gold was one of the most valuable items available and though that was not the case anymore, it still had a significant impact on him.

He moved on, and slowly and steadily continued to sift through his memories till he finally recalled the instance of the sword breaking. It happened when he was fighting the strange creature which could enter his mind.

At the time, due to the immense pressure on him of the fight as well as Dragons Might, he could not spare any thought of the strange aura that enveloped him when the sword broke, but now he had the time.

The fact that a sword from within the dragons collection was so fragile that it would break upon use was strange and suspicious to begin with. The aura it released enveloping him was an even greater flag that something was amiss.

He noted that down as the most significant thing, and then continued to go through his memories for any other anomalies. Thinking about it now, he was way too weak to be interfering with immortal level items for there was just too much he did not know.

Even though he did not find any other significant issues while he went through his memories, there could be countless threats he was not even able to detect. His instincts, to a certain degree, warned him of threats up until the Earth Immortal realm, but if it was anything greater his instincts would either not detect them, or only do so moments before disaster.

He needed to be even more careful in the future.

He had to investigate his body to see if the aura was still lingering within him in some form, or if it had dissipated. Using his spirit and soul sense, Lex began to thoroughly scan every nook and cranny of his body. As for his instincts… once again they had not warned him of any anomaly. It seemed like just solely relying on his instincts was no longer feasible as he reached a higher level. There had to be some body techniques that focused on fostering and growing them though.

It did not take him long to discover an image of a sword hidden within his soul! It was radiating a sharp, piercing aura that would cut Lex's soul sense if he even got close to it, so there was no way of interacting with it, for now at least.

Lex frowned, then sighed. Why did he keep on collecting things inside his body? Those weird inscriptions, the system, the Lotus and now this sword. It was feeling a little crowded.

He tried a few more ways of interacting with the sword, but was unable to influence it in any way. With on other choice for now, he turned his mind to other things.

There was his skin, which had come off on its own. He had no idea how that could have possibly happened, but then considering the fact that he had lost all sensation when it happened he could not say for sure. It was most likely a result of whatever danger he detected, but it could also be other reasons.

With a serious and focused expression, Lex first investigated his removed skin. He used his control over the system to inspect it, and immediately found something amiss!

A cracked, wooden ring was weakly rolling towards his skin, as if it had some agenda. He scanned it and discovered something completely unexpected.

Name: Pelvailin Ur Bahatna Gorgin

Age: 0

Sex: Male

Cultivation Details: (sealed) ???

Species: Dragon/Soul spirit

Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1

Condition: A severely wounded soul on the verge of death, fused with a newly born treasure spirit to form a new entity. Without a sufficiently strong body to support it, the soul will continuously destroy its carriers until it eventually dies.

Remarks: Others get grandpa's in rings, and you got a newborn baby.

The name was extremely familiar to Lex, because that was what the dragon's body was called! The dragon's soul was inside the ring! Not to mention, the ring was very close to the body.

Lex almost cursed when he realized how disastrous this could be. If the dragon soul returned to its body and learnt how brazenly Lex had looted it, not to mention how he had cultivated atop its body, he would be a goner!

The only redeeming factor for him right now was that the soul's cultivation was sealed!

Not bothering about the fact that his skin had not regenerated yet, Lex teleported back out and picked up the ring and studied it.

The ring itself was naught more than a simple band, though the wood itself looked spectacular and even had a fresh scent wafting from it. The workmanship was spectacular as the ring was extremely smooth.

"I know you're in there," Lex said, transmitting his words with his spirit sense.