The Innkeeper

Chapter 1944 Official position

Lex did not enter the room, instead choosing to stand at the door peering in. From the jackal, Lex could not sense his cultivation realm at all. Instead, he sensed the extent to which his suppression was alleviated: 4.5%!

This was a very peculiar situation because the difference in their suppression seemed to matter more than their cultivation realm. If that was the case, why had the jackal mentioned Lex’s realm?

The jackal, upon noticing that Lex wasn’t moving, sighed.

“You’re one of those, huh?” he asked in an exhausted voice, and moved from behind the pedestal, approaching Lex.

“Let me guess. You accidentally tore open your tribulation and thought it was a good idea to enter? Or are you being hunted and felt like you had nowhere else to go so you came here instead? Do you even know where you are?”

Lex raised an eyebrow, imagining such scenarios. He supposed it was possible that many people accidentally stumble into Arch-Heaven, or come here as a way to escape. That would be quite funny actually.

He focused on the jackal, trying to judge its power and intention. Lex could not sense his cultivation level at all, though that could merely be due to Lex’s own suppressed senses. Much more important was whether or not the danger he sensed came from the jackal or not.

“No actually I came here on an errand,” Lex said honestly, finally stepping into the room, a warm smile on his face. What kind of inn owner would he be if he couldn’t even trust his judgment of people? According to his judgment, this jackal was not nearly as interested in harming Lex as he was in ‘registering’ Lex. “Although, admittedly, I’m still not too familiar with the rules of this place. What is it exactly that you want me to get registered for?”

The jackal walked up to Lex and placed one of its paws on Lex’s shoulder, shaking his head as if lamenting Lex’s situation.

“My guy, this place is both a paradise and a proverbial hell,” the jackal said, sounding depressed. “It really depends on your situation, honestly. Take me, for example. I was a peak Celestial Immortal for about a total of seven years before I was forced to come here. I barely got to enjoy my status. Then the war started, and to be honest, I didn’t mind the war so much, but while fighting an opponent, I followed him through the portal to this place. Now, I’ve been stuck here for I don’t even know how many years, doing a menial job in the hopes of reducing my limiter.”

Lex raised his eyebrow as he understood the implication. His capitalist senses were tingling, letting him know that he could possibly gain a monopoly on the market in Arch-Heaven if he linked it to the Inn.

“Is it difficult to leave this place?” he asked as he mentally controlled his system interface to purchase a ticket to link the Arch-Heaven to the Inn.

“Yes, and no,” the jackal said. “Everything here operates under a very stringent set of rules. I’ve heard that if you can reduce your limiter by 10%, you can exit this place. Unfortunately, I’m far off from reaching that, nor have I encountered anyone who has reached 10%, so I can’t be sure.”

The jackal paused to sigh, as if he was deeply disappointed by his circumstances.

“Anyway, that doesn’t matter,” he said, promptly recovering from his morose state. “You asked what I’m getting you registered for. Well, as you’ve probably noticed, your power has been greatly limited since you came to this place. There are many ways of reducing that limitation, or limiter as I call it. Registering is one of those ways, and getting an official position and working is another of those ways. Actually, those are the only two ways of decreasing the limiter that I’ve discovered so far.”

Lex froze, not because of the jackals words, but because of the notification floating in front of him – though the jackals words also weren’t too reassuring. New Notification: Error! Cannot connect Inn to current location due to: ‘System rank insufficient. Please improve system rank to unlock new features.

That was the first time he’d ever seen his system outright be unable to perform one of its normal functions due to its rank being low. In fact, he’d never encountered a system with a rank anywhere near his own, even in its damaged state.

Then again, it kind of made sense. This was the Arch-Heaven, a very important place in the universe as far as Lex could tell – a place even Dao Lords avoided. More importantly, if the system features weren’t working here, then there was a very distinct possibility that he might not be able to use the golden key to exit this place.

Such a notion would have ordinarily filled Lex with dread. Something along the lines of ‘oh no, he was trapped without being able to return to the Inn once again. But he had been through that enough times now that he was no longer daunted by it. In fact, he could already think of one way to leave: the mermaid with whom he was connected to by karma.

He had no idea how this mermaid came here, but he had heard that there was a special mermaid bloodline that could allow them to travel anywhere in the universe where there was water.

Even if this mermaid lacked that bloodline, with the help of Lex’s physique, the mermaid could gain it.

“Damn, only two ways huh?” Lex asked, returning his focus to the jackal. “That sounds rough. Hasn’t anyone else been able to figure out a better way?”

The jackal shook his head once again.

“Maybe they have, but the number of living beings here are few and far between. Meeting one other old resident of this place once a century is already a big deal. I mostly only encounter new entrants, and that too only because of my official position as the registrar.”