THE INNKEEPER

“An item from the realm, carrying the realm’s aura?” Wu Kong repeated, almost as if bewildered. In fact, there was even a somewhat shocked expression on his face.

“Is that all it would take?”

The truth was that Wu Kong really was shocked! If an item was all it took to trace back the location of a realm, then most realms would not remain hidden and out of reach. Most major forces used a combination of divination, calculation, Void exploration and many other, very expensive means to even narrow down the general vicinity of a realm.

Even the term ‘general vicinity’ was relative, for even after accurately narrowing down the location of a realm, it was not uncommon to spend millions of years searching. For exactly that reason, Earth and Heavenly Immortals were often used as the menial labor in Void exploration for Realms and Minor realms.

Such was the irony of life. In a smaller organization of setting, a Heavenly Immortal was akin to an overlord and ruler due to their immense power. But in larger organizations, they were used as labor for that very power and their long lives. Of course, despite the difference in status, the payment and compensation of larger organizations was still better than that of an overlord of a smaller organization.

“Yes, that would be a good start,” the Innkeeper confirmed. “If more is required, I can let you know. But that would be a discussion to have if I actually decide to connect to the Primordial Garden. For now, like I said, despite having the goal of connecting the Inn to the entire universe, the Inn is in a soft launch phase. Whether it’s the Inn itself, the Inns realm, of the Inns workers, they’re all slowly maturing into their roles. I am in no rush to forcefully expedite things.”

“Very well then. I will take responsibility for getting you confirmation that Ventura will not act against you for gaining access to the Primordial Garden, nor will it affect the relationship between your two institutions. Once that is done, we can look forward to reaping the harvest of the Garden together.”

“That is all well and good, Wu Kong,” the Innkeeper said with a warm smile, almost as if he was looking down at him like an adult looking down at a child. “But let me remind you of something first. Whether we enter the Garden or not is yet to be seen, but for such a day to come, and for you to continuously stay at the Inn to conduct your protective duties, you need to be able to stay at the Inn. If you stay true to your reputation as the greatest thief in the universe, and break the rules of the Inn by stealing from other guests or even the Inn, then I might not be able to continue to host you.”

Wu Kong froze. The timing of the Innkeepers words was too coincidental. In fact, it was such a perfect coincidence that it was actually impossible for it to be a coincidence!

Wu Kong, the greatest thief in the universe, was hated so because his skills were genuinely unmatched. Among the many things he stole, fragments of other Dao Lords’ actual Dao were also included!

Upon learning that the Innkeeper could so easily locate the Primordial Garden, Wu Kong had had a fleeting thought – not one he would ever act on, of course – of maybe borrowing the Innkeepers Dao for a few days. No, not even borrow. Maybe just take a look at. A passing glance. A fleeting glimpse. At most, a cursory peek at the Dao.

A monkey couldn’t be blamed for being curious about how such an amazing feat could be achieved, could he? But obviously he would never actually do that. He was supposed to be on good terms with the Innkeeper. He was supposed to cooperate with him. Wu Kong would never compromise that just because of a little curiosity.

Oh, also he had snagged a letter from the Innkeepers table, not that he had been able to read it yet. There was a single business card attached to the top of the letter, sealing it with the Innkeepers power, preventing him from learning its contents without properly removing the card.

Wu Kong coughed, and from within his armpit took out the letter.

“By the way, on an unrelated note, I found this on the ground, and thought I’d return it to you,” he said as he quickly placed it on the table.

The Innkeeper gave him an amused glance with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing. Instead he just opened his drawer and slipped the letter back in without touching it.

“Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about something else. Since I’ll be staying at the Inn for a while anyway, feel free to let me know if there’s anything I can help out with. Oh right, I’m depriving the Inn of other Dao Lord guests. Should I invite some of my friends over? Don’t worry, they won’t take any discounts and will pay for their stay! Honest!”

Internally, Wu Kong was sweating as he wondered how his actions had been discovered! No one had discovered his theft so quickly before, ever!

At the same time, Lex was exerting even more control over his state of mind, not allowing any fluctuations at all over the fact that his guest had somehow bypassed the protection of the system, within his own office, and stolen the governor’s letter!

Earlier on, Lex had, in an attempt to divert the topic from opening up a connection to the Primordial Garden since he didn’t actually know if he’d be able to do it, randomly asked his guest not to steal. In his mind, it would be a gentle way of reasserting his position as a host, and as a powerful yet mysterious figure.

The next thing he knew, Wu Kong had reproduced the letter with a flimsy excuse and an incredibly guilty look!

What Lex hadn’t noticed, partially due to the fact that he was in an enclosed space, causing the system to be cut off from the actual Inn and not getting any feedback, was that the Fishing well had also undergone a slight, practically imperceptible change. It was almost as if, previously, there had been a perfect decoy well operating inside the Inn, so perfectly created that even the system had failed to detect it. Yet now, it had spontaneously and coincidentally returned to being the original at that exact moment.

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