The Innkeeper

Lex, woefully ignorant of the impact of actions once again, finally reached the end of his Guidance. The number of total types of variables had not changed. It remained ten. Yet now, each equation, using only those ten variables, was a combination of hundreds or thousands of individual variables.

Let alone as an Earth Immortal, even if he had reached the Heavenly Immortal realm Lex might not have been able to tolerate the immense mental burden of so much information being processed all at once. The Brimming Dream Lotus played its part well, easily achieving what Lex himself could never have done.

Then again, as a member of the Primordial Origin Lotus series, it only made sense for it to be incredibly formidable.

One by one, all the other combinations disappeared from his mind, as if they had never existed to begin with, leaving only one, incredibly long combination that was longer than any before it. The pressure Lex had been feeling once again returned, though this was though no fault of the Brimming Dream Lotus.

Rather, it was the pressure of the vision itself. As all the colors mixed with all the intentions and all the objects and all the worlds, they finally produced two things! If Lex had the ability to think, he would have been stunned.

When the visions started, a slice of cold pizza and the color golden fused together to produce a masters degree. Now, at the end, as hundreds of other variables fused, they produced a cold slice of pizza and the color golden.

The vision had come full circle, while remaining devoid of all sense and pattern. Perhaps it would take the mind of a Celestial Immortal, or maybe even a Dao Lord to make sense of the visions. As it was, for Lex, they were nothing more than visions - at least for now.

As the visions finally came to a close, the protective shield around Lex's mind slowly faded, and he once again gained the ability to think. Yet though he gained the ability to think, he did not get an opportunity to think on his visions, for something else happened.

A bright light shone down onto Lex from the sky - within the vision, of course - and the aura of a powerful, omniscient and omnipresent being shone down on him.

"YOU, WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE GUIDANCE OF HEAVEN, ARE ELIGIBLE TO BECOME MY AUGUR. BEND THE KNEE, AND ACCEPT YOUR HONOR!"

"Yeah, no thanks," Lex responded without much consideration. "I already have a job, and I'm not looking for a new boss. Speaking of which, one of my old bosses took me to cultivator prison to be questioned, so that left a bad taste in my mouth. Not really fond of working for others anymore after that. Thanks for the offer though, I'll be sure to pass the word along that you're looking for help."

The light continued to shine on him, almost as if it was astounded by what had happened. It seemed the light wasn't omniscient, or else it would have expected such an outcome. Lex also took the moment of silence to consider who exactly was speaking to him, and what their presence meant.

Eventually, though, the vision began to fade and the light started to dim, so Lex thought it was over. Who knew that just before the vision ended, he heard the voice murmur to itself.

"Another Sephore brat…"

That caught Lex's curiosity, and he wanted to talk to the light some more, but didn't get the chance to, for the vision finally ended.

The trance finally ended, and the vision was complete, but that did not mean Lex woke up. Instead, he fell into a meditative state - a necessity for he had acquired an immense amount of information simply in the form of memories, and it would take him some time to digest them all.

But as this burden fell onto him, he began cycling his cultivation technique, which began strengthening his mind even more than it already was.

The Seraphim, meanwhile, all breathed a sigh of relief for the Guidance was finally over. They probably wouldn't resume the Guidance for another decade or so while they investigated the cause of what happened. It would probably take them a few thousand years to make up the cost for what had just happened. After all, Lex had been receiving his Guidance for five days straight! Moreover, the rate of consumption of resources was far greater than ordinary. So while in practice it seemed like he had only been receiving Guidance for five days, he had used up the same number of resources that a century or two would have consumed.

But even though the Guidance was over, and Lex was no longer under Heavens protection, no one tried to interrogate him, nor did they try to blame him for causing them such a loss. It was as if there had never been any such concerns to begin with.

Lex spent another two days meditating before he finally recovered, though the experience left him feeling more confused than anything else. He was supposed to have learnt something about Karma, though now that he was awake, he felt no more knowledgeable about the subject than before. Moreover, a bright white light had called him a brat and Lex was pretty sure the light had also insulted Lex's family.

Lex opened his eyes, and froze. He was in the Guidance Dome, just as he remembered, and nothing had changed. Yet when he looked upon the world, everything was simultaneously the same and different!

It was as if his brain had developed new neural pathways, so that he could now see more and differently than before. There was no one save him in this room, yet every inch of it was absolutely stained with the influence of incalculable beings.

Every single piece of tile had a history so complex, witnessing the change of ages within the Dome let alone everything it had witnessed before. It had once been in a spatial ring. It had once been a part of a mountain. It had once been a part of an asteroid that crashed into yet another asteroid, but that was from before it assumed its current shape.

The very air he breathed carried such heavy Karma! It had supported the life of innumerable living beings, and witnessed great powers. The very air around him had such history it deserved great odysseys written for it!

Lex looked down and saw the Brimming Lotus Dream, and to it he saw such an immense Karma of debt - one that he owed it!

Lex squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, and when he reopened them the world was back to normal. It had initially taken him by surprise, but having total mastery over himself, Lex immediately realized that he had gained an ability to see Karma. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Of course, he could not see all Karma. Rather, he had only gained the ability to see the weakest, most basic level Karma that was almost entirely inconsequential. But by observing Karma over a longer period of time, he would eventually learn more and more about it.

In fact, even a brief moment of observation gave him great insight. But now was not the time to lose himself in such things. He hadn't forgotten that he was in a foreign place, and though they claimed total safety, he only trusted the safety the Midnight Inn provided him.

Lex got up and called Licanderoth, who also acted normally, as if what had happened was the most natural thing in the world. His schedule had changed, but he still had more services to take advantage of in the resort.

Meanwhile, within the Folklore realm, Jack was actually enjoying a rare moment of peace. It wasn't that the river Styx wasn't trying to kill him - far from that. It was just that his crew was capable of handling it without his intervention, so he had some time to rest.

As it happened, now that his connection with Lex had been restored, Jack also gained the ability to look at Karma. After all, the ability was not linked to his physical body, but rather his soul.

He was a little curious about what he would see if he tried to look at the Karma of his crew. They were far from normal. It was not that he was in any position to call anyone's past abnormal, rather he just wanted to know more about them so that there wouldn't be any unexpected surprises.

As such, he decided to take a small sneak peek - a decision he would regret for a long time. As soon as he activated the ability, he saw not the Karma of his crew, or his ship, or the accused river of death. Instead, he saw the Karma of fairies, and it was putrid.

From the heavens themselves, just like the many laws that governed the functions of the universe, Jack saw a putrid, brown hand, made of thousands of individual hands all clasping one another, wrapped around his own body.

The hand reeked of death and decay. It reeked of sewage and bad eggs. It was every nauseating smell in existence, and it was somehow simultaneously worse as well.