The Innkeeper

Chapter 2433: Lucky Bourdow

Bourdow’s infiltration into the Dream realm remained entirely undetected. Not a Dao Lord alive could sense his movements, of that he was sure. It wasn’t Bourdow’s mastery of some arcane, invincible technique that granted him that confidence, nor an unsurpassed Unique Dao.

It was simply the one, single law he had dedicated his life to - one for which he even held a Major Dao! It was the law of Luck, and the Dao of Lucky Break. It wasn’t that he had the best technique to hide in the universe - it was just that he was destined to be lucky for his entire life.

Wherever he went, whatever he did, he was always tremendously lucky. He’d discover long forgotten secrets that would teach him exactly what he needed. His enemies would suffer from gut wrenching food poisoning right in the middle of fights. There was once a time he was ambushed by a Dao Lord, but right in the middle of the fight, the enemies Dao fractured.

To this day, Bourdow didn’t know why that Dao fractured and that Dao Lord died. All he knew was that it was a Lucky Break, because he benefited greatly from that Dao Lord’s death.

Yes, he was destined to be lucky his whole life - he knew as much because he’d literally made a deal with Destiny to change his destiny like that. In exchange, he worked for her, completing tasks no one else could.

As far as he was concerned, even working for her was a Lucky Break. It allowed him to get in touch with secrets no one else knew. It allowed him to secretly prepare his own Seat of Power without attracting attention, all in preparation for the day he too could rise above the Dao Lord realm.

But those were all things for much, much later. For now, working for Destiny allowed him to venture into the Dream realm and get his hands on that treasure everyone was coveting. By now, everyone already knew that the treasure was some kind of massive platform - they just didn’t know what its function was.

Of course, there was no guarantee of him discovering the use of the platform, let alone getting it for himself, but with his luck, and Destiny on his side, what other outcome could there be? Destiny herself had told him that she was less interested in the treasure, and more in the Dream Master and his identity. Or rather their identity, because even Destiny could not learn anything about them, including their gender.

Such a severe flaw in the workings of destiny had to be addressed immediately. Once she understood how the Dream Master had hidden from her for so long, she could improve the associated law, and grow all that much stronger.

As far as he was concerned, that had nothing to do with him. He was just here to get a Lucky Break.

"I’ve infiltrated the place, but I can’t make anything out," said Bourdow. "I sure as hell wouldn’t mind if I stumbled onto something that’ll help me find the key to the platform’s secret."

While Bourdow waited for his words to take effect, and for his luck to come to him, he connected to Destiny.

"I’m in, but I’ll need a distraction or two," he said while tossing a cashew nut into his mouth. "The amount of loose luck within the Dream realm is strictly controlled - I feel like they’re harvesting it as well. I can’t rely only on luck to break in, I need sufficient disturbances."

After a few moments of silence, a slightly irritated voice spoke in his ear.

"Isn’t the destruction of Major realms and the descent of the Ministry of Order & Discipline distraction enough? The whole damn universe is on edge because of that."

Bourdow shook his head and popped in another cashew.

"Not really. The Dream realm hasn’t been affected in the slightest because of that. Everyone keeps saying the destruction of realms has affected the Dream realm, but I’m in here telling you it’s growing stronger with each passing second. We need a distraction that will affect the Dream realm, or at least the Dream Master."

This time, the silence that followed was even longer, but Bourdow didn’t mind. He stumbled, even though he wasn’t walking, and when he looked up he saw Wu Kong and Elrand fighting.

So the Lucky Break he needed to find the treasure was one of them? But which one?

He would have to think about it a bit.

"I don’t know what will distract the Dream Master," Destiny finally said. "I’m sending you a lucky draw. Pick out a few options - we’ll proceed accordingly."

Bourdow wasn’t surprised. This was something they had done often in the past. Destiny would randomly write a bunch of options of pieces of paper and toss them in a bowl for him to pick from. There was no sophistry about it - it was as simple as a mortal lucky draw. What mattered was his luck.

It would always pick out the option luckiest for him, and more often than not it gave them what they wanted or needed.

"If I’m going to use up my own luck for this draw, I want a little something extra afterwards. A few races. I want your help usurping the lucky destiny of the Leprechaun and Kitsune races," Bourdow said without a care that he was talking to Destiny. He knew for a fact she would agree.

"The Leprechauns have been weakened enough, but the Kitsune have dozens of Dao Lords. As long as you kill them, I’ll help you absorb their destiny," Destiny said before a crystal bowl appeared in front of Bourdow.

He clicked his teeth. Such an unreasonable request.

"Fine, fine, we’ll see how things go," Bourdow responded as he plunged his hand within the bowl and drew three slips.

The slips read Humans, Marina realm and Time Stones.

The Marina realm was a realm that used to be controlled by Mermaids before they were driven to the point of being nearly extinct, and Time Stones were valuable crystals which were used for various purposes including, but not limited to, Time acceleration, reality fragmentation and more.

Neither of them could understand why this would affect the Dream master, but they didn’t care either.

"I suppose it’s finally time to thoroughly crush the destiny of humanity," said Destiny with a cold voice. "The Marina Major realm is under control of the Hydra race. I’m not sure what’s so special about it - it has a very mediocre destiny - but I’ll make sure it’s destroyed in the war. As for Time Stones... I’m not sure what the hint could be. I’ll just send you a bunch of Time Stones and you can do with them as you wish."

Bourdow shrugged and locked onto Wu Kong. Erlang’s personality was annoying, he’d rather latch onto Wu Kong instead.

"What do you want me to do once I discover what the platform actually does?" he asked.

Once again, Destiny responded after a long silence.

"Don’t get ahead of yourself. Ask me once you’ve figured out the details of the platform. And be careful. Avoid doing anything stupid. The Dream Master is not an enemy we can treat lightly. Operate under the assumption that he already knows you are there."

Bourdow rolled his eyes and simply grabbed the Time Stone sent by Destiny before focusing on Wu Kong. The one in front of him was merely a clone, he could tell that much. In fact, even Elrang seemed to be using a clone. So where were the real ones?

It may be a secret for others, but Bourdow had no doubts that he’d be able to find out easily enough. As for Destiny’s warning... it wasn’t that he ignored it, but that he needed to act in certain mannerisms to maximise the effect of luck, so there wasn’t much he could do.

He closed his eyes and then threw his body right in the middle of the fight without any hesitation. Luckily, at that exact moment, a sudden change occurred within the Dream realm that caused a disturbance between Wu Kong and Erlang, temporarily stopping the fight.

In truth, many Dao Lords had already discovered the location of the treasure, but exploring its secrets was easier said than done. That was why Bourdow had opted for this indirect method.

As it turned out, the disturbance that had been caused was due to the very platform he was here to explore. Two Dao Lords had fought on the platform, which wasn’t strange or unusual. What was unusual was that the Dao Lords were both much more vulnerable on the platform than they would have been otherwise.

One of the Dao Lords was killed far too easily, and the platform suddenly began to absorb all the energy within the corpse, turning it into Dao Essence left to be claimed by whoever encountered it.

Horror and excitement spread throughout the realm. This... changed everything!