The Innkeeper

Chapter 2212: Third contender

Word quickly spread about the demise of the attack on the Midnight Inn from a suspected Demi-Dao being. Most guests could not properly distinguish between the levels of Dao anyone may have, but they speculated that it should not have been so easy for a proper Dao being to die, so the attack was likely by a Demi-Dao Lord.

For the ordinary guests of the Inn, the event was something that was a huge deal, to be discussed over dinner for generations to come - at least for those who witnessed it. For powerful forces, it was only something worth noting, since the identity of the specific Dao being was undetermined and he did not seem like someone of considerable value.

Thus, on the larger scale of things, the attack on the Midnight Inn should have been a single, inconsequential event in comparison to the things that were happening in the rest of the universe. There were wars and battles occurring which involved actual Dao Lords, so a dying Demi-Dao Lord did not attract any special attention.

In hindsight it soon became obvious that the attack was not a one-off event, but rather a sign of the many anomalies that the Dream realm was slowly going to start displaying. Everyone had assumed that the sudden appearance and kidnapping conducted by the Dream realm was the end of its abnormal behavior. That was clearly not the case.

The very same Dao entity that had attacked the Midnight Inn kept spawning within the Dream realm, and every time it died, or was killed, the Dream realm would promptly spawn it again. Yet, one single, aberrant Demi-Dao Lord was still a somewhat acceptable, somewhat manageable entity, if only it remained confined to the Dream realm.

The entity could appear anywhere in the universe, accessing reality through a dream that anyone in the vicinity was having.

The years passed filled with tension, for nowhere seemed safe while the forces of the universe tried to discern what was truly happening with the Dream realm. If they hadn’t been occupied with the war, it might have been easier. Two years later, the second anomaly began to display itself.

The dreams from within the Dream realm that used to try to steal life from their targets began to leak out of the Dream realm. Moreover, they weren’t leaking out at random anymore either. Instead, they began to target all the peak Celestial Immortals across the universe!

They started with the Celestials on the Dao Affirmation list. This wasn’t a list available to most, since it was a list that was kept and maintained by the strongest forces in the universe. It was a list to track the most likely candidates to become a Dao Lord, though being on the list itself did nothing to ease the difficulty of achieving such a realm. It was merely speculation based on the individual’s life experiences, strengths and so on.

The list did not experience changes often, which is why the lists maintained by most organisations and forces were consistent with each other.

While it was unlikely that candidates who made it all the way to the Dao Affirmation list left themselves unprotected, or spent much time dreaming, the Dream realm targeted them through anyone close to them, from family members to servants, to insects or any living being capable of dreaming.

Besides them, the Dream realm started targeting the strongest and most well known Celestial Immortals. It was at that point that many realized that... the Dream realm was not acting randomly!

Someone or something was controlling the Dream realm and its inhabitants, targeting all living beings, regardless of whether they were from the Path of Order or Chaos! Moreover, their exact goals were unclear.

One could argue that the goal of the Dream Master, as this unknown mastermind was temporarily called, was to cripple the ability of the universe to produce anymore Dao Lords. After all, the Dream realm was suddenly attacking all peak Celestials in a consistent, and difficult to avoid way! Celestial Immortals were tough to kill, yes, but they were not as tough to kill as Dao Lords, which made them the ideal targets if one envisioned a long, protracted war!

Another motive many suspected was that the Dream Master did not care about crippling others, but instead wanted to create peak Celestial level minions for himself to control, which is why he was targeting them.

Suddenly, the war that had encompassed the entire universe, and was being fought between the Path of Order and the Path of Chaos, had a third and mysterious contender.

The problem was, restraining the reach of the Dream realm was not nearly as easy as blocking out the Midnight Inn. The only way to do it was to prevent everyone within a region to have no dreams at all. While this was possible, it required a lot more work and resources than blocking off a massive region of space from being accessed by the Inn.

If there was one aspect about the Dream realm which kept the universal forces from panicking, or at least taking some drastic actions, was that so far, the Dream realm did not seem to target any Dao Lords outside the Dream realm.

However, once a Dao Lord entered the Dream realm, they became entirely inaccessible, which was another source of doubt and confusion for everyone.

The anomalies that the Dream realm kept producing were thereafter considered strategic attacks by the Dream Master, and kept increasing as time passed by.

Ironically, the weaker one was, the safer they became, at least as far as the Dream realm was concerned.

While on the universal stage this caused many changes, within the Midnight Inn the only change it caused was that the level of the adventurers heading into the Dream realm changed from Celestial Immortals to Heaven and even Earth Immortals. If the pace continued, then it wouldn’t be long before the Dream realm became safe solely for mortals.

In the backdrop of everything, the Midnight Inn became one of the most peaceful, and safe places in the universe, despite being directly connected to the Dream realm, and so the passing years allowed them to exist in peace.

In the tenth year since Lex started learning the Masterless technique, a special delegation entered the Midnight Inn, all for the express purpose of delivering a Letter of Intent to the Innkeeper.

The arrival of this delegation caused quite a commotion in the Midnight Inn, exciting many guests and workers alike. One reason for that was that this delegation did not arrive through the tavern in the Origin realm. No, they arrived through the tavern that Velma kept with her at all times.

The second reason that the delegation excited so many was because Velma had returned to the Midnight Inn, as a part of the delegation itself!