The Innkeeper

Lex quickly realigned his mentality with his normal thoughts and vanquished any lingering impulses to manipulate everyone into self destruction. As a mortal, his random yet dangerous impulsive thoughts were along the lines of leaping off when at high place, putting his hand into a beautiful fire, or maybe walking into ongoing traffic. These were, of course, things he did not actually want to do, but random thoughts that would pop into his mind from time to time.

But now, as a cultivator, his random yet dangerous impulsive thoughts involved toppling organizations and manipulating the masses. Of course, there was still the odd impulse to walk into ongoing traffic, but even that was now more dangerous to those in cars than himself. Truly having power changes a man.

With his thoughts returning to normalcy, Lex went out for a stroll after the meal to familiarize himself with the fort. The entire fort covered around 40 acres, so it was quite large, but Lex soon found that the places he could go were very limited.

There was the tent housing for the refugees, a small town which housed the locals who lived inside the fort permanently. Basically, it was where the workers and soldiers normally stationed inside the fort lived. That is also where Lex was staying, since it also had the local tavern, grocery stores, various trade workers and all in all anything involving one's general needs.

Besides that there were some free areas where one could explore or walk, but everywhere else was restricted, allowing only authorized personnel. Besides the normal amount of curiosity, Lex did not pay much attention to those places as if they weren't of any consequence to him.

Eventually Lex made his way to the local apothecary and bought some pills to help him 'stabilize' his new realm, and made some friendly conversation with the guy as well. His shop was the busiest, which was predictable given it was a time of war. But he did not spend too much time there, and eventually returned to his room and began to cultivate.

He spent the next few days maintaining an ordinary routine, while slowly building a relationship with the locals and gathering information covertly to the best of his abilities.

One night, while Lex was cultivating, he suddenly opened his eyes as a gleam flashed through them. Whoever was 'spying' or monitoring him had left, and he had passed the initial stage where everyone suspected him.

Now, he could truly begin his investigation. But he didn't act immediately, and continued to cultivate. In the morning, the first thing he did was reflect on all the information he had gathered. The target Alexander wanted him to investigate was called Fernando, and while he was not the highest authority in the fort, he was up there. As such, learning his whereabouts from the common folk was nigh impossible.

But even if he did, Lex did not plan on sneaking to him and following him around anyway. Lex did not have the stealth capabilities for that, nor would that be helpful. Lex's greatest tool at his disposal were his abnormally sharp senses.

From the comfort of his room, he focused on the thought of discovering the abnormalities in the fort, and then allowed his instincts to take over. To his great surprise, he immediately discovered not one or two, but three extremely significant abnormalities. While two of them were inside the fort, deep within the restricted areas, one of them was at the fort wall.

Lex frowned. Unlike the forts of mortals, forts used by cultivators had hidden complexities that were the real reason forts could be used as strongholds. The walls would not only be much stronger than that of normal forts, but would also mark the edges of the protective formation in place, and protect its vulnerable parts.

As such, not only were walls kept well repaired, they were frequently monitored and checked in case an issue with the formation should appear. This was what he had recently learned. So how could an abnormality appear on the wall?

It was unlikely that this had anything to do with the motives of the terrorists, but it could still be a lead of some kind. Who knew if the terrorists weren't pretending to support Fernando, only to fatten him up and then reap the rewards when they were ready. The foundations of the rebels hold on this entire territory rest in the steadiness of the fort. If it was compromised, this would soon become another spot of heated conflict.

With many possibilities arising from this abnormality, Lex decided to scrutinize it first. It also helped that it was the easiest to access. If Fenrir would finish his task in the tower, then such investigations would be much easier. But since he was still busy, Lex had to make do.

He exited the tavern, extending casual greetings to some of the regulars he saw on the way. As if all was normal, he embarked on his daily stroll through the fort. More than once he had shared with his most recent acquaintances that walking around helps him clear his mind since he had spent so long in retreat. As such, many people had become accustomed to his roaming.

He followed the path he usually took on his strolls, which allowed him to cover all the areas which did not require special clearance, when he encountered something unexpected! Among the droves of people he crossed he suddenly passed someone who was awfully familiar to him, so that he was sure they had met, but he could not recognize her.

Ordinarily, this was a normal thing. In fact, Lex often forgot people after meeting them, leading to awkward encounters later. Yet with how his memory had improved after cultivating, this was no longer an issue.

He could always perfectly recognize people, yet this time he failed. If it weren't for his instincts confirming that he had just crossed someone familiar, he would think that he was imagining things.

Unwilling to draw attention to himself, he turned and glanced at the person who had crossed him. It was a lady, as far as he could tell, though he could see none of her features from the back as she was garbed in the conservative clothes that were the norm on Polebitvy. Beside her though were two kids that Lex recognized. He had seen them the first time he had arrived on Polebitvy, and they had been staying in the room adjacent to him.

He tried to imagine what kids who could live in the protected area of the Jotun would be doing in the rebel refugee fort. The instance was too mundane, and he did not find anything suspicious about it other than the fact that he did not recognize the woman.

Still, he took note of it and made a mental note to remember that they may be somehow involved in this messy situation. But since he felt no threat from them, and his instincts noted nothing else of interest other than their familiarity, he decided to stick to his plan.

But the portion of the wall he needed to investigate was a part of the restricted areas, so to access it he had to do so from the outside. He exited the fort and seemed to head in some far off direction. Once he was out of sight, he immediately picked up speed and began running in a different direction. After spending twenty minutes running to and fro, Lex felt confident that he was no longer being supervised or followed. Although he did not sense any followers even beforehand, he had enough spy books to know one was always supposed to ensure they were not being followed.

Then, finally, he stealthily made his way back to the fort. Although Lex was not adept in stealth, he still tried his best as he approached the wall. Since the hill was bare there was no way he could merely walk up without being noticed, so he cast an illusion technique around himself to make him blend in with the scenery.

Such a technique would not survive close scrutiny, but fortunately Lex did not plan on coming too close to the wall. Once he was half way up the wall, he used the In-Law effect to directly teleport to the place he felt an anomaly.

Aware of his own shortcomings in this field, he did not try to devise an unnecessarily complex plan. Instead, he relied completely on his instincts to guide him, and let him know where and when to teleport.

Although he felt relying solely on his instincts was not the best practice, sometimes he would have to make do.

When he reappeared, he was inside a dark and narrow tunnel directly below the wall. Unlike what one would expect, this was not a service tunnel used to maintain the formations. Instead, it was a tunnel dug right through the dirt and stone below the wall, and it was filled with unmarked wooden barrels.

Sensing extreme danger, Lex froze.