The Innkeeper

While waiting for Larry, Lex continued to search the Blue Bird Portal for details of what happened.There were countless rumors, about war breaking out in the region, about an ancient heritage that had been uncovered, about a unique treasure that had been uncovered that attracted all the rich and powerful. However there was no credible news. Neither Blue Bird nor any other organization released a statement about what was actually happening, just that all cultivator activity had to cease temporarily. Regardless of whatever it was, Lex was most confused about why he would be affected by it in New York if a battle happened in Egypt. Based on everything he knew, despite the fact that there was always a lot of security cultivators engaged in battles all the time.

Lex was lost in his thoughts for a while before he was woken from his reverie by the sound of knocking on his door. He opened the door a badly bruised and sweaty Larry, standing at his doorstep with a small duffle bag full of clothes.

“What happened?” Lex asked out of concern. “Are you alright? Did you get into a fight?”

“No no, don’t be alarmed!” Larry said, his voice still as energetic and cheery as ever. “I was at work when the Blue Bird notification went out. I work as a combat partner, a few bruises here and there are pretty common. Normally I go to a doctor after my sessions who fixes this right up, but the Club had to shut down in a hurry so I didn’t get time. I was gonna go home but the commute is usually an hour long, I didn’t know what the Blue Bird agents would have done to me if they found me still out so long after the emergency broadcast. I didn’t want to risk it, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Lex said, bringing Larry in. “Why don’t you shower and freshen up first, we can talk after.”_.

“Thanks,” Larry said, showing a grateful smile, and walked into the bathroom with his bag. Lex grew a little more curious about this class fellow of his. He didn’t doubt that Larry worked as a sparrer or trainer or whatever, but Lex had seen Larry fight during the self defense class. He wasn’t so easily beaten, nor was he so easily bruised. There was more to his situation than he let on, but since Larry didn’t want to say he would not intrude. While waiting for Larry he continued to surf the portal for more news.

There were countless conspiracies, but little of anything concrete. Someone had even brought to attention the fact that Marlo had canceled some of his business meetings for this entire week and had recently just disappeared from public view. Although Lex knew that Marlo was famous, he was surprised that someone would so thoroughly check his details and bring him into whatever this incident was.

Half an hour later Larry exited the bathroom in a fresh set of clothes, and although his bruises were still there at least he wasn’t sweaty anymore.

“That felt great,” Larry said, throwing himself onto the couch. “Sorry for intruding like that, I hope your girlfriend doesnt mind me staying here.” Larry winked at Lex lecherously, and looked around the apartment for any signs of the ‘girlfriend’.

“I live alone,” Lex said, amused at Larry’s obsession with girls.

“Ah, living the bachelor’s life. That’s fair, no reason to tie yourself down.”

Lex shook his head, not bothering to explain. In this regard, Larry was hopeless.

“Do you have any idea what happened? Why did Blue Bird send out an emergency broadcast? Whatever happened, it couldn’t have been that big. I mean, the non-cultivation world seems to be going on with business as usual.”

“I don’t know, but I can take a guess. It must be something to do with one of the International Cultivator Policing Agencies (ICPA). Like Blue Bird takes care of New York and a few other states in North America, there are a bunch of such agencies across the world. Whenever one of these agencies encounters an emergency, all agencies worldwide employ a cultivator house arrest. It’s not common, but it has happened before.”

“But isn’t that a little extreme? I mean, as far as I can tell whatever the cause, it happened in Egypt. Why do we need to be placed under house arrest here? Or the rest of the world for that matter?”

Instead of replying immediately, Larry looked at Lex with an amused and entertained look. “Come on my friend, chasing after girls is fine. But you can’t be so absorbed in the act that you become completely uninformed about the rest of the world.”

Lex rolled his eyes. Which of the two of them was completely absorbed in thoughts of girls?

“I can tell you haven’t really joined any organization, or met any other cultivators outside of class. Otherwise you wouldn’t be asking such a basic question. Or at least, you’d have some idea of the reason. Ah I guess it’s up to me to educate you. This is going to take a while, do you have any food?”

Lex had no food at home as he had been eating at the Inn lately, so he ordered them a few large pizzas. It might have seemed too much for the two of them, but Lex enjoyed a larger appetite since he started cultivating.

“Have you ever heard of the God complex?” Larry asked, once Lex finished ordering. But before Lex could answer, Larry continued talking. “The God complex is when a person starts believing themself to be infallible. They start thinking their abilities are better than everyone else, or that they themselves are inherently better. Amongst mortals, very successful surgeons are known for developing these complexes. Among cultivators, it’s even more common.” Larry’s voice had lost its jovial tone, and for the first time he seemed to be taking something seriously. “That’s not to say cultivators become bad people. No, most cultivators stay lawful and peaceful and live their own lives without thoughts of hurting others. But the longer one cultivates, and the stronger they become, the more a cultivator slowly starts to see themselves as more than they once were. I mean, with such clear cut divisions in cultivation it’s only natural that as your cultivation rises you think of yourself as better and better. After a certain amount of time, without realizing it, cultivators start thinking of themselves as different, or superior to mortals. I mean, just think about the terminology for non-cultivators: mortals.

“For the most part, it doesn’t make a difference in anyone’s day to day life. But out of a thousand cultivators, if even one develops an inflated ego, can you imagine what that person would do to any mortals he didn’t like? If a Body Tempering cultivator can completely dominate mortals, can you imagine what a Qi cultivator who is having a bad day could do to mortals? Or a Qi cultivator who feels a mortal has offended him? Have you ever been bit by a mosquito? Did you feel like squatting all the mosquitoes in the world after feeling that irritating itch?

“In the past, it was ridiculously common for cultivators to kill mortals over the tiniest inconveniences. That is the real reason the ICPA’s were formed. To protect mortals from cultivators. Yes, they do much more than that. But if a cultivator killed another cultivator, they may take action, but depending on who the offender is they may get away with a slap on the wrist. However, if a cultivator is caught killing mortals, even if it’s a Golden Core cultivator the ICPA’s take serious action.

“So when an emergency situation occurs, all the ICPA’s in the world enforce a house arrest. You’re saying whatever the incident that happened was in Egypt, so most likely the authorities over there have their hands full and can’t focus on anything else. To avoid cultivators going there and taking advantage of the situation, everyone is put on house arrest. Most people won’t even think of taking advantage of something like that, but it only takes one Golden Core cultivator and the damage can be beyond imagination.”

A solemn mood hung in the air as Lex absorbed everything Larry had told him. The fact that this is such a big deal means something like that must have happened in the past.

“But aren’t the ICPA’s full of cultivators themselves? Who’s going to stop them if they’re the ones who want to take advantage of a bad situation?”

Larry shrugged.

“I don’t know. That’s the kind of stuff those higher level cultivators need to think about. We’re just at the bottom of the barrel for now, none of this has anything to do with us. Anyway, come on let’s see if there’s any news on what actually happened. I was too busy before, I haven’t been online at all.”

Lex agreed as he was also curious about the cause of all this commotion. Surprisingly, when he went back onto the portal the first headline he saw read ‘Alexander Morrison assassinated in Egypt!’. The familiar name took him by surprise so he completely missed the horrified look on Larry’s face.