The Innkeeper



Inside Valesco, the moment certain changes took place inside Ezio's prison cell, the guards noticed. The entire prison entered lockdown and a number of guards approached the prison and tried to enter it, but found to their amazement that they could not! The stones and rocks in the surrounding area had morphed so that all entrances and windows had been blocked. But being blocked was not the main issue. The issue was that the entire 'prison cell' had somehow become an impenetrable box, able to withstand a bombardment of powerful attacks.

Still, the Crystal race could not be underestimated. Based on their judgment of the toughness of the cell, it would take them exactly 12 seconds to break it and enter. They could only hope that nothing ridiculous happened within those dozen seconds, as the sounds of a fierce fight could be heard inside.

*****

Lex, who reappeared at the Inn, was still in a foul mood. But he was not a child, and he was not immature, so he could not let his mood continue to influence him. Instead of checking up on the Inn, as he usually did, Lex entered his own meditation room and began to meditate. He calmed his mind and allowed himself to relax, keeping himself from reflecting on recent events. After a short twenty-minute interval, seeing as how the environment was just right, he decided to spend some time cultivating.

Since he had entered the Golden core realm, he realized that his cultivation speed, despite the excellent environment, was quite low. This was not only because it was harder to grow in the Golden core realm, but also because he barely ever cultivated. He got away with cultivating now and then during the Foundation realm, but in the Golden core realm, that did not seem to be the case.

Several hours later, when he finished cultivating, he slowly exhaled and allowed himself to completely relax.

Now that he was certain that he had completely calmed down, he finally allowed himself to reflect on what had just happened. To a degree, he considered this his own failure as well, not because he could have stayed back and salvaged the situation, but because he should have never even allowed the situation to deteriorate as such.

He had great pride in manipulating people and controlling events subtly, but this time he had allowed the situation to get out of hand. That failure had made his subsequent task more difficult, albeit he still had not given up on it. It had been a while since he tasted such failure.

When he had just begun his journey in the cultivation world, he seemed to be constantly making stupid mistakes, but with time and experience he became better. He faced numerous tricky situations, and always came out the winner. Now, after a long time, he came out as a loser once again.

Instead of cribbing or complaining about it, it was better if he learnt from it. For example, there had been subtle signs of Belmonts character from as early as he met him, yet Lex had become so used to dealing with capable and intellectual people that he overlooked all his faults.

Moreover, he had been so determined that once he met the elder from the Crystal race, Ezio, that his problems would be solved that when he finally encountered the situation, his anticipation had put him in a psychologically inferior position. Although it was not obvious based on Lex's behavior, the fact that he felt like he could not have manipulated them was a sign of such a mentality.

Of course, it was always easier to pick out mistakes and problems in hindsight, so Lex was not too hard on himself. Once he was done contemplating on how he could have done better, he began planning out what he could do now. He still had not learnt the secret of the Crystal realm, and he needed to use some way of gathering as many dignitaries at the wedding to raise the quest performance value.

What resources did he have available? How could he entice people to visit? How could he take advantage of the current situation in the Crystal realm to his benefit? Gathering people at the Inn would have been easier, but that did not in any way benefit his quest.

He had not yet moved from his meditation position as all these thoughts crossed his mind, and he did not intend to relocate either until he was done. Nor did he plan to use his state of flow to help him with his planning.

Almost instinctively, without even thinking about it, Lex felt like this would be the best way for him to recover from his setback.

Soon, an outline of a plan formed in his mind. Some parts were still not certain, and would depend on how things played out in the real world. Now that he had a plan, a smile returned to his lips.

The greatest mistake he made, in his estimate, was relying on the Crystal race to fix all his problems. Since when had he needed others' help? In fact, others should come to him in search of aid.

He teleported to the Innkeeper's office, and grabbed the Innkeeper's Pen, dipped it in the InkWell. He lamented for a moment that there was no 'Innkeeper's memo card' or 'Innkeepers notepad' upon which he could write for even further enhanced effect, but he would make do without it.

A square, white paper was summoned in front of him, and he finally put pen to paper. Although Lex had not specifically practiced calligraphy, he had enough control and sufficient imagination to allow him to write beautiful characters on the page.

As for the language he wrote in, it did not matter at all, so even the characters he wrote were completely made up. No matter what he wrote, even if it was a scribble, so long as he used the ink from the InkWell, anyone who gazed upon his writing would perfectly understand exactly what he meant to convey. Moreover, since he was writing with the Innkeeper's pen, his writing also benefited from the fact that the words were imbued with the aura of the Innkeeper. Of course, since he did not intend to sign his name as the Innkeeper, his identity would remain unknown to the reader.

Once he was done writing, he put the card aside and began writing on another one, resulting in two identical cards. But he was not done, and continued to create a few more cards.

Once he was done, he smiled mischievously as he read the contents of his cards.

"You are cordially invited to the wedding of Pvarti Noel and Jasmine Phillips to celebrate their union. As their houses unite in matrimony, so too should the nations unite to discuss the darkness that ripples through the lands. Although the Crystal nation has forsaken action, and tacitly allowed the growing conspiracy, no other can afford to."

Besides those words, there was only the venue, which was the Midnight Tavern, and the time of the wedding. If the address was explained in too much detail, it would take away from the mystique of the invitation, so he left it up to the recipients to conduct their own investigation on where the tavern was. He was confident that they would manage.

These words seemed simple, and perhaps even underwhelming as the prologue of his plan, but that is only when one failed to consider the immensity of the aura radiating from those words.

For a realm that was limited to Earth Immortals, the full dignity and immensity of the Innkeeper's aura was not something they had ever witnessed or could even conceive. This was an aura that even Dao Lords did not belittle and allowed them to assume the Innkeeper should be of rank with them. So how then could a measly Earth Immortal compare?

When seen from that lens, this entire invitation took an entirely new meaning. Although Lex had not said outright what the invitation was for, anyone would be able to conclude that the only 'darkness' rippling through the lands at the moment was the Kraven. Moreover, there was even a jab at the inaction of the Crystal race in the letter, as well as the insinuation that they were somehow involved in some conspiracy. Even if the recipients actually knew the truth behind the Kraven and the Crystal race turned out not to be involved, just the fact that these words had been written by someone of such immense aura, they would begin to doubt if what they knew was the truth to begin with.

Truthfully, Lex was not so petty that he would malign the whole race just because one member earned his ire. No, he would first create that misunderstanding, and then later pin the entire blame on Belmont. He would pretend as if his entire purpose in going to the Crystal realm was to personally deliver one of these letters to them.

As for the consequences of his actions… well, who asked Belmont to mess with him? Sure, Lex wasn't SO petty, but he was still a little petty. He wouldn't ignore being bullied due to a higher cultivation realm.

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