The Innkeeper

Chapter 1771: A paper tiger

Mary laughed at Lex’s statement.

“I wish,” she said, not holding back the yearning in her voice. “No, the system is focused on healing itself. Healing me is just an incidental side effect of healing itself. But it is true that my soul will be in much better condition by then. So much so that I can begin considering… detaching myself from the system, and moving my soul into an independent vessel… a new body.”

At that point she paused, and waited for Lex to respond. She had long mentioned that she wanted to create a solid body of her own, and her original plans had genuinely been to remain linked to the system even after she got a body. But once she started to feel her soul recover, and she began to test the limits of her power, it became apparent to her that it was entirely possible for her to detach from the system long, long before her original plan, which required Lex himself to become a Dao Lord first.

Lex did not act surprised, because he genuinely wasn’t. He tried not to spy on Mary purposefully, to give her some privacy, but a lot of the time it was much harder than it seemed.

Despite the immense size of the Inn, the fact remained that Mary’s soul was inside the system, which was safely nestled inside his own soul. As such, it was hard for him to not be aware of any fluctuations in her soul – especially since he became an immortal.

While the system itself hardly ever had any fluctuations in its soul, Mary had them on and off. Now, a fluctuation in the soul was not necessarily a result of any emotional or even physical stimuli, but every time Lex sensed it, he would learn the reason behind it whether he wanted to or not.

To explain the inadvertentness of it all, a comparison could be made between what Lex sensed, and a mortal looking at a giant billboard with a picture of a mango on it. Once the mortal saw it, whether he wanted to learn what was on the billboard or not, they would learn there was a mango there.

Now imagine the mango was right outside the mortal’s apartment window, so from time to time, whether he wanted to or not, his sight would fall on the billboard, and he’d learn what was on it.

So, Lex could often sense her inner conflict and her hesitation. Honestly, the only times she had such fluctuations was when she started feeling like that – as far as Lex could tell. To be honest, Lex didn’t blame her for feeling conflicted. What kind of a life would it be to be controlled by a system? Not a fun one, he imagined.

Lex also reflected on the fact that, despite trying to avoid all things related to the Dao as much as possible, he had been sneaking looks upon a Dao Lord’s soul. Now that he thought about it, it was both an incredible, and incredibly scary thing to do. It was likely that if the system hadn’t been protecting him from the consequences, such exposure would have already killed him.

All that said, Lex really needed to think about the consequences of Mary leaving the system, free from its constraints. After all, she was the one person who he had no

secrets from – at least when it came to the system. His morals and conscience said that it would be wrong to keep her trapped within the system. His mind, however, said that to free her was to endanger himself, and not by a small degree.

Naturally, this was not something he had to decide immediately.

“Oh wow. So does that mean that as soon as you get your own body, you’ll become a Dao Lord again?” Lex asked.

“Not exactly,” said Mary, shaking her head. “I won’t explain in detail – there are some things you should not know just yet. But for all intents and purposes, I will be, as the expression goes, a paper tiger. Unless I can get my hands on some pretty powerful treasures, it will take me a long time to recover the power of a Dao Lord. In truth, it is entirely possible that I will never recover my power at all. That’s actually one of the reasons why I am putting so much effort into creating a body with an immense amount of potential, because if that happens, I will end up being just as powerful as my body.”

Lex raised an eyebrow. He didn’t think that Dao Lords were unable to recover from injuries, which likely meant that the reason Mary might not be able to recover was due to the nature of her injury.

“So basically, the only things keeping you from returning are your as of yet unformed new body, and the system not having returned to 100% functionality. Is that right?”

Mary shook her head. She was well aware that this was a sensitive topic, so she decided to address the main concerns directly, instead of tiptoeing around them.

She leaned back, a casual smirk on her face, and she placed her feet upon his table, crossing them.

“Far from it, in fact. If I want to detach from the system, I will need your help and cooperation. After all, the system at 100% functionality is not an easy thing to manipulate. Not only will it be expensive for you, but you’ll also have to learn about systems in the way that I learned about them. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions on me, I can’t teach you anything at all. We’ll also have to address your concerns about your own secrets. As much as I’d like to say that a simple visit to the Chamber of Secrets will fix things, who can say if it will work on me? Weakened though I may be at that time, I’d still have the soul of a Dao Lord, and that’s not an easy thing to restrict.”

“So what do you have in mind?” Lex asked. He still hadn’t raised any of his concerns or ideas. He wanted to listen to all she had to say before he chimed in.