The Innkeeper - Chapter 2231: A cradle

Chapter 2231: A cradle

“I told you, Clifford, that if we try hard enough, we can summon room service,” said Belfry as he opened a single eye and looked at the walking meat mountain that was Marlo.

Clifford, on the other hand, looked at Marlo with a look of deep scepticism.

“He looks more like we are his room service rather than the other way around. I dare say, getting stuck upon this jewel without sufficient food was at least the thirtieth worst idea I’ve ever had,” Clifford said in a lamenting tone.

Marlo looked at the two oddly shaped cats with the same amount of confusion that they were showing him. When he got the Mark of the Prime, it had boasted itself as an all powerful tool to connect challengers across race and realm, unstoppable and unblockable.

To receive the mark was to accept the fate of fighting until death – or so it presented itself. Yet he had not even faced his first challenge yet, and the Mark of Prime had already been cut off from the rest of the universe, acting as if it could not find any other mark bearers.

“Oh ye of little faith, watch this,” said Belfry with an air of lethargy. He could not really be blamed for being so low on energy – as mere mortal beings, the fact that they had survived this long with the little food supply they had was already an incredible feat. “My good man. Please provide my feline companion and I a double serving of Bohemian Cod – on the double.”

Marlo looked around, and upon finding literally no other living being within the range of his spirit sense, pulled out a couple of random fish from his spatial ring and threw them towards the two cats. They really did look a little anorexic, so he was not going to just ignore them.

Also, it did not take a genius to be able to tell that there was something incredibly suspicious going on here.

Hidden underneath Marlo’s muscular exterior was actually a meticulous intellectual, which is why over the past few years he had spent a lot of time teaching himself about all the common yet critical aspects and careers relating to cultivation. Although as an immortal, his level was far behind proper experts, Marlo knew enough about formations to recognise that the jewel upon which the Drama-cats were resting was a key part of an enormous formation.

While the cats ate and talked amongst themselves about excellent room service and leaving a tip, Marlo studied the jewel, and its connection to the formation.

After a preliminary study, Marlo reached two conclusions. First, by merely touching the gem, the two Drama-cats were somehow interfering with the function of the jewel itself. He did not think that if he, or anyone else, touched the jewel the same thing would happen, so this must be a consequence of something special about these two cats, or their race in general.

The second thing he concluded was that the level of the jewel was far beyond his comprehension. The lowest level he thought it might be was the very peak of the Celestial rank. How, he was too distant from that realm to be able to say for certain, but internally he suspected that the jewel might actually be at the Dao level. However, if that were the case, shouldn’t all of them already be dead? Could it be the cats shielding him from harm or did this particular jewel not have any harmful properties?

The question then was… what should he do now? His gaze focused on the two cats.

Ordinarily, Marlo would prefer to conduct a number of tests before deciding on doing something drastic. However, given his circumstances, he concluded that even his tests might cause an adverse reaction, killing him. Thus, he needed to come up with a single solution and just go for it.

Many others might call this kind of mentality risky or extreme, but the way Marlo saw it, he was too weak to be meddling in things of this level. The more things he did, the greater risk he’d face. Better to just act according to the best possible scenario he could think of.

“Say, you two look like you haven’t received any scratches in a long time. Let me fix that,” said Marlo as he reached towards Clifford and Belfry. He was not going to risk touching the jewel himself, so the best solution was to use the two cats as handles.

The jewel was connected to a small pillar underneath. If he could disrupt their connection somehow…

He grabbed the two cats and then, with one mighty heave, lifted them up, picking up the jewel as he did so. His Prime bloodline immediately reacted, acknowledging that he had done something impossible, and began to draw energy from his surroundings to strengthen itself.

Meanwhile, the jewel remained stuck to the two cats, but it lifted off its pedestal, causing a break in the formation. In truth, the formation shouldn’t have been so fragile that it was disrupted so easily. But the formation happened to be over an entire Age old, so it had endured a lot of wear and tear.

The entire Dream realm shuddered. Clifford and Belfry, who were moments ago complaining about the poor quality of back scratches Marlo was giving – really, the worst attempt possibly in the history of backscratches – suddenly paused as they looked deeper into the realm.

“I say, old chap, is it just me or does it, mayhaps, feel like an unspeakable secret, buried since the time of Mondays, has been revealed to the universe?” Clifford asked.

Belfry nodded, and said, “Old boy, I dare say something big is about to happen. This reminds me of the time Lord Bob invented Taco Tuesdays.”

They were not wrong. A secret that had been hidden for over an Age was suddenly laid bare to the whole universe. Many who probed the changes in the Dream realm learned an unbelievable truth! The Dream realm had not been sealed so long ago because it was an inconvenience to the Dao Lords of the universe. Nay, there was a greater purpose hidden beneath the act of charity!

The sealed realm was meant to act as a cradle!

Someone had concealed mysterious treasure within the realm, and had then orchestrated the sealing of the realm so that the treasure would have enough time to mature. None could tell what the treasure was, what its function was, or who put it there.

Yet the moment the jewel was lifted off its pedestal, the aura of the treasure erupted, first spreading across the realm, and then outwards. Many Dao Lords wondered what exactly this treasure could be, for the magnitude of its aura alone surpassed any other treasure. Perhaps the Sages had some hidden treasures that could rival it, but nothing existed publicly that could match this aura.

But then, a name came to mind. The Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum. Could this treasure actually rival the function of the Spectrum, or perhaps even surpass it? That was not a question anyone could answer – not yet.

Almost immediately, thousands of Dao Lords dropped whatever responsibilities they had and rushed towards the Dream realm. Meanwhile, the Sage races stirred, leaving the realms, and many reclusive races also took this as an opportunity to return to the universe.