The Innkeeper

The following week was both extremely long and unbelievably short for Lex. The system took care of so many aspects of each event for Lex that he really had no trouble hosting an event, yet at the same time that ease is what got in the way of making an event perfect. Since Lex, as well as all the workers, were so used to the system doing all the work, they never really put any thought into putting in that extra bit of effort to push them from great to mind blowing.

This time though, Lex wanted to focus on not only all the small details to make it perfect, he had to make sure there were no issues either. Moreover, while a grand spectacle was good to amuse large crowds, he wanted his guests to experience being personally involved as well.

The first thing that was required was the Planning division's research on events in the Origin realm. As it turned out, due to the nature of cultivation, and the longevity that it brings, all events were usually paced out and happened over long periods of time. Moreover, there was a clear period of momentum that the festival would build up during that long time, culminating in the perfect finale.

In an ideal scenario, that grand finale should have been the peak of the festival but for various reasons Lex could not afford to do that. Still, all was not at a loss for Lex still found a way to spin things.

The idea of an event, or a festival focused around cultivation was not new, and while all the events in them had to do with distributing cultivation resources and breakthrough opportunities, in contrast to Lex's event that was full of carnival style activities, they also had a clear pattern Lex could follow.

The higher the cultivation, the longer period each person would spend in retreat after each breakthrough. In that case, a 3 month event was ideal. In fact, it could even be longer depending on cultivation levels. There were precedents for events that lasted years and even decades!

Of course, they also had a long waiting time so that everyone could adequately prepare for them.

So, with that in mind, Lex started designing various abodes for the perfect cultivation retreats. Normally, a meditation room would suffice, but when spending weeks or even months in retreat, it was common to have a larger area, even a mansion that afforded both an ideal cultivation environment as well as a peaceful and calm ambiance to soothe the mind.

The Planning division brought Lex hundreds of examples, and he began working on them immediately.

One of the more popular options was a cultivation cave, for whatever reason. Built into the side of a mountain, it gave the illusion of a sturdy and secure base where one can retreat without worry. While the interior was well designed for functionality and comfort, from the outside its entrance would be completely hidden.

Not only did Lex design them, he designed multiple iterations of them so that guests could choose whatever layout they preferred.

Next were mansions with thick boundary walls and multiple gardens and courtyards inside, filled with fruit trees and beautiful flowers.

Penthouses were also pretty popular. Lex did not want to build multiple highrises just to build penthouses, so he directly created penthouses in the sky at various levels. Not only were they filled with high tech equipment and luxuries, they could be turned invisible from the outside.

There were dozens more abode styles such as on the ground, underneath the ground, in the water, camouflaged, moving etc. that Lex designed. They also provided Lex with a newer understanding of common cultivators, which was that they were an insecure bunch. He couldn't blame them, he himself was always worried about being attacked as well. Maybe they were not so different.

While doing this, Lex also increased the size of the Inn by a massive 100,000 acres for 1 billion MP! While the newly added land was mostly empty, it was not going to be that way for long!

Lex added rolling hills, plains, plateaus, lakes and more. The massive size of land seemed pretty small when he started adding such massive physical features, but he had to do the bare minimum. That was because, soon, the new Minor realms would finish attaching to the Midnight Inn.

Lex had already checked what the result of that would be. Their physical land would not get added to the Inn, nor would they become domains of the Inn. Instead, an opening to each Minor realm would randomly become available throughout the Inn.

Lex did not know the exact number of Minor realms, but he suspected they should be less than 100,000, right? That way, there would be one opening every few acres, which would be enough for a secret hunt.

While Lex would not be able to control the Minor realms, he would have perfect control over their entrances. Therefore, his plan was to keep them shut and slowly start opening them when he started an event where guests would be allowed to explore the Minor realms, at their own risk of course. But first, they would have to look for the entrances, which Lex planned on hiding!

While he was at it, Lex hid numerous treasures and small rewards all across the Inn's terrain. The last time he did this, Lex could hide naught but bottles of Botlam dew and a few other rewards. Now, however, Lex hid anything and everything available. From weapons to foods to MP packets to special tokens that awarded free stays at the various rooms the Inn had available to more, Lex turned the Inn into a massive treasure horde!

Of course, these treasures he hid a little more carefully. He wouldn't tell anyone about them either. Luck would play a role in deciding who got what.

While doing all of this, Lex had to combat his own progressing cultivation, and it was definitely a battle. It was in those moments where he learned the meaning of desperation.

It reminded him of an old memory, where he needed to use the restroom really badly, but there was none available for another 10 minutes. Each and every second back then had lasted an eternity, so much so that Lex was still traumatized by the event. Now, he was going through another version of that.