The Innkeeper

Just as the feeling of returning to the Midnight Inn was great, returning to the Origin realm was filled with nostalgia. Or maybe the nostalgia was just because he had returned to Earth. In just a few short years, the place was no longer like Lex remembered.

Not only was the war between A.I. and the Deities still ongoing, a race of space bugs had invaded the planet as well. They had been dormant deep within the Spirit barren dead zone, unable to support their own growth. With the return of Spirit energy, they had woken up, deprived of energy, and had swarmed the surrounding Star systems, searching for prey.

By eating things filled with Spiritual energy, they could recover. Humans, A.I. and Deities all fell into that category.

When he heard of the bugs, Lex wasn't too worried. They were severely weakened due to their dormancy, and most of them were not even at the Nascent Soul realm. If this had been the Earth of old, it would not have survived such an invasion. Now, though, they were just one more enemy.

Lex immediately realized the issue with that, though. How could Golden Core insects and those with cultivation levels below travel through the stars? It was impossible. Someone or something must be assisting them in their transport, but Lex couldn't find any sign of it.

Ignoring that, Lex spread his entire spirit sense around the planet, searching for any anomalies.

Realistically speaking, Lex was certain that he wouldn't find anything because otherwise Bastet would have already found it - or any of the Deities who had been trying to occupy the planet.

Countless forces on the planet were suddenly alarmed when an enormously powerful spirit sense appeared out of nowhere, and covered the entire planet! No barrier, no restriction could prevent it from searching for what it wanted.

Lex had a decent relationship with the Deities since he had worked with Adamas before when facing Sanguis Pluvia. That only meant that Lex would not attack them, not that he would tiptoe around them.

Previously, when he was weak, Lex had to be extra careful lest he attract unnecessary trouble. Now, though, he was not so afraid. To a degree, even the ordinary Celestials couldn't frighten him. He only needed to watch out for Demi-Dao Lords and above, but with the advanced Butter Knife in his arsenal, he did not need to be so careful of them anymore either.

Just as he expected, Lex found no signs of any secret heritage, or hidden treasure. He did find indications that once there was an entire society of cultivators living on Earth, or maybe the remains of their society had somehow been teleported here. The aforementioned remains were all basically ruins hidden within the oceans, but none of them attracted any of Lex's attention.

Lex searched casually, taking his time. He could see that all the forces on the planet had locked onto his location and were beginning to investigate, but he did nothing to hide his location or his actions. It wasn't like he was here to pick a fight - he'd just move on once he sated his curiosity.

At the same time, he realized one flaw in his Butter Knife. The knife was only active inside the territory of the Inn, so unless he dragged a tavern with him everywhere he went, he'd have to be careful.

From where he stood, his spirit sense covered the entire planet, so he saw his old apartment. Or, to be specific, the place where his apartment used to be.

New York had been entirely destroyed in the wars, and was now rebuilt as one of the A.I. hubs. It was sad to see all the places he used to visit go, but also, he left that apartment because some people showed up to the place and ransacked it, so… good riddance.

The planet had endured much in the recent wars, but there were also signs that it was being taken care of, so that was nice. The remaining humans were all followers of the Deities who had now taken control of half the planet, and funnily enough, the five families which used to rule the planet on behalf of the Williams family now did so on behalf of some Deities. In that sense, not much had changed.

While Lex was searching the planet, and strolling down memory lane, a number of armed guards appeared at a distance around him. The territory he was in was controlled by the Deities, so the A.I. only scanned him from afar, trying to determine if he was an ally of the Deities.

"Sir, you are in the territory of the Deity Adamas, Lord of Diamonds. Please withdraw your aura and reveal your identity," said one of the guards, walking up to Lex. His tone was supposed to be demanding, but Lex could see that the guy was frightened. He couldn't be blamed. For a planet that rarely saw Earth Immortals even now, a Heaven Immortal was a concept far beyond their cognition.

"No need to worry, man," Lex said, casually waving his hand. "My name is Lex, I'm on decent terms with Lord Adamas. I was just visiting because this place used to be my home. I'll be on my way."

Without waiting for the guards to understand, or really, without waiting for them to think of how to respond to him, Lex summoned his Karmic Bead.

Just to be sure, he used it to see if he could find any hidden secrets related to him on Earth, but he found nothing. So, instead, he used the bead to lock in on the karmic ties between him and Moon, and her and her clones.

Teleporting between galaxies was still not an easy thing, especially without the coordinates of where he was going. Fortunately, he had moved past old school concepts such as teleportation.

Now he traveled along karmic lines, disappearing from where he stood, and zooming through space, heading directly towards his destination. Although it lacked the instantaneousness of teleportation, it was a lot more precise, and hardly any strain on his energy reserves.

At the same time, he sent a message to Powell. He needed to go shopping, so the Infinity Emporium was naturally on his list of places to visit.