The Innkeeper

Slowly, Falak made his way towards the Innkeeper as he used his spirit sense to investigate the area. Spirit sense was an ability those at a higher cultivation level attained that would allow them to perceive things in the greatest of details which were covered by their spirit sense. They could extract and withdraw their spiritual senses and use it to cover anything that was within their spiritual range. There were, of course, more uses to spiritual sense but that was the most common one. He was surprised to see there were a few changes in the Inn as well as new people – something he had not sensed at all from his room. This, along with the fact that he was not able to determine the Innkeepers strength, made the Midnight Inn extremely mysterious. Yet it did not matter much to Falak; he was not there to make enemies with the man so his strength mattered little, only his capability as a host did.

As for the two other guests, they were too weak to hide anything from him, and he immediately saw through them. In fact, from the moment Falak had been born he was already much stronger than the two soldiers, so he did not even have a concept for what the Qi Training realm was. In terms of strength they were virtually indistinguishable from the mortals who did not cultivate at all to him.

“Innkeeper,” Falak said in an acknowledging tone. “There have been a few changes to the Inn while I was sleeping. I’m surprised you were able to achieve such a thing without even letting me notice.”

Lex felt like if the Host Attire wasn’t helping him control his facial features his lip would have twitched. The man had been asleep this whole time?

“Of course,” he replied, as if it was the most natural thing. “All our guest rooms have an isolating array so that no one outside can sense what is happening inside, while those inside remain undisturbed by things outside. Naturally, if you want to turn the array off you can let me know and I can have it done for you.”

That statement surprised Falak. He had not noticed any arrays in his room at all!

“No wonder I was unable to contact the young lady through the communication talisman, the rooms are isolated. In that case, please remove the arrays around my room. It would be a shame if the young lady tried to contact me, but was unable to.”

Lex nodded and used his control over the Inn to deactivate the isolating power over the rooms. In fact, there were no arrays covering the rooms, the Inn naturally kept the rooms isolated but it was easier to explain to guests this way.

“It’s done,” Lex told, his mind running through a million things. For a moment he considered asking Falak about the Earth the same way he had the two soldiers, but then disregarded the idea. The less he revealed to Falak and Bastet the easier it would be to keep up his façade in front of them.

“These two young friends,” Falak said, turning to Chen and Blane. “I can sense the aura of the Vegus System on you. It has been quite a while since I was there last. Would you mind telling me about what’s been happening there lately? I have been quite cut off from the universe lately.”

The man’s words overwhelmed and intimidated the two soldiers, but it wasn’t just that. He was infinitely stronger than the two and exuded a natural aura that should have overwhelmed them being so close. It was not something he would have had to do, just the strength of the man existing before them should have crushed their souls – though they didn’t know that, they only knew that they should have been oppressed and that something was preventing them from suffering. It was the Inn, naturally protecting its guests, but the two soldiers attributed it to the Innkeeper helping them out.

“Senior I don’t know when you came last, but for almost two hundred years now Vegus Minima has been overrun by zombies. As for the other two planets, we lost communication with them long ago and don’t know what their status is. They are probably in the same situation, if not worse.”

“Zombies?” Falak repeated the unfamiliar term, slightly curious.

“Bottom level demons,” Lex clarified, repeating the information he had received from the Inn.

“Ah, bottom level demons!” Falak grimaced for a moment, but quickly his expression returned to normal. “I’m sorry my young friends, I would like to help you – demons are truly despicable – but according to the Henali Convention I am unable to interfere. You will have to deal with this on your own.”

The two soldiers smiled wryly – they did not expect any help anyway. The Innkeeper had already let them know that their fate was in their own hands, and could only be changed through their own efforts.

“Thank you for your care senior,” Chen said, “although we have suffered, we are not without hope. We will reclaim our planet through our own efforts.”

Chen was only trying to portray himself as heroic, but his words truly gave Falak a good impression of the man.

“Come young friends, tell me a little more about these zombies.”

Falak led the two soldiers to the restaurant where they sat and discussed zombies and everything else about their world, while ordering a truly tremendous amount of food. Falak turned out to be vegetarian, but instead of salads he ordered a list of Indian foods while the two soldiers had steak. As a reliable A.I. assistant, Velma would take care of the cooking like she had been doing for Lex this entire time.

Lex left them to their privacy so they could talk – but not really! How could he give up this opportunity to learn interesting things from them – mostly Falak since he had already interviewed the soldiers. For example, this Henali Convention, although Lex had no idea what it was, he knew it was something that prevented Falak from helping the two soldiers – maybe that information would be useful one day. Sitting comfortably in the garden he used the power of the Host Attire to secretly listen to everything his three guests were saying.

*****

Upstate New York, Will Bentham’s Mansion

Old man Will sat in a wheelchair looking at the kneeling young mercenary in front of him. He had been thinking of solutions to his problem as of late, and suddenly remembered a rumor he had heard once. Death soldiers. Soldiers trained to sacrifice themselves for a cause. A lot of families and organizations cultivated them, and they were only loyal to them. But there was another way someone could get a death soldier, and that was by wielding the endless, unsurmountable power of money! Okay putting it like that was an exaggeration, but occasionally some cultivators who were in desperate need sometimes agreed to bind themselves to others in exchange for what they needed. The binding was done through a soul contract, which in itself was a rare item, but a very useful one as it gave the binder the power of life or death over the bonded person. But still, such a situation was rare.

Will called a few old friends to put the word out he was looking for a Death soldier. Initially he expected to wait a few months at the very least to get a response, but who knew he got a call just one day later. In front of him was a young mercenary who had made a small name for himself doing expeditions on the moon. Unfortunately, the cultivation world is not a peaceful one and someone had killed the soldier’s family while he was away on one of his expeditions.

It had been a few years since that incident but try as he might, the mercenary was unable to find out who the culprit was and what was their motive. On the moon things were a lot more chaotic than on Earth, for example while Bluebird tried its best to maintain the peace and investigate any crimes in its designated areas of control, there was no such law enforcing organization on the moon. There each and everyone only looked out for themselves and their own interests. So the man had finally turned to desperate measures. He agreed to become old man Will’s death soldier as long as he helped him investigate his family’s death and help him with his revenge.

“I have given the order. The Bentham family has officially started looking into the death of your family, quietly for now – to avoid attracting attention. I will let you know as soon as there are any results.”

“Thank you, my lord,” the kneeling mercenary replied. “I will fulfill my end of the bargain.”

Will smiled, hearing the young man’s words. He waved his hand and a man dressed up in a suit brought what looked like an empty syringe to the kneeling mercenary and handed it to him. Without any hesitation the mercenary stabbed himself in his heart with the needle of the syringe and pulled the plunger outwards. However the syringe didn’t pull out any blood, instead it was filled with a silvery translucent material. The process looked painful and the man grunted a couple of times, but did not stop. Once he was done the mercenary handed the syringe back to the suited man, who then presented it to Will.

Will carefully picked it up and injected the silvery substance into his hand. When he finished a small tattoo that looked like the mercenary before him appeared on the back of Will’s hand. The soul contract was complete and the mercenary had handed a small portion of his soul to old man Will. Naturally, Will did not have complete control over the mercenary’s soul, as the conditions of the contract had been imprinted into the syringe used to extract and deliver the soul. If Will tried to force the mercenary to do anything outside of the bounds of the agreed upon contract he would immediately lose control of the small piece of soul and it would dissipate. Similarly, if the mercenary tried to break his word or go against Will, the soul contract would immediately alert Will who could then punish the mercenary.

“Now then,” Will said, excitement filling his body, “I believe you know your assignment.”

He presented the golden key to the mercenary, who took the key and immediately crushed it. There was no hesitation in his actions or fear in his eyes. The man was willing to do whatever it took to get revenge. There was a flash in the room and the mercenary disappeared.