The Innkeeper

Chapter 2086: Just the tip

"I think, at this point, we can pretty much basically confirm that the Innkeeper and the Primordial Queen are a thing," Bridget said to Ballom through her spirit sense. "I mean, she’s basically taught him how to manipulate an Eclipsecrawler’s karma! That’s huge! I’ve never even heard of that before!"

Ballom wanted to disagree with Bridget, because that sounded highly unlikely. However, the evidence in front of him was difficult to argue with.

"Do not panic, everyone - I can confirm that the karma never left the Innkeeper," said Ventura, stepping in. "Although it appeared to have shifted from him, the tool that it connected to was closely linked to the Innkeeper so it was still connected to him."

Hearing assurances from someone external to the situation made everyone feel better, but there was still an air of doubt and discomfort left in the air. How easy was it to shift the karma from them to one of their tools? Many Dao Lords tried, but weren’t able to replicate the feat.

The only reason Lex had been able to do that was because the Karmic Bead was literally a part of Lex’s karma, and so one way or another, the string was already connected to it.

But whatever everyone else felt, Lex didn’t care. He’d given an answer and explained his actions, and now he was using every spare moment within this barrier to study the karmic string. Once the barrier was removed, many if not all the earlier restrictions on him would return, slowing down his advancement. Thus, he needed to make the most of this opportunity!

Lex’s gains were nothing to scoff at, and if he weren’t suppressing his cultivation, not to mention the fact that this place was cut off from the laws of the universe, Lex might have triggered a tribulation for his next realm!

The little stunt pulled by the Innkeeper slowed things down, but soon enough everyone had created a karmic bond, Eclipse and Ventura included.

"What do you find so interesting about this?" Eclipse could not help but ask as she noticed the Innkeeper fixating on the string.

"It’s like reading a book. There’s a lot to learn here," answered the Innkeeper without looking up.

He had faith that with the system and Nuwa working together, his disguise would remain intact, so as long as he did not say anything too dumb, everyone would find their own interpretation of what he said. Naturally, he still needed to be careful of what he said or did, or else the conclusions or interpretations of others might not be so good.

Indeed, that is exactly what happened. Eclipse felt like he had gained some insight into the karmic string of an Eclipsecrawler’s Sentinel, while the others thought that he was studying a way to replicate the Sentinel!

"Alright everyone," said Harriot, attracting everyone’s attention back towards himself. "Now that the preparations are in place, allow me to introduce you to our second activity."

The other two Dao Lords who were accompanying him stepped forward and joined hands, using their combined power to open some kind of portal on the ground. From within the portal, a black pillar of some kind rose out, though it was clear to anyone watching that this was only the tip of something incredibly massive!

"Oh, that’s quite bold," Eclipse said, realising what was happening.

"What you are all seeing right now is called the Enigma Pillar, and it contains many hidden mysteries and secrets that the Primoridial Queen has collected throughout her life. Currently, it is in a dormant state.

"You can activate it by submitting worthy secrets to the pillar, and depending on the quantity or quality of secrets submitted, the pillar will enter a subsequent activation level. Now, to make things interesting, you all will collectively have one opportunity to draw out a secret from within the pillar.

"But to access the secret, you need to activate it first. The relative importance of the secret you draw out depends on the activation level of the pillar. For example, if it only activates to the first level, you can draw out an ordinary secret. It might interest some, and to others it would be completely useless.

"But if the pillar activation level is high enough, say to level seven or eight, then who knows what kind of earth shattering secret can be drawn out! Even the Primordial Queen herself cannot know what might come out, giving you a once in a lifetime opportunity to get access to something truly amazing.

"Of course, for that, you will all need to work together and pay a corresponding price. Or, who knows, if someone is feeling generous they can reveal a major secret all on their own and activate the pillar to a high enough level."

Lex took a moment to stop studying the string and looked towards the Enigma Pillar. He understood the gist of this activity. Participation was not mandatory, so some Dao Lords could really just kick back and watch others contribute secrets. Since everyone would get the reward in the end, they could risk inaction to reap the reward - but if that was the case they’d have to settle for whatever level the pillar activated to.

Ideally, everyone could contribute a secret or two, thus helping the pillar activate to a high level while keeping things fair. The earlier karmic bond was also so that everyone would have fewer reasons to hesitate while sharing certain secrets that didn’t directly affect them.

Yet everyone’s level of participation could not be predicted. After all, the value of the final prize was a gamble.

"Oh by the way, the third activity, in which you will all get some souvenirs to remember the Primordial Garden by, will also be affected by the level of the activation of the pillar during this activity. The greater the level now, the better the value of the souvenir you will get later on."

Yes, now the stakes were rising. Lex stopped studying the karmic string and instead began to quickly wonder what secret he could reveal and how that might contribute. Would the things he learned in Abaddon count? Or did they not count as secrets?