The Innkeeper-Chapter 1481: Weeks

Lex closed his eyes and did his best to relax, well aware that there was a Dao Lord who was about to possibly treat his body. His system, which was not fused with his soul, was easily detectable if anyone looked into his soul - or so he assumed. Surely, it would not be able to hide from a Dao Lord, right?

That was not his only concern either. He had no shortage of secrets, and he literally had no way of defending against, or even detecting the influence of a Dao Lord. The fact that just studying the sword technique Ten Tribulations had infected him was good enough an example of how easily it was for Dao Lords to trick or manipulate him.

But Lex had long given up worrying about the actions of beings far superior to himself, or he would go mad. All he could do was take things as they came.

That was his last thought before the Dao Lord in front of him began her treatment, touching his forehead. His thoughts, and in fact even his soul, went into a dormant state. The influence was so strong that even Jack, who was in the middle of using his fairy dust to hold his ship together as it sailed over the surface of a hurricane originating from the river Styx while avoiding the giant skeleton trying to get him from inside the hurricane, was momentarily affected. As a result the massive skeleton finally grabbed onto the ship - much to its own dismay.

The skeleton immediately began to turn into gold and crystal at the same time. It started turning into a golden crystal!

Jack didn’t have the time to focus on Lex, not that it would have mattered if he could either. In that moment, Lex became entirely disconnected from him, and he had no way of checking in on him at all. Fortunately, it wasn’t that the actual connection was severed, it was just that in a completely dormant state, Lex could give no feedback at all, or respond to any probes either.

Jack’s adventures continued, each one more harrowing than the last, to the point where he had to admit that he began to wonder if he had gotten in over his head. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.

He needed to contact the seven dwarf dragons, for they were a unique force in the entire universe. There was literally no other precedent of so many siblings becoming Dao Lords in the history of the universe, which in itself made them a unique power.

The greater source of their power was in the fact that they were dragons. The Folklore realm was a unique realm in the universe, where the power of prestige and reputation, as well as stories and folktales had a very real and tangible consequence. This meant that usually, it was almost impossible for foreign Dao Lords to overpower the local Dao Lords.

But it also meant that when the Dao Lords from the Folklore realm left the realm, a very large source of their power vanished, making them much weaker.

As a result, hardly any powers from the Folklore realm ever left. Considering that the realm was one of the largest realms in existence, it wasn’t really a problem for most Dao Lords either.

The seven dragon dwarfs had a unique advantage, which was that as dragons they had the innate ability to bend the universe to their will. This power was only magnified after they became Dao Lords, which meant that when they left the Folklore realm, using their innate ability as dragons, they could alter reality and show a large part of, if not all of their true power from within the Folklore realm.

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Of course, this was only the publicly accepted story. What the truth was, Jack had no way of knowing. All he could operate on was their reputation, which told him that if he presented them with the opportunity to explore the universe with a good enough reason, they would oblige with his humble requests.

Of course, he had no way of knowing the consequences of informing them about the Artica realm, if they didn’t already know about it. If this plan didn’t work out, he could just try something else.

This definitely was the best opportunity he could think of, though, which renewed Jack’s will as he waded through the deathly waters and fought off one obstacle after another. All the while, he also babysat his crew, who were not easy to deal with. Sometimes, handling them was more difficult than facing the river.

But, one way or another, he managed to hold on, and the days slowly passed him by, all without sign of Lex.

Jack was worried, but there was literally nothing he could do, especially with a Dao Lord on the other side of his connection, so he didn’t dwell on it.

It was only three weeks later, when he was close to the end of his own journey in the river Styx, that Jack finally sensed Lex once more.

Lex’s thoughts were slow to gather, as if he was waking up from an excruciatingly deep slumber. Eventually, when he did recover, he awakened to the scene of thousands of chains wrapping his body, holding him down in place.

"Please do not panic," said Irizmia, before Lex even had a chance to do so. "You are not being treated as a prisoner. The chains were involved in your cleansing process, which has been completed successfully. It is fortunate that your contamination, while extensive, was not dangerous, so it was removed quite easily. If that had not been the case, the cleaning may have taken a few years to complete."

Lex tried not to dwell on the possibility of sleeping for years without warning, and just watched as the Demi-Dao Lord unlocked his chains, one at a time. It was excruciatingly slow, but there wasn’t much he could do about that.

"Am I completely free of contamination now?" Lex asked. "Is there anything left?"

"Worry not. You are completely free of any contamination that was detected in your body. Now, you may resume your usual two week premium package and enjoy your stay at the Seraphim Resort."

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"Mary, what’s the situation with the system?" he asked internally. He dared not scan his own soul for the system at the moment, lest he reveal something.

"Much better than expected," Mary answered. "Your soul was never even probed, and though the system was ready to enter a complete dormant state to hide from a Dao Lord, it was never required. Whoever treated you displayed the utmost professionalism and looked at nothing other than what was necessary."

Lex accepted the answer, but did not necessarily believe it. It had already been proven that he was in no way equipped to scrutinise a Dao Lords actions at all. For now, he could only accept that the outcome was as it appeared on the surface. It would only be later on, when he reached a similar state of power, that he could even begin to imagine examining himself for any traps he had fallen into.

"I’m ready to move on. What’s next?" Lex asked impatiently when he was finally freed of the chains binding him. He moved his body, as if to test his condition, but found no noticeable difference.

The only actual difference was that he had completely forgotten about the details of the Ten Tribulations. He had only barely remembered some of his personal experiences and theories about mixing sword intent and lightning, which didn’t make sense somehow.

"Well, according to your itinerary, you will be shown to your living area as well as be allowed an opportunity to explore the resort on your own and mingle for a few hours. Following that, we will begin your first service, which involves entering an upper layer of Heaven, and purifying your spiritual aura through incense therapy."

"Excellent. I am looking forward to meeting the other guests at the resort. Let’s go."

In truth, Lex was feeling a little impatient, which couldn’t be helped. He had suddenly lost three weeks of time overnight, and didn’t want to face any more unexpected surprises.

After all, the Midnight Games were about to come to a close soon enough, and he didn’t want to waste time doing something unproductive.

"Please follow me," Licanderoth said, standing in the back of the room. "You were escorted to the treatment center while the procedure happened. From here, we can directly enter the common area for Immortals."

Lex followed his personal valet without question, and was both surprised, and not so surprised when he saw what the resort was like outside of the treatment facility.

It was like a galaxy, but condensed into a much smaller space. Cosmic clouds seemed to make up entire buildings, and the lights from their windows shone like stars in the distance.

Futuristic vehicles flew all around the skies, while glowing Seraphim and guests of all races walked and strolled on the streets that, themselves, looked like they were forged out of the night sky.