The Innkeeper

Chapter 2428: Slave legions

Velma stood in the air high above the Conquest realm, watching and controlling the invasion from a distance. Even though she had the realm infiltrated long ago, and had made thorough preparations, she hadn’t been able to discover Z’s location, which is why she had to search for him now.

That meant countless streams of data were channeled to her every moment, and she had to sift through them. So far, it seemed like all her preparations were useful and meeting her expectations.

Upon that thought, she couldn’t help but think back to the most critical preparation she had to account for: ensuring no Dao Lords interfered. At the Humanoid Alliance, Velma had truly come to learn and understand what level of existence Dao Lords truly were. Exposure to the Innkeeper had made it so that her understanding of the scope of their power was inadequate.

It was not an exaggeration to say that Dao Lords literally did not need anyone else to do anything they needed. People believed that Dao Lords relied on the Immortals in their organization to manage their territories and do menial work, and that’s how they contributed to the empires and forces of Dao Lords.

That was inaccurate. Sentiment and prestige were probably the only two reasons due to which most Dao Lords kept anyone else around. Doing all their work themselves would lower their prestige, so Immortals could do their work for them. Or they could carry sentiment for their families and friends despite becoming Dao Lords themselves, which is why they kept others around.

There could be any other number of reasons, but the point was that they did not need anyone else. Any random Dao Lord could create a ridiculous number of weaker clones to replace immortals to do their work assuming the work had to be done far away. Within the vicinity of their spirit sense, they would not need anyone to do anything at all. Their will alone was enough to make anything and everything they wished come true.

Of course, in the broader scope of things, organisations that spanned entire races had considerations like nurturing more immortals to have more Dao candidates and to slowly and steadily increase the ranking of their race on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum.

No matter how powerful and resourceful Velma was, there was nothing she could personally offer to a Dao Lord to win their favor or get their help. Of course, there was no shortage of Dao Lords willing to sell a favor to the Innkeeper, but she would never use the Innkeeper’s name without his permission.

Thus, she could only rely on a combination of factors to achieve her goal. The Henali already had a good relationship with the Midnight Inn. Moreover, they were a powerful race.

However, even powerful races needed help in growing stronger, and there was no such thing as being too rich.

Among many aspects of their cultivation power, one of the critical things within Henali was bloodline purity, which could be divided into three tiers. Henali with the most basic bloodlines had appearances similar to scorpions. If their bloodline purity grew to an advanced tier, they would grow wings. However, the highest tier bloodline purity changed their appearance altogether.

The growth of their bloodline purity was not associated with lineage or parents, but the cultivation of the spirit. Velma volunteered the entire dataset she had captured of the Humanoid Alliances spirit training techniques, regimen, treasures and so forth to the Henali, including various methods that could be employed within the Origin realm.

She had not dared to bargain or make a request - she directly donated it. It was only afterwards when the Henali contacted her that she expressed her hopes that the Henali might be able to assist her with her problem. It was a mere hope, not a request. She dared not make a request of Dao Lords.

But, considering the relationship between the Henali and the Midnight Inn, they were quite happy to assist. No one made any mention of the Innkeeper. Instead, this entire deal was focused on Velma’s donation, and the future potential she showed.

After Lex, she was the first member of the Midnight Inn who attracted significant attention from the Henali.

That potential alone was enough for the Henali to invest in her by supporting her like this - not to mention it would improve their relationship with the Midnight Inn even more. They were unlike the Humanoid Alliance who would spit on a good deal. Instead, from the earliest days of their relationship with the Innkeeper, they had maintained a firm stance to remain on good terms with him.

Thus, the moment the invasion began, the Henali also sent their letter to the Humanoid Alliance. Alongside the letter was the location of a certain Henali Dao Lord within the Joro realm. If the alliance interfered in the matters of the Conquest realm, then the Henali would interfere in the matters of the Joro realm. This was not a threat but a promise!

Within the alliance, anger grew. The anger was not targeted towards the Henali, but towards the faction that had acted against the Midnight Inn. Their seemingly insignificant action from back then was repeatedly putting the alliance at a disadvantage in an extremely critical time.

At a time when they finally needed to cash in the reputation and prestige they had built across the ages, the stain of that one action made everyone look at them with distrust! Even if they really wanted to, no one was free enough to go interfere in the matters pertaining to an immature realm. Yet not only were they being doubted, one of their greatest allies was silently taking precautions against them!

Velma did not know the details of the exchange that had happened, nor was she bothered with it.

"Critical intel gathered," Velma said, her voice echoing in the minds of millions of Inn workers. "Z was a member of a Slave Legion. Within the Grand Conquerors army, there are 21 confirmed Slave Legions. This narrows down our search area. Everyone, begin gathering information on the where these legions are posted."