The Innkeeper

Chapter 1975: A favor in exchange for a favor

"Can you keep this puppet here and make sure it doesn’t do anything?" Lex asked. "Then, when I trigger a tribulation, can you send it down to me through the tribulation? But you have to make sure it isn’t the one attacking me."

If the puppet was being controlled by the laws, then the chances of being able to send it to the Inn would reduce. But if it was only entering the normal universe through his tribulation, then the chances of him being able to send the puppet to the Inn would reduce drastically.

Vox smiled, as if he had heard exactly what he was hoping for.

"Of course I can. It won’t be easy, but for you, I can make the effort," he said with a sleazy smile. Okay, without the existence of any lips, he couldn’t really smile, but Lex imagined the simple just based on Vox’s tone. "But you know how this goes. A favor for a favor."

This is exactly what Lex was expecting - it couldn’t be avoided. Vox was a practical person. As someone whose survival was on the line, he really had to be.

Sometimes, Lex found it hard to believe that he was a Demi-Dao Lord. He had never encountered anyone who had touched the Dao and yet felt so desperate. His situation seemed even worse than Sekhmet, who had simply been banished from her realm.

"Alright, what do you need?" Lex asked. "Don’t get in the habit of sending me off to kill people. Even if your target is my enemy, I won’t be used as a hitman."

Actually, as long as the target deserved it, Lex did not mind so much. Yet he had to draw certain boundaries lest Vox begin to think he could use Lex anyway he wished.

"Of course, of course. I totally understand," Vox said, assuring Lex. "That was a special circumstance. Diyor was about to infringe on my authority, and that made the situation more urgent. Stuff like that won’t happen often. In fact, I can even give you an option. I have three tasks I can offer to you.

"I won’t tell you the exact details, but I’ll describe them generally. You can pick whichever one that suits you the most. As a show of trust, I won’t even hold you to completing the favor first - as long as you accept it, I’ll trust that you’ll complete it."

Lex did not trust that Vox was suddenly so generous towards him. It was more like he wanted to ensure that his relationship with Lex would continue smoothly.

"The first task is here in Arch-Heaven, and involves a time sensitive matter for which you will have to depart immediately-"

"Not that one," Lex cut him off. "I’m on a time limit myself."

Vox nodded, as if it was perfectly understandable.

"Yes, I suspected as much. The other two, as it happens, are not within Arch-Heaven, though both of them are quite a bit more challenging. The first involves entering a special location, and the journey there will be quite difficult. It is not time sensitive, but I would prefer it to happen sooner rather than later. The third one is even more challenging, but there is no urgency for it. It would require you to enter into a black hole. Are you familiar with black holes?"

Lex raised his eyebrows and looked at Vox oddly. Of course he knew black holes. Even Celestial Immortals were not safe from the devastation of black holes. That was not a domain that he could touch upon lightly, or any time soon.

"That must be a joke, right? You basically are doing your best to get me to take the second task," Lex said.

Vox just shrugged.

"Not really. My tasks are not easy to complete in the first place, or I wouldn’t be relying on you to begin with. I’m half Jorlam, and Jorlams eat planets and stars to grow. I will never be able to fully become a Dao Lord until I complete certain requirements my race imposes on me, and one of them requires that I enter a black hole. Since I can’t do it personally, I can only have someone else do it on my behalf to complete certain matters.

"My other tasks all also have sufficiently important reasons for why I must do them, just as I’m sure that you have very important reasons for wanting this Heavens Puppet in the normal universe, free from the influence of laws. I’m not questioning your motives, so it seems a little unfair that you question mine."

For once, Lex accepted defeat. It was true that Vox had not questioned why Lex wanted a Heavens Puppet, and had been generally quite cooperative in helping out Lex. That caused him to sigh.

"Are you sure this is it? Do you have any more tasks I can do? Even if they seem unlikely, I might be able to help out. The reason why I’m not so eager to accept the tasks you’ve offered is because I have my hands quite full, and I can’t promise I can spare so much time to do other tasks. The blackhole one is simply something I can’t see myself doing any time soon at all.

"It would be really easy for me to accept that task and then not think about it again for thousands of years, since you haven’t offered a timeline. The fact that I’m even saying this should be a display of my intent to cooperate."

Vox chuckled.

"Honestly, even if you can do the blackhole task within ten thousand years, I’d treat it as a win. But I see your point. Our cooperation should start from a more reasonable point. Truthfully, though, the request you’ve made of me is not simple either. It will require a lot of sacrifice on my end, so the tasks I have to offer in exchange need to be equally worth it.

"Any other task I can offer you will only be harder, not easier. For example, I need a Letter of Intent delivered to a senior Dao Lord of the humanoid alliance, but in secret. Or I need a seed to bloom, but the plant that seed belongs to has gone nearly extinct because of how difficult it is to grow. Or I need my bounty erased, but that would require the consent of a Sage race, which they won’t give. So you see, it’s not that I’m purposefully trying to trick you or anything - it’s just that the options are not great."

Lex frowned, and pretended to think things through deeply, while in reality he seemed to realize that Vox did not know as much about Lex as he had assumed. It seemed that either the system itself, or maybe the Destiny level protective formation around the Inn kept Vox from learning about what was happening inside. That was reassuring.

"Can you tell me about the plant?" Lex asked. "I may have the means to make it happen."

If possible, Lex wanted to avoid getting involved in matters relating to Dao, especially for other people. Who knew what Vox had said within his Letter of Intent?

Vox frowned at Lex’s request, instead of feeling reassured.

"This is not a light matter. The seed is one of a kind, and if it fails to sprout, I will suffer a considerable loss. If that is the task you wish to take on, then I will need some assurances from you that should you fail, you will have to make up for the value of the seed to me. I have waited countless lifetimes just because I don’t dare to plant that seed lightly, and risk losing it."

Lex, of course, was entirely confident in the Galactic Sovereign turtles ability to nurture any kind of plant. That is not something he would reveal so openly, though.

"I can’t guarantee success, but I have reasonable faith in completing tasks related to vegetation. If you could tell me more about it, I’ll be able to answer with greater surety. For example, if it is the kind of plant that causes great harm to its surroundings, then I might not risk my garden with that."

"It is not something like that - far from it, in case," Vox said, appearing slightly worried. "This plant was originally called the Fairy Dust Dandelion, but the decline of the Fairies made it became much harder to grow, since the flowers were nurtured using the fairy dust of the strongest fairies below Dao Lord level.

"After that, its name changed to Star Dust Dandelion, for a suitable replacement was found in star dust. Yet star dust - actual, true star dust - is extremely volatile and explosive in nature, making it almost impossible to actually use to nurture the plant. As a result, over the years, it has nearly gone extinct. Nowadays, it can only be found in the personal gardens of Dao Lords or extremely powerful entities."

Lex was intrigued.

"So what do you need? Do you need the plant once it sprouts, or do you need something else?"