The Innkeeper
chapter-1167

"Like I said, Karma is one of the most mild laws, because it touches everything in existence, yet at the same time it is devastatingly overbearing. Everyone can influence Karma, since anything you do carries Karma. Yet to forcefully influence existing Karma, or to prevent it from forming or influence it into forming prematurely carries a devastating heavy burden. "Even as strong as you are, trying to tamper with Karma on your own right now will be very dangerous for you. At the very least, you will need a very powerful treasure or formation to carry the burden for you."

Lex pursed his lips. He had naturally been looking into the matter of laws, consulting not only Pel, but various guests as well. Through this he finally began to understand some of what things such as Destiny and Karma really represented.

Even among laws there was a hierarchy, and at the moment Lex was only fit to touch the lower or more common laws.

"I am already here and have sowed Karma. How can I thoroughly erase all my traces from here? I mean completely erase, not hide, so that naturally includes Karma."

"Laws are complicated things, and interact with one another in mysterious and unpredictable ways. One way to hide all your traces is to wash this place with divine energy. Divine energy, capable of raising Deities to amazing heights through only worship, naturally has many unique traits. Although doing so will make it obvious that someone has hidden all traces here, it will naturally wash over any Karma you have with this place. After all, regardless of how strong you are, your cultivation is still low."

Lex nodded, and then looked from the yeti to the floating clones of his sister. Each of the clones was of a different age, ranging from toddler all the way to a late teenager. After going through Josef's memories Lex knew well the kinds of experiments that they had in stored for these clones, and even thinking about them set his blood on fire.

But at the same time, it gave him a new perspective. He always touted the Inn as a place to get away from the worries of the universe, but he himself had never faced these worries so how could he understand what they were?

The Inn was not just a place with pure energy and exquisite sights. More importantly, it was a safe space. Or at least, that's what it was supposed to be.

He no longer paid attention to such minor things anymore, but just a few hours ago some remote civilization that knew nothing of the Origin realm or greater powers got their hands on some golden keys. Upon coming to the Inn, having limited experience and thinking themselves all powerful, they naturally tried to take it for themselves.

They were naturally dealt with. It barely took a few minutes, and no one from the Inn was hurt. But it just went to show that the universe was not a friendly place.

Lex, keeping Josef contained and everyone in the lab suppressed, walked up to the computers and began to pull all the records and data they had saved up. After gathering anything that he felt like might be even remotely useful, he took out his Butter Knife.

It used divine energy to grow stronger, so naturally it also contained divine energy. He was ready to destroy this place, but first he collected all of Moon's clones, gently wrapping them in blankets.

As it turned out they were just bodies without a soul or consciousness of any kind. He went to see what Fenrir did with the clones, and was momentarily stunned to see that it had killed them all, though its eyes were filled with a look of pity.

His clones, all of the ones here at least, were finally put out of their misery. But that still left hundreds of other clones belonging to other beings. Lex intended to destroy them all. After sending Fenrir away, Lex pointed the Butter Knife towards the ground and began to channel his energy.

Divine energy began to leak out of the knife, and took the shape of a much larger butter knife. Although a butter knife was not the same as a sword, it was close enough. Lex unleashed his sword intent, coating the divine energy with it, and slashed.

The planet trembled, though at first no one realized what that meant. Most assumed it was an ordinary earthquake. But the trembling slowly got worse, not better, and storm clouds began to gather around the planet.

Many immortals realized that something was amiss and swiftly ran towards the epicenter, but by the time they arrived it was too late.

The mountain that had once stood there proudly was gone entirely, leaving behind only a deep slash that seemed to cut deep into the planet.

"Quickly, stop it!" one of the immortal yeti's screamed once he realized what was about to happen, but it was already too late. The slash cut deep into the ground, leaving behind a dark, empty hole. Yet it did not remain dark for long, as an orange and yellow light suddenly emerged in it.

The immortal tried to suppress it, to close the slash and prevent the disaster that was coming, but it was impossible. Divine energy filled the cut, maintaining, eroding any attempts to tamper with the hole.

With time the divine energy could have been eroded, but time was one thing that they did not have.

There was a thunderous roar, and a pillar of molten lava shot into the air like a geyser. The mountain range began to crumble, collapsing in on itself as more and more pits began to open up, resulting in more and more volcanic eruptions.

Someone or something had used that slash to tamper with the core of the planet. The resulting chaos was not enough to destroy the planet, but the repercussions were still inescapable.

Countless dormant volcanoes around the planet suddenly began to erupt, and new ones formed as the tectonic plates moved under the immense pressure that was being released from within the planet's core.

The countless cultivators worked tirelessly to rescue all the tourists and locals, and due to the large number of immortals the casualties were brought to a minimum. But in a way, the planet itself had become a casualty.

For an untold number of years the planet had been existing in a perpetual ice age, and within the span of a single day it had been covered in vast lakes of lava. Moreover, there was some power at work, keeping the lava hot even when it should have cooled after meeting the ice.

Where previously the planet had glaciers the size of entire continents, it now had pools of lava the size of oceans. The yeti's had not become homeless, for there were other planets they could migrate to, but in a single day, they had at least lost one of their homes, but no one could figure out why.

Oracles failed to determine the reason, and when more powerful cultivators came and tried to peer into what happened, all they could see was a blade of divine energy, cutting through all causality.

Lex, who had returned to the Midnight Inn, cared not a speck for what was going on with the yeti's. He was, instead, thinking of how he would explain this to Moon. It was not like she was a child. She was technically an adult by earth standards, already in her early twenties.

But in his eyes he would forever be that tiny little girl who used to ride on his shoulders and pull his hair.

So how would he tell that little girl… how would he explain these clones to her?

"Hey system…" Lex said as he sat in his room, his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers interlocked in front of his face, hiding his eyes. "I don't think I've ever probably asked you this but… where do you get all the Inn workers from? All these hundreds of thousands of workers I have summoned… did you just create them, or are they clones of someone?"

Lex waited for a response, but the system did not respond. It did not even pass a funny or criticizing remark. Just as the silence seemed like it would go on forever, Mary appeared in front of him, a look of deep concern on her face.

"The inner workings of the system cannot be revealed to you," she said hesitantly. "This is not even a matter of authority, it just can't. But… each worker is a genetically modified clone of people who once existed. The genetic modifications refer to the bloodlines you select for them, or the traits you want them to be genetically predisposed towards. But although they are clones, the people they are clones of are all long dead, and do not even have any living members of their lineage either."

"Hmm," Lex responded without saying any more.

It was not like he would suddenly blame the system for being evil for doing this. He always knew what he was doing. But this cloning business… it suddenly left a bad taste in his mouth.

Lex sighed, and then extended his spirit sense to all the clones, then teleported away to Yildrim.