The Innkeeper

Chapter 2347: Let’s start with...

Lex found the sight oddly amusing, as well as astonishing. It was amusing because even though there were many different races working together, they didn’t look that much different from the subway system. What was astonishing, though, was that there were no formations or enchanted treasures that he could spot, yet this underground network was perfectly isolated from detection from up above.

He could have just jotted it down to Dao Lord powers, but he had a feeling that wasn’t the case. He stood in a corner and listened to the chattering between the residents and commuters, picking up little details of their lives in the Fortune stronghold.

At first, he was smiling. But as the hours went by, Lex’s smile began to fade as he realized that he may have severely underestimated the strength and accomplishment of the lord of this stronghold. To be fair, being able to resist Gilded Hollow’s retribution for so many years should have been a major hint towards just how strong he was.

Everyone, all races, within the stronghold only cultivated through a cultivation system designed by the Fortune Lord himself! Even the Beasts did not rely on their bloodline to cultivate. Instead, they all cultivated their fortunes, and used that to grow stronger!

The Fortune cultivation system was extremely easy to cultivate within the Hollow, since every bit of the hollow was made up of incredibly valuable resources. If the residents were brave enough to venture past the boundaries of the stronghold and actually accumulate and gather resources, supplementing their fortunes, then their cultivation would grow even stronger, faster!

As Lex thought about that, he realized that the Fortune Lord may have been stuck in the Hollow, but this really was the most ideal cultivation ground for him in existence! Qilins themselves were beasts that were favored by fortunes, and were even considered bearers of good luck.

For him to cultivate in this land full of the fortunes of a fallen universe...

Lex suddenly paused and pushed away the thought that came to his mind. He could not think of it at all. He could not allow himself to ponder what cultivation realm the Fortune Lord would reach if he managed to harvest the lingering fortunes of a fallen universe. Upon his return to the universe at large, things really might change a lot.

From within the Fortune palace, Romulus smirked as he looked at Lex, and then shook his head. Even Lex himself did not know the true reason for why Romulus was so friendly towards him, and it was better that way.

Yes, Romulus really did have a friendly and approachable personality. But it would not be enough to go over and teleport any random being who called out his name. Being friendly did not mean he was open to becoming other people’s taxis. Yet the moment Lex spoke his name, Romulus sensed his fortune, and discovered something.

He smiled. Even if he could not look into Lex’s past, it did not prevent him from benefiting from his future. As for the Innkeeper... Romulus suspected that they were one and the same, at least in terms of their goals. Whatever the case, he would learn the truth once he left the Gilded Hollow.

He turned his gaze away from his system interface, somewhat conflicted by his conversation with Prime Kernel.

Romulus got up off his throne and descended to the lowest level of the Fortune stronghold, far beneath the subway. He entered a main hall connected to eleven different chambers, each of which had not been opened in billions of years. Yet today, he sent in his spirit sense to disturb its inhabitants.

"Wake up," Romulus commanded, his voice no longer as even and easygoing as it had been with Lex. "It is time for us to return to Vaelûn."

As soon as he spoke, the aura of eleven other Dao Lords erupted from those chambers.

Lex, meanwhile, finally got in one of the train carts and headed towards the city council. By now, he’d learned a lot more about the stronghold, and he had to say that it was somehow beyond his expectation, and somehow within it as well.

The size of the stronghold was... well it was far beyond measuring in something like the size of football fields. If he really had to say, then the land that the stronghold occupied was equal to the surface area of twenty one suns!

It was far larger than he had expected. But then again, this was the territory of a Dao Lord, so it couldn’t exactly be small either.

The stronghold had a distinct culture, history and system of doing things. For example, it had its own calendar, its own public holidays, public figures, significant historical events and so on.

The thing that specifically attracted Lex’s attention was something special on their calendar. They marked 231,000 years as one Dao cycle, after which the calendar would once again begin from the year 0 and the number of Dao cycles increasing by one. Lex paid special attention to it because of the mention of the word Dao.

He didn’t know if it was random or there was a certain reason behind it - it was just something he’d have to figure out on his own. He’d never heard the term before back outside the Gilded Hollow, so either it could just be something they made up, or something he wasn’t able to get in touch with.

It only made sense that after such a long period of time, the Fortune stronghold was thoroughly developed. That was also why, despite its massive size, the underground transport system was quite efficient. The distance between Lex’s current position and that of the city council was enormous, yet the worm carrying the carts behind it could move through great distances using a technique Lex was unfamiliar with.

It was not a surprise at all that the worm, too, was of a primordial race - just one that lacked Primoridial energy. Lex couldn’t identify the associated laws for they were too unfamiliar to him, and touched upon some abstract concepts he’d never encountered before. Regardless, it only took Lex twenty minutes before he reached his destination and got off the train.

Honestly, Lex could have just directly teleported through this distance in a shorter time on his own if he had known the location, but he didn’t quite mind the journey. It was quite enlightening.

All the residents of the stronghold seemed to display a distinct lack of urgency in everything they did, as if they had all the time in the world. It was quite contrary to the rest of the universe, and yet it had not affected the productivity of their civilization. It was quite curious, and gave Lex some things to ponder over.

The ’city council’ was less of a building and more like a city of its own, with hundreds of highrises, countless roads, smaller buildings, apartments, parks and more. Yet even so, each portion of the council was distinctly divided to take care of certain matters.

The department that the Fortune Lord had sent Lex to was the one that categorically recorded news and information relating to treasures within the Hollow above a certain quality threshold.

The department was, unsurprisingly, overseen by a black dragon. Not only did he overlook the recording of critical intel, but he very often went out and conducted surveys and treasure retrievals.

Considering that very, very few residents of the stronghold ever left its boundaries and risked facing the Hollow’s retribution, the dragon became one of the most knowledgeable when it came to collecting and harvesting resources.

Considering that the dangers seemed proportional to the area of the Hollow one ventured to, surviving so many years was an incredible feat. After all, the Hollow’s retribution was only one of the dangers - not the only one.

"I have already been informed about you by the Fortune Lord," the black dragon said as he looked at Lex with an especially pleased expression. "I have been given permission to use all the resources available to me in helping you find and harvest your targeted resources. I was told that the Death Rose was your primary target, but we don’t currently know of its whereabouts and have already deployed all our remote search methods to search for clues. In the meantime, we can get familiar with working together by practicing on some other key resources."

Lex could tell at a glance - the dragon really wanted to help Lex go out and find resources, because this would be its opportunity to go out and search as well. It didn’t mind at all that going out might cause it to die. He was, in the truest sense, a dragon. He cared more about increasing the size of his treasure hoard than anything else!

Lex smiled. Yes, this was exactly the type of person he wanted to work with at the moment.

"Fine, give me the complete list of recorded treasures that you have. Let’s start with Dao level treasures that immortals can contact without dying or getting corrupted."

The black dragon mirrored Lex’s smile, as if he had finally found a trusted confidant after all these years.