The Innkeeper

At first Lex was stunned by the flood of information, but it took him only a few seconds to remember that he could handle a much greater load now. When the realization came to him, he finally noticed that… rather than a flood, it was more of a stream.

The dissonance between his new qualifications and his perception of what he was capable of was always an inconvenience to get over. But then again, he doubted that the average cultivator would have so many massive jumps in power in a short period of time the way he had.

He focused on the information he was getting. Finally, he received some answers, and for once the system had preemptively taken care of one of his greatest concerns.

To start off with, the star rating of the realm had increased to 4, despite the fact that it couldn't support high level cultivators. That was a massive jump in rating from 2.5, but even so the star rating was actually being suppressed due to the realm instability. As the stability grew, the star rating would grow even greater!

But there was a catch. This would only be true during the early years of the realm. If it grew and stabilized at a normal rate, then the abundant chaos energy, and every other unique kind of energy that filled it, would go to waste.

The only fortunate thing was that this time frame was in the millions of years, so Lex did not even have to think about it for now.

That bit of information also told Lex that it was possible to artificially speed up the growth of a realm. He would look into it at a later date.

The gravity across the realm was not constant, but on the continent where the Inn was, it was on average 3 times that of earth. But, within the territory of the Inn, the system would regulate it for those who could not tolerate it. This was one of the few functions that was still running even now.

Speaking of which, Lex was getting tired of calling it 'the continent that the Inn was on' and so decided to name it Menara - something he came up with on the spot.

Unlike what he had hoped was the case, the beings born in this realm had no real affiliation or connection to the Midnight Inn. Anything that would be naturally born, and was not from a guest of one of his workers, within the newly established territory of his Inn would automatically become a part of the Inn at birth. But as far as anything that was already born within the realm before this, there was no connection whatsoever.

That meant that the subtle influence as the Innkeeper he had over his workers would not be extended to them.

But, on the bright side, the upper limit of the realm was actually the Nascent realm! That little piece of information greatly relieved Lex. He was not so overconfident as to think that he would be utterly unmatched across the realm now that he himself was also in the Nascent realm. But he was fairly certain that, once he became more accustomed to his powers, and updated his techniques, he would be more than able to take care of himself while he explored the realm.

Speaking of exploring the realm, the boundary of the Inn's territory did more than just mark the limits of the Inn. It would actively prevent guests from venturing out! This was one of Lex's greatest concerns, and he was relieved to know that the system was proactively taking care of this.

The realm could not support cultivators of a higher realm, but instead of setting a limit, the system automatically made the limits of the Inn's territory a border that normal guests could not cross. Perhaps if they put in some real effort they would be able to overcome the barricade, but that would be more than enough time for Lex to learn of it as well and respond appropriately.

Moreover, such a response was only temporary. Once the system came back online completely, anyone who attempted to cross the boundary would be forcefully ejected from the realm! This was because the system truly treated the realm as a part of itself, and was actively taking measures to protect it.

The same restriction, however, did not extend to him. The Inn's workers could also, at his discretion, exit the boundary.

The reverse, however, was not true. Anything from outside the territory could enter within unimpeded, as long as they could overcome the physical barrier that the massive wall presented. But honestly, considering how everything in this realm seemed to be massive, he did not think it would be a big concern.

One more thing, that he had been curious about, was answered. That was that all the Minor realms which had connected themselves to the Inn were considered property of the Inn, and so had been transported alongside as well!

WIthout even thinking about it, Lex once again placed all the entrances to all Minor realms that had already been discovered in the Immortal Bastian, while he spread out the opening for the hundreds of thousands of undiscovered Minor realms across the Inn's new territory.

These Minor realms would stay sealed for a few more days while the energy from the realm poured into them, but once that was done, they would once again become accessible.

Did it feel strange that Lex had brought countless refugees from earth with him in a minor realm as if he were carrying something in his back pocket? A little. But he tried not to think about it. They were refugees. Since they were given a safe space to rebuild, should the details of which realm they were in really matter?

This was not all the information he received - not even remotely. He was learning all about this realm in excruciating detail, from its seasons, to its biomes, to the spatial structural make up to so much more.

The cosmic sea was a liquified version of a kind of energy that was a derivative of chaos energy. How energy could become liquid was not even a question he tried to ponder, because he was learning that a part of the climate in the region of Menara that he was in was controlled by a tribe of sentient clouds that had spent thousands of years at war with another tribe of sentient lightning bolts.

Such historical detail was only provided to him because of the significant impact it had to the climate and geography of the place.

But even that was a small part of the knowledge he was getting. After all, Menara was the smallest of the three continents, and he was learning about them too.

The greatest of the three continents, which was considerably larger than Menara, had biomes that Lex had literally never imagined before. Many of its areas were more suited to spirits and races with souls and no bodies, as if it were some kind of sanctuary for the dead and the damned. Well, to be fair, just because Lex associated spirits and such with ghosts did not mean they were necessarily damned, but that was besides the point.

As a result, Lex decided to name the greatest of the three continents Nether. He could imagine expanding to it one day, since it would be a natural home to the many spirits that inhabited the Inn. They too were undergoing some kind of evolution.

Compared to Menara and Nether, the middle continent did not have any prominent or distinguishing features. Besides being extremely mountainous, it seemed almost ordinary besides the other two continents, if one ignored its size.

But it was only ordinary compared to the two. If seen independently, it was a bountiful heaven teeming with life and civilization. In fact, Lex suspected that it contained the greatest population of all the continents.

Amidst the torrent of information he was absorbing, a small tidbit reached him informing him of the awakened tyre.

Suddenly Lex sat up straight and accessed all the abilities available to him through the Host Attire. He needed to prevent a majority of the Inns items from coming to life. Even if he failed everything else, he had to at least prevent the dragon from gaining another soul.

But the things he could do at the moment was limited, so he had to rely on himself.

He teleported over to his personal meditation room where the dragon sat unmoved, absorbing the energy from the realm.

All the protections and precautions they had taken before only managed to slow down the energy, not stop it.

"Please don't wake up," Lex muttered as he slammed the dragon with his aura and spread his soul sense around it. No matter what, he had to stop it from developing a new soul. Unfortunately, some things just could not be prevented. The dragons body, which still contained the physical might of a Heavenly immortal, trembled.