The Innkeeper

Chapter 1738: For the first time

Lex passed out. Although it was not the end of the memory, he passed out, and when he reappeared at the very base of the Chalice of the Abandoned, he lay unconscious. Kaemon had not arrived yet, so Lex lay there all alone.

The weight of that vision, of that interaction, was falling endlessly onto Lex’s soul, and yet through his soul anchor, it was being channeled to the Guest Registry instead.

Within the Midnight Manor, the guest Registry which lay open near the entrance began to tremble, though no one noticed that.

However, when the tremor traveled from the spine of the pedestal upon which the registry lay, and into the ground, people finally noticed something was happening. An earthquake struck the Midnight Inn, starting out from the manor and spreading all across the realm.

It started out softly, but became stronger and stronger as time passed by. Though, since this was the cultivation world, nobody panicked on the arrival of a quake, and simply waited for it to pass.

The buildings, the many landmarks and all the features of the Inn were all reinforced by the system, so even as the ground shook with increasing might, they remained protected.

It was only when the quaking shifted from the ground to the skies that some noticed that this wasn’t an ordinary event.

The ripples traveled throughout the realm, causing space to quake and the laws to tremble, almost as if the realm itself was under immense stress. Such events, actually, weren’t so uncommon. For a growing realm to face instability was not uncommon. It was often preceded by periods of rapid growth, which usually occurred when some incredible treasure was born in the realm, or the realm itself absorbed something incredible.

It was highly unusual for a realm being overseen by a Dao Lord, though, which is why everyone realized that this was far from ordinary. Still, it wasn’t enough to cause panic. Instead, it simply aroused a great curiosity in all the residents, who calmly began to study the ripples in laws and space around them.

Wu Kong, however, frowned. He was the only one who could sense the immense strain on the realm. He could also sense some kind of power fighting back against the strain.

Lotus was suppressed, though fortunately suppression is all he faced. He could feel some external power protecting him from whatever was going on.

If Lex were awake, he would have been cognizant of the fact that the system was the one absorbing all the impact which was flowing through the Midnight Realm, because in truth this was not an attack on the realm or the Inn. It was simply the weight of the information Lex had seen.

The reason he would have known that his system was bearing the weight was simple: the functionality percentage of the system, which had previously reached 43%, began to drop. For the first time ever since Lex got the system, he was faced with a situation that the system could not handle.

Of course, for once, it wasn’t his fault. The vision had been triggered because Lex’s ability to withstand the weight of knowledge increased significantly as a result of his anchor, and for once, Abaddon was consistent with its rules. Or at least, the ruins within Abaddon were consistent with their rules.

They did not show Lex more than he was capable of seeing, but in this case that judgment was askew.

As a result of the difference in the flow of time, the quaking of the Midnight realm did not last long, just a few dozen seconds.

Lex, however, lay on the ground unconscious for hours, unaware of what happened. That might be a good thing, for if he saw what his MT and MP had dropped to, he might have a heart attack.

After all, he needed to spend MT for a lot of things now, and without it, many things would come to a crashing halt. But there was nothing he could do about it - at least until he woke up.

Once the quakes finished, everything seemed to be fine, so everyone went about their day as usual. Many people began to speculate about the reasons as to why such a thing would occur, most coming to the conclusion that the Innkeeper was doing something to the Inn. A few imagined that the Inn was closer than ever to becoming the Innkeepers Seat of power.

Wu Kong kept his speculations to himself. He knew better than anyone else how guessing without sufficient information could simply lead one astray.

Regardless, everything seemed to go as usual. Only very few people, not in the Inn, but across the universe, felt something had changed. As it turned out, Jack was one of them.

Whatever vision Lex had seen, Jack had not been privy to, as if there was some layer protecting the information from being leaked.

In fact, it was likely that Lex himself would not remember what he saw. That did not matter, because what Jack used to sense the change were not his memories, but his study of the Nexus event.

When he started out on his journey with his crew, he estimated that the Nexus event was still afar, ranging from a few decades to a few centuries depending on which realm he spent his time in.

Now, though, it felt like the Nexus event was almost upon them. Something had happened in the universe, something extremely huge, so much so that it shifted the balance of the whole universe.

Not that he minded at all. He just needed to speed up his preparations.

Within Abaddon, Kaemons body appeared right next to Lex’s, and he collapsed too, though he did not fall unconscious. Still, he made no move to stand or get up, or even talk to Lex.

He just lay there, reeling from the sights he had seen.

Eventually, after an eon had passed, or maybe just a few minutes, Lex’s hand flinched, and he groaned.