Chapter 2520: Unusual and unexpected

3000 Major realms. It sounded like it was so much, but it was actually not nearly enough when the population of so many more Major realms needed to be fit in. If only living space and basic necessities were concerned, then it was actually enough. Even for Immortals, it was enough. But it was not enough to accommodate all the Dao Lords.

Each and every one of them was used to lording over their own domain. Each and everyone was used to getting resources without any risk, expending only time. Now, that was no longer the case. If it weren’t for the fact that the Dream Queen had proven that her Dream Arena could easily allow Dao Lords to be killed, they may have tried to revolt.

For now, all they could do was to let their frustrations simmer and see how the situation evolved as the universe matured. Oddly enough, whether it was the Primals or the Sage Alliance, neither showed any discontent.

Rumors were beginning to spread that the Dream Queen was the one behind eliminating realms until only 3000 were left, but no one could prove it. Anger and frustrations grew, but no one had the gall to question her. More importantly, no one understood why she would do such a thing - or at least the common populace didn’t.

She had proven that she was not someone who acts upon whims or without reason, so many of them held onto hope that there was some hidden, unknown wisdom in her actions. That’s all they could really do.

There were some forces that remained independent of the three major alliances - forces who had the confidence to maintain their sovereignty in the face of such behemoths, but they were in the minority. Even among them, very few actually managed to maintain their actual independence.

The Folklore realm was one such realm where no outsiders could take hold or exert any influence. The Henali were another race that managed to maintain their independence.

Oddly enough, the dragons did not show as much resistance to this whole thing, contradicting expectations.

To be more specific, they didn’t take a stance as a race at all, and instead the many dragon clans independently decided what they wanted to do, meaning that all three power blocks were filled with dragons.

One, unexpected force that managed to maintain their independence was a group of eleven Dao Lords who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. They arrived, attacked and took control of a Major realm that happened to be weakly defended, and then disappeared.

To be specific, it was not the Dao Lords that disappeared - the whole damn realm itself vanished from within the Void!

Hiran frowned as he read that part of his report.

He had a feeling that the Innkeeper may have had something to do with this. Although he didn’t know what happened specifically, Hiran felt a strange change in his fortunes a few months back, and he had traced it back to the letter he wrote to the Innkeeper. Now, this disappearance of this realm resonated with his changed fortunes.

Hiran rubbed his forehead and pondered over what to do. At least one thing was no longer a mystery: Lex clearly got his penchant for kidnapping from the Innkeeper - if he really was the one behind the disappearance of this realm.

Speaking of the Innkeeper... Hiran rifled through the various reports he’d recently gotten to one concerning the Midnight Inn. This report was submitted to him by his personal assistant, and was, in truth, a combination of two different reports. The first was a basic reconnaissance report.

They didn’t specifically monitor the Inns activities - it was just basic protocol to remain updated with the actions and intentions of all major powers in the universe. Considering the Inn openly allowed them to send people in as guests, the reports on it were a little more detailed than the usual ones.

There was nothing suspicious going on, but there was an indication that the Inn was mobilising various intelligence networks for unknown purposes. That part did not raise any real concerns. It was the second part that was worth his personal assistant taking note and bringing the report to him.

Since the Nexus Event ended, divination and foretelling the future once again became a whole lot more reliable - at least regarding certain subjects. Thus, there were no number of reports indicating that the Midnight realm would undergo an unusual and unexpected change in the foreseeable future.

Such terms were not used lightly by a race such as Henali that had such a long history. Thus, for something to be both ’unusual’ and ’unexpected’ considering the historical records of their race meant that it was likely something that even they had never encountered before, or could not understand.

Hiran’s brow scrunched up as he picked up the report and tossed it through space at his assistant with a disgruntled snort.

"Why the hell are you wasting resources observing the Midnight Inn? Do you really have nothing else to do? We’re at the most critical period in our plan involving the Origin realm - have all those oracles look out for actual problems rather than wasting their energies where it’s not needed.

"That’s the Midnight Inn, understand? The home of the Innkeeper. If there’s not something strange and unexpected happening there, then where would it be happening? Don’t waste time and resources on such useless reports again!"

Hiran was truly perturbed by the gall of some people. What would they expect to see when spying upon the potential fiance of the Dream Queen? They would only see whatever the Innkeeper wanted them to see.

Hiran shook his head and began looking through the other reports once more - specifically the ones concerning the HOA. Their enmity with Sekhmet was well established, and they couldn’t afford to allow her to interfere once more. Yet they also didn’t dare risk picking a fight during the transition period.

Thus, the most they could do was keep a close eye on them for now.

In fact, almost everyone had uniformly formed a consensus not to pick fights during this period because the returns weren’t worth the risk, but there would always be crazy or suicidal people who would take advantage of any situation. In his opinion, right now, the HOA and all other Deity affiliated powers were most likely to fall into that category because of how hard it was to kill them.

Logically speaking, they had a lot to gain as well by waiting, so they shouldn’t be picking fights. But one couldn’t expect to use logic against zealots and fanatics.

Hiran picked up another report and began going through it. Right now, he had the entire Origin realm under his thumb, but he needed to keep a look out for trouble in the rest of the universe to anticipate any problems.

Unlike realms like the Midnight realm, the location of the Origin realm in the Void was already well known. If someone wanted to cause trouble, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Thus he continued to maintain the highest levels of vigilance against all possible sources of trouble.

One of the most concerning things was the continuous rise of undead across the universe. No one could explain the origin of this change, which is why no one could stop it either. For now, it was a very manageable situation, but if the number continued to rise, or if they became more and more powerful, then they may need to take stronger measures.

Such troubles were far away from the Midnight Inn, where the sudden appearance of undead anomalies had provided Lex the opportunity to host a hunting event with leaderboards, prizes, leader interviews and basic undead hunting merch.

Just because he was meant to be studying, learning and growing did not mean he couldn’t pay attention to the Inn at all. Besides, the undead being born within the Inn were mostly at the mortal levels for now, which made them very manageable. They couldn’t even secretly sneak a higher level one into the Inn because Lex was always aware of what was happening inside.

Thus, two months went by in a festive and energetic mood inside the Inn until, at last, Lex heard the one thing he had been waiting so long to hear.

"It’s done," whispered an exhausted but exhilarated Lotus. "I’ve finally started to cultivate Regal Embrace. It’s allowed me to fuse with the entire realm!"

Lex’s smile widened as he quickly opened up the system interface and went to the Realm Management Panel, and saw a new upgrade that had appeared on its own, already applied to the realm.

Lotus Realm

The realm will slowly grow into the shape of a 24 petal lotus with three layers, each with eight petals. For each petal formed, the energy absorption and conversion of the realm will improve drastically. For each layer formed, the realm will attain one, unique characteristic. For each layer formed, the stability and strength of the realm will grow drastically. The external appearance of the realm will not affect the internal appearance of the realm. When all three layers are formed it is theorised that the realm will undergo a massive change.