The Innkeeper

"What about you? Been busy lately? How many girlfriends have you run through by now?" Lex asked casually, trying to divert the topic of conversation from himself.

"I uhh… still have the same girlfriend. I'll introduce you to her," he said awkwardly. Lex could not help but notice how he loosened up his color as he said that, his eyes darting into the distance as his thoughts wandered. Oh? Was there some gossip here? Velma would surely be interested in this.

Silently, he betrayed his friend as he told Mary to inform Velma about this.

"We can talk more about that later," Larry quickly said the moment he snapped free from his thoughts. "Instead, I should ask, are you busy? I have a couple of things I want to talk to you about."

"Not that busy. I was looking for a spiritual treasure to train my spirit sense, but I haven't been able to find one so far."

"Ah yes, I remember going through that hassle. What you-" Larry suddenly paused, and then looked at Lex with a look of genuine shock. "Wait, you… you've reached the Golden core realm?"

Lex shrugged as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

"Yeah, I did. I don't know why you're surprised if you were able to reach it even quicker than I."

"I… no, but you…"

Larry shook his head and looked at Lex as if he was seeing the man for the first time. Although he always held Lex in high regard, for he knew he wasn't simple, this was taking things a bit beyond just that. He knew how valuable his own secret was to help him grow so quickly. The fact that Lex could keep up, even if he was a bit slower, meant that his secrets were also probably not too lacking when compared to his own.

Larry's wide grin promptly returned as he wrapped his arm around Lex's neck.

"This is a reason to celebrate," he said, "and celebrate we shall by finally getting you a girl!"

Lex elbowed the man and pushed him away. The man literally never thought about anything other than girls. Lex thought to tease him about it, since last he recalled he was actually not so skilled at flirting, but it seemed he had managed to maintain a relationship for a while. As a young bachelor, Lex really felt like elbowing him a little harder. His strange metallic body should be able to tolerate it, right?

"Haha alright, alright. Forget about the treasure, I'll get you a good one later. I have a guy who handles simple things like this. Instead, let me introduce you to some people. This is Rafael, Marlo's son."

Lex put on a surprised expression as he turned to look at the mature man. He was already in the Qi training realm once again, and making steady progress. As a man in his mid-30s, he looked the oldest of the bunch and definitely stood out, but at the rate his cultivation was going it wouldn't be long before he regained his youthful demeanor.

"It's a pleasure," said Lex as he shook the man's hand.

"Likewise," replied Rafael as he tried to recall if he'd heard of Lex from his memories of the future. After all, such a young Golden core cultivator, especially one from earth, was someone who should have had a lot of fame. But he was drawing a blank.

Little did he know, in the version of the future he knew, since Marlo never trained Lex, his experience at Vegus Minima had been so bad, Lex had decided to slow down the growth of the Inn to a dead stall. It took him many years to reach the Golden core in that timeline due to his caution and lack of opportunities.

"This spry young lad here is Anakin, and this is Noman," he said, continuing with the introductions. "And finally, this brooding fellow is Zouta. Or Souta. Or something like that. I've given up on trying to pronounce his name, I hope you have better luck."

Lex nodded at each of the three guys separately, paying special attention to each of them. Noman was the source of the danger he was detecting, and he could see something odd happening around him from his left eye, but see nothing else. With Anakin he couldn't see anything worthy of notice, but his soul sense brushed past him - mostly because he still couldn't control it - and that's when Lex noticed two souls within the man's body. That only left Souta, the system wielder. All of them, alongside Rafael, who had a mysterious treasure inside his heart, formed a strange group of people with unbelievable secrets.

Lex could not help but think that if this were a novel, each one of them would be worthy of being either an antagonist or protagonist in the series.

"Let's find somewhere more private to talk," said Larry.

Lex, who was keen on trying to understand what objective such a collection of talented young men could have, took the opportunity to test out the warning from his intuition about being truthful.

"I have a cabin on the Midnight train. We can talk there," he said, wearing an expression of showing off as he looked at Larry.

Before the other could respond, however, a whisper interrupted him, saying, "he's lying."

Although it was only a whisper, and they were on a crowded street, as cultivators so close to the source, they all heard him.

Lex wore an awkward expression as an unknown light flashed through his eyes.

"What I mean is, by the time we reach the station, I can arrange to get a cabin. Don't worry, it's just a minor cost to me and I've always wanted to try it, anyway."

Lex looked at Noman as he spoke, but the other did not show any concern, as if the explanation was not for him.

Lex, on the other hand, was thinking about the implications of what just happened. Fortunately, his intrigue did not need to be disguised. Once they reached the cabin, Lex could directly ask Larry.