The Innkeeper

Chapter 2457: Prelude II

By the time Lex returned from the third Minor realm, Velma had finally extracted news about Z’s whereabouts. That’s exactly why her expression was so grim. "There’s an unknown group that’s targeting all humans who got their hands on any Human King’s heritage," she explained with a solemn voice. "Their purpose is unknown, as is their affiliation. The only thing Mathew knows or cares about is that they paid a very good price for Z, as well as information about anyone who unlocked one such heritage. Speaking of which, Mathew himself also unlocked a heritage, but he wasn’t able to make use of it because it clashes with his cultivation technique."

It made sense. When cultivating the Regal Embrace, what other heritage would he even need? The only shortcoming he needed to make up for was his attack power.

"Is there anything at all we can use to track them?" Lex asked with a frown. He’d already checked, and Z’s karma was blocked, otherwise he would be able to trace him.

Velma shook her head with disappointed.

"He either knows nothing, or his memories have been wiped. They’re very careful."

Lex frowned for a bit, but quickly recovered. He placed an item with Z’s aura within Obsidian and left a quest there to find Z. For now, that was the best he could do.

"Don’t worry too much about Z, he’s tough. His situation may not be as bad as we imagine. I’ll keep visiting these realms and see if I can find anymore leads on Z. As for Mathew..."

Lex narrowed his eyes and looked across the Inn towards the dungeon where he was being held. Removing his system without killing would be hard - fortunately, Lex didn’t care about preserving his health. "I’ll strip the inheritance he received and place it in the inheritance lounge. After that... I’d say give him to Luthor. Killing him would be far too easy. I’d rather keep him alive as an example."

Velma nodded, but she didn’t look too relieved. "I’ve been looking into things ever since I learned about what happened to Z. It seems like the humans are in a tough spot - they’re being targeted by too many forces. There have been over a hundred reports of human Celestial Immortals being targeted by assassins the past few months, and those are just the ones who have been reported."

Lex looked at Velma and understood the things she left unsaid. If humans were being targeted, it wouldn’t be long before they were being targeted as well. He was about to respond, but sensed that someone was spying on them. He looked over and found that Almira was peeking from behind a rock, her nervousness apparent on her face. For the first time since Lex returned to the Inn, his expression softened and he even let out a smile. "You don’t need to worry. With the Innkeeper back, he won’t let anyone harm us anymore."

Lex teleported Almira over to them, taking the little girl by surprise. She let out a yell of surprise, and then suddenly turned red when she realised that she had screamed embarrassingly in front of uncle Lex. She buried her face in Velma’s clothes as she hugged her and tried to hide her embarrassment.

"What are you doing spying on us?" Lex asked as he squatted down and rubbed her head, messing up her hair a little.

"Uncle Lex, you came back and you didn’t even come see me," she complained, her voice filled with a tone that demonstrated the great injustice that had been carried out against her.

Lex chuckled, finding her complaint cute. "I have to go deal with some bad guys who tried to hurt uncle Z, which is why I couldn’t come see you. But I promise, once I’m done, I’ll come play with you properly. "

Almira glanced at Lex, as if judging the reliability of what he said, "Well, once you bring back big brother Z you have to come see me, OK? I’ll show you my newest record in the sandpit engine." Lex felt like an arrow pierced through his heart. Why was Z a big brother but he was an uncle? Of course, he didn’t let his thoughts show, although Velma saw through Lex’s feelings at a glance. "I promise," Lex reaffirmed and then teleported away. Fortunately, there was a convenient outlet for his frustrations nearby.

Lex glanced at Mathew indifferently, none of his previous warmth still apparent on his face, and reached into his soul. Without any reservation, Lex searched for the human King’s legacy and found a dainty, glowing seed hidden within his soul.

Lex wasn’t entirely sure if that was the human king’s legacy, but it was definitely an inheritance of some sort so he grabbed it and tossed it into the inheritance lounge without any hesitation.

After that, Lex searched for the system. The system was entirely fused with the soul which made it much harder to locate.

Lex deployed the Sovereign realm and used it to influence Mathew’s soul, looking for any trace of the system at all. It took him quite a while before he found what he was looking for, and pulled it out of his soul.

Unfortunately for Mathew, the process was not as effortless as it felt to fuse the system with his soul. A large chunk of Mathews’ soul was damaged in the process, but Lex managed to pull out the system at least.

Lex fed the newly acquired system to his own. He still had to search Daekol’s remains for his system, but now was not the time for that.

With that done, Lex left Mathew to Luthor, and left the Inn to go to the next realm.

Besides hunting his enemies and searching for Z, Lex was also on the search for Damian. His instincts were warning him that this enemy, once so easily overlooked, was once again becoming a danger.

Unfortunately, he was unable to use his bloodline to trace him. Instead, he managed to track Belle who had reappeared in some distant realm.

Lex would have to find some time to go bring her back as well. That reminded him, Liz was in the Dream realm. He’d need to call her back as well. Time was short.