The Innkeeper

Chapter 1984: A Deity shows up

To be entirely honest, when this conversation began with his parents, the only thing Lex was interested in was understanding his and his siblings bodies. That had suddenly changed.

When he had heard that some oracle had told his parents to hide the cultivation world from him, he had assumed that his parents had been scammed or swindled. Honestly, for the most part, he’d put it out of his mind.

His only real experience with oracles was with Vera and her friends, all of whom had proved to be fairly reliable. Even so, he didn’t trust oracles to foretell the future accurately all the time. But if this oracle was a Heaven Immortal, the future he was telling was of a human, mortal baby, then there should be very few obstacles preventing him from being fully accurate.

Something like that was simply too easy for a Heaven Immortal to do. Even if Lex had zero experience in divination, he would still be able to see through a mortal’s whole life with a simple glance if he so wished.

"Did he introduce himself to you? Or leave behind a name or calling card?" Lex could not help but ask. Yet the result was as he expected.

"Not really," said Leon. "The man said that he was an oracle, and that he had come to save us because he had seen himself saving us in his future. Then, he did a divination for us. He did not talk about any of our kids, except our son, stating that the son should be kept away from cultivation for fifty years, or grave trouble will befall him.

"Then he went on to tell us a number of other, random things about our future, ranging from days to years off. Once he was done, the man just left, as if he had completed his mission. He did not ask us for anything in return, nor did he give us any way to contact him again.

"For a time we thought that he might secretly be spying on us, but there was nothing we could do to prove otherwise. We had to act as if he was baiting us to reveal the heritage, and so we could never return there. After all, the mission we had was too great to take risks. At that point, there were only a few things left that we could do, the most important of which was to raise my strength."

Leon leaned back in his chair, letting Serene continue telling the story.

"That was a very hard time for us, not only because we were stuck unable to enter the heritage, but because Belle was gone, and we had to keep you away as well. Although we had no way of being sure the oracle was telling the truth, it was not a chance we could take. I’m not sure if you’ve realized, but your physique was..."

"Yes, yes, improving other humans," said Lex dismissively, not mentioning that now he could improve all humanoid beings. Or that he had acquired other physiques. "I understand my body well enough, though if you could tell me what you did to me, I wouldn’t stop you. There have been times where I felt like my ability or my body might have traits of certain powerful races."

At this point, Serene smirked, as if she could see through Lex’s intentions.

"How about we finish the story before getting to the topic of your body? I feel like that will be an entire discussion on its own."

Lex did not react to her hint, but simply nodded, as if acquiescing to that conversation getting delayed.

"In short, that was a tough time for us. We were too weak, and had too much to hide. The arrival of the mysterious oracle also let us know that time was running short before other powerful forces were attracted towards Earth.

"So, while we made many contingencies, such as making clones that could connect to all our children as long as they were on earth, and focusing on Leon’s recovery, we had to do something a little... desperate. I decided to go all out one more time.

"If I could do something really incredible, our access to the heritage could increase exponentially, and then we could escape once and for all. Then we could come back for Belle when we were strong enough - that’s what I was thinking at the time.

"So I decided to have one more child, and this time with a physique that challenged all limits. I used some... valuable resources that I had gotten from the heritage, the kind that are rare across the universe. We spent years preparing. Our hope was that Damian would stay away long enough that little Moon was born, I accessed the heritage, and we could escape. The chances were good, after all, Damian was now wary of my ’teacher’.

"But... life rarely goes as we expect it to. Little Liz’s talents were recognized by Ventura, a powerful cultivation academy, and her invitation was sent to the Williams family. With a legitimate reason to approach us, Damian returned just a few days after Moon was born.

"Her physique was beyond anything I could have expected, or even understood. Immediately, we tried to hide its effects, to no avail. When Damian arrived, just like with Liz, he knew she was special, but didn’t know what was special about her. It was obvious though that she could heal souls.

"He tried to negotiate with us to allow us to take her, but we refused, so he said that we would stick to the same deal. Meanwhile, Liz would go to Ventura instead of the Williams family. We had successfully bought ourselves a few more years. I had also unlocked enough levels in the heritage such that I could access it without needing to enter manually.

"We finally found a way to not only strengthen your father quickly, but also to finally escape. Everything was going fine, until it wasn’t. One fine morning, the Deity Bastet showed up at our door, looking down on Moon."