The Innkeeper

Chapter 1894: Eclipse

"Second lesson in aura farming: don’t pose too early or you’ll end up looking like a fool," Lex said, blowing out black smoke as he did.

So the Fire tribulation happened, and suffice to say, it wasn’t easy, or short. It had lasted 8 days, leaving Lex with skin charred darker than midnight. Fortunately, although he had been burnt up pretty badly, it wasn’t lethal.

As soon as he remembered that he would have a Fire tribulation too, Lex sat down atop the Gabana fruit and began cycling his cultivation technique, and kept it cycling for as long as he could. Unfortunately, during Fire tribulations, there would come a point where one would lose all control over their body and actions. It was quite dangerous.

But, since Lex had already done a lot of showing off about how the tribulations were merely the spice in his life, he was obligated to survive the Fire tribulation, so he did. It was not a pleasant experience.

To make matters worse, due to the time difference in the realms, the time limit for his quest to reopen the universal teleportation of the Inn was almost up. He had only a dozen hours or so. To then further complicate the matters, Lex had not yet managed to link the Garden to the Inn!

This was highly abnormal, for the Inn had become especially competent at linking with new realms quickly. The fact that the Garden was posing such a big problem clearly indicated that there were even more mysteries to this place than he had originally imagined.

He would just have to enable teleportation from within the Garden and handle things remotely until he could go back. Fortunately, Wu Kong had been handling the Dao Lords.

In total, 6 Dao Lords had visited the Inn over the past few days. If the Inn wasn’t locked solely to the Origin realm as a point of entrance, he was sure even more Dao Lords would have visited by now.

After all, to enter the Origin realm itself as a Dao Lord was not easy.

Lex wiped the soot off his face and opened his eyes... to the sight of a beautiful girl looking at him oddly. She was stunning. She was breathtaking. She was... she was... Lex could not see any specific features of hers at all. His brain just directly told him that he was looking at someone beautiful while directly wiping out all traces of what the person he was actually looking at appeared like.

This was the first living person he had come across in the Primordial Garden. Not only was her appearance strange, her cultivation was also unfathomable.

"Hey, I hope I didn’t inconvenience you with my tribulation," Lex said with a smile as he began to heal his body. "I hope your home isn’t around here or something. I’m really sorry if I blocked you off from your home due to the tribulation."

The girl continued to stare at Lex curiously for a few more moments before speaking.

"Your illusion is quite weak - everyone here can see right through it. Maybe you should try putting on some clothes first."

Lex nodded, not at all letting any of his embarrassment show. It was a good thing his skin was charred - no one could see him blush!

Lex pulled a barrier around himself, cleaned himself up with spiritual energy, and then changed into some casual clothes. He had a lot of suits from the Midnight Tailor, but they were too weak for him now. He was considering donating them to someone.

It would be a shame to just wear them and continuously burn or rip them. So, until he got new clothes, he’d be dressing casually.

"My apologies for my appearance - the tribulation did not give me an opportunity to change. My name is Lex. May I have the honor of knowing your name?"

The beautiful girl merely nodded, as if she appreciated him dressing up.

"My name is Eclipse. The Garden is my home. I was watching your tribulation, and stole a bit of its energy, I hope you don’t mind. I would like to pay you for taking your energy, so please feel free to state a price. I hope you won’t refuse."

Lex nodded, basically confirming mentally that Eclipse was some kind of super expert cultivator far stronger than himself. How else could one explain that she stole energy from a tribulation without being targeted herself? She might even be a Dao Lord.

"It’s nice to meet you, Eclipse. I don’t mind you taking some of the energy from the tribulation, though if you insist on paying, I’m not sure what to ask from you. I’m not too familiar with this place - would you mind telling me about it? If you want, that can be your payment."

Eclipse shook her head, refusing.

"The prices do not match. I can share the information about the Garden free of cost. Come, walk with me and I’ll show you around," she said, before turning around and beginning her journey.

"The Primordial Garden is vast, and it has a history older than many Mature realms, but the Garden has its peak set at the Celestial level. It will never mature, and it will never be able to support a Dao Lords tribulation. But that is merely the price paid to have the realm produce Primordial energy.

"It’s a very decent tradeoff, especially since the presence of Primordial energy means that even if Dao Lords can’t have their tribulation here, they can easily stay here without fear of destroying the realm," Eclipse said casually, as if matters pertaining to Dao Lords was common knowledge.

"A lot of otherwise extinct races live in the Garden, not to mention that we have many herbs and plants that can’t be found anywhere else in the universe - Primary realm included. If you can tell me a little about your interests, I can tailor this introduction to that. Otherwise, there is too much to introduce about the Garden.

"For example, in the Garden we have a unique abomination that can exist nowhere else in the universe: undead Deities."