The Innkeeper

Chapter 2519: Three Major Blocks

The duo held their meeting for a long time until eventually they covered all the issues Lex wanted to discuss. After that, Lex retreated to his cultivation room while Mary returned to her grocery shopping - if that’s what she was really doing.

Lex resisted the urge to spy on her and instead focused on Lotus. He dedicated a portion of his mind to helping Lotus adapt to Regal Embrace, while softly channeling the feedback from his Primordial Dao Body back to Lotus to help it grow strong enough to properly and completely fuse with the realm.

The rest of his attention was towards Taro’s journal. That thing held secrets the existence of which Lex could not even comprehend because he lacked the knowledge to even imagine the foundations and basis for their existence. That was not such a reflection on Lex’s ignorance as it was a reflection of Taro’s genius, for he was the foremost expert in developing realms.

Lex had no idea what happened to Taro, or if he was around or not. If he was alive, Lex would love to meet him. If not, Lex paid his respects to his memory as he began to study everything the journal had to teach him.

It would take some time before Lotus completed its task, and until then Lex would study and silently adapt to his new level of power.

*****

Humanoid Alliance Council Hall

River and Pearl sat in silence in their assigned corner. They weren’t really eligible to speak even if they wished to. Instead, they just sat and listened to the non-stop debates, all the while glancing again and again towards the massive banner hanging on one side of the hall.

On the banner was printed the picture of the uncontested, most famous immortal currently alive in the universe - Lex Williams of the Midnight Inn.

Learning about him felt surreal, and what was more unbelievable was hearing the stories about him from others. They were somehow... even more unbelievable than the crazy stories Cliff used to tell them.

Even more unbelievable than the stories themselves, however, was the story that the Humanoid Alliance was spinning in front of their eyes.

"The advancement and development of the Human race cannot be separated from the continuous and ongoing support from the Humanoid Alliance. To have hidden their actions from the alliance, and developed in secret is an insult to the trust and resources we have dedicated to them, and the protection offered to them.

"Now that the Human race have managed to produce a Dao Lord of their own, is it too much to ask them to pick up the slack and offer their support to the alliance in this dire time of need?

"The way I see it, whether it’s the organization known as the Midnight Inn, or the private army identified only as the Paladins, they are both attempts by the human race to both enjoy the benefits offered by the alliance while shirking the associated responsibilities. Why, the well known serial kidnapped Lex Williams would not have survived without the alliance showing their support behind him."

As one of the speakers finished up, countless others began to yell over him, some in support of his words, and some calling them utter nonsense.

Even River and Pearl could see, after attending so many such meetings recently, that the core of the alliance seemed to have been thoroughly corrupted by nonsensical bureaucratic red tape and excessive politics. While the amount of good they did for the actual Humanoid races could not be denied whatsoever, it was also obvious that if things continued this way then the future would be bleak.

No one had managed to make contact with the Dao Lord known as David just yet - mainly because he was currently in a standoff against 70 other Dao Lords within the Tyrannum realm, and he was the one pressuring them. Instead of offering him support, which was the obvious move, the alliance had wasted so much time debating the next actions to take.

If even two mere immortals could see this, how could the Celestial presiding over the meeting not be able to see it?

It took a great deal of effort to suppress the disgust welling up within the Celestials chest, and instead his mind began to wander. It was only out of duty to the great Mothers legacy that the Celestials continued to adhere to their charge over the alliance, but was it worth it?

No one knew if the mother was truly alive or not. Even if she were alive, would she have approved of such an alliance?

Even if the Celestials were forced to continue leading the alliance, wouldn’t it be better to gain more authority so that they could cleanse it of the cancerous beings clinging to it?

These were questions whispered nearly every day among the Celestials, but they were not spoken out loud where others could hear them.

Since it was an alliance, they could not make decisions unilaterally, and unless the alliance came to a unified decision, they could not act. The presiding Celestial continued with these random thoughts until a truly audacious remark attracted his attention back to the floor.

"Who knows? Maybe the humans are taking inspiration from the Celestials themselves, who seem to have forgotten their duties. Isn’t it said that the ancient Celestial hero, Lunareth returned, and in his first action broke factions away from the alliance and took them under his wing? Are they trying to usurp power?"

In truth, there really were races who entirely and completely broke away from the alliance and took complete refuge under Lunareth. But he himself had little to do with it for the Primordial Queen, most recently known as the Dream Queen, had prepared for these things long before his return. What the plan was, was entirely unknown for ever since Lunareth returned to the Primordial Garden, which was a Seat of Power the Dream Queen had prepared for him, there had been no further news of him.

Still, the Celestials themselves did not react to this, which apparently caused some dissatisfaction among the alliance members. Even if the factions broken off consisted of weak and withering races, it was a blow to the alliance’s prestige.

A deep, and quite frankly quite dangerous aura suddenly spread throughout the room, causing the speaker to freeze as his gaze turned towards the presiding Celestial.

Honestly, stories about the hero Lunareth were not known to most living Celestials for they were legends of the Primordial Age, and those legends were known only by a few. Still, as a founding member of the alliance, the respect he commanded could not be overlooked.

"If you question the Celestial race, then the Celestial court will respond accordingly. But if you insult the Celestial race in front of me, then I will quit this alliance right now and show you what I actually think free of its restraints," said the presiding Celestial.

He spoke very calmly, and yet there was not a single member who did not feel the threat in his voice. It had to be made clear that this meeting was only for Immortals. A similar meeting of Dao Lords was taking place elsewhere, but River and Pearl could never hope to attend that.

After a few, prolonged minutes of silence, the Celestial spoke again.

"I think you all have forgotten the topic of this meeting. We are discussing land distribution. The Humanoid Alliance will henceforth only have access to 4 Major realms, and that’s a massive decline based on our previous numbers. We need to be debating how the races will be settled, nothing else."

In truth, it was all about resources. The more powerful races there were, the more the limited resources would have to be split, and no one liked the timing of the Human race’s rise. They were quite content with using humans as free labor. But now, as a race with a Dao Lord - and a strong one at that - the human race had finally gained some speaking rights in the alliance. The others were just preparing for the inevitable split in resources that would occur as a result of their rise.

The meeting went on and on without reaching any kind of resolution, to the point where the young couple began to surf the local web platform maintained by the AI race for the latest, universal news.

It seemed that three, powerful blocks were being formed across the universe and all weaker organizations were more or less being forced to pick a side. One block was controlled by the Primals, and was the largest one. This was the block that the Humanoid Alliance was a part of.

Another block was being formed by a number of Sage races that had banned together under the banner of the Penance race.

The last block was under the Dream Queen and Moon King.

The reason why these blocks were pertinent was because the distribution of Major realms was being handled by these three blocks, and they were the ones who decided the Humanoid Alliance could only have 4 Major realms. That was the source of the alliance’s current troubles, for even as powerful as the alliance was, they were not on the same level as these three entities. Thus, for now, they could only obey.

River looked up at the banner of Lex one more time and could not help but wonder what he would do in this situation. Somehow, he got the feeling that whatever Lex did, no one would be able to see it coming.