The tavern - the very first tavern Lex ever got, the one he always felt like he tricked the system into giving him, the one that had helped him survive the Crystal realm - had now changed completely. If one were to look at it, they would find it familiar, and yet alien.

This was because the framework of the tavern was that of the original, but either out of a wish to ingratiate themselves to the Innkeeper, or under the instructions of a mischievous Mary, it was now entirely different.

The unusual theme of butter knives now covered the tavern, albeit in a tasteful manner. No one could deny the Dao Lords of being tacky. Instead of feeling like the design was odd and misplaced, it was worked into the design as if it was entirely natural. The butter knife became more of a subtle insignia - the finishing touches to a masterpiece. The tavern, identical in layout yet entirely different in the aura that it contained, now felt like an entirely different place. Lex internally sighed. Such prestige and pomp did not really suit his philosophy of hospitality. He wanted his guests to be at ease, to be relaxed, rather than to be overwhelmed. There was no doubt that many guests would definitely prefer this luxurious feel over the previous simplicity, and he needed to cater to all kinds of guests. Yet he would have felt better if he had made it luxurious on purpose, rather than it just turning out this way.

Amidst all the hustle and bustle that now filled his new Butter Knife tavern, as he was forced to call it, the Innkeeper sat on the balcony as he usually did. The only reason there was hustle and bustle now was because the Dao Lords were all still excited from the events that had just occurred. Lex expected that soon enough they would return to their meetings.

Since they didn't specifically need anything from him, the Innkeeper sat in peace. No one bothered him either, because now everyone was extremely cautious of him - not wanting to earn his ire and get blacklisted.

This allowed Lex the peace of mind to actually sit and think about what had happened. Literally less than ten minutes ago, he had been sitting in the exact same spot with Mary, yet everything was different.

He sighed internally, and then began to take stock of the situation. The tavern had changed completely, but because the renovations had been done by other Dao Lords, he could not control or undo them at all. Functionally, this tavern was done. He would not be able to use it ever again because he wasn't certain if any Dao Lords left behind any secrets within the renovations. His system might be able to regain control if he sacrificed Dao materials, but he had no intentions of doing that.

Besides that, he had to come to terms with the fact that he almost died. In fact, if he did not have Pay-to-play ready, he would have already died. He didn't even know how the Butter Knife activated on its own - that wasn't a part of the original functionality, nor had he received any notifications from the system about it activating it due to an emergency or something.

As if that mystery was not enough, one of Lex's first thoughts was to recharge the knife. Unfortunately, it was when he tried to do so that he got a notification from the system - one that he was not so happy to see.

New Notification: Pay-to-play service unable to initiate! Error!

New Notification: Butter Knife is damaged. Please submit "?" Dao materials to repair damage.

Although it could not be said that Lex was fearful, he was wary of what had happened to him and wanted to recharge the Butter Knife as soon as possible lest he suffer another random blast of Dao energy. Unfortunately, the blade was broken.

Even so, he immediately sacrificed a Dao material to fix it, but the process was not instantaneous. Not only could he not submit more materials, he would not know if this was enough or not until the system was done using up all the energy acquired to repair the knife. Unfortunately, he had no idea how long that would take!

His newfound safety was, once again, taken from him!

But not all the news was bad. While he had one butter knife given to him by the system, he also had one more! It was a butter knife that Cassandra had helped bond to him, and it was attached to the legend of the Butter Knife Deity!

All faith, devotion or fear inspired by the legendary butter knife would, in turn, appear as feedback for his own butter knife which accumulated a tremendous amount of divine energy. After this latest incident his Divine Butter Knife, as he called it for the purpose of distinction, had absorbed an enormous amount of divine energy, and was undergoing some kind of evolution. Lex suspected that once it was done, his Divine Butter Knife would easily be able to kill Immortals. The only question is, what level of immortals would he be able to easily kill. "Why do you look so glum?" Eclipse asked as she walked up to the Innkeeper and sat beside him, wearing an irritated look. "The weight of so much ass-kissing wearing you down?"

The Innkeeper chuckled, feeling somewhat better knowing that Eclipse was upset as well.

"I was quite fond of the old tavern. The new one... is a very gracious gift, but it cannot replace my memories with the old one. What about you? Why are you

so glum?"

Eclipse sighed, and chugged a mug of lemonade.

"Isn't it your fault?" she asked, looking at the Innkeeper with an irritated look. "Do you know how difficult it is to calm down a pink Nullith? You're lucky I controlled her or she'd be giving birth to your children right now. By the way, because of their incredible control over time, they can give birth literal seconds after getting pregnant. Bet you didn't know that."

The Innkeeper looked at Eclipse, and blinked.

"It seems I have to thank you," the Innkeeper said after a few seconds of incredibly deep silence.