The Innkeeper

Chapter 2164: Experimenting with fate

Compared to others, going to John was fairly easy for Lex if he wanted to. John had entered the Origin realm from a planet connected to the Inn. Though he had since traveled away from it, the distance he could have traveled in a short time was limited. Thus, he could always travel to the same planet, and then teleport over whenever he wished.

Since his situation wasn’t urgent, however, Lex decided to wait and finish his current endeavors first. The thing Lex was most anticipating was heading over to the Temple of Fasting and learning the Masterless technique that Nuwa had told him to learn. Although he had been avoiding the temple ever since the Humanoid Alliance had probed for it, since Nuwa herself had told him to go there, there was no reason for him to hold back. After all, the temple was her property to begin with.

Before he could do that, he needed to wait for Paul and Mei to finish up their conversation. Lex did not rush them, and instead allowed himself to meditate while he checked up on the status of the wedding.

The official wedding ceremony was complete. It had been presided over by pontiff Faloofa, which was an interesting experience on its own. Afterwards, the party had begun, filled with countless festivities while Pierre and Brenda made their first public appearance as a couple.

The problem was that while the party itself was going well, with so many guests problems were inevitable.

Fortunately, things were still barely manageable for now. Even if they weren’t, Lex’s karmic clone could more than handle any situation that may pop up. This newfound confidence of being able to take on any problem he wanted whatsoever brought about many changes in Lex, arousing many new thoughts and feelings.

He had to pace himself, making a conscious effort to restrain his thoughts so that he could slowly adapt to his new strength. Lex did not want to get lost in the sensation of his newfound power, lest it begin to warp his personality.

Since there was time, and meditating wasn’t occupying his mind nearly as much as he would have wished, Lex started to do something he hadn’t done in a while. He started to leave behind a few inheritances.

Previously, owing to his limited cultivation level, Lex would leave behind an inheritance, or maybe some treasures and techniques in whatever location he was in. Now, the location did not matter at all.

Instead, he focused on developing the inheritance he wanted to spread, including bits of the various techniques he’d developed on his own, and fused those inheritances inside small tokens that represented him.

Since Lex personally did not have a token or insignia, the key of the Midnight Inn was good enough. After all, the Midnight Inn was also his. Instead of using actual keys from the Inn, he casually forged them using some random materials he had laying around in his spatial ring, and then dispersed the keys.

For this, Lex did not use karma. After all, he was not intending on sending the keys to any specific people. Instead, he relied on a law that he did not use too often. He focused on fate, and allowed the keys to disappear inside the law of fate, reappearing only when they encountered someone fated with the keys.

Of course, Lex also personally set the parameters that would allow one to become fated with the keys - he did not want to provide his inheritance to some genocidal maniac. Thus, he added all kinds of restrictions, from moral requirements, to personal goals, and so on.

Since Lex did not use the law of fate too much, this was akin to an experiment for him, allowing him to probe into how the law worked a little bit.

After all, even though Lex was currently most adept in the laws of karma, that did not mean this is what he would use exclusively. After all, karma, like fate, was just a part of Tether.

Lex would slowly probe all eight ruling laws. He had hardly seen anyone apply the eight laws extensively, though it made sense since his experiences were still limited.

He wanted to understand why everyone used sublaws rather than the higher, more powerful form of laws and what the issue was. After all, karma had proven itself to be one of the most effective laws he had ever used. He had not learned about karma through his cultivation technique like he did with defense, but had found it so useful that now his mastery over it had overtaken his comprehension of defense.

This proved that there were other laws out there that Lex might find even more suitable for himself than what he was currently exposed to. Only by searching would he find what he was most compatible with.

After all, karma was something the Innkeeper was associated with, but that did not mean Lex had to limit himself to it.

While Lex occupied himself by experimenting with fate, the hours passed by quickly. Paul and Mei finally exited the room holding hands, though the expression on Paul’s face immediately told Lex that Mei most likely wouldn’t be returning any time soon.

"What have you decided?" Dragon-Lex asked, his voice still with a proud authority, though he had naturally restrained himself in front of the two.

Paul sighed.

"Unfortunately, Mei’s duty prevents her from abandoning her people and her tasks, so she will remain here, even if it means encountering grave danger," said Paul, sounding extremely reluctant.

He could not fault her though, for he understood duty more than anything. He, too, cared a lot about the Midnight Inn and his duty to it.

"I already guessed as much even before we got here," said Dragon-Lex in an all-knowing voice. Before Paul or Mei could add anything to the conversation, Lex waved his hand and summed a tavern - to be more specific, he summoned the tavern informally called the Brazilian tavern.

"Paul, from now on, you’ll be managing this tavern, which I’m leaving here on this planet for now," Dragon-Lex proclaimed. "Many guests will be coming to the tavern from now on, but this planet is a sensitive area, protected by the Henali. Make sure no guests exit onto the planet without getting permission first."