The Innkeeper

Chapter 2024: A madman

"And that’s the last one," said the Masked Tyrant as he looked down on the slime monster. Unlike what common stories would have people believe, not all slimes were weak. In fact, the particular slime that the Tyrant just beat up was called the Bearded Slime, and was actually the 100th in the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum, making it the last race to be considered an Elder race.

The Bearded Slime were notoriously difficult to harm since they were impervious to nearly all kinds of damage. To do any harm at all to them, the strength of the attack needed to surpass a certain threshold, and then any damage above that would actually do very minimal damage to the Bearded Slime. There was also their incredible recovery to consider, which generally made it very hard to damage them.

Even Lex found it challenging to fight at first. After all, even if Lex was managing to control the eight ruling laws, it was a very narrow aspect of the law that he was controlling through a combination of very specific Relational and Foundational laws, meaning he might even be demonstrating less than 1% of the genuine might of a Ruling Law.

The breakthrough eventually came from his Karmic Bead. He didn’t even need to force it to the point of reaching Tether - simply by locking into his karma, Lex was able to damage him. This was a good learning experience for him, because he learned that a more refined use of Relational Laws could be more useful than an unrefined application of the ruling laws.

Hierarchy superiority did not translate in the eight ruling laws necessarily being the better option - at least while Lex’s use of them was still so primitive.

He turned around to look at the watching crowd, noticing that many of them were cheering while others were watching cautiously. It was not lost on Lex that the rapid increase in problems could be a probe towards the Midnight Inn.

The probe was subtle, the karma untraceable, the causality hidden. In fact, Lex did not need to detect any anomalies to know that it was happening. For so long, he had avoided spreading his teleportation abilities because he felt that he and the Inn weren’t ready.

Well now, the forces out in the universe themselves were the ones limiting his reach. Whether he liked it or not, whether he was prepared for it or not, the time had come. The Midnight Inn was on the universal platform, and he had to be enough.

The pressure was immense, but Lex was no longer as weak as he once was. Even if he wasn’t as strong as he would have liked to be when such a thing happened, the matter of fact was that he had to react.

As he stood over the defeated slime, looking out into the crowd, Lex did not see guests. He did not see an audience. He did not even see the Midnight Inn.

He saw a game of chess, or maybe Go, but a million times more complex. He saw moves hidden in the shadows of moves made in the light, he saw threads of karma weaving themselves around the Inn, and even around the individual workers and frequent guests.

These moves, these karmic manipulations, these traps were of a level far too advanced for Lex to actually see, but he knew they were there. As someone who had seen the world - the universe, in fact - Lex knew that peace was only as permanent or temporary as the strength of the shoulders bearing it.

He could not help but recall what Eclipse had told him. There was a strain on the universe so immense that it could destroy anyone, no matter how strong they were. Ironically, though, the strain itself is what held the universe together and kept it from falling apart.

Well, there was a strain on him now - a pressure of knowing that for better or for worse, the Midnight Inn had been locked onto by countless forces. There was a tenebrous tranquility around the Inn at that moment, but it was only held up by the reputation of the Innkeeper.

Now, Lex must never, never let the reputation of the Innkeeper come into question, or the Inn would be recognized for the paper tiger that it really was.

"Offense is the best defense," the Masked Tyrant whispered, recalling the words of the meat mountain that Marlo used to be. "If your enemy is dead, then you won’t have anything to defend from."

Although he merely whispered the words, hundreds, nay thousands around him heard them, and felt a chill travel down their spines. A red, bloodthirsty aura seemed to encompass the Tyrant as he looked not upon them, but those plotting against the Inn, and felt not fear but total aggression.

Neither the guests, nor even Lex through his own senses or even the Inn, could detect that behind the Masked Tyrant stood a few clones of Sun Wu Kong, the Monkey King, all clad in armor, holding their fighting staff over their shoulders.

"Hehe kid, you are too blood thirsty for how weak you are," one of the clones murmured, though the voice did not reach the Tyrant’s ears. Instead, the words seemed to echo around the clones... not just the clones standing behind the Tyrant. Rather, the words echoed around the tens of thousands of clones spread all across the universe.

Only other Dao Lords could hear them besides Wu Kong himself.

"I remember when I was at your level. I used to hide in trees and eat apples. But then again, I didn’t have a backer like you do... hehehehe."

The excited laughter of the Monkey King resonated across battlefields, across, realms, across the universe, mocking those who listened.

"Are you sure you want to get involved in this, Wu Kong?" a shadowy figure asked in a realm that had no name, his words traversing not through space, but the fabric of the universe itself to reach the Monkey King.

"Invovled? Not at all. But what can I do when someone like the Innkeeper dares to use someone like me as a lackey?" answered the mischievous monkey. "You set your sights on Lex to probe the Innkeeper, but Lex did me a favor I must return. Now... you must all bear the consequences of messing with the man who cares about nothing in the universe besides his Inn."

The Monkey King laughed, and the sound resounded throughout the universe. The careful, calculated chaos of war that had spread across the universe, the chaos every organization in the world was hoping would subside, the chaos that the Path of Chaos was meticulously orchestrating to further their own plans erupted into true, unpredictable anarchy.

All powers had something to gain from war, and something to lose from war. There were very few beings in the universe who could gain true, unquestionable power and stay without any and all reservations. Unfortunately, the Dao terrorist Sun Wu Kong was one of those who had nothing to lose, and he had no one he feared.

One after another, all the Dao Lords who had participated in the plans to probe Lex, and even the ones who were just incidentally involved in the matter, found themselves faced with their worst nightmares.

They could not relax, they could not rest, and they could not focus on anything else, for the smallest flaw could lead to the worst outcome - Sun Wu Kong could steal their Dao!

The Monkey King was a great fighter, but that is not what made him so fearsome. It was his unlimited clones, and his ability to steal his targets Dao that made him so fearsome. Even if he failed, so long as he stole a portion of his targets Dao, they could be weakened forever. Dao forbid if he was successful, then it could lead to a crippled Dao Lord!

Of course, such a thing was not easy, but it had happened before, so the Dao Lords who looked at the universe through the lens of eternity dared not risk anything at all. More importantly, everyone became even more wary of the Innkeeper.

Did he not know this was madness? Yes, this may buy him temporary peace, but sooner or later, those who were angered by him would retaliate. The Monkey King was feared, but even he was not invincible. After all, at the end of the day, he was only a Dao Lord, and that was not the strongest power in the universe.

No one had the answer to what the Innkeeper was thinking. All they knew was that he was a mad man who lacked the patience of a typical Dao Lord. Who would react so violently to the smallest probe? Only a madman... or someone who was truly self confident in his own power.

The rumors about his Seat of Power began to gain more popularity, but for now, they were only rumors. No one could confirm them, but many doubted them. It should have been impossible for such a being to just pop up in the universe one day without attracting any attention.

The rumors should have been unbelievable, and yet no one could deny them. Moreover, it seemed he himself was the least bit concerned about his newfound notoriety, for word of a tea party began to spread.

What was his game? What was he truly after? No one knew.

Meanwhile, in the Midnight Inn, after posing for a short while, Lex returned to his room and began to think of ways he could raise the Innkeepers reputation. It wasn’t like the Innkeeper would suddenly become even more fearsome overnight. Truly, this was a difficult problem to resolve.