The Innkeeper

Since John's cultivation was crippled, Lex had no idea if he could communicate with the soul inside of the dragon's body, so Lex arrived on scene as himself. At the same time, it would not hurt to show John the kind of problems he himself had gone through. Though to be fair, Lex did not doubt that John would have been able to face any other issue without any hesitation.

But his entire identity was built based on his system, which is what was causing him to freeze. Lex did not blame him or think little of him. Often it is said that those of older generations have a hard time learning new things. John had already lived so much of life, but had no idea how to live without his system, which was causing him to freeze. But a kick start to show him it would be okay should help him overcome that hurdle.

The most important thing during this time, however, was to keep him thoroughly occupied. If he had free time, then his mind would once again start to wander. At the moment, that was not good for him.

"Did the… did the Innkeeper really give you a dragon as a cultivation mat?" John asked, as he looked up at the dragon and touched it hesitantly.

"The Innkeeper? No, he just allowed me to keep it. I got the dragon myself."

John did not know how to react to that information. For some reason, he was not too surprised actually. It made sense that the workers at the Inn were just as absurd as the Inn itself. After all, he too worked here, and his past was no less unusual. He was confident that if he kept growing, eventually he would have been able to achieve a similar feat.

But from the very first time he entered the Inn, and tried out the Mystery trial oh so long ago, it had been preparing him to become independent of his system and rely on himself. He turned to look at the baby beside him.

If he had been able to achieve such things without a system, then John should be able to try the same, right?

Without wasting any more time, they got right to work. Although John had lost his system, he had retained his knowledge. That meant he could still create techniques on his own. But the one he was faced with at the moment was not something he could come up with casually. He would need to study the dragon's body thoroughly.

Lex stayed there and helped him through the entire process. But while he himself was there, he also had a projection of the Innkeeper in the office working as well.

An hour had gone by, and things were beginning to slow down finally. New problems stopped cropping up, at least at the same rate as before.

Yes, the rate at which newborns were cropping up had dropped. Now Lex had to deal with those who had been alive prior to exposure to the realm.

When Lex went through his star rating increase last time, countless mortal children were exposed to it. That resulted in them undergoing a cleansing of their bodies that simultaneously knocked them out.

This time around, the near three thousand children under the age of 10 that were at the Inn did not experience something similar. Instead, they fell asleep, and when they woke up, they had superhuman bodies.

So now, thousands of kids were running amok on Main street, jumping from building to building as if they were superheroes. Of course, when there were superheroes, there were also supervillains.

Naturally, when the group of superheroes and supervillain children mixed, they would join forces to take on the real enemy: all sense of order and propriety.

There were at least a dozen kids streaking through the streets and Lex had to limit his oversight of the situation lest the universal FBI show up and bust him for seeing something he shouldn't.

Fortunately, he still had control over his Host Attire, so a wave of his hand was all it took to clothe all the children forcibly.

But he did not have a solution for the kids who learnt that they could jump off buildings without getting hurt, or the kids who figured out they could rip trees from the ground and use them as sticks.

Fortunately, there were some kids who were placated by snacks and juice boxes, but those numbers were not as large as he would have liked.

He was really hoping others would start waking up soon, preferably the kids' parents.

But to his great dismay, the next to wake was not from his guests, or his workers.

Instead, it was the Lotus which had been preparing itself for the evolution of a lifetime. Originally, the Lotus was supposed to give birth to a world with a complete star system, and everything else it would need to survive. Due to the immense energy it absorbed from the birth of the realm, which was much larger than just a word, it was ready to undergo that evolution.

But, instead of doing that, it opted for another choice.

"Mr. Innkeeper, sir, is it alright if I fuse with this continent?" it asked, meekly. It felt guilty for even trying to stave from its predestined path.

"Will you be alright if you do that?" Lex asked, using the Innkeepers projection from his office.

"Yes, yes. Actually, I wanted to fuse with the entire realm, but that's too big for me right now. So I am planning on fusing with this continent first, and then from there I'll see if I can eventually grow further."

"As long as you can do so without destroying the continent, or harming it, go ahead. You see, I've found the Inn here, so it would be inconvenient if something untoward happened. Like if a series of volcanoes suddenly cropped up as a result of the fusion, it would be very inconvenient."

Lex had learned to expect volcanoes in every situation. A man must take precautions against spontaneous volcano appearances.

"No, no, nothing like that should happen. If anything, I'll have great control over the continent, so I'll be able to address any issues you have with it. Of course, that'll only happen after the fusion is complete."

"Well, in that case, go ahead."

Lex was well beyond the level he could guess the outcome of things, so he had to rely heavily on trusting that Lotus knew what it was doing.

The lotus that had accompanied him for so long on his back slowly fused into the ground, and disappeared like a drop in the ocean.

There were no sudden earthquakes or massive disasters, so that was a good sign.

A bright, golden light erupted just as Lex had that thought. But, fortunately, it had nothing to do with the continent, Menara. Instead, in the greenhouse, Little Blue's body was shining gold.

Its body was rapidly growing as it absorbed spiritual energy from its surroundings, and two golden wings finally grew out above its back. Its fins started growing longer as well, and its body's shape began to elongate.

Lex could not help but scan it.

Name: Little Blue

Age: 5

Sex: Male

Cultivation Details: Foundation realm Peak

Species: Blue Whale/Evolving(Kunpeng variant)

Bloodline: Evolving

Condition: Undergoing metamorphosis

Remarks: This little fish really likes to fly.

So Little Blue was evolving into a Kunpeng. Lex was not too familiar with this species, but he had once heard Dr. Charles, the same man who had called Fenrir grandpa, mention it. When the opportunity arose, he would take the chance to ask him about it. For now, he was just pleased that Little Blue was doing well.

He was about to turn his attention to other things, but Little Blues' evolution was far from simple. The clouds began to react to the beam of golden light rising into the sky, and began to take the shape of various fish. Lightning began to flash all around, though fortunately it never actually struck Little Blue.

Outside the bounds of the Inn, a noble and immense aura began to spread. It seemed that the Inn had suppressed Little Blue's aura within the Inn, but its boundary was extraordinarily massive.

But besides being extremely prominent, there seemed to be no other problem. Lex once felt grateful that no natural being in this realm was beyond the Nascent realm, as this would have caused him immense problems otherwise.

But, as if feeling offended at the lack of attention, a green light erupted nearby, and this time the system did nothing to suppress its aura.

"Don't tell me…" murmured Lex as he observed where the light was coming from. There was only one character that the system failed to reign in… It was the Galactic Sovereign turtle.

True to his suspicions, the turtle was also glowing, and becoming much larger in size at a visible rate.

As if on cue, another light erupted from a different corner of the Inn. This time, it was the Magikarpets. Something was happening with them.