Origin realm, Governors Palace

Hiran Kokan laughed mockingly. These imbeciles. How could they think to mock the potential fiance of the Primordial Queen? Sure, news of Wu Kong acting on the Innkeeper's behalf was surprising, even to him. But that didn't change the fact that he was not at all surprised by how little the Innkeeper cared for the status quo.

With her as a backer, why should he fear the universe? In fact, just based on his awareness of that connection, the Henali had benefited tremendously from the recent chaos - one of the few forces to manage such a thing.

The moment Hiran reported his suspicions to the ruler of the Henali, they reevaluated their relationship with the Innkeeper as a whole. In fact, the Innkeeper was not the only one they changed their relationship towards. The fondness that the Innkeeper had towards the humans was evident to any who paid attention, thus the powers that be in the Henali suspected that the future of the humans was about to undergo an unexpected shift. Unofficially, and under the table, they had begun to increase their investments in the human race.

Hiran looked towards his assistant who was presenting him with another Letter of Intent. Ever since news of the tea party had been leaked, everyone had learned that he was the one distributing letters on the Innkeepers behalf. As such, many powers had started to reach out to him attempting to gain entrance into the tea party.

While the Innkeeper had been generous enough to give him a few spare invites, Hiran did not intend on utilizing them casually. In fact, he did not use them for his personal interests at all. Knowing the positive relationship that the Innkeeper had with humans, he decided to help him out.

He reached out to one of the Dragons Lords, and sent him one of the spare invites. After all, the favor that the dragons had shown for humans was well known.

He also reached out to someone from the Celestial race and sent them an invite as well. In this delicate environment, access to the Innkeeper, and especially access to this tea party became the center of attention. Everyone wanted to know more about it, yet none dared to be abrasive in their approach.

Primordial Garden

Eclipse was busy working with the tribulation energy she had harvested from Lex, focusing solely on developing her garden, when Harriot appeared next to her.

"The council has sent some news from outside the garden," the poodle said, making a report. "The Innkeeper has made some big waves, and so has attracted a lot of attention lately."

"Oh?" said Eclipse, only mildly interested. Her focus was on her garden, so she wasn't too interested in things that happened beyond. "What happened?" "Acording to our preliminary reports, the popularity of the Midnight Inn has increased drastically over the last few years owing to the Innkeeper's far reaching range of stable teleportation. Since such range, as well as rumors of the Innkeeper releasing a tremendous amount of Dao mist inside his Inn recently, kept anyone from probing him directly. As a result, they diverted their attention towards Lex."

Eclipse suddenly paused, and looked towards the poodle. She was quite fond of Lex - that human was quite interesting, not to mention the first Nephilim candidate she'd seen personally. That did not, however, mean that she would interfere in his matters. As a keeper of a garden, she also believed in the laws of the jungle, and nature taking its course. Still, that was enough to earn her attention.

"So? What happened?" she asked, well aware that Harriot had been pausing for dramatic effect.

"Well, the Innkeeper sent the monkey thief to go and annoy anyone who targeted Lex. It caused a whole lot of chaos across the board. I suspect it won't be long before the forces unify to quarantine the monkey again."

Eclipse smirked.

"So the mighty Dao King deigns to take care of his people. To send forth little baby Wu Kong to settle the matter - it's no wonder that Lex is so loyal to the Innkeeper. Alright, not bad. Go ahead and send word to Ventura. Tell him he's invited to a little tea party."

The poodle nodded, as if it was no big deal. Eclipse, meanwhile, continued to work on her garden.

The Humanoid Alliance

"This Innkeeper is really arrogant," said a dwarf to a room full of other Dao Lords. All of them were top members of the alliance, and were not fond of the immense amounts of attention that the Innkeeper had been getting from the alliance. "The way I see it, we should keep our distance from him. One day, he's going to come begging the alliance to join, and he's going to bring up a host of trouble for us with him."

"But that's not really up to us, is it?" asked a giant.

"Yes, but as long as we can bring it to a vote, we can find a way to exclude him, especially if we act preemptively," answered the dwarf. "That devil seems to be a huge fan of his, but remember, the Devils are only one of the members of the Humanoid Alliance. They do not own it."

The other members nodded and gave vague promises. It was too soon to decide these things, but it was certain that they didn't like the attention that the Innkeeper was getting. If he really joined the alliance, the shift in resources in his favor might affect them. If that was the case, it wouldn't hurt to make

plans ahead of time.

*****

Midnight Realm

Gerard looked at the letter in his hand, the weight of trust and responsibility threatening to crush him.

"Don't worry!" he said, looking up at the Innkeeper who sat behind his desk. "I

will do my best to deliver this letter!"

The Innkeeper chuckled, watching the seriousness on his face.

"Don't take it too seriously. In all likelihood, they should already be expecting this letter. Delivering it should be no problem at all."