The Innkeeper
chapter-1305

Nora Huagen was quite an entrepreneurial woman, from Lex's recollection. Even though he himself had very limited contact with her, she was Cwenhild's mother, so he's heard a lot about Nora from her.

Considering the fact that Lex played a key role in helping Cwenhild win over control of a Minor realm, their relationship wasn't bad. Similarly, when Cwenhild told him stories of her mother, who dared even negotiate marriage and childbirth with the king in exchange for things she wanted, Lex could only admire her.

From a certain point of view, Nora could be looked down on for trading marriage in exchange for resources, but in truth it was not easy to grow strong, especially when there was no one stronger looking out for you. In that case, gaining resources through your own means was completely justified. Besides, she treated Cwenhild well, so she couldn't have been a bad person.

That was not the best thing to judge a person by, but it was enough.

The immortals surrounding Lex seemed surprised at his recognition of the woman, and they looked over to her to find her expression painted in disbelief.

"Lex… is that you?" she asked hesitantly. How many years had it been since she last saw Lex? Six? Seven? How could he go from a mere Foundation realm cultivator to an Immortal in such little time? Moreover, even with his aura withdrawn, she could tell that he was not weak at all.

The reason why her memory was failing her of when she last saw Lex was because she could tell from observing him that he had experienced many more years than she did - which did not make sense. Not unless… Ventura!

"Indeed, senior, it has been a while. How is Cwenhild doing?" he asked.

"She is doing well. She started her cultivation from scratch following the True Path, so her cultivation progress slowed down a bit, but she is doing well."

The True Path was when humans cultivated spirit energy, their body and their soul altogether. For general humans, cultivating all three was too difficult, and would limit their growth, so they usually stuck to only one or two.

The fact that cultivating only 1 was a norm, not only in the Crystal realm but the entire universe, was a testament to how weak the human race was as a whole.

"That's great to hear. Please send her my regards. By the way, do you think it would be possible to meet with the King? I have come from far away, and brought a guest who I think the King would be very interested in meeting."

"How long has it been since you returned to the Crystal realm?" Nora asked, instead of directly replying.

"We only just came back a short while ago."

"In that case, you likely don't know about what's been going on have you? Things have changed. Meeting Cornelius… I can request an audience, and see how he responds."

Lex refrained from directly asking about the Ventura exam. From what he recalled, the state of the realm as property of Ventura was a secret, and revealing sensitive information carelessly would not help the situation anymore.

They just waited patiently while Nora sent a message to the King. Throughout the process, Cassandra remained silent, merely looking around at the academy underneath.

"This is an academy… named academy," Lex told her, wearing a reminiscing smile. "I studied here for a bit. The standard was really good, and the existential threat of the Kraven ensured that everyone was always working hard."

Cassandra only nodded, not commenting.

After a small wait, where Lex and Cassandra remained surrounded by countless immortals, Nora finally received a response.

"Cornelius is welcoming both of you to his castle," Nora suddenly said, waving her hand and having the others stand down. "His condition is not the best. He recently suffered an assassination attempt out on the front lines. It's rare for someone to be able to hurt him, let alone wound him so grievously. The perpetrator… used certain treasures we are unfamiliar with."

Lex could tell that she was refraining from mentioning certain things. It seemed that even among the immortals, there were many secrets.

"Where is Aegis? Is he also on the front lines?"

Aegis was the crown prince of the Hum nation, and was ridiculously talented. He reached the immortal realm in just a few years of cultivating, and eventually became an alcoholic out of depression since he couldn't find anything challenging, yet the only challenge he faced was his father, who was so strong he saw no hope of winning. The situation was quite absurd.

Of course, he had long since corrected his ways after a subtle round of brainwashing… no, eh, after a round of encouragement from Lex.

Soon they were brought into the palace where Lex immediately lost a lot of respect for the King. Lex always knew that the king had many wives, and had many kids. Considering that he was never forceful, and that he served his people diligently, Lex thought that it was only a minor vice to have.

But why were all his guards women? And the maids and staff were also all women! Heck, if it weren't for a few political personalities in the building, it would practically all be just women! He supposed it was normal for a king to have a massive harem. Even back on earth, mere mortal kings had massive harems, let alone in the cultivation world.

They were soon brought into a room where Cornelius sat comfortably on a large sofa, looking through some information crystals. Physically, he seemed fine. But Lex, who had spent a lot of time learning about medicine and healing, could immediately tell that the man was not even at 20% his peak strength!

His spirit energy was weakened, his body seemed frail and even his soul seemed to have suffered some damage.

"Lex! It's good to see you again!" He said as he got up, not in the least surprised by Lex's rapid growth in strength.

Cornelius was one of the few who had seen Lex's backer, the Innkeeper when he visited the Crystal realm. With someone so powerful backing him up, Cornelius wouldn't be surprised if Lex had already surpassed the Earth immortal realm.

As a proper member of Ventura, his exposure was quite different.

Cornelius' gaze went from Lex to Cassandra, and even thoroughly weakened he was able to tell that this was not a simple person.

"It's good to see you too. I hope my sudden arrival was not a burden on your health."

"It is what it is," Cornelius said with a shrug. "It will take me a few months before I can recover completely. I can't waste that time doing nothing."

"There are a few reasons I wanted to meet with you," Les informed the man. "Not in the least because the Innkeeper thought that you and Cassandra might benefit from talking to each other. Allow me to introduce you - this is Cassandra, my teacher. Cassandra, this is King Cornelius, the ruler of this nation. While humans suffer everywhere else in the universe, within the Crystal realm, Cornelius has turned them into one of the seven most powerful races."

"Your achievement is quite admirable," Cassandra finally spoke, and addressed the king. "I can see that the quality of the cultivation techniques used by people is actually quite high. Even your own cultivation seems specifically designed to suit your physique. Did you design it yourself?"

Even in his weakened state, Cornelius maintained his confident smile and his casual demeanor, yet he did not take Cassandra lightly at all. Upon hearing the recommendation of the Innkeeper, and that she was Lex's teacher, treated her even more seriously.

"It was not designed by myself, although it was designed according to my requirements. Back when I was a student at Ventura, I won a tournament that awarded me a great reward. I used that to have my cultivation technique specifically designed. I've used it as inspiration to design True Path cultivation techniques that are easier to cultivate for humans. Although I am far from succeeding, I have made great strides in my research."

"For the sake of our conversation, allow me to introduce a little about myself first," said Cassandra. "This is merely a clone of mine, quickly losing energy so I do not have the liberty of a long conversation, please forgive me. But I am keen to know your views on certain matters, for the Innkeeper advised me to talk to you before I made my next big breakthrough.

"My name is Cassandra Vans Agnew, and I…"

Before she could continue Cornelius lurched onto his feet with absolute shock written on his face.

"Are you… are you a descendant of the Vans Agnew family of the Orion realm?" he suddenly exclaimed, interrupting her speech!

Lex raised an eyebrow upon witnessing the scene. Why did it seem like Cassandra's family was some kind of bigshot? Then again, as a keeper of the Temple of Fasting, and the self proclaimed strongest human, it only made sense for her to have an impressive background, though Lex had never thought of it.