"Damn, this Lexus is bold!" exclaimed one of the Dao Lords. "For an Immortal to court the Primordial Queen? How did his body not blow up just from thinking about it?"

A bunch of Dao Lords murmured, agreeing with him.

"If the Primordial Queen held his hand, she must have given him special permissions or protection. That's why he could get away with it."

Lex resisted the urge to rub his temples as he looked at the board in front of him and studied some other rumors.

'I heard Lord Harriot used to dye his hair black back in his early days...' 'Rumor has it that the Primordial Queen has taken on an apprentice, causing him to encounter enlightenment with each word. The apprentice was a strange creature with two, narrow bendable trunks supporting the main frame of its body, with two more slender branches coming out of its side. It was a strange, moving tree as far as rumor has it with no bark, but leather instead! The funny thing was, it had a massive acorn on top instead of leaves. Incredible.

The rumor appeared for a short while, before disappearing with an updated version! The ability to update rumors by gathering several similar rumors and compile them into one was a new feature that the Rumor room had acquired after multiple upgrades.

'Rumor has it the Primordial Queen has taken Lexus Will.I.Am as an apprentice!" 'Rumor has it that Lexus Will.I.Am is the son of an incredibly powerful Dao Lords who paid the Primordial Queen for a summer internship for his son.

"Guys, be reasonable. These rumors are just too fake to be real," said a Dao Lord. "What kind of Dao Lord could bribe the Queen? I'll tell you what kind: the kind that already has access to the garden! Lexus must be the child of someone from Ventura!"

Many Dao Lords agreed with that theory. It was incredibly inconvenient that within the garden they were restricted, and unable to look into the secrets through reverse divination. In fact, a majority of their senses were sealed, which is why they were left to speculate on rumors rather than just looking up the correct answer themselves.

Yet at the same time, this inconvenience brought about a novel experience. It had been too long since any of them were left answerless, which allowed them to partake in this rare case of baseless speculation. At this point, the content of the rumors barely mattered to them anymore.

"Guys, seriously. This is not possible. The Primordial Queen doesn't have an apprentice, and there's no way she was holding some random immortal's hands. These are called rumors exactly because there's no proof here," said a sober minded Dao Lord. "We should instead focus on more realistic rumors. For example, there's a rumor of a black, Primordial Phoenix in the garden. I've never heard of such a breed of phoenix - could it be a new one?"

A lot of the Dao Lords turned to the board to read the related rumors.

"So what if there's a new phoenix. I'm more interested in this Trelop race that's apparently been growing rapidly. Look here, it says the race is mutating to adapt to Primordial energy faster than any other race."

There were, indeed, quite a few mentions of Trelops and their ever growing strength. Speaking of, Lex still hadn't seen the real body of a Trelop yet - he wondered what they looked like when they were fused with a massive territory.

As he looked at the board once more, he noticed that there were a few rumors that were, generally, unrelated to him.

"What's this about a tribune of Primordial humans? As far as I know, there weren't any Primordial humans, or am I mistaken?" a Dao Lord asked.

"Well, knowing anything about the Primordial Age is tough, but yes, it is generally agreed upon that none of the Humanoid races had a true, Primordial form despite being born in the Primordial Age. They merely benefited from cultivating in Primordial energy," answered another.

Lex looked at that particular rumor.

'Rumor has it that a tribe of humans have independently declared a country, coming together to help other humans adapt to the realm. Apparently, the king of the humans is taking help from the Ventura students who visit the realm to help create Primordial Humans.'

Instead of causing more discussion, many Dao Lords became quiet after reading that.

"Does that mean that the humans have allied with Ventura? Or has the Humanoid Alliance done that?" a Dao Lord asked. "Surely the humans haven't forsaken the Humanoid Alliance for the sake of Ventura, have they?"

The situation turned from enjoying random rumors to discussing universal politics real quick, and for once Lex was glad he was in the thick of it. He dared not observe these Dao Lords through his system lest they detect him, so he could only go to each place in person to check up on them, which is why he had come here to begin with.

Now, he was learning important tidbits about history, and what the universe thought about humans.

"Don't be absurd. The actions of one group of humans in a single realm don't reflect the position of humans universe wide. But this explains why humans have had such a massive jump in rankings lately - it seems that Ventura has decided to invest in this group. This is important information - it could influence how other organizations treat humans during the war. The only thing we need to discern is if these are a real investment, or if they're being nurtured as cannon fodder," said a Dao Lord.

"What do you think, Innkeeper? Is this why you've been investing in humans so much inside your Inn?" asked one of the Dao Lords, suddenly shifting the focus of the conversation drastically.

Seeing nearly thirty Dao Lords suddenly turn towards him, Lex smiled internally. Of course he was going to get caught up in this mess.

"The type and race of workers in my Inn reflect nothing other than their ability to serve my guests," he answered without hesitation. "Human adaptability makes them well suited for the service industry. The Inn has never concerned itself with external factors, focusing only on serving its guests to the best of its

ability."

Many Dao Lords found such an answer to be disappointing - not just because it wasn't scandalous in the least, but also because it was grounded in logic. On a universal scale, humans were more likely to be enslaved or at least brought into service by stronger races simply because of how versatile they were. That, combined with their lack of Dao Lords, make it so that the human race is a reliable, dependable race when seeking out slaves without the threat or possibility of retaliation.

"Still, if the human race is able to adapt to the Primordial Garden, and evolve into a Primordial form, then they will become a formidable force. Who knows, the very first Dao Lord of the human race after so many years might be present right here, in this very garden, at this very moment," said another. Many of the Dao Lords seemed to find that possibility quite probable - especially since Ventura was the one backing them. Not a single one of them doubted that the human race could regain not just one, but many Dao Lords as long as Ventura backed them properly. With the resources of multiple Major realms available to him at his disposal, there were few things he could not

accomplish.

"It might not be so simple. While the Primordial Garden is out of reach, and so

the humans here remain protected, I doubt that the Gon and Tyranis race will silently watch their rise. The humans hiding in other realms might be in for some trouble. This might be a good opportunity to bait them into the open." Lex watched silently as some of the Dao Lords plotted to use humans as bait to kill some members of the Gon and Tyranis race. Since they were from one of the few races firmly associated with the Path of Chaos, killing them would earn merits for the Tower of Providence, which was apparently valuable even for

Dao Lords.

Just as Lex was about to excuse himself and leave the room, a new commission attracted his attention.

"Hey, look at this. There's a new race that seems to be on the rise," a Dao Lord

said, pointing to a new rumor.

'Rumor has it that a member of the Crystal race has formed a Dao Heart, and has appealed to the Dao Congress to allow him to undertake the Dao tribulation. If they find his chances to be decent, they might recommend him to be sent out of the garden to undertake a Dao tribulation. He is the seventh

candidate to come out of the Crystal race, and of the seven, two are still undergoing their Dao tribulations with the possibility of success still existing Aurthor's Note: For those that don't know, there is a community discord for the Innkeeper novel. You can find an invitation link in the novel description on the novel page if you wish to join and stay updated on all the Innkeeper news and

announcments!