The Innkeeper

As much as he hated to admit it, the air quality in the temple surpassed the Inn. So did the quality of energy. It was rare that he would leave the Inn and not miss its soothing environment, but the temple was an exception to that. For now.

There were many other things that the temple did better than the Inn as well, but only one of them interested Lex at the moment.

Mateo's projection appeared in front of him, looking relieved. It had been many days since Lex disappeared and they were starting to get worried.

"Everything alright?" he asked, surveying his body to see for any missing limbs. They were all there.

"Yes. It took almost four days to complete the teleportation, and I suffered from extreme physical fatigue afterwards, to the point where I could not even pick myself off the ground."

"Come on, let's get you checked out first," Mateo said, not even waiting for Lex to complete his story, causing the baby to chuckle. It was clear that the projection was extremely worried about him.

But he had the same idea. The medical facilities of the temple were much better than the Inn's, and so would be able to better diagnose him if there were any issues.

The place that Lex had teleported to was one of the natural entrances of the temple, which is where the rest of the workers had arrived as well when they did. This was likely a result of Lex's subtle tweaks to the system's teleportation rules, which would only teleport people to where they had the authority to be.

Regardless, because of his location of arrival, Lex got to see countless workers, sitting and resting all throughout the halls. Since they would be departing soon, and would need to be in peak physical condition for that, their training had come to a close.

Although most of them did not have training as strenuous as Lex's, they also didn't have his resilience and mental toughness. They were exhausted, and it would take more than an empty schedule for them to recover.

But they were in good moods at least. Tired as they were, they all had satisfied expressions on their faces. Each and everyone of them felt that they had done justice to the opportunity the Innkeeper had given them, for they were far stronger than when they had arrived.

Instead of taking Lex to one of the medical facilities deeper within the temple, they made do with a nearby one first.

It was not as if the return was going to happen right now anyway. Something like that needed meticulous planning and preparation, which would give them plenty of time to ensure Lex also returned to his peak. That was also why Lex began his trail nearly 6 weeks before the new realm was born, as it would give him plenty of time to come over.

Cassandra and Z, who already anticipated the location of his arrival, soon joined them as Lex underwent extremely thorough examinations.

Regardless of any injury he may suffer, Lex knew he would recover to full health eventually. But for the massive task that lay ahead, they could take no risks as well.

"At a glance it seems like you've recovered," Cassandra stated. "But your meridians have wrinkled a bit due to the massive amounts of energy they parsed. Your physical stamina has also reduced by 30% temporarily. We can fix that. Tell me any other issues you faced. We can prepare for them ahead of time."

Elaborating on his travel experience did not in any way create security risks for the Inn, so Lex informed her of his experience in detail.

Cassandra listened attentively, and began preparing preventative measures immediately for the next teleportation. Her clone, which was at the peak of the Nascent realm, was exponentially more powerful than regular Nascent realm cultivators, so she was going to help Lex during the teleportation anyway. But even so, the more they prepared, the greater their chances of success without an issue.

Over the next few days, Lex as well as everyone else got plenty of rest as they were meticulously brought to their theoretical peak condition by the temple.

Finally, a week after Lex had returned to the temple, all preparations were done, and the crowd of workers gathered in a specially prepared hall.

A massive teleportation formation had been drawn on the floor, with Lex sitting in the middle. Anyone familiar with formations would know that the most integral part of the formation was missing. That was because Lex would take over the role of that part of the formation.

The rest of the formation was simply there to assist Lex in bringing everyone with him, while doing its utmost to stabilize the journey as much as possible. This one would be a lot more turbulent than the one Lex took the first time, due to the number of people being taken.

But with the assistance of external support, mainly the formation, they should fare just fine.

It wasn't as if they hadn't considered taking multiple trips with a smaller number of people each time, but due to how much time they expected to spend teleporting all of them, they just wouldn't have the time for multiple trips.

The workers, who were all wearing a specific set of armor provided by the temple, took their spots in the formation. The arrangement was not random, as the strongest ones were on the outer edges while the weaker ones were closer to Lex.

This was designed so that they would not have to face the effects of turbulence as much.

"Everyone, get ready," said the baby, surrounded by over a hundred thousand people. "I will begin in ten minutes."

All the workers nodded, and took some medicine which had been provided to them, and then linked hands with one another forming a massive chain. Cassandra, who was the strongest, was right next to Lex, and was the last link in the chain.

The reason she was next to him instead of being outside was because she needed to fuel Lex's ability with her own energy, which would require physical contact.

Lex opened his eyes, and began.