The Innkeeper

"This is heart's blood. To be more specific, this is some blood that should have been refined using a single drop of blood from my heart, while the rest is ordinary blood from my body. This kind of blood is used to nurture the body of a newborn dragon, and help it quickly overcome its initial period of weakness. It's strange - even though I recognize this pool, I have no memories of it at all, or why I would have had one in my previous life. It's almost as if I myself removed the associated memories."

"What about the scale?" Lex asked, his voice extremely level. He wanted to understand why Mary was so interested in it. Although he believed her when she said that it was for building herself a new body, he also wanted to better understand what was so special about this scale. After all, she said that the body she arranged for herself would be different from the one the system arranged for her, but could not elaborate on why.

"Every time a dragon breaks through a major realm, all their scales molt, before they regrow new scales. This particular scale is the so-called 'reverse scale' that covers the heart of a dragon. It is the strongest, most durable scale on a dragon's body and can be used for a multitude of things. It is also the best food for a young dragon to eat, as it strengthens its body and purifies its bloodline further."

Lex thought about it for a moment, but did not discover anything too special or unexpected about the scale. It made sense that the hardest scale on a dragon would be excellent material for crafting.

Lex had many more questions for Pel, but he only had two questions that were most urgent. The remaining questions could wait. As he continued to take out his loot, such as the entire small library that the dragon maintained, or his kitchen and its materials, Lex asked Pel a rather important question.

"Pel, how urgently do you need materials to strengthen your body? Is it on the verge of breaking? Can it survive taking a hit?"

He had quite a few materials on hand which could be used to help the ring, and if even something as low leveled as his own skin could help the ring, then he did not doubt that these other materials could help as well. But, if possible, Lex wanted to keep Pel in a wounded state as long as possible. He did not want to risk Pel gaining higher intelligence as his body recovered, as he was still too useful to Lex.

"Now that you have bonded the ring, the pressure on me has reduced drastically, so I can survive much longer. But my body is still extremely weak. If I sustain any immortal level attacks it will rapidly destabilize my body further, and may cause it to break entirely."

"Try and see if any of these will help you restore your body," Lex said and brought out a number of different ores he collected from Pel's own previous collection.

The ring softly vibrated and absorbed each of the ores without any problem, but the small crack on the ring was not reduced.

"They're useful a little bit, but I'll need a lot of them if I want to heal completely. If you have higher quality materials, or materials related to wood then the healing process will be quicker."

"Pel, can you hide your aura completely? I don't want to risk people discovering you inside the ring."

"Until the crack is fixed, it's impossible to completely hide my aura, as some of it will continuously leak. But I can easily disguise myself as an ordinary spirit treasure. No one will suspect anything else, hehehe."

Pel laughed mischievously, as if he were a little kid who thought of something naughty. Lex smiled a little, but did not dwell on it for long. There were both risks and benefits to keeping the ring damaged.

But the crux of the matter was that he himself was weak. If he grew his cultivation level, then he would not fear the ring healing completely. Yet at the same time he understood that it was not so easy to continue to break through.

Lex did not doubt for even a moment his ability to enter the higher levels, but just realized that his progress so far had been stupendously quick and could not expect such a speed to continue. He would have to take things one step at a time.

That same thought also caused him to have a few new ideas on how to run the Inn in the future, but that would happen after he established his own realm. For now, things would continue as normal. Besides, in a couple more months the Inn would stop accepting new guests anyway, so he did not have to be worried about it.

Finally, he moved onto his last question with Pel - one that was incredibly important.

"Hey Pel, do you happen to remember how you died in your last life?"

Considering the treasure spirits' chippy attitude, Lex almost expected an equally chippy and quick response, but for once he was answered with silence.

In a special room designed to contain spirit energy Lex had been removing all the items, including the chandelier, that gave off the heated spiritual energy when he paused and looked at the ring.

"Pel?" he asked, once again.

"I don't remember," Pel finally answered, his voice incredibly low, almost like a whisper. "The only thing I recall is fear - a lot of fear. There was also pain. More pain than I ever felt before. Then nothing. Even now, I feel a little scared to think back on it, as if even thinking about it will put me in danger."

"Alright, forget I ever asked. Don't think about it," said Lex abruptly. He was no longer a novice in the cultivation world, and knew that some mysteries were better left untouched.