The Innkeeper

Chapter 2167: Don’t listen to her

"Masterless technique? I’m not sure what that is, let me check," said Mateo as he paused for a moment to check the temple catalog. He was technically only a caretaker to ensure that the temple keeps operating normally until it activates fully, and all those in hibernation wake up. Thus, it was perfectly natural for him to not be aware of all the details of the temple.

Even with all the workers Lex had been sending to the temple, it kept operating in a hibernation state for it was built to deal with numbers far greater. The only thing that concerned Lex was whether he’d be able to learn the Masterless technique in the temple’s current state. He almost entirely expected that there would be any number of things he’d need to do first to be able to learn the technique.

"That’s strange. I can’t seem to find anything," Mateo said as his gaze once again focused towards Lex, yet to his surprise no one was there. For a moment he was confused as to why Lex would leave the temple before even finding out about the technique. A moment later, however, he received a notification that caused his body to tremble, and his projection to nearly collapse.

Although Mateo had no skin, since his face was a skull, he began to wipe the sweat off his brow when he realized that Lex was no longer at the level... where he could casually inquire about his information. Perhaps it was for the best that Lex had not entered the scan - Mateo’s heart could not handle whatever it would likely reveal.

To think that just a few years ago, Lex was only a ball of meat he transported into the testing room, and had helped heal back to his baby form. Now he was...

Mateo trembled once more, and wondered about the Midnight Inn. How was the Inn doing a better job at training a human than the temple? Just what had Lex been through these past few years?

Meanwhile, Lex found himself standing in a somewhat familiar room. When he first entered the Temple of Fasting, he had been alongside Z who had disappeared. After some investigation, he discovered that Z had been sent to a special area of the temple to gain the inheritance of one of the founding human kings known as Zarek.

The room Lex found himself in was the very room he had seen Z in, sitting in front of one of the statues. Now, it was Lex’s turn, it seemed. Except he was surrounded by thirteen statues, all of whom were staring at him. Their auras were restrained, however Lex instinctively knew that all thirteen of them had the power of Dao Lords.

That would explain why they had been able to pull Lex into this room without him even being able to sense it, let alone resist it. As far as dangerous situations went, this was about as dangerous as things got. Although he was here under Nuwa’s instructions, who knew what was going on with these statues?

He dared not move, nor did he even dare to have any unnecessary thoughts. Achieving some minor success with a partial Dao Body did not give him any dreams or hopes of being able to take on a real Dao Lord, let alone thirteen of them.

For a few, nervewrecking seconds nothing happened. Then, finally, three of the statues moved aside, revealing a statue of Mother Nuwa in the center of the room. Lex had no memory of what she looked like, but the statue showed a half humanoid, half serpent woman garbed in a scholarly robe, looking directly at him with a compassionate look.

"You, who have been selected to learn the Masterless technique, prepare yourself," the statue spoke in a soft and tender tone, as if she were speaking to her most beloved child. "Once I begin to impart the technique to you, you will not be able to leave until you have completely mastered this technique. This is a technique that can either be completely mastered, or remain completely useless - there is no in between. If you have any urgent or important tasks to take care of, you may go ahead and do so first."

Lex breathed a sigh of relief as the pressure on him dropped. His mind began to race as he considered what he had heard. He’d be unable to leave until he mastered the technique, which was not exactly a good thing. He wasn’t sure how long that would take.

While theoretically he could learn it very quickly due to his own enhanced perception and his cultivation technique, he didn’t know what quick might mean in this situation. It could be a year or a century, or even a thousand years!

While he had no incredibly urgent tasks to take care of at the Inn, this was not exactly a good time to just leave. However, Nuwa told him to learn this technique, and he doubted that it was something he could just shrug off if she thought it was important enough to tell him directly.

While Lex was pondering on what to do, one of the statues looked angrily at the Nuwa statue.

"You cannot just make up new rules as you wish. You have to follow the instructions precisely," he admonished angrily, stunning Lex. What was happening here?

"I am impersonating the compassion and love of the Mother," the statue defended herself, dismissive of any and all complaints. "This is a child of the Mother, a beloved chosen, selected to learn the Mother’s own technique. Does he not deserve some special treatment? What if he has pets he needs to feed, or plants he needs to water? He deserves some forewarning before he’s put into extended meditation."

The statue of the king did not argue with the statue of the mother any more, and instead looked down on Lex.

"Don’t believe her, she has no authority to change the rules. Now that you’re here, you cannot leave before learning the technique. Prepare yourself."

Lex just silently stared at all the statues, unsure of what was happening. Were these statues... alive? Did they only look like certain beings without actually representing them?