1578  Meanwhile II

No words were exchanged between the two, and yet they came to a certain conclusion. The lich guard was much stronger, but in Anita's opinion, it was an inferior grade of lich. Such a conclusion naturally enraged the lich, and he nearly attacked her right then and there, but a prompt from his system brought him back to reality.

Oh, also his senses telling him that should he try anything funny at the moment, he would instantly be converted into fertilizer.

"If you want to learn to be better, don't act like a toddler. Locking yourself in your room won't help you make any friends either," Anita scolded.

"Weak thing, are you really in any position to tell me what to do? You are a speck of dirt in front of me."

"Yes, an attitude like that won't help you make friends either. Come back to me when you're ready to talk like a grownup."

Anita simply turned around and walked away without a care. The Cthuhlu baby, who could now control its size and had shrunk adequately so that it could be carried by Anita, simply stared at the lich.

Eventually, it did the Cthulhu equivalent of sticking out its tongue, which was to wave its many tentacles at the lich.

The Celestial lich was provoked once more, but it could feel itself being observed by some powerful entity, and subject to some great causality. It dared not cause a problem. The security of the Inn was great, even without his addition, he knew that much.

In the end, he could do nothing but watch the woman leave.

Elsewhere inside the Inn, something was happening that Lex had not expected for another few thousand years at the very least! Liz's fusion with Nemo was coming to an end.

Liz's eyes flickered, and she woke up to find herself in an unfamiliar environment. But her mind was not slow to recall what had happened, and she quickly checked on her condition.

"Good morning, sunshine!" said Nemo as it swam on her skin in the form of a small goldfish tattoo. "Are you ready for an adventure?"

"What's going on? I feel… I feel like our fusion went a lot faster than it should have…" Liz said feeling bewildered. She was struggling to come to terms with the incredible power she was feeling within her body. She felt like she could arm wrestle a dragon!

What's more, her cultivation had dropped, and she was back to being in the Qi training realm, but she didn't mind at all! She could tell that she needed to cultivate in a unique way now. More importantly, she had unlocked her fusion form! She could now fuse with Nemo to demonstrate an immense amount of power that she couldn't even fathom!

"Well yes, that's right. And I was enjoying the little nap that the fusion caused, but there's a lot of fun little fellows at the Inn right now, and I feel like we could have a lot of fun with them, so I finished up the fusion quicker. Now we can go on an adventure."

"But… but that's now how it's supposed to work…" muttered a bewildered Liz. It couldn't be helped. She would soon learn that how 'it' was supposed to work was exactly according to the whims of a Sovereign.

While these, relatively small scale events were occurring, it just so happened that another, major event was happening at the same time that would rock the entire universe. It was just that the people involved hadn't realized it yet.

Within the Artica realm, the Artica race Dao Lords were overseeing the ongoing New Age Expo. Despite their firm control over their realm, they encountered countless issues as a result of the many guests that they welcomed, ranging from personal issues of important delegates to political issues that threatened to turn into potential rivalries.

While the Artica race were steadfast in their beliefs of right and wrong, they were not foolish enough to needlessly provoke the whole universe. They understood that practicing morality came from a position of strength - or at least, that's how they did it.

They also had to deal with the fact that after their realm matured, it underwent many unexpected changes.

They were all too familiar with their realm, and yet so much had changed. It was not just the level specifically for Dao Lords that was the issue. So many new materials, new environments, new rules appeared once the realm matured. That was because the birth of certain materials required a stability in the form of energy, environment and rules that only mature realms could provide.

It was as a result of this rule itself that many were looking forward to the next coming Era.

"I'll work on it, but the Library does as it wishes. Instead of responding to our invitation, I heard it catalogued the invite inside a history book."

08:39

"I've just got word. We have received a Letter of Intent from the Seven Deadly Brothers. They wish to enter the realm, and the Realm Lord has accepted. Many of the forces feel uneasy about our decision," said one of the Artica Dao Lords.

"It is good to make alliances with powerful individuals. They're more easy to predict and understand than powerful organizations. There's too much internal politics with organizations."

"Even so, go ahead and prepare a space for them lest there be any issues. I expect they will be bringing an extensive entourage as well, so try to ensure that the entourage ends up together, whichever level of the realm they end up in."

"Got it. I'm getting another report about a new ore that was discovered. It's similar to a spirit stone, but it's exuding divine energy instead of spirit energy. A number of Dao Lords have reported that they sense its existence is ominous, but they can't tell why."

"Well hurry up and have the Library of Heaven enter the Artica realm. If we can access their repository of information, we won't need to rely on these organizations for all our data. They keep too much information hidden."

"I'll work on it, but the Library does as it wishes. Instead of responding to our invitation, I heard it catalogued the invite inside a history book."

"Well, find some other way to look this up. We have more important things to worry about than some new ore."

They did not. They really, really did not have anything more important to worry about than that ore. They just didn't know that.