The Innkeeper

Chapter 1798: Gathering of forces

The chameleon stood in the ruinous battlefield that had seen countless confrontations and death, face to face with the ones who killed his sister, in complete stillness. He did not waste a single moment taunting, cursing, promising vengeance or pain. He simply prepared, silently.

This place, he could feel, carried a deep history. Many fates had been changed here, many lives ended, and many reforged.

In fact, even Lex himself did not know the full history of the Murder Grounds – as the place was actually called. When Lex fought the person with the Murder System, they had appeared on a dark planet, covered in ruins. Since then, every single fight that took place was always in the same location. It was as if this land, which seemed endless and was endlessly covered in signs of destruction, was destined to be the holy grounds of murder.

Its true history was much longer, and much older than what any living person knew.

The chameleon looked at his system interface, which had given him a quest to investigate the history of the land, and ignored it. The Historian System had given the chameleon much. He both learned, and recorded history. But for now, it was his time to contribute to the history of these decrepit lands.

The orcs standing before him laughed as they encircled him. Pathetic fools – how could they know that each second they afforded him made their death more likely? After all, Time was something all historians were intimately familiar with.

“It’s nothing personal, lizard,” said the orc as he stepped forward. “It’s just business.”

“Oh, I assure you, this is deeply personal,” the chameleon whispered as he unshackled the restraints on the menacing nature of time. Death, they say, is but a pale imitation of the destruction caused by time. Today, he would aspire to recreate that imitation.

*****

A very subtle, almost imperceptible change took across the Inn as the first segment ended, and all the guests finally got some relief from the intensity of the bidding wars.

Many guests left, and so did many of those who wanted to buy things from the auction. Of the ones left, many were those who had not yet recovered from the excitement of the auction itself, still discussing the big finale, not to mention the drama with the chameleon and a few other interesting things.

A majority, though, remained hoping to get a glimpse of the second segment. Unlike the first segment, which was open for viewing to all, the second segment was more exclusive. Only those who had paid the deposit to enter the second segment each got 1000 spots which they could distribute as they liked, and only those selected by all participants would be able to view the second segment.

The reason it was done like this was because the Inn was catering to multiple types of guests. The first segment could appease the public, but the more expensive and high stakes auction was more private to afford the big spenders even more privacy than the Inn gave.

Of the ones left, most could not tell that anything was different at all. The Celestial Immortals, though, sensed something changing. At least the ones paying attention did.

They didn’t think much of it. It made sense that as the segments shifted, the Inns preparations adapted to the change.

The patrol patterns changed. In some areas there were more guards, and in some areas patrols finished altogether.

Lex’s mind began to work overtime, so he entered the Flow state, touching upon the Karmic laws with the greatest subtleties. His actions were not just limited to the positioning of workers and security – no, he began using the Midnight Realm Management panel, and started to quietly change the very flow of energy within the realm.

The Midnight Inn quietly began to raise its momentum, which all seemed normal. The question of whether that momentum was for the auction, or something else entirely, could only be answered through the passage of time.

The one day interval before the second segment passed quickly and uneventfully for most. As far as the public were concerned, nothing had changed, yet that was far from the truth.

One by one, representatives of some of the largest organizations in the universe appeared at the Inn. The Humanoid Alliance, especially, sent representatives from not just one race, but many of the humanoid races in their alliance. Each of them represented a different faction.

Elves, Angels, Devils, Dwarfs, Oolin, and Celestials appeared, each one of them representing not the alliance as a whole, but their individual factions.

Dragons, not just from the Origin realm, but many other realms as well, appeared, all of them representing only themselves. The Henali sent a few parties and, unannounced, so did the Fuegan. Aslan Deathsworn made an appearance briefly, before disappearing, leaving behind a few young members of the Deathsworn family. The Versalis Bank sent someone and, in a twist that Lex did not expect, so did the Reaving Dread!

Malfoy, the beast who had turned into a human teenager somehow, and the very one who used to think that the Midnight Inn was an illusion conjured by Abaddon, showed up to the Inn, wary and excited at the same time.

Fenrir and Little Blue both rushed to welcome him, though he seemed incredibly wary of Fenrir for some reason.

Once the auction concluded, there would be a private dinner to which all the members of the second segment would be invited – assuming that they wanted to meet the others who participated. Prior to that, however, they all remained within their one respective rooms.

To note, the ones who managed to snag the 99 private rooms felt the most smug and satisfied, before the event even began. The rooms, despite being made of the best materials and filled with the densest and purest spiritual energy, were definitely not worth the cost. Only the prestige of the limited number of rooms justified their cost, and all those who booked them seemed happy to pay it.

In the minutes leading up to the start of the second segment, Lex noticed something pretty significant. Three new system users had entered the Midnight Inn! They hadn’t appeared together, but all of them appeared just as the auction was about to begin, and all of them acted differently. One joined the auction, another walked into one of the cities, blending in with the regular guests, and the third went into the wilderness to be completely alone. Yeah, that wasn’t suspicious at all.

A few more guests had entered the private room Lex and Harry were in. To be specific, Harry’s son and wife had joined, as well as Gerard, Luthor and Hera, alongside her son Jimmy.

The reason all of them had gathered there was twofold. First, it was so that they could enjoy the auction together. Second, it was because if anything was going to go wrong, it would be in this auction hall, and this way, they were close enough to respond.

For the very same reason, Anita and Qawain were sent far away to one of the Midnight Taverns. She was coming ever closer to her delivery date, and she couldn’t afford to be in proximity to any dangerous disturbances.

“Hey Luthor, once you get all your income from the auction, what are you going to spend all that money on?” Gerard asked.

Originally, they all wanted to donate their income to the Inn, but the Innkeeper rejected that offer, so they were all going to make a whole lot of money pretty soon.

“I don’t know. Something to help with my cultivation I suppose,” Luthor answered. He would have liked to fund his prison expansion, but that was considered a business expense, and the Innkeeper took care of those, so honestly he had little else to spend on.

“The Inn is excellent for general cultivation, but I need to create a very specific environment to supplement my own specific direction of growth. I suppose it is much more difficult to cater to every guest’s specific requirements in the immortal level,” Luthor answered.

“It’s only because the Inn is focused towards mortals for now,” answered Hera. “Once we’ve completely mastered caring for mortals of all kinds and races, we will turn our development focus towards immortals. Coming up with a solution won’t be so difficult then.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. What about you guys? What are you going to spend your money on?” Luthor asked.

“I’m planning a rather long date,” said Gerard.

“You’re going to spend all your money on a date?” Luthor asked incredulously.

“Well, not all of it. But I can’t think of anything else. What about you, Lex?” asked Gerard.

“Things to make me stronger,” Lex answered dismissively. “I need a few resources to upgrade my sword, and I want to develop a body that can withstand a punch from a Celestial Immortal before I break into the Heaven Immortal realm. That’ll probably be very expensive.”

For a moment, the room went silent. They shouldn’t have been surprised by Lex’s answer, but even then, they were. Survive a punch from a Celestial Immortal? As an Earth Immortal? Considering the sheer difference in the scale of laws used by those two realms, such a thing should have been impossible. Or, well, should have been pretty hard. But if Lex was the one doing it…

“I might actually be able to help you with that,” said Jimmy, Hera’s son, and the current leader of the peacock warriors. “The group and I stumbled on a little something in the Suera Galaxy in the Origin realm. It’s a little out of our league, but maybe it’ll be useful for you.”

As a reminder, only 1 chapter on weekends.