The Innkeeper

Chapter 2080: Dao Prison

Upon hearing that the first activity would be a news briefing, many of the Dao Lords felt that it was incredibly anticlimactic. But perhaps being able to access the garden’s hidden intelligence network might make it worth it. Only a few focused on the part about some breaking news. All of them knew about the war, and so they knew that in war anything could happen at any given moment.

They were used to important, urgent intelligence coming in all the time, but knew that whatever it would be wouldn’t affect the scale of the war any time soon. Unfortunately, they were all very, very wrong.

After glancing at everyone, making sure they were ready, Harriot continued.

"As of exactly eleven hours ago, over three hundred Dao Lords were ambushed while traveling in the Void, and were forcefully pushed into Arch-Heaven. Publicly, there are no updates available on the status of any of the Dao Lords, though it is confirmed that none of them have died.

"However, our private intel sources have revealed something more. The actual number of Dao Lords ambushed is near 1000, and it has been confirmed that a majority of the targets are those who, historically, have no record of having been inside Arch-Heaven, making their authority the absolute base amount possible."

Harriot paused to allow the Dao Lords to process the information, and indeed such a news was enough to shock them all tremendously. Most of the Dao Lords who entered the Primordial Garden were completely cut off from the rest of the universe due to the many barriers around the garden.

The only reason Lex was not cut off was because of his system, which allowed him to maintain a connection to the Midnight Realm. Since he could maintain that connection, he also managed to retain his connection to Jack. However, not everyone else had a system to help them out.

"Do you know where inside Arch-Heaven they were sent?" one of the Dao Lords asked.

Harriot, anticipating just such a question, pulled up an image which showed a massive dome made of a purple crystal, with sparkling lights all around it.

The Innkeeper showed no change in expression, but he immediately recognized them both! When he had recently visited Arch-Heaven, the island he first appeared on was floating atop a bed of exactly that purple crystal, floating right above those sparkly lights!

"Yes, through our reconnaissance, we were able to learn that under the authority of various Ministers in Arch-Heaven, and a Lord, the spawn point for all new entrants into Arch-Heaven was set inside this dome.

"In case you are unable to recognize the purple crystal, this is Bone Meadow Crystal - a Dao grade material that was formed at the birth of the universe. It is incredibly rare, incredibly hard and almost extinct as a resource in the entire universe. Or so it was believed up until this image was seen. An ordinary Dao Lord is unable to break this crystal, and even an extraordinary one cannot do so without explicit preparation.

"Outside the frame of Bone Meadow Crystal, you see Helios Wisps, an equally rare Dao material that has the incredible ability to completely suppress the nature of all other Dao materials, making them easy to transport, manage, manipulate and even absorb!

"We believe that this dome was artificially created as the perfect prison to trap Dao Lords. This place has effectively become the best prison for Dao Lords ever created in the history of the universe. Considering they are unable to leave Arch-Heaven on their own, they are basically all trapped in there until they are rescued."

The news that they were hearing was absolutely unprecedented in the history of the universe, leaving them all stunned and unable to react. Meanwhile, Lex was on the verge of tears. He couldn’t believe that he had gone out of his way to avoid the Helios wisps when he was in Arch-Heaven! Not to mention the Bone Meadow Crystal that even Dao Lords couldn’t break!

Dammit, he had been standing atop two incredibly rare Dao grade materials and he had no idea about it!

Also, the Dao Lord prison thing sounded like trouble. He needed to hide the mermaid, Lorelei, as quickly as possible because he could protect her from a few bounty hunters, but that would not be the base if every major organisation in the universe was looking for a way to get their Dao Lords out of Arch-Heaven.

That poor little mermaid was absolutely going to get into trouble if she stayed at his inn, and he’d get dragged in as well. After all, he could not go against the whole universe alone! Without any hesitation whatsoever, he sent a message to Luthor to get her out of the Inn and send her to the Temple of Fasting as soon as possible.

With that out of the way, he began to study the purple Dao prison with a bit more seriousness. Although this was a great way of getting rid of some Dao Lords, it was far from a permanent solution. It was only a matter of time before they were rescued. In that case, he suspected that whoever orchestrated this had more in mind than a simple prison.

"Well, at least they’re safe," said Bridget, sighing with relief. "Someone will be able to rescue them sooner or later."

Hariiot looked at Bridget and shook his head.

"It is highly unlikely. Not only is it nearly impossible to break into the dome and get others out, even if someone finds a way, will it be in time? Although we have not yet found any evidence to support this theory, we at the Garden Senate believe that it is only a matter of time before these Dao Lords are attacked somehow. Perhaps they will be in the heart of an Arch-Heaven collapse, or some other calamity strikes. Either way, I doubt someone who could plan and execute such a kidnapping has failed to plan further ahead."