The Innkeeper

One excruciating hour later, Lex was finally done.His digestion of the single sip of elixir was complete. Although he could immediately go and start digesting the second sip, he was mentally drained from his experience.

This was not a comment on his emotional trauma from the experience. The difficulty of keeping his cultivation technique running under such strenuous circumstances had actually drained him. It would take him some time to recover before was in any condition to undergo another round of cultivation.

But that did not mean he had any time to waste. There was no telling how long the elixir would last. According to the information given to him by Regal Embrace, the elixir would last, at most, for a week.

He had no time to waste. Instead of returning to the Crystal realm, Lex instead went to X-142. This set of planets had been very fruitful for Lex, not only because it was a great source of various guests, but because of the Infinity Emporium.

Although Lex had not purposefully sold a golden key to the emporium, considering the fact that a lot of people on the planet were becoming regulars of the Inn, he was surprised that the emporium had not discovered it yet. Or maybe it had, but was purposefully avoiding it.

Whatever the reason, so long as they continued to be useful to Lex, he would not pry too deeply into their matter either.

As usual, he saw many guests walking in and out of the emporium, but knew that when he entered, he would be alone in the shop.

He saw a vaguely familiar person exit the store, and then quickly scurry away. Lex paused for a moment as he tried to recall if he had actually ever met that person, or if he was an important guest. It took only a moment for Lex to recall a tavern he had stayed in on X-142 when he first arrived called Bent Benches. The tavern keeper had been some poor fellow with extremely severe anxiety issues.

Lex turned and saw that the man was still quite jittery, and was doing his best to stay away from people as he continued on his path. Lex shook his head. Anxiety was truly an unfortunate ailment to have.

Putting the matter behind him, he entered the shop to once again be greeted by the familiar Powell.

"My friend, it is always a good day when I see you," Powell exclaimed with genuine joy in his voice.

"Haha well then today is about to be a very good day for you," Lex said walked up to the counter. "I have a great deal for you today."

"Why the rush to talk of business? Why don't you relax a little, you look weary."

Not waiting for Lex to respond, Powell brought out a bottle from underneath the counter as well as a couple of glasses and poured Lex a drink. Considering the fact that Lex was a high level member of the emporium, not only did he have access to some of their best items and inventory, he could get amazing perks as well. This drink, it seemed, was one of them.

Lex did not reject, and took a sip from the hazel colored drink,only to feel reinvigorated immediately! All his exhaustion disappeared with a single sip! Unfortunately, Lex wasn't too happy about that. This only meant he would have to go back and cultivate.

"I wish I had the time to relax Powell, but I have a time sensitive matter that I need to handle."

"Tell me about it," Powell said, not prodding Lex to relax any further. Considering Lex's status, it was only normal for him to try and maintain a good relationship with him. But if the man was focused on work, who was he to keep diverging from the topic?

Lex smiled for a moment, as he anticipated Powell's reaction to the matter.

"Have you ever heard of Cosmic Erosion Elixir?" he asked, leaning forward.

For a moment Powell did not respond, as he tried to recall the name. The moment he did, his expression changed minutely but he tried not to show it.

"Yes I've heard of it. But if you're hoping to buy, unfortunately we do not have any way of getting our hands on it."

Although Powell was rejecting him, he was unable to hide the hint of expectation the man had on his face. Obviously he had a suspicion, but he did not allow himself to hope it was true.

"That's even better, because I want to sell some. The rarity of it should help me get a better price."

"Are you sure?" Powell asked, barely keeping himself from jumping up. "Are you sure it's the elixir?"

"Completely sure, though before I am able to sell it to you, I'll need something from you. I'll need a few containers in which I can store the elixir. Everything I have completely dissolves when I try to store the elixir in it."

"That's no problem at all!" Powell said, completely understanding. "In fact, as long as you really have the elixir, and sell it to the emporium, I'll give you a few containers for free. They're extremely valuable, and can be used to store even other precious liquids."

"That's great. But now, let's talk about something much more relevant: the price. What can the emporium pay for the elixir?"

Powell suddenly put on a serious expression and lifted a latch on his counter, inviting Lex in.

"Follow me, let's discuss this in a better setting. For something of this level, I'll need to contain our head office, so it'll take a few minutes to get the relevant data."

Lex followed Powell into a very luxurious room and took a seat on a sofa while Powell pulled out a tablet and began working furiously. He did not know how far the so-called 'headquarters' were, but the communication was quite quick if it only took a few minutes.