The Innkeeper

Lex could tell from Ripley's expression that he probably misunderstood something, but he couldn't exactly guess what it was. All he wanted was to make use of a Celestial immortal's labor for free, while slowly impressing upon him that the Inn was not yet ready to cater to beings of such power so they should just wait till the Inn is ready.

Ripley, on the other hand, was thinking of the ramifications of such a feat. He had obviously heard of the Innkeeper even before he came here. He had audited the Origin realm, and so he knew about the Dao Lord who had unleashed his power on the realm without causing it to lose balance even in the slightest.

The Inn's latest cooperation with the Henali had also not gone unnoticed by Ripley, and in fact the scale of how massive that success was ended up being one of the reasons Ripley arrived at the Inn so quickly. He cursed himself for not seeing the signs, while at the same time questioned how such a powerful Dao Lord was practically unknown in the universe? Sure, there were a lot of Dao Lords in the entirety of the universe. It only made sense, since there were thousands of mature realms, not counting the ones that had been destroyed or artificially had their growth stunted or maybe even accelerated. Over a course of billions of years, that had resulted in quite a few Dao Lords, especially since Dao Lords barely ever died.

But… but the level of beings that surpassed the Dao Lord realm? Ripley dared not do anything as blasphemous as try to guess their number, but surely there were not that many. That meant the birth of a single such entity could affect the balance of power of the whole universe.

Suddenly, Ripley had chills as he gained more perspective into everything he had seen so far across the Inn. No wonder the laws were so perfectly blended together. No wonder there were signs of the land being tilled by a Sovereign. No wonder there was an entire Cosmis Sea right at the edge of the Inn! The Innkeeper was preparing to turn the Inn into the seat of his power. No wonder he required his own brand new realm just to host an Inn!

The fact that he didn't have time to cultivate the realm himself and instead had his underlings do it just showed how little time he had left before his upgrade. The Innkeeper probably required his seat of power to at least moderately be ready when it was time. The Innkeeper would naturally fix it on his own when and if he properly ascended.

Along with that realization came a few others, the first one being that the Innkeeper had asked him for some help, not the bank!

He also understood what that meant. A relationship that was built on the foundation of debt and interest was not one the Innkeeper needed to taint himself with. But if Ripley acted as the intermediary…

"Mr. Innkeeper, it would be my absolute privilege to contribute towards the Inn. If you would permit, may I go and prepare a few things? I would like to contribute my utmost. Do not worry, I will maintain utmost discretion with the bank so that you are not disturbed."

Lex got a very strong feeling that Ripley's misunderstanding was only growing deeper, but at the same time he also understood that should he agree Ripley will not invite any other Celestial immortals here any time soon, so he agreed to it.

"Very well. Let me thank you in advance for your help. If you need anything, please let me know. Also, please, it's just Innkeeper. There is no need to keep calling me mister."

"Then, by your leave, I will go ahead and prepare. Afterwards, I will make sure to do a full audit of your Inn."

"You can coordinate with Lex for that," the Innkeeper said, and nodded towards Ripley, allowing the Titan to leave.

Ripley stepped out of the Innkeepers office, and then immediately teleported back to the Origin realm. As soon as he was there, he took out a device that was only to be used in the utmost of emergencies, and broke it, teleporting himself back to the main branch of the Versalis Bank as well as triggering an alarm.

When he appeared in the teleportation room, a host of other Titans all stood there waiting for him, ready to face any emergency. The head of this particular security team was not a Titan, but a Marzu ( the magic T-rex).

"Auditor Ripley, please provide a report of why you-"

"There's no time for a report!" Ripley exclaimed. "We have a Code Transcends Dao! I need to speak with the Director!"

The Titans and Marzu looked horrified, but did not delay. Instead, they activated another formation, that sent Ripley directly into the office of the Director, who had by now already been informed of everything that happened.

The Director was Primal, a race that emerged from the Primary realm, which is why Ripley completely shut off his entire sensory system and withdrew his spirit sense, unwilling to even learn the shape of what a Primal looked like.

This was not because the Director was a bad boss or had such strange requirements. Rather, it was because attaining knowledge of the Primary realm was lethal to any save Dao Lords. All things pertaining to the Primary realm were a secret of the highest order for reasons none save Dao Lords dared even think about.

"Tell me what happened, Ripley?" the director asked, extending his own spirit sense to the Titan.

"I believe I have encountered a Dao Lord on the verge of transcending the Dao realm. I have no evidence or proof, save my own understanding of the situation, but I do have this."

Ripley presented the Innkeepers business card to the Director, who took it with interest and studied it.

"Remarkably well woven," the Director commented. "There are quite a few laws packed into this business card, and if someone were to channel their energy into it, they could summon the Innkeeper himself, but I will refrain from doing so.

"While studying the card, I went through our records and have found no prior record of the Innkeeper or the Midnight Inn, which in itself is quite unusual. Combined with how flawlessly this card is woven, I have reason to suspect that the Innkeeper might be one of the oldest Dao Lords alive, who has honed himself in secret without affiliating himself with any power.

"It is against policy to offer anyone anything interest free, the only exception being to those who transcend the Dao. Ripley, since you are the point of contact, you can decide on a gift for the Innkeeper. A gift is the only way we can give something interest free, so choose well and build a strong connection. If possible, try to have them open an account with us. I'll allow you to offer our services to them with interest rates as low as 0.5% per century. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes sir. I believe the Innkeeper is building his seat of power, but due to the imminent transcendence, is unable to pay much attention to it. Shall I gift him something to help with that?"

"Yes, that seems like a worthy gift."

Ripley showed a hesitant look as he pondered something, but the Director noticed it and spoke first.

"Customer relations is the most important thing. Whatever you're thinking of sharing, since you have doubt, then it must be sensitive. In that case, do not share it."

Ripley nodded, and destroyed a device he carried on his person. When he had entered the Midnight Inn, the device had reported signs of detecting possibly up to 2 energy signatures approaching the Dao realm.

"Dismissed," the Director said, allowing Ripley to leave.

As soon as Ripley was free, he enabled his senses once more and quickly hopped over to the Gift shop and picked out a nice realm coordinate scrambler before wrapping it. He then went and changed his gear, making sure to get the best he'd need to do his job, and then returned to the Origin realm via a formation.

Once in the Origin realm, Ripley quickly returned to the Midnight Inn, ready to begin his auditing. But first…

"Excuse me good man," Ripley said, calling out to the nearest staff member. "Can you help me find Lex? I believe he is a worker here."

Lex, who was in his office, was of course already aware of the auditors return, and could not help but groan.

"Mary, you talk to the system and figure out how we can do the changes I wanted. The sooner the better."

Then he teleported away to go talk to Ripley as Lex. Meanwhile, in the Origin realm, the sentient planet once again missed the Golden door by a few seconds. But this time, it already understood how long the door would last for. So it began preparing its teleportation even before it found a Golden door. It would not miss it again.

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