The Innkeeper

Chapter 2370: The beginning of the end times I

Lex and Pelagor were both stunned by what had happened. The Fortune Lord had always maintained a very friendly and approachable demeanor towards the residents of his Fortune stronghold, but even then it was not to the level of just bringing them into the stronghold and solving all their problems.

Pelagor could only attribute this reaction to the rumor he had already heard which stated that Lex was someone who had the Fortune Lord’s backing. He did not understand why Lex had received such backing, but it was also not something he would pry into.

He very much liked to live a good life in the future, and asking questions he shouldn’t be asking was one of the quickest ways of making sure such a thing wouldn’t happen.

Lex, on the other hand, did not try to understand or justify it at all. Trying to understand the reasons why a Dao Lord, any Dao Lord at all, did things was not something immortals should consider - especially when stated Dao Lord was right in front of him.

It was a basic fact that Lex was completely vulnerable in front of him, so there was nothing he could do to guard himself anyway, in which case he might as well let go of all his concerns and relax.

"Thank you for your help, Lord," said Lex in his sincerest and humblest tone.

The Fortune Lord smiled casually and looked from Lex towards Pelagor.

"It’s nothing too serious. Since there’s no precedent for an Immortal harvesting so many Dao materials, we had no way of knowing how the Hollow would react. Your actions have actually taught me something new about this place, so just treat this as compensation. However, it’s best that you stay here for now since we don’t know how else the Hollow might act.

"While there are no leads on the Double Yin Death Metal Rose you were looking for, the search will continue and if there is one I’ll let you know. I know that you and Pelagor have an agreement as well, but worry not, I’ll allow you an opportunity to fulfil your deal before I depart on my own task in a few years."

Lex nodded, not questioning or arguing whatsoever. He was critically injured as it was, and it would take him some time to recover anyway. For the sake of his own safety, it was best if he stopped stealing resources from the Hollow, and started using them to refine his necklace and build better functions into it anyway.

Even after discarding so much of the necklace due to the contamination, he still had an abundance of resources that he’d taken, and there was much he could do with that.

Seeing that there were no complaints or issues on Lex’s part, Romulus breathed an internal sigh and began his official treatment.

"This is going to take a while, so go to sleep. You’ll wake up once the corruption is resolved," Romulus said, putting Lex to sleep.

He sent Pelagor away, telling the whale that he’d be summoned once Lex was ready to complete his part of the bargain, leaving Lex with the Fortune Lord. Finally alone, Romulus frowned and looked at Lex’s condition. The fact that he had, on his own, burned away the bits of his soul that were infected had actually saved Romulus a lot of trouble because he would have needed to do the same anyway, but did not want to offend whoever backed Lex.

Across the universe, in the Folklore realm, Jack felt his connection to Lex fade away, but only because he was asleep... hopefully.

He sighed, and looked towards finding Pebbles. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as anyone would have expected, because one of the features of the Jolly Rancher was that it recorded the aura of all crewmembers and could automatically navigate its way to them if needed. Thus, the crew just relaxed on board while the ship itself took them to the hamster which had rented out its cheeks to strangers online.

"I swear, kids these days will do anything to make a little extra money on the side," Longbeard said with an air of righteousness as he shook his head. "Back in my day, we made money the good old fashioned way - we stole it. But now look at things. Renting out his cheeks to strangers. Society as a whole is in decline."

The bear cub, Monk, nodded in agreement.

"Amitabha, it is a sign of the end of times. We must repent and commit as many sins as possible before the universe ends to make the most of our time."

Jack resisted the urge to snort, and simply looked ahead without showing any expression.

The Jolly Rancher flew for a few months without stopping before it entered a portion of the Folklore realm that looked like everything was a ghost. The canyons, the mountains, the rivers and clouds were all green and partially see through, moving like reeds in the ocean.

Naturally it was not filled with ghosts, but residents of the Folklore realm who identified as ghosts. Learning about that made Longbeard and Monk even more sure that the end times were nigh.

A few more weeks in this place, and the ship began to hover over something, as if it had found Pebbles. The crew searched for him, confused, but could not spot him. Tiny-Sparkles shot down a ray from his horn, just to check.

What no one expected was that it really was just that easy, and a cloak keeping an entire party hidden invisible popped.

Down below, a dozen or so Tyrannis looked up in shock, not expecting to get found out so easily. They had used the most sophisticated methods to avoid detection, but they never expected that Pebbles himself could be tracked.

The Jolly Rancher had been refined using the Humanoid Alliances best resources, so it was not something that could be casually stopped.

"The lords plan-" one of the Tyrannis began to scream, but it could speak no more.

The entire crew unleashed their might, and though the cultivation levels of the Tyrannis cultivators were higher, it did not matter at all when Rose, the Trelop, slammed the entire ship down on them. Since Pebbles was indestructible, they didn’t even try to hold back.