After buying the History Wiper, for no reason in particular, Lex quickly went through the list. The things the shopkeeper had arranged for him were tempting, but he wanted to get a look at some of the really valuable items as well.
Unfortunately, as monumentally rare and impressive as they were, the truly high tier items had no way of helping him as they aided in the cultivation or requirements of very high level cultivators.
Either way, it did not matter much to Lex. His next focus was going to be on finishing the Foundation and beginning his journey on the Golden Core realm. As such, he would now start getting items that would help the Inn better nurture Golden Core cultivators, as well as himself personally.
The first thing he got was a spatial bangle that would allow Lex to store items within it. For example, if he had a chest full of gold in front of him, he could teleport it directly to the space within his bangle, without being burdened by its weight or having everyone see him moving it.
Cwenhild used to have such a treasure, and it made Lex supremely jealous, though he was pretty sure that the one he had now was far superior to hers. After all, it contained a space the size of 5000 cubic meters.
After thatโฆ despite how odd it felt, he got himself the upgraded version of the Fancy Monocle. For better or for worse, he had to know if they truly were the same, or were at least the same kind of technology.
Then, naturally, he bought the other bangle that would help him hide his identity. After that, he bought a couple other level 7 items that would ultimately aid his own cultivation, and his guests as well, of course.
One particularly interesting item he bought was a spirit stone vein seed. It was an item that would absorb chaotic energy from the universe and create spiritual energy in the form of spirit stones. Of course, the level of energy produced wasn't too high, and could barely suffice for Nascent level cultivators, otherwise such an incredible money-making machine would never be up for sale.
Then he bought an entire repository of techniques. His real purpose was to get various spirit techniques for himself, but there was no reason he shouldn't populate the Inn's library at the same time.
The size of the repository Lex requested was so large, in fact, that even the Emporium couldn't deliver all the books at once. After all, the amount of books that could be fit into the payment for the business card were beyond count. Furthermore, ensuring that techniques were not repeated made it even harder. Even Powell was troubled by the sheer volume of this request, and ultimately had to promise Lex regular payments every month instead of delivering all techniques to him at once.
That little maneuver made Lex a little proud, as he more or less solved his technique problem for the near future.
There was, however, one more thing Lex bought - something he had been on the lookout for many months. He bought information on the Kraven race.
He was very pleased to see that the Emporium actually had information on Kraven, until he started reading, that is.
Instead of a detailed report on their race, their culture, their strengths and weaknesses, the information was only a summary of their history in the Origin realm.
Much like they were behaving in the Crystal realm, the Kraven were a warring race. They waged continuous war throughout several galaxies and were responsible for the extinction of many races. Perhaps this trend would have continued, but in their mad desire for conquest they attacked another extremely strong and extremely vindictive race called Marzu. After being attacked once, the Marzu wiped the Kraven from the origin realm.
The matter for how they were wiped out remained a mystery to this day, because the race had not been encountered ever again in the Origin realm, even in newly encountered galaxies.
This was a huge deal, since there was a pattern of races reappearing throughout the realm. Even planets completely separated from the rest of the realm, several races reappeared, as if they had evolved as an original race of that planet specifically.
It was in the way that humans kept reappearing on various planets throughout the realm.
Yet according to the information, the Kraven had never been encountered again after that incident.
Unable to help himself, Lex looked up information on the Marzu as well. When he read about them, he was startled to learn that he had already encountered this apparently ridiculously strong race. In fact, they had once been natives of Earth as well.
The only thing was that now, on Earth, this race had gone extinct. Moreover, after studying their fossils, the name humans had given them wasโฆ Tyrannosaurus rex.
Apparently, they innate advantage in cultivation was so immense that they controlled over 100 galaxies in the realm!
That was several times the size of the Jotun Empire.
Since he failed to learn anything useful about the Kraven, he collected information on the Marzu and returned to the Inn.
There were only two and a half days left until the assembly now, and he was getting impatient to try out his business card.
Fortunately, he did not have to wait for too long.
On a massive space station, a teleportation formation powered on, revealing a square block of metal.
A mechanical arm picked up the block and put it on a conveyor belt, transporting the block across the station to what looked like the command center.
A gray skinned being that had its body merged with various machines weakly opened its yellow eyes and looked at the metal block. Though it appeared to do nothing, the metal block was sliced open, revealing a thin paper card buried in the middle.
The card looked extremely ordinary in the spaceship, surrounded by exceptionally advanced technology, yet the being knew it's worth was immeasurably greater.
With a pained expression, it channelled some of its spirit energy into the card, activating it.
Once energy was channelled into the card, it gained a life of its own and began absorbing energy from the environment on its own.
Lex, who was sitting in his office, felt a brief but sharp pinch in his mind before he suddenly realized that he felt like he had another brain.
Though still linked with his main body, somewhere out in the universe another version of himself appeared, completely able to think and behave on his own without even slightly affecting the brainpower or awareness of the Lex who sat in the Inn.
A few moments later, that 'brain' also developed a complete but ethereal body. Lex looked around and found himself in an extremely dark room. He immediately noticed that in front of him seemed to be some kind of... face buried completely in an avalanche of tubes and machines that seemed to keep it alive.
Lex did not immediately address the being, for he was busy investigating the features of his new clone. He seemed completely unable to move, and he could vaguely detect how long his clone could survive. He felt he could shorten or elongate the existence of his clone, but there was a limit to how long it could exist. At the same time, his clone seemed completely able to use all the systems features.
๐ก๐๐ซ๐ง๐๐ช๐ .๐๐๐ถ
"Oh, your excellency, please excuse me for summoning you without your permission. I am desperate for any kind of hope, and am willing to pay any kind of price I can."
It was not the being that spoke, at least not on its own. The sound came from various speakers throughout the spaceship, as if the being had merged with the ship itself.
Lex did not respond immediately, and instead observed the being. His physical body was not present, obviously, but his instincts were still active. The being before him was much, much stronger than himself, yet it seemed unable to gauge his strength. If the clone hid his strength, that would be most convenient.
"What kind of hope are you searching for?" he finally asked.
"Your excellency, I am on the verge of death, yet my mission remains incomplete. My cultivation has regressed so far that I have no hope of breaking through, while my technology is no longer able to support my body. If you can allow me to live a while longer, you would have my eternal gratitude."
Lex raised an eyebrow, for this request really was too convenient to fulfil. After all, he had just received an upgrade to allow just such a thing.
"Would you choose to continue living, if it was only as a spirit?"
The being closed its eyes, as if it had been asked the most painful question it had ever heard, and yet it was one he needed to answer.
The gray skinned creature shuddered as it thought about its answer. Lex, of course, did not understand why the creature was treating it like such a big deal. It was about to die, but it could continue to live in spirit form, for a time at least, should it accept his deal.
Unfortunately, the matter, for the creature at least, went deeper than that. Accepting the loss of its physical form meant that it would have to accept the end of its bloodline, and if it failed its mission, its entire race. What made it even more painful was that, while not the main instigator behind the doom that had befallen it, the Spirit race played a significant role. How ironic, now, that it would have to become one of them should he wish to survive.
While it underwent its mental struggle, Lex used his Targeted scan on it to get a better understanding of it.
Name: Abroar Kashinga Lailai...(click to expand)... Jameel
Age: 875,955
Sex: ???
Cultivation Details: ???
Species: ???
Condition: Very bad - ???
Remarks: Every inch of its body is worth billions!
Lex almost whistled as he read Abroar's age, as it was nearing a million. This was the oldest confirmed creature he had ever met, and it made him wonder what its cultivation was. He had a very strong feeling that, whatever it had been, it was definitely much stronger than the Earth Immortals he was used to meeting.
In fact, based on what it said, Lex could surmise that it wasn't the creature's age that was causing it to near its demise, but for some other reason. Perhaps he had been gravely injured and had been using these machines as life support. What he did not know, because obviously his view was from the inside, was that there weren't just a few machines linked to its body to keep it alive, but rather an entire spaceship's worth.
"Mary, is there some other way to keep it alive if I turn it into an employee?" Lex asked.
"Not really. If your authority was higher, even higher than it was in the Crystal realm, you could get a time stasis formation and freeze it in time till you figured out a way to restore its body, but currently, you have no such method available. If you keep updating your Recovery pod and room, eventually you'll get there."
๐ต๐๐๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ญ.๐๐ธ๐ถ
Lex gave a mental nod, but outwardly his appearance was extremely impassive. He was waiting for the creature, but he did not have to wait for long.
When it finally opened its eyes once again, they were steady. Abroad had made its decision.
"Your excellency, for the sake of my mission, and my sacred duty, I will live on even as a spirit if that is what it takes. I will forever be grateful for your aid and guidance, and do whatever it takes to fulfill whatever requirements you have for me."
"At ease," said Lex as he raised his ethereal hand. "I do not require anything, for I have done nothing."
A golden key appeared, floating above his hand, the gray creature's eyes fixating on them immediately.
"I have an Inn, a humble little place by the name of Midnight Inn. You can use this key to enter the Inn moments before your death and, in exchange for giving up everything you own, can continue to live on as a spirit within the Inn. How long you can live depends entirely on how much you have to give up.
"This is a normal feature of my Inn, and is the same for everyone, so you do not need to feel any special obligation if you decide to use it."
After giving Abroar the key, Lex's clone vanished. Back at the Inn, Lex gathered his thoughts about the clone and began to plan. He had collected a lot of information on how the clone worked, but just to be safe, he decided to spend one more day testing it out before he made a decision.
He let Mary know that he will be busy for the next few days, and to deny any requests to see him unless it was an emergency. He teleported to various planets, as he had already connected the Inn to the entire star system for each of the planets he was connected to, and began spreading out business cards.
He made sure not to leave them lying around, but secretly delivered to as many high leveled cultivators as he could, to ensure they would actually use it.
He began meeting them, but did not always fulfill their requests or even inform them about the Inn. After all, he was not on a marketing tour, but understanding the extents of the business card.If everyone was a satisfied customer, it would limit his understanding of the clones. Through this, he began to better grasp the extent and limitations of the cards.
While he was busy with that, Luthor applied to meet with the Innkeeper, alongside Gerard. Unfortunately, Mary informed him that the Innkeeper was too busy to meet anyone currently, as he was working on future plans for the Inn.
Luthor clenched his fists as his face grew grim. The fact that despite so many workers the Innkeeper had to do everything himself spoke of the incompetence of his workforce. He had to fix things. They could not continue this way.
Without speaking another word, Luthor left, a tinge of scarlet beginning to fill his eyes. The things he could help the Innkeeper with were limited because he was weak. In that case, he would erase his weakness.
Luthor made his way to the wealthiest, and most influential worker at the Inn, Z. His strength, amongst the workers, was weaker than only Gerard. His influence, however, had lately bloomed making him the most popular in the entire Inn. Along with that popularity, of course, came incredible wealth.
This was because, in an attempt to make the ultimate background music, and hence increase his strength, Z fought in the arena every day, each time tweaking the music just a bit.
Slowly, he changed his reputation from the recluse of the Inn, to the Inn staff's big brother.
The Gamer's Den, one of the most popular places at the Inn, was no longer managed just by Z. Instead, Z became the assistant manager, still under the command of the ever elusive manager named Leo, with a host of new workers under him.
This only added to the popularity of the Den, however, as not everyone came to it to play games. With millions of guests coming to the Inn every day, things really had become very hectic. The stringent control Lex had over the minor details occurring every day had loosened, resulting in the Inns staff suffering from various kinds of harassment.
Usually security would handle the matters, but not all troublemakers would take drastic actions. Sometimes it would just be persistent teasing and pestering. Due to the fact that all the Inn's workers started with no cultivation, they were inherently weak even after they started cultivating, making them easy targets.
When situations like this happened, all the workers had begun going to 'big brother' Z to handle matters. As a naturally introverted person, Z was not one who could resolve matters by talking and having lengthy conversations anyway.
Fortunately, with Z's love for going to the arenas, a new method to resolve problems became available. Moreover, due to his effectiveness with his bloodline, he had yet to lose a battle. In fact, while his bloodline level was below that of Gerards, everyone agreed that Z had better control over the bloodline itself.
Keeping this in mind, when Luthor was unable to find Z at the Gamer's Den, he went directly to the arena, and indeed arrived just in time to watch Z finish yet another battle. This time, his weapon of choice was not a trading card, but a spinning top BaysideBlade.
His opponent, a beaten and battered alligator standing on its hind legs and wearing boxing gloves, took one last hit on its snout before collapsing for good.
The heat in Luthor's heart burned even stronger as he watched this. He was not as excited as the crowd at Z's victory. Instead, he lamented that the staff had to rely on a mere child to protect their honor. He completely ignored that he himself was only a few days old while Z was already nearing the ripe old age of 1 year.
๐๐๐๐ป๐๐ช๐.๐๐ค๐
He waited silently until Z exited the arena, before approaching him. Luthor made no grand declarations about wanting to change the future of the Inn. Instead, he buried his edge and humbled himself before asking Z for a loan.
Z, startled at how polite this new worker was, accepted the request and gave Luthor the amount he wanted. After that Luthor did not waste any time on superfluous words, and directly went to the meditation room, with his eyes having turned completely scarlet now. For the first time ever, he activated his bloodline, Anachronistic Ignition, and began cultivating like a madman. He would first burn away all his weakness, then he would burn all the Inn's enemies.
*****
Though the ballroom looked as pristine as the moment they stepped in, Lex's grandfather no longer carried the same pois. His face was pale and his eyes dug deep into his skull. In front of him stood Serene Williams and her husband, completely fine, as if nothing had happened.
"You have always been rebellious, but not this muchโฆ" said Lex's grandfather, doing his best to keep his knees from trembling. He was a dignified immortal, his pride did not let him lose face by falling to the intimidation of one who was still in the Nascent realm.
"I can understand I have not been the best father. I can understand how our relationship became estranged when you married thisโฆ lesser born." There was a hint of disgust and disdain in the man's voice when he said the last line, his eyes momentarily glancing at Serene.
"But though she may be of common stock, I acknowledged her when she proved her worth with her sharp mind. I especially became appreciative when she gave you three talented children, using her sharp mind to ensure that each was born with special talents and skills. I can even understand how that whole fiasco with little Moonโฆ upset you."
He had to be careful with his words, for the matter with his son's youngest daughter, Moon, actually nearly tore their family apart. The wedge created that day still had not been healed and, ironically, it was that lowborn woman who convinced his son not to leave the Williams family forever. For that, he was genuinely grateful to her. After all, he was the most talented Williams family child of his generation - it would be a shame to lose him.
"But no matter how bad things have gotten, you have never behaved this way before. Even going as far as hiding the existence of your son for two decades, depriving him of his family heritageโฆ you of all people know the disadvantage of not cultivating with the aid of a strong enough family. What could it be that prompted you to do this?"
The air in the hall was still as everyone waited for the man to continue with his words.
Damian Arban Williams, Lex's grandfather, finally said the only thing that possibly made sense.
"The only thing I can think ofโฆ is a matter related to bloodlines."
He felt a great amount of fear in his heart as he spoke, and an equally great amount of hope. The Williams family had a great history, and should have been one of the top four families of the Jotun Empire, directly alongside the prestigious Butt family which Noman Butt belonged to, under only the royal family.
But while the Williams family shared a sufficiently powerful background, there was one major flaw that prevented them from ever reaching that status. Other than the founder of the Williams family, one of the four advisors to King Jotun himself, no one from their family had been able to unlock the bloodline their family carried.
"But that should not be a reason to hide him," Damian continued in confusion, "but instead bring him to light. He would directly be named heir of the family, and raised with the utmost care. So then, what could it be?"
"It does not matter," Lex's father replied, after slashing one more time and cutting yet another hole in space. "You have already seen what my sword can do. Search for my son and I will personally end the Williams family, the Jotun agenda be damned!"
The couple exited through the slashed space, leaving behind an utterly confused old man. But though the old man was confused, he was not poltroon. Hidden deep in his exhausted eyes was ambition. The fact that his grandchild had been hidden from him meant that there was something special about him, and Damian was not about to let that go.
Lex dismissed the last of his clones and sat with his back to his chair, letting out a deep sigh. One unexpected, but somehow predictable, result of using consciousness clones was severe mental exhaustion. Even if it was as if he had another brain functioning independently, the energy for all that processing still derived from his original body and soul.
Not to mention that he had been using multiple clones, sometimes even at the same time, to check whether that was possible or not. As a result, he had been completely exhausted.
It was not a big deal, for he had more than a whole day before the assembly began. What he had to decide now was whether or not he would attend, for if he missed this one, he would have to wait 100 years for the next one.
But before making complicated decisions like that, he needed to get some rest. Instead of directly sleeping, Lex first teleported to his own home within the Inn, which was in a space cut off from the main Inn. Removing most of his clothes, Lex slowly immersed himself in the Hot tub and let out a soft groan as he felt the warm water massage his skin.
A strange thing that had happened to him since his upgrade was... most hot things just felt warm to him. Even if he put his hand in an open flame, for a very long time it would only seem warm. Only when the temperature was close to his limit, would he begin to feel that it was 'hot' instead of 'warm'.
Not that any of that mattered, for right now Lex was in a mood to relax. After a short dip, he got out of the hot tub and put on his Bathroom set and let it cleanse his body of all fatigue, as well as filth.
Not bothering to change, Lex then walked into the meditation room, sat down, and began cultivating. Sleep would help him recover, there was no doubt about it, but meditating and cultivating would help put him in the right state of mind for what lay ahead.
Considering he was at the peak of the Foundation realm as it was, all cultivating would do was push him towards the Golden Core realm. But it was not an automatic transition, so until he chose to initiate it himself, cultivating would only end up refilling his reserve of spirit energy and refreshing him.
It did not take long, approximately six hours, before Lex stopped his cultivation for he was completely refreshed. Since he had not been drained beyond normal, or been injured in some way, such a normal way of recovering was more than enough to bring him back to his peak state.
Now Lex had a decision to make, but he received a notification that the Inn upgrade to merge with the Henali portal was complete, and only required him to make a few additions.
Lex had put off dealing with Inn related stuff for now, but this was a simple enough task that he didn't mind doing it.
The Henali portal was similar to the internet, and spanned the entire known universe in the Origin realm. It was maintained not by the Henali themselves, but by the members of the Henali alliance.
This statement in itself brought Lex a lot of confusion, since if the entire Origin realm was under the Henali purview, shouldn't the entire 'universe' be considered as a part of the 'known universe'. Of course, in this regard the universe was only referring to the origin realm itself.
But, regardless, coming back to the portal, entering it required a few things first. A person who was entering the portal for the first time had to go to what was called a Registration point and log in from there. This was because they would take all kinds of information and enter it into the portal.
Once that was done, a person could interact with the portal as simply as by giving it a verbal command, regardless of whether you had a log in device or not. Of course, such interactions were extremely limited in capability.
The proper way of logging in was with a login in device. This could be a simple computer, to let you access the information, or a complete VR immersion kit to let you enter the virtual landscape of the portal.
Once logged in, there were still a few restrictions, such as the inability to hide your identity from the portal, but otherwise it was an open world for you to do as you please. The exact details Lex was not aware of, since the information he got from the system was only related to setting up a registration point and an access point, as well as the very basics of the portal.
After thinking about how to set it up for a bit, Lex decided to put down the Registration point on one of the branches off Main street, but created multiple access points throughout the Inn.
The thing about access points was that it contained both complete immersive VR kits, as well as simple access points. Of course, considering the size of his Inn and the number of his guests, he had to create enough access points to accommodate a large number of people entering.
At the same time, he wasn't sure of how much the demand would be. As such, he created a dozen access points throughout the Inn, with the largest being at the village, and bought new workers to work in them.
He'd check it out when he had the time.
For now, he turned his attention back to the assembly. Even if he decided to go, there was one issue he had to overcome, and had been unable to experiment with. To activate the business card someone needed to channel energy into it, but once the clone was summoned, it was unable to move. Did that also mean it was unable to teleport?
Within the Inn, he was able to teleport his clone anywhere without it disappearing, but he did not know if the same would hold true for teleporting the clone to the assembly. Everything was so risky, and now he had to face a battle between his heart, which wanted to go, and his brain, which said waiting 100 years was not a big deal since now he was a cultivator.
*****
William Bentham was feeling good. Things had only gone from bad to better over the last one year, and not only was his cultivation recovering rapidly, his business was taking off. His secret society, the Rose Society, was gaining influence faster than anyone could imagine, and the best part was, due to the various business deals he had operating through the Inn, no one could trace his income. That meant the Rose Society had no money trail anyone could use to trace it back to him.
What others didn't know was that, soon, he would even receive an entire spaceship. He could use that to transport the rehabilitated work force from earth to another planet, and start a colony on a new world. Of course, such a deal hadn't been without costs, but nothing was without price. He could afford to pay it, so long as it helped him achieve his dreams.
If there was one thing he regretted, it was that his own children hadn't helped at all in his new growth, and instead it was Hera who had helped him. The one bet she had taken so long ago, of not taking a million dollars for the key, and invested in him instead, was paying off big time now. Not only was leading one of the most successful startups in history, she had now become a cultivator as well.
Yes, all was good.
Just as Will was losing himself in his thoughts, sipping a cup of warm tea, something suddenly appeared on the table in front of him. Curious, he looked over and discovered a newsletter.
To be more specific, he found the Midnight Inn Newsletter!
Surprised, as well as thoroughly exhilarated, he plucked it off the table and began to read. Oddly enough, on the entire page filled with interesting news not only about the Inn but the universe at large, Will's eyes were directed instead to a small little corner of the page with a segment called 'Ask Rachel'.
Maybe it was the beautiful font, the alluring color, or the fact that there was a small figure of 'Rachel' drawn over the segment that kept waving at Will and pointing down at the segment, attracting his attention to it. One could never be sure about these things.
The first line, though he felt ashamed to admit, did attract his interest.
It simply read:
'What is all the success, power and prestige in the universe worth, if you have no one to share it with? Looking for help, or some tips on how to start exploring the universe for your significant other? Then look no further and ask Rachel the questions hidden in your heart. She will be the beacon that lights up your road towards a wholesome and happy lovelife.