"First, I think you should stop trying to actively repair the system on your own," Mary said, unconcerned about the system’s feelings. "With the level of functionality that the system has reached, it should be able to fully repair itself in a few thousand years. That should be sufficient time for you to grow as well. You’ve been shooting through your cultivation levels like a rocket, but your encounter with Kreel should have shown you that cultivation realm is not everything. More importantly, you can keep any ultra rare resources you find and use them for yourself."

Lex checked his interface, and indeed saw that now, it would only take the system 3021 years to recover to 100% on its own. Not bad, especially when considering that it used the flow of time of the Midnight realm. That was basically just a thousand years in the Origin realm.

He also kind of liked the idea of using resources on himself. He wasn’t sure what absorbing a Leviathan Core would have done to him, but with sufficient preparations and his cultivation technique, he surely would have been able to do it. The upgrade he would have gotten would have been incredible. Probably. Lex didn’t ignore the small but very real chance that he would have just blown up.

He’d experienced his body blowing up once, and it was not a fun experience.

"Yup, the system says it will take around 3000 years to fully recover," Lex confirmed.

"There you go. That’s three thousand years for you to become much stronger, and more than enough time for us to get our hands on enough materials to build my body. In the meantime, there is only one thing left to do, and that is to come up with a way to ensure that I can’t spill your secrets - or harm you even if I do get free from the system."

Lex raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Do you have a way to do that? Despite your Dao Lord soul?" he asked incredulously.

"It’s not nearly as unimaginable as you think. You just need to embed certain restrictions into my new body while we make it, ones powerful enough to restrict an injured Dao soul. Although such a thing might sound impossible to you, it’s actually quite doable considering the extent of my injury. It’ll be expensive, yeah, so I guess I’d be asking for another favor from you to sponsor it. But you can rest assured that I’ll more than make up for it once I regain my freedom."

Lex smirked.

"In all of this, you’re overlooking one very critical thing."

"Oh? And what’s that?" Mary asked. Despite appearing nonchalant, she was very, very chalant. She understood well the enormity of what she was asking of Lex. In fact, she was mentally prepared to be told that Lex didn’t agree with her suggestion - at least, this version of doing things. They could go ahead and make her a body without

removing her connection to the Inn, or they could push it back until Lex was strong enough that he was confident that she could do nothing to him.

Sure, that would mean that she would have to wait longer, but it was a wait she was willing to endure.

"The thing you overlooked is that you are the one telling me that you won’t instantly return to being a Dao Lord, and that I can somehow restrict your body. But if all the precautions I take against you are being taught to me by you, how can I be so sure that they’re genuine? It seems to me that either I trust you to be honest with me, in which case the precautions might not even be needed. Yet if there is the slightest hint of dishonesty in what you say, then trusting any of it is redundant."

"Oh that’s simple," Mary said, not at all minding the accusation. "Although I have a little more freedom now, due to the projection, and my stronger soul, the restrictions on me by the system are as strong as ever. Just as the system itself cannot actively try and harm you, I cannot harm you either. That includes lying to you about any intentions I may have to harm you, or trying to trick you in some way."

Lex shook his head, his expression still quite calm, and even relaxed.

"You’re misunderstanding what I said. I’m saying... that I trust you, and if I’m trusting you, then I may as well trust you all the way. You’ve known me for a long time now. You know that if I encounter something that I think is immoral, I’ll avoid it even if it’s inconvenient for me. I stopped using the system to make workers for me because it sounds kind of wrong to literally breed what I’m pretty sure are clones of people who already existed, but with a hint of psychological conditioning to prioritise whatever I say over everything else.

"Sure, it would be convenient as hell to continue using such workers but... it just feels kind of wrong. I don’t mind a little more weight on my shoulders as long as there’s no weight on my heart. I could put restrictions on your body, on your soul, in your spirit, and everywhere else. But honestly, is that any way to treat a friend?"

Mary opened her mouth to respond, but her words were stuck. She didn’t know how to respond. That was... that was a lot of trust Lex was showing her, and for as long as she had known Lex, he was a deeply mistrustful person. He doubted anyone who did the slightest good thing as long as he didn’t understand their motive, and even now he was barely only trusting his system. So for him to say such things to her... even if he was only just saying them...

Perhaps only she, who had more or less accompanied him on his entire cultivation journey, could understand just what a big deal that was.

"Look, I’m not going to promise you anything right now," continued Lex. "I don’t know what things will be like in three thousand years. I don’t know what my cultivation will be, what situation the Inn will be in, or what the state of the universe will be. All I can say for now is... let’s continue to gather the materials for your body. When the time nears for you to transfer to your body, we can revisit the matter then. Who knows? Maybe I’ll already be a Dao Lord by then."

Mary snorted.

"A Dao Lord in 3000 measly years? Impossible. Your tribulation alone will be longer than that."

The last bit, she didn’t say out aloud. After all, it would not serve Lex well to know things before it was time.