The Innkeeper

Chapter 2389: What in tarnations...

Was there ever a good time to act against an organization which was suspected to host a Dao Lord building a Seat of Power? Apparently, there was. That would be when the specific Dao Lord was, for unknown reasons, absent from within his own realm.

But what was the purpose in attacking such an organisation? Every action needed a sufficient motive, and that was especially true when that action would provoke a strong enemy.

In this case, that purpose was not the acquisition of rare resources, nor was it to occupy the realm. Instead, it was to ensure that the Dao Lord in question would, in the future, be so deeply mired in problems that he would have no time to interfere in other matters.

Such was the competition between Dao Lords. Direct conflict hardly ever occurred. Instead, they would strategically move against each other to occupy them for massive segments of time, effectively removing them from the playing field.

Under the premise that a single Dao cycle was 231,000 years, removing a keyplayer for even a few Dao cycles allowed for a massive shift in opportunities. Their aim this time, however, was to create such an absolute disaster that the Innkeeper would be stuck within his realm for a few dozen Dao cycles!

How could such a thing happen? By using a frontal invasion of the Midnight Inn? Never. Such a method was much too crude, and was not befitting a confrontation between Dao Lords. Besides, there were far more effective methods.

For example, by keeping the realm valuable enough that the Innkeeper would not be able to give up his investment in it, but also damaging it enough that it would take him endless years to repair the damage. Not to mention, if the potency and power of the realm were reduced, then that would automatically translate in the Innkeeper having a weaker Seat of Power.

That, too, would serve to benefit the many powers who had come together this time.

They were not foolish. They understood how dangerous it was to act. But the previous actions taken by the Humanoid Alliance of kidnapping a worker had proven to them that the Innkeeper was genuinely absent from within the Midnight Realm.

With his protective reputation, there is no way he would silently watch one of his workers get taken away simply for the sake of strategy or creating a false rumor of his absence. Yes, they were sure that this was not bait from the Innkeeper, or they would have never acted.

So then, what exactly was their strategy? Especially considering that the Midnight Inn was closed off, with the only known available entrance being the taverns located within the Origin realm?

The answer was simple. They would pollute the laws of the growing realm. Considering the faster flow of time, and the vulnerable state of the realm itself, the slightest hint of pollution would spread quickly and affect the laws of the developing realm deeply.

In this case, that pollution could be anything. It could be a law that turned the land barren, or the air stale, or the water acidic. The slightest change in laws to make it so that it was no longer supportive of basic life, or maybe so that the types of spirit energy became chaotic and uncontrollable, causing endless corrosion.

As long as it caused a deviation in the laws towards an undesirable direction, it could be called pollution, even if it was called something else in a different realm.

The sheer spectrum of items which could cause such a change made it so that the items required to cause such pollution could be easily brought into the target realm without arousing the slightest bit of attention. Once those items were in the realm, they could be assembled, and the seeds planted.

After that, they need only to let nature take its course.

It was a subtle move that would arouse no attention until it was too late. They had their ways of hiding the spread of pollution until it was too late to stop.

Thus, filled with great anticipation, Bouldadin watched the screen alongside Rocketfellow as their agents began to act. Due to the difference in the flow of time, the screens seemed like everyone was moving quickly.

There were thousands - even tens if not hundreds - of thousands of unsuspecting agents who were being used for this mission. They would not even know they were bringing contraband into the realm itself.

The first, unsuspecting agent - a type of sentient, mobile mushroom that could cultivate - entered the queue for the tavern. Soon enough, he passed all the basic checks and was eligible to enter.

Bouldadin could not help but grin even wider as he saw the agent walk through the door and enter the Midnight Inn. The feed cutoff the moment he entered the Midnight Inn, but that didn’t matter as they had already expected as much.

"Check mate," said Bouldadin. If the first agent could enter, so could the others. They did not even need to do anything - simply by entering the Midnight realm the pollutant ingredient they carried would disappear from their person and latch onto the laws of the growing realm. That’s because these items were attracted to immature laws, unlike those found in stronger realms like the Origin realm.

As long as more and more of such agents entered, more and more pollutants would affect the laws of the realm, hastening the corruption. How could the legendary security team of the Midnight Inn deal with such an invasion? They couldn’t!

Or, at least, that’s what Bouldadin thought. The moment that mushroom wabbled through the tavern in the Midnight Inn and exited the building, he was stunned by what he saw. Or rather, he was so frightened he nearly died from a heart attack. Fortunately, mushrooms did not have hearts, so he survived.

Tribulation Fiends. The realm was filled with Tribulation Fiends, as far as the eye could see, filling the very air with the faint smell that lingered after a lightning bolt strike.

But wait a minute... why were they all... behaving so oddly? And what the hell was going on with the laws of the realm? And what in tarnations were those peacocks doing? And were those... bunnies?

The mushroom was horrified, and strangely intrigued. If he wasn’t immediately killed, he would very much like to find out what was going on.

Before he could think further, a massive figure approached him, covering the mushroom with its shadow.

"Oh dear, why are you acting so silly?"