The Innkeeper

Chapter 1985: Flipping tables

So far, Lex had a connection to almost all the important characters mentioned in his parents story. Besides the characters, the heritage seemed to be the only thing that he did not have a direct connection to on his own. He considered himself having no direct connection, because his physique, or at least the resources required to build his physique, came from the heritage whatever it was.

The oracle, though, made no sense to Lex. To be quite frank, he did not believe that someone like that helped out his parents out of the goodness of his heart. If random people received kindness, it could just be kindness. But when those who held significant power received random kindness out of nowhere, there tended to be an agenda hidden somewhere out of sight.

What Lex didn’t understand was that if the oracle had been targeting his parents, or him.

As far as Bastet was concerned, Lex was not too worried about how the story would go. Although she too came from a messed up family, compared to her actual family, she was pretty nice. Her butler was kind of cool as well.

Still, he waited till the story was complete before making judgments.

"At first, we did not realize that the one in front of us was such a great being. Instead, it just seemed like a black cat had somehow intruded into our home, looking down on Moon. Then she declared her identity, revealed her power, and I almost thought that would be the end of our journey. I really did. Instead, she made an unexpected declaration.

"She declared that in Moon’s future, she could see the influence of her family. Since Bastet did not seem to be on good terms with her family, she said that she put a protective charm on Moon. Unless detected and removed, none from her family would pay too much attention to Moon, thereby saving her from a terrible fate.

"She said that in exchange for her favor, she required a favor from Moon, but in the future. She claimed that it was very likely that she would move from one prison to another, and that if her charm ever managed to protect Moon from her family, we could repay her by freeing her from her second prison."

Lex frowned, not bothering to hide his emotions. He recalled that his grandfather had claimed that he thought Moon would be the perfect vessel for the descent of Sekhmet into the Origin realm, but that Sekhmet herself seemed noncommittal about the proposal. Could it be that the reason Sekhmet had not paid too much attention to Moon was because of the charm Bastet left behind? It was plausible, but he couldn’t be certain.

"Bastet said that it was unfortunate that she herself was too weak due to her energy deprived state, and so she could not do more. Then, she left, without any more explanations or without asking for anything. By all means, her actions seemed to be good, but for me, they spelled something else.

"The heritage was attracting more and more powerful people, and we were running out of time. I was getting even more desperate, so much so that we began to consider something... previously unthinkable. We began to consider reaching out to the Williams family, relying on them a little to speed things up.

"We reached out to the retainers of the Williams family on Earth, and began to ease our way into some kind of agreement. I hated to do it, but unless I could speed things along, the situation might become even worse. I could not keep on relying on producing physiques, for even the answers the heritage gave us were useless without sufficient strength.

"Your father made a few breakthroughs in his sword intent, even if his cultivation was restricted to the Golden Core realm, and once again things seemed like they might work out. But by now, a pattern was established. As always, Damian returned ahead of schedule. This time, he claimed that an elder of the Williams family had sustained injuries during his tribulation. Without sufficient soul medicine, he would die despite becoming an immortal, which would be a huge loss.

"Moon was already special enough that even at that age, she seemed to be able to manipulate energy as if she was already a Foundation level cultivator despite just being a mortal. Moreover, all her energy seemed to heal souls.

"The excuse was real, and the need was genuine. We thought this might be a way for us to gain leverage with the Williams family. It was not. It was merely a probe by Damian, to see if my so-called master was still around, and what his reaction might be.

"We returned to the Williams family. We reunited with Belle, and found that there seemed to be spiritual cues in her mind, and feeling reassured, we cooperated with the family on our own terms. That elder was healed successfully, and that was our mistake. We should have let Moon act like she couldn’t heal him yet.

"Word about Moon spread, and the three other noble families of Jotun became involved. Some demanded a marriage alliance, while others pressured the Williams family. Instead of being able to focus on our growth, we became embroiled in politics. Little did we know, each action, each threat, each interference by the other families were simply probes by Damian. Once he was sure that my master was not around, he... he suddenly took Moon and fused her with a planet before we could stop him."

There was pain and regret in her voice, which might also be why she wanted to cover this part of the story so quickly.

"That was the day Leon lost it. His sword intent crossed into a whole new level, and he tore the Williams family apart. It was not Damian, many other immortals tried to fight him, to no avail. Quite a few elders were critically injured, and just when it seemed like he would kill Damian, one of Leon’s brothers captured me.

"By then, even though I was a Nascent Soul cultivator, fighting was not my expertise at all. There was nothing I could do, and your father... was forced to stop."

Lex felt like flipping a table. Where the hell did this new uncle come from? Was his entire family demented? He had half a mind to go back and do a thorough inspection of the William family.

"Who was this uncle of mine?" Lex asked, his voice just a little colder than it was a few moments ago.

"His name was Jeffery. He was basically Damian’s right hand man."

Lex froze. Jeffery. It was that stupid wyvern that liked to disguise itself as others.

"Well in that case, it might please you to know that I killed Jeffery," Lex said, his voice returning to normal. "Or at least I killed quite a few of his clones. Who can say if I killed the real one or not?"

Just to be sure, he would go back and pay a visit to the Williams family anyway, once he was done with here.

Serene sighed, her expression filled with regret.