The Innkeeper
chapter-1287

"It's here," Mary informed Lex who was scribbling on a notebook. He did not need to keep a to-do list, but the satisfaction of cutting through them when the task was complete was enough to motivate him to keep a record of his tasks in such a way.

Mostly, it was because he did not want to start any task before leaving to rescue Liz. Now that he had received the item he could use to connect to the relevant planet, he suited up and disappeared.

Despite his confidence that everything would go fine, Lex could not help but feel a hint of nervousness. The last time he had gone out like this, he discovered Moon in a really bad state. If Vera hadn't urged him to go, he might have missed the critical timing to save her. Although he had no such warnings from Vera this time, he could not help being nervous.

He recalled his younger sister Liz. Although technically not a middle child, she suffered from the middle child complex of thinking she did not get enough attention - or at least the version of her that he knew was like that.

She was silent, introverted, and hard working, never making a fuss for anyone else, always a good child. But as a result of that, compared to Belle and Moon, his relationship with Liz was actually a little weaker. They didn't spend too much time together, and they didn't have shared memories.

He procrastinated no longer, and teleported over, landing in what looked like a massive junkyard. But this was no junkyard. The whole planet was like that.

It was the equivalent of a third world country in a star system with over nine habitable planets, each of them large enough to support a vast and rich population. This planet, the poorest in terms of environment, resources and technology, imported the trash from the entire star system, and used it to nourish the planet. At least that's what it said in the information booklet Lex had read.

In truth, the situation on the planet was drastically different. Lex spread his spirit sense and discovered entire battalions of soldiers running around on the surface, quickly setting up bases, with countless dead bodies everywhere on the planet. There were a large number of prisoners who had been cryogenically frozen just because it was easier to store them till later than to actually deal with them. Up above, in the sky above the junkyard planet, there were five massive spaceships maneuvering around the three moons of the planet, shooting massive laser beams at each other.

Thousands of smaller spaceships flew around the larger ships like guard bees around a beehive, fighting off against each other.

Firee rained down on the junkyard planet, a result of crashing spaceships. It seems like a war had broken out in this place, though it must have been recent. Otherwise Liz would not have been able to make it to this planet.

Lex spread his spirit sense far and wide, but no matter what he did, he could not find any signs of her. That was partially expected. Liz had a treasure on her that could hide her from being detected, so Lex did not think it would be easy to find her. But it was now more important than ever to find her.

Fortunately, most of the smaller ships flying through the atmosphere and even space, fighting each other, were not a threat to Lex. The five massive ships, however, were, if only because of the sheer firepower they boasted.

It looked like a scene out of star wars. Now all that was missing were sabers made of light that could cut through solid steel.

Lex used his bloodline tracking ability, and got a faint feedback. It was faint, because the connection was oddly subdued, but not entirely disconnected. Lex was not alarmed, as he thought that might be a function of whatever treasure Liz was using to hide herself. Instead, he just began flying towards it - which meant he was flying directly up in the air.

Unwilling to get involved, Lex camouflaged himself as he flew through the air, observing the dogfights. As unusual as it seemed, there were three different groups involved in the fight, each against each other. There were temporary alliances between the three groups, but only to take advantage of the situation until they could turn their backs upon each other.

What was interesting was that two of the races at war were insects, while the third were some kind of strange wooly dog. The aggression between them was deeply rooted into their very bones, and even from afar Lex could sense their hatred.

It was odd because he had never heard of these races, yet they seemed fairly powerful, and especially technologically advanced.

He made observations to their ships because by now it was fairly obvious that Liz's signal was coming from one of the large five ships - it was a round, gray ship with a small indent on one end, that looked like the front of the ship.

All the other ships were fighting around the circular ship, some trying to protect it, and others trying to destroy it. He could not sense anyone with high cultivation levels nearby, so he was not worried. But the level of technology on their ships made Lex wary. His instincts let him know that if he was not careful, he would be discovered, which would not end well.

Taking advantage of his superior cultivation, he spread out his spirit sense and began sneakily listening in to the conversations of all the pilots in the ships around him, trying to understand the situation.

Predictably, most of them were just focused on mentioning details regarding their fight and the enemies they were facing - until his spirit sense came across a camouflage ship, also heading towards the circular ship.

"Yabayaba, this Blind Owl, I'm making my way to the fake moon ship. Increase the heat, distract their ships. Don't let them find me."