The Innkeeper

Chapter 2360: Suicidal

Lex’s mind raced as he tried to make sense of the situation. He dared not even think of her name at this moment while he figured things out. Although he’d interacted with her many times, using various identities, he’d never been worried because he thought Nuwa was hiding his secrets and keeping him from being traced.

Although she was a master of karma, as far as he could tell, or as far as he’d guessed, she was not spying on Lex through his karma. That was because they had a decent relationship, but also because Nuwa should have been keeping him from being looked through.

So then, why did he suddenly sense her here?

Lex’s eyes narrowed, while Pelagor and the black dragon silently looked at the human in confusion. He just realized that even if she was really spying on him, it should be impossible for him to detect her. Even if the gap between the Gilded Hollow and the rest of the universe weakened her power by a lot, Lex still shouldn’t have been able to detect her.

Did that mean she wanted him to detect it? Was this some kind of message from her to stay away from this Dao material? No, the feeling was that of being spied upon, not of being intimidated. Maybe she wasn’t telling him to stay away, but to go for it and get the treasure. The question was, why?

Lex’s understanding of her was that she was so powerful that she did not need to act with ulterior motives. Her everything was insanely powerful, and the only thing that could control her actions were her own whims. There was nothing she would need from Lex. In that case, was it because their relationship was good that she was guiding him?

Or was it that someone else was pretending to be her to misguide him? It wouldn’t be impossible for another Dao Lord to do that, but who would dare to cross her?

The thought almost made Lex chuckle. Only someone suicidal would try to impersonate her, so he could disregard that thought.

Whatever the case, this incident made Lex decide to take up Pelagor’s offer, and at least check out the Dao material he was talking about.

"I accept your offer, but don’t talk about that item anymore," said Lex as he looked at Pelagor. "Just directly pass all the information you have on it to me, and share the location. We’ll plan out our journey now and head out as soon as we’re ready. There’s no point in wasting any time."

Pelagor wasn’t sure what exactly happened to Lex, but he was glad that the offer was accepted. At the same time, he realized that the items he had talked about might be more valuable than he realized outside in the actual universe. Some precautions were needed to avoid future problems.

He wasn’t too worried about Lex betraying him though, for any agreement they made would be through a binding Fortune Oath. Breaking that was akin to suicide.

The two of them immediately began to plan out their journey.

Far underneath them, however, within one of the chambers of the eleven Dao Lords who had recently awoken from their slumber clutched his chest and grit his teeth as he tried to stifle the bleeding. In front of him, the Fortune Lord stood with a grave look in his eyes, almost as if he was ready to undo a few people’s fortunes himself.

"What happened?" the Qilin asked in a tone that brook no resistance or disobedience.

The Dao Lord, a winged Beast from a species Lex had never really seen or heard of before, opened his mouth to speak, but coughed out blood instead.

Romulus sighed, and then used some of the items from his own reserves to heal the Dao Lord enough so that he could speak.

"The outsider you mentioned, the one from the Midnight Inn," he said when he finally recovered, an expression of fear in his eyes. "I sensed an unusual ripple in his karma when Pelagor mentioned the remaining shell from the egg of the Primordial Farham. I wanted to investigate. I didn’t think there were any Dao Lords in Vaelûn who could match up to us, especially after all the resources we’ve devoured. But..."

He didn’t need to complete his words. Merely looking at him was enough for Romulus to understand the severity of his injury. A massive chunk of his karma had directly been ripped out of his being, pulling his Dao along with it.

Someone who could do that could just as easily kill him. The fact that they hadn’t meant that this was a warning.

Did that mean that this other Dao Lord had entered the Gilded Hollow as well? It shouldn’t be possible, for Romulus could not sense a similar aura within the Hollow. Yet if they weren’t inside the Hollow, how could they still attack inside of it?

"I told you all not to offend anyone since we don’t know the situation outside of here yet. Don’t make this mistake again, and recover as quickly as possible. If you’re not able to follow along, then that’ll just be your loss because I won’t be dragging you along."

The Dao Lord did not respond, filled with feelings of reluctance and disbelief. After surviving in the Hollow for so many years, they were all extremely cautious. But who could have anticipated that interfering with a mere Heaven Immortal would land him in this situation.

The Beast glared angrily towards Lex, and then looked away. In his mind, he recited the name of the Midnight Inn and swore to stay far away from that cursed place. What kind of freaks was that place filled with that they could injure him this much just like that?

He also thought about looking for revenge, but that was a death wish. He would see what the situation was once he was in Vaelûn, and go from there.