The Innkeeper
chapter-1135

As Lex walked towards the ranch, he compared Dunya to every other planet he had visited. The most common trend in most places were a few high density metropolitan cities containing the bulk of the population and important buildings and sites in these cities. Then there were suburban areas outside such cities, with a few small towns and villages spread out across the countryside alongside a large amount of farm or wild lands.

For most places, it just made sense. Dunya, however, from what Lex had seen so far, took a different approach. As far as he had come, the forest of large trees continued, and with each tree serving as a building, it was basically just a sprawling, massive city that never ended.

There were no roads either, since everyone just walked in the grass which seemed unaffected by the people passing by. It was such a free flowing environment compared to what Lex had been used to that he didn't know what to make of it.

The one definite good thing, compared to other cities, was that there was no heavy traffic anywhere. Even though there were a lot of Druids, beasts and other races passing by, due to how open everything was it never felt crowded.

The vast open spaces also accommodate for some of the larger races to move through the forest.

But it was probably impossible to cover the entire planet in such a forest. After all, different biomes and climates had to exist to form a healthy balance. He wondered what they were like. Of course, there was also the possibility that Lex was currently walking through the suburb equivalent of the planet.

If he had time later, he might explore the place. For now, Lex continued to follow the man right up until he experienced a strange phenomenon. His instincts informed him that he no longer needed to hide his identity using the mask the Emporium gave him for it was no longer effective.

There was no danger associated with the feeling, nor was there any indication that it was a good thing. Just that his identity was no longer hidden. Lex paused and looked around, but found nothing amiss. After a moment's consideration, he took off his mask anyway and revealed his face.

"Indeed, your senses are quite sharp," said a warm, calm voice before two figures appeared in front of him. They looked like humans, one male and one female, and were smiling at him softly.

But while they looked like that, Lex had a strong feeling that they were not humans.

"I hope you do not mind us approaching you like this. We were not specifically looking for you, but upon noticing you, we could not give up this opportunity. Allow me to introduce myself with my human name. I am Fahad, and this is Noor. We are of the Henali race."

Lex was surprised by the fact that two members of the Henali just appeared in front of him, especially since he knew for a fact that they did not look like humans.

"I suppose I don't need to introduce myself," said Lex. From these two he could feel no pressure at all, which basically meant that they were so much stronger than him that he could not probe them at all. That made sense. The Henali were at the peak of this realm, so Lex naturally assumed that they were either Celestial Immortals or Dao Lords, although the former was more likely.

"We are naturally familiar with your reputation. Lex William, kidnapper of dragons, worlds and even World Eaters now. We also have heard of your… other affiliations - the ones with the Midnight Inn."

Lex nodded. He expected as much. Once the Inn workers found out that Leo and Lex were the same person, he more or less expected the word to get out. After all, Leo had made quite a scene while rescuing the Midnight Battalion from the Fuegan battlefield, so there were quite a few people paying attention to him in the Origin realm.

But he was fine with that, since Leo was always the cover he had for himself to explain his presence with the Inn. Not to mention, the number of persona's he had only kept increasing. There was also the Tyrant wearing a mask and killing the enemies of the Inn.

"Ah, good. You are already familiar with my background. In that case, how can I help you? I suppose that this is not just a social visit."

"It's really not," said Noor, speaking for the first time, "although there is no harm in developing a social relationship. In actuality, we just want to ask you a couple of simple questions. You can answer freely, since we have no other agenda. We are only asking simply to increase our own awareness. I hope you do not mind. It's just some stuff that comes along with running an entire realm.

"Why don't we walk as we talk? We can introduce Dunya to you as we go. It looks like this is your first time here."

"That would be great," Lex said, not averse to establishing a positive relationship with the owners of an entire realm. Not to mention, the chances of him getting his hands on goose feathers might increase exponentially if he were accompanied by two heavy hitters such as themselves. That way he would not need to worry about the eccentricity of the owner's personality.

"I'm sure you're already familiar with this information, but planets that have low star ratings cannot easily support the strength of immortals. A minimum of a 2 star rating is needed to safely support an Earth immortal's power, and that rating requirement increases as the power goes up. It's not just that the laws on those planets are weak, but that the planet itself cannot support that kind of power. Of course, if an immortal keeps their power to themselves it will be fine, but it's not exactly a very comfortable situation."

Lex thought back to Golden hair, the sloth he had met in the Midnight Games. It had spent thousands of years sleeping while it was on Nibiru because the slightest shake of its hand would cause earthquakes on the planet.

"As such, the higher one's cultivation level gets, there are fewer places where they can truly relax. That is why planets such as Dunya, which are few and far between, become centers that attract countless high level immortals. There's an unproportionate number of immortals here compared to the rest of this entire galaxy, or even the few galaxies nearby."

"Doesn't that cause friction amongst the immortals?" Lex asked. "I imagine once reaching such a high level, immortals are used to having things their own way, so obeying the rules of Dunya could get constricting."

Noor smiled, as if Lex had asked an obvious question.

"Well, the rules for immortals are different than rules for everyone else," she said as if there was nothing wrong with that. "Besides, Dunya is very similar to the Midnight Inn, in the sense that immortals come here for vacations or to meet others on their level. This does not mean they don't all have their own territories. In that way, coming to a neutral ground strong enough to maintain balance between everyone is quite beneficial. For them."

Lex raised his eyebrows as he realized the other reason why the system might have wanted him to connect to Dunya! He could rip them off and learn what they do to cater to high leveled cultivators!

"Speaking of the Midnight," said Fahad, "there's something the Henali have been wondering about. It's also the reason we wanted to talk to you. When you… when you captured the World Eater, was that under the Inn's command?"

"Oh no, no, that was me acting on my own. The World Eater tried to eat the planet I was on, and that did not sound like a pleasant experience so I persuaded it not to do that."

"Haha, yes, of course. That does not sound pleasant at all," said Fahad while laughing, though it was fairly obvious that he was struggling with keeping a straight face.

"Do you… do you need it back?" Lex asked hesitantly. He saw no problem in giving the World Eater back. Technically he already failed the quest the system gave him since he did not bring the World Eater to the Inn within 24 hours, so giving it away wouldn't hurt him anymore. He just needed to convince the turtle, and more importantly, needed to figure out a way to keep the planet with Moon at all times in some kind of spatial treasure, as currently the world was operating normally due to the World Eaters' powers. Lex was certain that if its stabilizing power suddenly disappeared the world would undergo more than just a few drastic changes.

"Oh no, no, you can keep it, that's fine," Fahad said quickly, shaking his hands. "We have no problem with that. I just have to recommend that if you need to feed it in the future, only use planets without living beings, and do not allow the Fuegan to get their hands back on it. Besides that, you can do with it as you wish."