The Innkeeper

Chapter 1374  I want to be...

This time, it did not take long for Powell to return, and this time he looked extremely excited, and also a little tense.

Lex did not show it, but he suddenly raised his guard, as his instincts suddenly warned him that he was about to encounter a critical moment - one that would directly impact his entire life!

Lex could not comprehend why buying a bunch of items could lead to something that could alter his entire life, but it did not take a genius to detect that it had something to do with why Powell looked so tense.

Internally, he just sighed. He was just trying to focus on his Inn for goodness sake. Why did everything have to be so complicated?

"I have good news," Powell said, his voice filled with excitement though Lex could easily tell it was feigned.

"We have about 99.8% of all the materials you require on hand, and can easily acquire most of the remaining ones in a couple of days at most. There is only one item that is slightly complicated to procure, and I cannot give you an estimate of when I will be able to get my hands on it.

"But fret not. Considering your VIP status at the Emporium, I will personally go out and try to get it. You can check back in two days when the other items are ready to see if I have it

"Also, we need to discuss your payment. Although it is highly valuable, considering the number of items you are buying, the amount is a little insufficient."

This was actually the first time ever Lex haggled over prices like this at the emporium. Essentially, the items Lex provided had no real price, and their value could only be estimated. With their worth not having a fixed value, mostly because they were priceless, putting a price on them was difficult. The Emporium naturally wanted more, and though Lex could pay more, he wanted to increase the value of his possessions. This, a fierce bargaining session ended with Powell coming face to face with Lex's inner capitalist for the first time ever.

Eventually, they reached an agreement, and Powell handed Lex a number of spatial bags which contained most of the items he requested. He went through the bags with his spirit sense, and in one of them encountered a lockbox with a few words engraved on it that read, 'DO NOT OPEN IN EMPORIUM'.

Lex showed no abnormal reaction upon sighting that, and merely nodded, telling Powell he would see him in a couple of days before returning to the Inn.

Yet when he was at the Inn, the feeling from his instincts heightened. It seemed that whatever was in the lockbox would result in a critical choice in his life that would alter his future. One way or another, he had to make a choice.

But since he didn't sense any danger from the lockbox, Lex returned to his apartment and took it out.

The lockbox was a small black cuboid made of some unknown metal, though now face to face with it, Lex sensed that it was incredibly valuable! In fact, the value of the box could not be understated at all!

Even with his immense spirit sense, Lex could not detect the box right in front of him, nor could he peer into its secrets with his eyes that revealed even the laws within things. When he looked at the box, all he saw was the box.

In fact, the only abnormal feeling the box gave him was a slight palpitation in his dragon's heart, which acted on the instincts of a dragon, and longed for the valuable treasure. Yet in front of this immeasurably valuable treasure, Lex only sighed.

Who could understand his pain? He just wanted to mind his own business and run his Inn. Why was that so hard? He was like a fat man going on a diet, but receiving free ice cream on every turn. What kind of inhumane act was it to disagree to free ice cream? It was with great reluctance, and a resolution to start his diet from tomorrow, that he would be forced to unwillingly consume the delicious ice cream.

Even though the fat man had already bought a new suit he wanted to fit into by losing a few pounds, he had to resign himself to only looking at that suit, and never coming close to fitting into it.

With great reluctance, Lex opened the box. It wasn't as if he could ignore it, and his senses couldn't peer into it, so opening it was the only choice left. Yet to his immense surprise, hidden within the immeasurably valuable box, was a simple recording crystal, as well as Talisman.

Admittedly, the Talisman seemed like it was incredibly valuable, but it still couldn't match the value of the box within it.

Lex reached out to the recording crystal, and sent his spirit sense into it.

"Please use the talisman within the Origin realm, 6 hours after the conclusion of our exchange," whispered Powell's voice into Lex's mind.

There was no other explanation given, but there it was. He had his critical decision in front of him.

Oddly, his instincts were silent on what decision to make. But it wasn't odd at all. So far, Lex had encountered very few things to which his instincts could not respond.

One such thing was someone much more powerful than him, such as the Dao Lord he had recently met whose name Lex had deleted from his memory. But Powell was not so strong. In fact, even the main Powell was only in Celestial immortal realm, if Lex recalled correctly, let alone his clone. So this was unlikely to be the case.

The second thing that could evade his instincts was a system. Lex had long harbored suspicions that the Emporium was some kind of system, but considering the fact that it had been immensely helpful to him on so many occasions, he chose not to investigate it. Not to mention, Lex was not the kind of malicious insane reverend to go around randomly plotting against every single person he met. Nor was he desperate to completely heal his system just yet either.

He knew it would surely strengthen his system if he did, but he also had a feeling, based on his own assessment and not his instincts, that a complete system would land him in way more trouble than he was already experiencing. For all these reasons, he ignored his suspicions about the Emporium.

Yet now, that was resulting in him not having any guidance from his instincts.

That meant that this was a critical, life altering decision.

"I just want to be Hokage… I mean, I just want to be a simple Innkeeper. Why so many obstacles?"

He now finally understood why Powell had seemed nervous. Clearly, he did not know whether or not Lex would follow through with the instructions in the box.

But, Lex decided to do it. Although he wanted to avoid any unnecessary troubles, that did not mean he was afraid of them.

Over the next short while, Lex went over all the items he had bought, and planned out his construction of the second tavern. He couldn't really begin until he had all the materials, but he could prepare.

He picked out a distant spot in the Midnight realm, outside the Midnight Inn and far away from any intelligent races. He had a feeling that the expedited method to grow a Void Stabilization Sequoia tree might leave this place drained of all energy for a while, almost like a dead zone. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Lex suddenly paused, and had a thought. Was this the reason why Earth was a dead zone? Had someone refined an incredibly powerful treasure, or nurtured some incredible plants there at some point in history, leaving that place devoid of all energy?

Once again, his instincts were silent, not providing him an answer. Normally, an Immortal could intuit simple things just based on their advanced level, yet in this Lex found himself without an answer.

Lex groaned as he added investigating the secret of dead zones on his list of things to do once he was no longer avoiding unnecessary trouble.

Once the specified time was near, Lex teleported to the Origin realm. Perhaps because he had been recently thinking about it, he could not help but teleport to Earth.

Instantly, he was hit with a wave of nostalgia as he saw the blue planet, though it had changed a lot.

In that instant, though, his instincts began telling him that Earth hid a few more secrets that no one had uncovered just yet. Lex put it on the back of his mind.

How could he not know that a planet that imprisoned a Demi-Dao Lord for thousands of years surely hid some super secrets? But now was not the time to dwell on these things.

He pulled out the talisman, and used it.

Lex felt himself being teleported away, and did not resist. It was time to find out what all the fuss was about.