The Innkeeper

If someone were to see the situation inside Lex's meditation room they would think they stumbled onto a scene from a horror movie. A dragon was sitting prone, its reptilian eyes seemingly focused onto what looked like a meat-man who was standing in a growing pool of his own blood, while the man's gaze was ever fixed on a wooden ring in his palm.

If one observed the spirit energy in the room, they would see that a torrent of spiritual energy was rushing from the man into the ring nonstop. The amount of energy had already long surpassed what a normal human Golden core cultivator should have possessed, but the man did not slow down nor did the ring show any sign of being full.

After a few more minutes went by like this, Lex frowned as he realized this was harder than he realized. Whatever this ring was, its level was far beyond his.

Bonding a treasure usually relied on a certain amount of spirit energy to create the bond, and that amount depended on the power of the treasure. It went without saying that the higher the level of the treasure, the more energy it required. But if the quality of energy was sufficient, it could also reduce the amount of energy required.

Lex had thought that given how unique his affinity was, it might reduce the amount required. But it was clear now that even if the amount required had been reduced, it was way beyond his current capacity. To be fair, any treasure kept by the dragon should not be underestimated, let alone one capable of absorbing a dragon's broken soul.

But he was not ready to give up just yet. Without interrupting the process, Lex teleported above the dragon and sat down on his spot on the forehead. He began cultivating, while channeling the gained spirit energy straight into the ring. The speed of the transmission had slowed down, but like this he could go on much longer.

A few minutes went by, and then a dozen. As Lex did not want to interrupt the process, he kept going as even hours passed by. Eventually, Lex entered a bit of a trance as he focused solely on the ring, and noticed that a tiny, almost imperceptible dot had formed on it. That dot was a piece of his mark that would establish his bond.

Unwilling to give up on this opportunity, he continued as hours turned into days, and then, into weeks.

Although it was not his skin, his body had reacted to his 'skinless' state by forming a sort of scab over most of his body so at least he was not leaking blood anymore. At some point, the imprint of a lotus became visible on the scab on his back but neither Lex nor the Lotus paid any mind to the whole process.

Lex had lost track of time, but eventually, the process was completed. Half way through his bond forming process, Lex realized that his mark was forming in the shape of a key. That only made sense, considering how significant the golden key was to the Inn, but Lex was not satisfied with that.

Although he ran things at the Inn, it was given to him by the system and not something he developed on his own. He did not want his dependance on it to be too strong. As such, he consciously changed the shape of the mark. It now looked like the outline of a person sitting cross legged atop a dragon.

The moment the bond was finally formed, he felt a connection established to the ring, and he became aware of it much in the way he was aware of the Inn while wearing the Host Attire. In fact, the connection was actually completely identical.

He stared at the wooden ring and wondered what its original purpose was. Had it been a system at one point?

Regardless of whether it was a system or not no longer mattered, for it definitely was not one now. All it could do at the moment was function, barely, as a container for the treasure spirit residing inside. As the spirit was much stronger than the treasure itself, the strain on the ring prevented it from actually performing any function. Fortunately, little Pelvailin could automatically absorb things to strengthen the ring, as long as they were suitable.

"Little Pel, how do you feel?"

Over the past however long it took to bond the ring, Little Pel would constantly speak to Lex and motivate him and keep him entertained. As such Lex felt a little closer to the spirit, though he retained an appropriate amount of caution in dealing with it. Even now, he did not trust it completely.

"Much better!" the squeaky voice replied! "It's as if now that there's a connection between us, my body has more energy to support itself now."

"That's good, that's good. Little Pel, I've spent a lot of time on bonding the ring so now I have a few other things to do. But first I want to ask you about a couple of things. Do you have access to all of your memories from your past life, or only some of them?"

"No, no, I barely remember anything. All those memories would be too much for me right now. But if I see something, it will trigger the associated memory and it will be like I have known about it this entire time. If I try to remember that memory on my own, though, I'll fail."

"Alright then. In that case, I'm going to project an image to you. Tell me if you recognize it. It's a sword you had in your previous life."

Without further ado, Lex sent a picture of the shattered sword to the ring, hoping that it would recognize it, and he was in luck. The ring responded immediately.

"Oh yes, the Sword of Aizil. It's a part of a sword and shield set. That was a normal, iron sword that, in my previous life, I dipped in the blood of a living Deity. I wanted to see what happened. The sword and shield both became Holy Artifacts of the deities religion, gaining great power. But then later, after I ate the Deity, they both lost much of their power. All they have now is a mere aura of their former glory."

Lex resisted the urge to twitch his lips. The dragon casually ate a deity after using its blood? Or were there other steps involved? Either case, he was glad he didn't need to deal with a living dragon. After all, he was sure of Pelvailins personality now, and it was extremely timid and submissive. He could not imagine what would have happened if the ring had retained the full soul of the dragon.

"Well, the thing is, the sword broke when I was using it, and that aura was absorbed by my body and won't leave it."

He projected an image of the sword hiding within his soul, and did his best to convey the feeling it gave off at the same time.

"Do you know of any way to get rid of it? I suspect it's influencing me a little bit."

"Oh it would make sense if there was some influence by its aura on you. After all, it was dipped in the blood of the Deity of Tribal warfare. He was a very angry and aggressive fellow, but not too smart. Getting rid of it should be pretty easy. All you need to do is master a sword intent and have it absorb that sword aura. Be careful not to feed the aura with your sword intent instead, as that will only make the aura grow more powerful.

"If you get a chance, absorb the shield aura as well. That was dipped in the blood of the Deity of Indomitability. Likewise, all you'll need to do is develop a shield intent and have it absorb the aura. It shouldn't be too hard."

"Yeah, sounds easy," said Lex, though Pelvailin was too young to comprehend the sarcasm in his voice. How easy was it really to develop an intent that could rival that of a deity?

While Lex was worrying about how to resolve this situation, he remained unaware that he had become an overnight sensation not in just a single galaxy, but throughout the known realm!

In the history of the Origin realm, Lex became the first being to climb atop a living dragon and cultivate on its forehead, and there was a recording to prove it. The recording had spread throughout the realm, and over 100 dragons realm wide had put out a bounty on 'Lex William'. Though, oddly enough, the bounty would only be honored if Lex was brought in alive.

Fortunately enough, the dragons had not targeted the human race in their anger, though no one understood their motives at all, nor did they care. Everyone's focus was on Lex the dragon tamer, and finding out his origins.