The Innkeeper

Damian Arban William, Lex's grandfather, was filled with both excitement and fear as he hurried to the Ancestor Temple! He was excited, for their family had been ignored by their ancestor for too long, not that he could blame him. Even with his prestigious position in the family, he himself was only an Earth Immortal. That meant any common general in the Jotun Army was stronger than him based on cultivation alone.

Naturally, just because he was an Earth Immortal, it did not mean that was the peak strength of their family - far from it. But it was generally accepted that they were only equal to a normal noble family of the Empire, and not one of the top four like they should have been.

So, he harbored a great hope that their ancestors' attention would spark the fire of their family's growth.

But the tinge of fear in his heart was not without cause as well. He had heard that the ancestor had asked about Lex - his grandson who he knew absolutely nothing about.

His greatest fear was that his son had done something to cause the ancestors ire. After their last meeting, his son and his wife had completely disappeared. Let alone him, even his three granddaughters did not know where they had gone.

But there was no point in guessing. He took a moment to straighten himself out, before he hurriedly entered the temple.

The ancestor's projection was standing with his hands held behind his back, an impassive look on his face. He did not recognize Damian, for it had been too long since he interacted with the family.

"Great ancestor, my name is Damian, the current presiding family head. I have retrieved all the information you desired."

"Tell me about earth," William said directly, not displaying any of the friendliness he did around his brothers.

"It's a planet that falls under the William family territory in the Milky Way, and is deep inside a Dead zone. At the behest of the empire, a prisoner, Bastet, had been kept on the planet as it was one of the few inhabited planets in the deadzone. Due to the lacking spiritual presence on the planet, the prisoner could not recover enough strength to leave without the aid of technology. It…"

"Forget that. What I want to know is, are there any members of the William family on earth? The 'Lex Williams', I mentioned, is he a descendant?"

Damian smiled awkwardly, but did not hide anything.

"There… was a descendant living on Earth, my son, Leon. He got married to someone from that planet and started a family there. I believe… Lex is his son."

"Started a family on earth? Why did he start a family in the deadzone?" William was genuinely confused. There was no real benefit to such a thing. There were a few rumors that cultivating in an area lacking spirit energy strengthened the cultivation as it was forced to do more work for the same results, but there was no actual proof.

Damian cleared his throat, but reported the situation honestly and without adding any bias to make himself look good or bad.

William listened silently, without expressing any approval or disapproval. He was the last person qualified to comment on family drama. Instead, his focus remained on Lex for two very specific reasons.

One was obviously the fact that they had a similar appearance. That in itself should not have mattered, except that he had originally suspected a similar appearance was a sign of him unlocking the bloodline William had created. The second was the name on the top of the Guest Registry. He still did not think his descendant had any real connection to the person whose name was atop the list, but there was no harm in investigating.

As for the bloodline matter…

"Your suspicion about him awakening the bloodline is probably incomplete. If his mother really is as skilled as you say, and was able to give her 3 daughters all exceptional skills, then it's likely that not only did Lex unlock his bloodline, it may have undergone a mutation."

Damian was startled, for he had not even considered such a thing. Successful bloodline mutations were exceedingly rare because any mutation would usually result in the death of whoever had it. A successful mutation meant an evolution of a bloodline… that his incredibly powerful ancestor was able to make. Such a thing… it was impossible, right?

"Make a file, list down every major thing that has happened in the family in the last few thousand years. I'll be coming back soon."

The hologram disappeared, and Damian breathed a sigh of relief that the ancestor did not blame him. But his mind quickly went to the matter about Lex. Even if it was a bloodline evolution, there was no need to hide Lex from them. He suspected the matter was even more complicated than that.

*****

Adrus was on top of the world! From the moment he had AI take over his cultivation technique, his real progress had been amazing! He suspected it would take a couple of days at most to enter the next realm.

To celebrate, he had come to the Midnight Inn, and upon the insistence of a few friends, entered the Henali Portal. Apparently, its VR was ultra realistic and would allow him to feel like he was exploring the universe!

But unbeknownst to him, the moment he entered the portal, a hidden signal was sent out. Protected by the system, his location at the Inn had been hidden, but his origin on Earth could not be protected.

But nothing else happened afterwards. Adrus continued to enjoy the portal, and his cultivation technique kept running in the background. Several hours later, when he exited the portal, he had a lavish meal with a few other friends and decided to partake in the Inns festival.

Life had never been this good for him, and it was bound to only get better in the future.