The Innkeeper

Lex wore a strange expression on his face as he read the document in his hand. Then he looked all around himself, and then looked back at the document in his hand. What he was holding was a very barebones, generic contract that encompassed the basic expectations a cultivator may have towards their primary spouse.

"What is this?" Lex asked the teacher sitting at the head of the class, almost concerned that he had fallen into an illusion conjured by some strange piece on the Go board. It was truly too insidious.

"The first lesson," answered the teacher, a beast in the shape of a swallow. "We will study the Karma between a couple who sign the most basic of marriage contracts, whether it be an actual contract or a verbal one. Intention matters more than writing things down with Karma. Then, we will progressively study more complex contracts and agreements. The entire class will take 50 hours, since this is only a brief overview of what we normally teach students."

Lex looked back down at the contract. Then he looked back up. Was this really happening? He supposed it was.

Lex sighed, and then put down the contract before picking up another booklet which introduced the basic trends of cultivator relationships as witnessed and recorded in the Artica realm.

As far as private relationships went, there were no established rules and as long as one did not break the basic laws of the realm, there was no one to dictate how one must behave. Even then, certain patterns and trends appeared, and all of them had been summarised in this booklet.

The most basic, yet most common relationship was between one being with a high cultivation level and talent, and another with a lower cultivation as well as talent. Their relationship could be characterised to be the most similar to the so-called traditional marriages back on Earth, with a breadwinner and a homemaker.

Of course, instead of the roles being dictated by gender, they were dictated by cultivation level! The person with higher cultivation level was often more than open to supporting the other, whether it was in terms of protection or resources, while the other provided their loyalty and whatever else they could.

It was not exactly as transactional as Lex was making it sound. Various aspects dictated such relationships, with emotions just being one of them, but that was the gist of it.

But while this kind of relationship was most common, it was also extremely common in such situations for the cultivator with the higher level to have a primary spouse, followed by any number of secondary spouses as dictated by their power and their means.

Lex personally found polygamy to be messy and troublesome, but it could not be denied that it was very prevalent in many societies. Also, in relationships mostly based on power rather than emotion, the dynamic was vastly different, and polygamy a lot more acceptable.

Then, the most popular relationship type was that of the Daoist couple, though it had nothing to do with Dao Lords. Instead, they were two equally talented, or at the very least two highly talented cultivators who either develop a strong emotional bond, or strong cooperative relationship and vow to spend their lives together, both pursuing a higher realm.

Of course, the pursuit did not need to be limited to a higher realm - the exact nature of their ambitions was irrelevant to the study. What was important was that two highly capable cultivators swore themselves to each other.

Then, surprisingly, the most common relationships were based on vengeance. More specifically, joining together, pooling in their efforts, all for the goal of seeking vengeance. Over time, such relationships somehow ended up becoming marital in nature.

Examples of this included instances of seeking revenge on rival family groups and organizations, against powerful beasts and monsters, and anything else that may or may not cause widespread destruction.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated in the booklet, Lex deduced that whatever danger filled the Artica realm regularly left countless people as survivors of large massacres. These survivors would get together in the pursuit of revenge, since they all shared the same enemy, and overtime developed a dependence on each other.

This must happen quite frequently for it to be the third most common type of relationship in the realm! Your next read is at My Virtual Library Empire

There were over a dozen other kinds of relationships that were detailed in the booklet that Lex read through, before turning and reading the simple contract once again.

It had no extensive clauses, only asking for loyalty in terms of family and cultivation.

Once everyone in the class was ready, the teacher began to preach.

"The Karma between partners is formed not from the signing of any contract, though such an action in itself carries a specific kind of Karma. The intention, or even just the action of caring for one another and spending time together forms such Karma.

"That is exactly why certain slang words include the notion of spouses, such as a work husband or wife. It is not because they are actually spouses, but the actions of looking out for one another will form that specific kind of Karma. This is distinct from the Karma of brotherhood and camaraderie, which forms under a different yet sometimes similar set of circumstances.

"The exact nature of how the Karma is formed is up for debate, but what's important is the relevance of such Karma, and how it can be utilized. Beware, I will also mention how the presence of such Karma can be used for certain sacrificial techniques. Certain evil cultivators specially nurture such bonds to develop this Karma, just so that they can sacrifice it to strengthen certain techniques or items. The purpose of mentioning such things is to protect yourself if you ever fall in such a situation.

"Now wielding Karma…"

Despite how absurd the topic of the lesson was, Lex paid attention as he hoped to learn how to control Karma. Unfortunately, controlling Karma, and controlling the law of Karma were two distinct things, so his tenet would not be useful here.

Instead, Lex would need to learn and specialise in Karma and causality techniques. They were not rare, and existed even at the Foundation level. However, they all had varying levels of effectiveness, and to find a suitable technique for what Lex wanted to do would not be easy.

Maybe he could come up with the technique himself, but first he had to learn the basics.

Even Pel, the Heavenly Immortal dragon, knew a number of weak Karma techniques, but he did not specialise in them, hence his knowledge in the subject was shallow.

This was because using Karma was a field in which talent mattered a lot more than others. Even Immortals, with the advantage of an infinite life, would eventually hit a point of diminishing returns, making deep study into the field unworthy.

For now, Lex learned about controlling Karma through contracts, a powerful yet extremely limited technique. He doubted he could get that Nas to sign a contract with Lex, and it didn't really help with the Go board at all. But it was an important first step, and Lex could already see how this would be a very important field for him to master.

He could already imagine how useful this would be for him in numerous scenarios. After all, not all contracts had to be signed on a pen and paper. They could take many forms.

By the time the 50 hour class was over, Lex hadn't received a response from Misha, which was unexpected.

He decided to spend a few more days furthering his study in Karma, and if he didn't get a response he'd take the hint and move on.

Lex paused. He and Misha had a verbal agreement, which was not the strongest form of a contract, but it still was one. That meant that between them, there was the Karma of a contract.

Lex had no intention of doing anything to her with it, but he thought it would be interesting to study his own contractual Karma and deepen his insight into the field.

He rented another cultivation room and began practicing the basic version of the technique he'd bought for Immortals. While he understood it almost immediately, that was only at the basic level.

He'd need to study and contemplate it for a long time before he could truly master it to a satisfying degree, so he got to work.

The process was so interesting that Lex barely felt the days pass him by, the value of a few hours and days seemingly vanishing during a single study session.

It was only when the 7 day deadline he'd set to meet with Gerard and Velma came up that he reluctantly stopped.

Misha still hadn't responded yet, so he just shrugged and decided to forget about it. Just out of curiosity, though, he took a look at his own contract related Karma. Almost immediately, he wished he hadn't.