Lex memandang Cassandra sambil mempertanyakan seluruh hubungannya dengan wanita itu. Menurut kesannya, Cassandra selalu orang yang langsung dan togas, yang selalu fokus pada tugas di hadapan. Tapi jelas baru-baru ini dia suka bercanda, itulah sebabnya dia belum menguasai seni *timing*.
Dia menunggu Cassandra tertawa, tapi sebagai gantinya Cassandra hanya menatapnya dengan wajah datar. Pemahaman intuitifnya tentang pikiran dan perasaan orang lain terus memberitahunya bahwa Cassandra tulus, yang justru membuat lelucon itu semakin tidak lucu.
Beberapa detik mereka hanya saling menatap, yang mengingat fakta bahwa mereka immortal dan memproses waktu jauh lebih cepat dari fana, terasa seperti berjam-jam.
"Serius, ada apa dengan dia?" tanya Lex.
"Aku tidak melebih-lebihkan keadaan saudaramu. Bahkan, mengingat klonku tidak memiliki seluruh cakupan kemampuan investigasiku sendiri, aku mungkin justru meremehkan intensitas situasinya. Dari yang aku ketahui, benih realm di tubuhnya juga merawat jiwa-jumlah manusia yang tinggal di dunia asal.
"Aku tidak bisa memastikan status mereka saat ini, tapi sangat mungkin mereka juga terhubung ke realm baru atau bahkan ke saudaramu. Jika mereka memiliki perasaan penyembahan atau kagum yang kuat terhadap saudaramu, sangat mungkin mereka mulai menghasilkan energi ilahi, yang akan mengisi saudaramu, baik mengubahnya menjadi Dewa, atau realm baru menjadi realm ilahi! Jika saudaramu menjadi Dewa tingkat Dao Lord dengan realm ilahi… aku bahkan tidak bisa mulai memperkirakan betapa kuatnya dia akan menjadi. Hampir pasti dia akan menjadi salah satu Dewa terkuat yang hidup di alam semesta. Karena alasan itu, aku sebenarnya mendorongmu memindahkannya dari Midnight Inn ke Kuil Puasa.
"Kuil Puasa dilengkapi khusus untuk tetap tersembunyi bahkan dari entitas tingkat Dao, mempertahankan kemungkinan kebangkitan kembali umat manusia. Dengan cara itu, tidak ada yang akan mampu menemukan keberadaannya sama sekali — termasuk entitas tingkat Dao yang berusaha menekan umat manusia. Tentu saja, ini hanya saran dariku.
"Jika Pengelola Inn bersedia menyembunyikan saudaramu, maka aku yakin dia sama aman di sini seperti di Kuil Puasa. Hanya saja, jika dia dipindahkan ke Kuil, Pengelola Inn akan terhindar dari ditarik ke perjuangan kekuasaan ini sebelum waktunya.
"Demi keterbukaan penuh, aku juga harus mengakui bahwa aku belum pernah melihat fisik seperti saudaramu. Jika dia dipindahkan ke Kuil, kita bisa meneliti detail fisiknya lebih dalam."
"Maksudmu formasi perlindungan peringkat Destiny Midnight Inn tidak cukup untuk menyembunyikan Moon dari deteksi oleh makhluk Dao lain?" tanya Lex, mengabaikan enormitas segala hal lain yang baru diungkapkan Cassandra.
Dia juga kini memikirkan apakah harus mencari cara menemukan pupuk Taro sekali lagi untuk mempercepat pematangan realm di dalam Moon. Di saat yang sama, dia khawatir mempercepat proses itu justru melukai Moon.
Kenapa ini begitu rumit? Dibandingkan dengan yang dia lakukan pada Liz, pada Moon dia hanya membantu menyerap sebuah planet. Apa masalah besarnya dengan itu? Tunggu…
"Aku akan pertimbangkan apa yang harus dilakukan dengan Moon, tapi dulu, aku butuhmu datang lihat saudara perempuanku yang lain. Dia sedang *bonding* dengan seorang Sovereign."
Cassandra tidak menunjukkan perubahan ekspresi secara eksternal, tapi Lex merasakan emosinya cukup turbulen di balik fasad tenang itu. Kali ini, Cassandra yang menatap Lex, menunggu dia mengungkapkan dia hanya bercanda, tapi dia tidak.
"Tahukahmu, dalam sejarah umat manusia, belum pernah ada sesiapa yang sesungguhnya tidak masuk akal seperti kamu dan saudaramu," kata Cassandra dengan lugas. "Bahkan ketiga belas manusia asal, yang lahir langsung dari tangan Sang Ibu, tidak bisa menyamai kalian. Mari, bawakan aku ke saudaramu yang lain. Biarkan aku lihat sejauh mana proses *bonding*-nya, dan apa dampaknya. Akan cukup lucu jika umat manusia, yang begitu lama kekurangan Dao Lord, tiba-tiba mendapat dua orang sekaligus, dan mereka kebetulan saudara perempuan. Di masa depan, saat melakukan sesuatu yang begitu… tidak biasa, silakan hubungi seseorang dari Kuil. Bahkan jika aku tidak tersedia, mereka selalu akan bertindak demi kepentingan terbaik umat manusia."
Lex tidak menjawab itu. Dia sadar sekali bahwa yang mungkin demi kepentingan terbaik umat manusia未必符合他的个人最佳利益。那就是他犹豫是否将Moon转移到Temple的原因。虽然这可能确保她的安全，但她的体质极其罕见。谁知道一旦Temple了解更多，他们会决定做什么——一切都以强化人类为名。他不想再面对比现在更多的Moon克隆体了。
Sepertinya satu-satunya opsi layak hanya memperkuat formasi perlindungan Inn.
Lex teleport Cassandra dan dirinya ke lokasi Liz *fusing* dengan Nemo. Mereka tidak mendekat terlalu dekat agar tidak mengganggu proses, tapi cukup dekat agar Cassandra bisa melihat.
"Kabar baiknya adalah saudaramu tidak akan langsung melonjak ke realm Dao, artinya proses *bonding*-nya tidak akan memakan miliaran tahun. Kabar tidak terlalu baiknya adalah dia butuh cara yang sangat efektif untuk menyembunyikan dirinya jika dia pernah ingin keluar dari Inn. Musuh-musuh umat manusia akan merasakan turbulensi yang dia caus<|tool_call_begin|> as soon as she leaves the protection of the Inn's formation.
"Untuk jelasnya, kekuatan dan relevansi universalnya jauh di bawah saudaramu yang lain. Tapi akan butuh waktu lama sebelum Moon mencapai tingkat di mana orang lain mungkin merasakan keberadaannya hanya karena ada. Saudaramu ini…"
"Liz," jelas Lex.
"Kehadiran Liz di alam semesta segera akan mengacaukan banyak hal begitu dia keluar dari Inn, artinya dia akan jauh lebih mudah terdeteksi."
"Menurutmu butuh berapa lama dia menyelesaikan *bond*-nya?" tanya Lex. Dia tidak kira akan sulit meyakinkan Liz tinggal di Inn sebentar. Realm Midnight cukup besar untuk dieksplorasi cukup lama, tidak menghitung banyak realm minor yang ada di dalamnya.
"Itu sepenuhnya tergantung pada berapa lama Sovereign mengira harusnya memakan waktu," kata Cassandra, dengan jarangnya ketipisan kelelahan terlihat di wajahnya. "Cepatlah ke realm Kristal sekarang. Klonku kehabisan energi."
Lex mengangguk, lalu teleport mereka berdua ke realm Kristal. Ini secara teknis dihitung sebagai penggunaan hak istimewa Cassandra, serta peningkatan otoritas Lex atas Sistem. Kalau tidak, tidak begitu mudah bagi tamu untuk bepergian ke realm lain yang terhubung ke Inn.
Sudah lama sejak Lex datang ke realm Kristal, dan dari ingatannya seluruh realm sedang dilanda perang dahsyat yang melibatkan ratusan ribu immortal.
Jumlah immortal yang begitu besar sulit dikumpulkan bahkan di medan perang Fuegan rata-rata di realm Asal. Mengakibatkan fakta realm Kristal juga menderita kelemahan parah pada fondasi realm itu sendiri, Lex memperkirakan perang telah memperburuk situasinya.
Namun saat dia tiba di realm itu, dia justru menemukan kebalikannya. Rasa kelemahan yang dirasakannya dari realm justru sudah hilang dalam derajat besar, sedangkan realm sendiri terasa jauh lebih padat dan hidup dalam hukumnya, meskipun lanskapnya hancur total.
Sudah sekian lama bahkan tavern meninggalkan realm Kristal, jadi dia tidak benar-benar *up-to-date* dengan berita tempat itu, tapi situasinya benar-benar di luar dugaan Lex.
"Tanah ini telah disuburi darah immortal asing yang tak terhitung," kata Cassandra saat meninjau tanah. "Itu mempercepat proses pematangan realm, tapi realm juga menjadi tidak stabil dan pertumbuhan percepatannya justru mengarah ke jalan kehancuran."
"Ya, realm diserang oleh ras asing bernama Kraven. Aku punya janji dengan salah satu tokoh terkemuka ras itu yang akan datang. Tapi itu bisa ditunda. Biarkan aku bawakanmu ke ibukota bangsa Hum. Di sinilah Raja bangsa seharusnya berada."
Karena Lex sudah menghabiskan waktu di realm Kristal, dia dengan mudah menemukan lokasi yang pernah dikunjungi sebelumnya bahkan tanpa perlu ke formasi teleportasi. Kemampuan teleportasinya telah berkembang drastis sejak terakhir kali di sini.
Saat kemudian, mereka berdua menghilang.
Lex looked at Cassandra questioning his entire relationship with the woman. In his impression, she was always a direct and straightforward person who always focused on the task at hand. But clearly she had taken to cracking jokes recently, which is why she had not mastered the art of timing.
He waited for her to laugh, but instead Cassandra just kept looking at him with a straight face. His intuitive understanding of others' thoughts and emotions kept telling him that she was sincere, which made the joke even less funny.
For several seconds they just looked at one another which, considering the fact that they were immortals and processed time much faster than mortals, may as well have been hours.
"No seriously, what's wrong with her?" Lex asked.
"I have not exaggerated your sister's circumstances. In fact, considering that my clone does not have the full scope of my own investigative abilities, I may have understated the intensity of her situation. From what I can tell, the realm seed within her body is also nurturing the souls of countless humans who remained within the original world.
"I cannot be certain of their current status, but it is entirely possible that they too come linked to the new realm or even your sister. If they have strong feelings of worship or admiration towards your sister, it is entirely possible that they start to generate divine energy, which would feed your sister, either turning her into a Deity, or the new realm into a divine realm! "If your sister becomes a Dao Lord level Deity with a divine realm… I cannot even begin to speculate how immensely powerful she will become. It is almost certain that she will become one of the strongest Deities alive in the universe. For that reason, I actually encourage you to shift her from the Midnight Inn to the Temple of Fasting.
"The Temple of Fasting is specially equipped to stay hidden from even Dao level entities, preserving the possibility of a resurgence among humans. This way, no one will be able to discover her existence at all - including those Dao level entities who seek to keep humanity suppressed. Of course, this is just my suggestion.
"If the Innkeeper is willing to hide your sister, then I'm sure she is just as safe here as she would be within the Temple of Fasting. It's just that, if she is moved to the Temple, then the Innkeeper will avoid being pulled into this power struggle prematurely.
"For the sake of full disclosure, I also have to admit that I have never seen a physique like your sisters. If she is moved to the Temple, then we can look more deeply into the details of her physique."
"Are you saying that the Destiny ranked protection formation of the Midnight Inn is not enough to hide Moon from being detected by other Dao beings?" Lex asked, ignoring the enormity of everything else that Cassandra just said.
He was also now thinking if he should look into ways of finding Taro fertilizer once more to speed up the maturing process of the realm within Moon. At the same time, he was concerned if speeding up the process might somehow harm Moon.
Why was this so complicated? Compared to what he did with Liz, all he did with Moon was help her absorb a planet. What was the big deal with that? Wait…
"I will consider what to do with Moon, but first, I might need you to come look at my other sister as well. She's currently bonding with a Sovereign."
Cassandra showed no change of expression externally, but Lex felt that her emotions were quite turbulent beneath that calm facade. This time, it was Cassandra who kept looking at Lex, waiting for him to reveal that he was joking, but he did not.
"Do you know, in the history of humanity, there has never been anyone as absurd as you and your siblings," Cassandra said straightforwardly. "Not even the original thirteen humans, born directly from the hand of the Mother, could match up to you. Come, take me to your other sister. Let me see how far her bonding process has gone, and what its repercussions are going to be. It would be quite funny if humanity, which has lacked a Dao Lord for so long, suddenly gains two of them, and they happen to be sisters. In the future, when doing something so… out of the ordinary, please feel free to contact someone from the Temple. Even if I am not available, they will always act in the best interest of humanity."
Lex did not respond to that. He was well aware of the fact that what might be in the best interest of humanity might not be in his personal best interest. That was why he was hesitant to move Moon to the Temple. Though it might assure her safety, her physique was extremely unusual. Who knows what the Temple might decide to do once they learn more about it - all in the pursuit of strengthening humanity. He did not want to deal with any more Moon clones than he already was.
It seemed like the only viable option would be to strengthen the Inn's protective formation somehow.
Lex teleported Cassandra and himself to the site where Liz was fusing with Nemo. They did not go too close lest they disrupt the process, but just came close enough for Cassandra to take a look.
"Well, the good news is that your sister won't directly shoot to the Dao realm, which means her bonding process won't take billions of years. The not so good news is that she will need a very effective way to hide herself if she ever wants to leave the Inn. The enemies of humanity will sense the turbulence she will cause as soon as she leaves the protection of the Inns formation.
"To be clear, her strength and universal relevance are nowhere near that of your other sister. But it will take a long time before Moon reaches a level where others might sense her even for just existing. This sister of yours…"
"Liz," Lex informed her.
"Liz's presence in the universe will immediately throw a lot of things into disarray as soon as she leaves the Inn, which means she will be a lot easier to detect."
"How long do you think it will take her to complete her bond?" Lex asked. He did not think it would be much of an issue to convince Liz to stay in the Inn for a while. The Midnight realm was big enough for her to explore for quite a while, not to mention the many minor realms it held.
"That is completely up to how long the Sovereign thinks it should take," Cassandra said, a rare hint of fatigue showing up on her face. "Let's hurry to the Crystal realm now. My clone is running out of energy."
Lex nodded, and then teleported the two of them to the Crystal realm. This technically counted as a use of Cassandra's privilege, as well as Lex's increased authority over the system. Otherwise it was not so straightforward for guests to travel to the other realms connected to the Inn.
It had been a long time since Lex had come to the Crystal realm, and from what he recalled the entire realm was being engulfed by a savage war consisting of hundreds of thousands of immortals.
Such a vast number of immortals was difficult to gather even among the average Fuegan battlefield within the Origin realm. Considering the fact that the Crystal realm was also suffering from a severe weakness in the foundation of the realm itself, Lex expected that the war had caused the situation to deteriorate.
When he arrived in the realm, however, he discovered the opposite to be true. The sense of weakness he felt from the realm had in fact dissipated to quite a large degree, while the realm itself seemed much more solid and vibrant in its laws, though the landscape seemed utterly devastated.
It had been a while since even the tavern left the Crystal realm, so he was not exactly abreast with the news of the place, but the situation was completely out of Lex's expectations.
"This land has been nourished by the blood of countless foreign immortals," Cassandra said as she surveyed the lands. "It has sped up the maturing process of the realm, but the realm is also unstable and its accelerated growth is actually putting it on the path of destruction."
"Yeah, the realm is being invaded by a foreign race known as the Kraven. I actually have an appointment with one of the leading figures of that race coming up. But that can wait. Let me take you to the capital of Hum nation. That's where the King of the nation should be."
Since Lex had spent some time within the Crystal realm, he could easily find the locations he had previously visited even without the need to visit actual teleportation formations. His teleportation capabilities had progressed drastically from when he was here last.
A moment later, the two of them disappeared.
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