The Innkeeper

Many of Charles' ideas were not bad, but they weren't practical either. He could propose stuff like treatment through natural means because he had the knowledge, but with hundreds of thousands of guests visiting the recovery room every day, it was impossible for him to take care of all the guests.

He could begin teaching others his own knowledge, but that too would take years before it yielded any real results. As such, there was no real way to implement all his changes right now. Some of them, however, were not so bad and could be implemented immediately.

For example, the lifestyle adjustment for the Inn workers. He always knew that they weren't 'born' naturally since the Inn created them as and when he wanted, and he could even pick stuff like their bloodlines. Such topics demanded some philosophical questions such as the ethics of cloning, and if what Lex was doing was right or wrong.

The way he saw it, he was doing his best to give them full and extensive lives and treating them as best as he could. He also created a healthy and nurturing environment for them to grow in. For example, while originally all his workers had their own individual rooms they could teleport to, and still do, most of them preferred to go to the Minor realm dedicated only for Inn workers and live in their homes there. They were building their own community, as well as culture and traditions.

Given all of that, it was really hard for Lex to see what he was doing as immoral. But if they were suffering due to improper care as a result of their cloning, then that was something he would take care of immediately.

It made sense, kind of, that many of them had a predisposition to awaken certain talents and skills. After all, some of his most powerful workers had awoken skills completely unrelated to their cultivation techniques. If, by designing a better environment suited to nurture their skills, he could help them, then he would definitely do it!

"How would you treat the Mountain-man?" Lex asked once he teleported himself and Charles over to the Recovery room.

"The problem is the strength of his soul, so that is what I would treat. It would be best if I could get my hands on various soul nurturing herbs, or anything which could influence souls really. Designing a treatment plan for him is not so simple, so I'll need some time to see what resources are available and what I can do."

"Go find Harry, the local barber. He specializes in souls. He may be able to help you with that," the Innkeeper said, before entering John's private room.

The man lay in his Recovery pod, looking pale and extremely weak. Instead of getting better, his situation had deteriorated a lot, though he was finally stable now.

Weakly, he opened his eyes and looked up at the Innkeeper and the stranger, and a light of hope flashed through his eyes. If anyone could help him, it was the Innkeeper. But he didn't say anything yet, as he was unfamiliar with the second man.

"Observe him and see if you can work out a treatment plan for him," Lex said casually, while he used his own spirit sense to scan him. Using the system to get a reading on him revealed errors, as always, so he could only rely on himself to figure out the situation.

Physically speaking, John was fine. Even his core, or what used to be his core, was technically fine. It had now only become empty, as if it could not store any energy inside it at all. The situation was unusual.

Next, Lex used his soul sense to check up on him, and that is when the issue was revealed. John's soul was damaged in a very strange and somehow precise way. His otherwise healthy soul had thin yet jagged cracks spread all across it, as if it was on the verge of breaking. Yet the strange thing was, besides the areas that actually had the cracks on them, the rest of his soul looked extremely healthy, as if nothing was wrong.

"I've seen something like this before," Charles said, as he studied John's body by touching and tapping it in various places. Lex found it really interesting how, despite having no cultivation himself, Charles could harness spiritual energy and use it for his various purposes. This type of control went against conventional cultivation rules.

"This is a result of a fracture of a soul treasure. Normally, even the destruction of such a treasure would not affect the cultivator. But in this case, rather than just storing the treasure in your soul, you must have completely absorbed and merged it with your soul, am I right?"

Although Charles asked the question, he did not pause to hear the answer.

"I'm not sure how something like this happened, but someone has targeted your soul treasure very specifically. They have severely damaged the treasure without affecting your actual soul at all. That is the only reason you are still alive, for your soul is keeping the treasure together from crumbling entirely. But such a state cannot last long. Either a way to remove the treasure needs to be figured out, or the treasure needs to be healed.

"The only thing that I cannot figure out is… why something like this has caused your cultivation to disappear. Especially since you are in the immortal realm, and have established your tenets. It somehow seems like your connection to your own tenets has been severed somehow."

"Thank you Charles, I'll take it from here. You can go meet Harry and figure out a treatment for the Mountain-man. Only when you have a complete treatment will we approach the guest, for it is rude to interrupt guests unnecessarily."

Charles nodded and left, taking one last look at John. He was really confused about his situation and really wanted to ask what the treasure fused with his soul was, but knew better than to do so.

Soon, only the Innkeeper and John were left in the room.