The Innkeeper

The obelisk. Velma looked at the obelisk with impassive eyes, unimpressed and unaffected by the alluring lies it told. She knew many of its secrets already. Even if she didn’t have access to an information database of the Humanoid Alliance, just by looking at it with her eyes she would have learned most of its secrets.

She couldn’t pry into its deeper secrets, naturally, but the surface level secrets were all bare for her to see. Besides, how could she hear lies and not recognize them? Velma was completely unaffected by Obelisk’s lies, and passed her Spirit tribulation with frightening ease.

When her tribulation ended, she returned to her location looking completely unbothered. Her armor had suffered not a single scratch by her Major tribulation, despite the fact that she had just endured a Major tribulation to enter the Celestial Immortal realm!

Her rise had been meteoric, to say the very least. To be specific, her rise began the moment she heard about Z getting kidnapped. She faced almost no obstacles in her cultivation, not just because her mastery of laws related to rumors and information was so frighteningly high, but also because of how in sync she was with her tenet.

In fact, her mastery over her tenet was so advanced that the very moment she entered the Celestial Immortal realm, she felt like she could continue to climb the ranks, but now was not the time. After all, she wasn’t alone.

All around her, countless members of the Humanoid Alliance stood looking extremely uncomfortable. Though they all held weapons in their hands, they held them loosely, as if they were looking for a reason to drop them.

How could they not? Which one of them was not close friends with Velma? Which of them had not cried their hearts out to her, and which of them had not sought her out for guidance. Which of them had not...

Thus, not a single one of them wanted to face her here, like this. But the situation was... unusual.

Not an ounce of emotion flickered through Velma’s as her gaze swept across them, and focused on the one Celestial who she had been working with so far - Ur Weiss.

Ur was, for all intents and purposes, a very good boss to work for. He had also helped build a very positive impression of Celestial Immortals for Velma - present circumstances not withstanding.

It was unfortunate, then, that they had reached such an impasse.

The armor she wore - made entirely out of a type of golden silk that was rare beyond rare - was gifted to her by Ur. Though the intentions had not been made clear at the time, she understood that the gift was his request that she keep working for her, and a subtle confession that he had developed feelings for her.

Velma was not impressed, to be honest, but she politely accepted the gift back then. She was used to people falling in love with her, so that a Celestial would do the same did not surprise her at all.

"Velma, I have told you time and time again - we knew nothing of the attack," Ur spoke with a voice filled with endless patience. "I don’t even need to tell you! You can see it with your very own eyes. We knew nothing of it, and we’re doing our best to remedy the situation!"

What Ur said was the truth. Velma’s mastery over her tenet was at such an extreme that her tenet alone granted her powers, allowing her to hear the secrets of whoever she looked at, see them, know them. Naturally, she was not powerful enough to learn all secrets, but it also wasn’t easy to hide things from her, especially now that she had reached the Celestial Immortal realm.

"Your best? Will your best bring Z back to life if something happens to him? Or will your best punish those who ordered the attack?" she asked, her voice so strongly filled with an iciness that those who heard it shivered.

Ur did not respond, because this was the very issue that they had been arguing over for so long already.

"Velma, this can still be managed. I can protect you. I can-"

Finally, a hint of emotion appeared on Velma’s face, and it was that of amusement.

"You? Protect me? You cannot even protect yourself. Mark my words Ur, the Humanoid Alliance will forever regret its actions. The only thing left for you to do now is decide - decide whether you want to waste the last of the favor you have with me trying to stop me, or will you stand aside and let me pass."

Ur took a deep breath, feeling somewhat disappointed with how the conversation was going. Even now, though, he remained entirely composed as he looked at Velma - such was the confidence of a Celestial. She would see reason - she had to.

"Velma, you used your position to steal confidential information from the Humanoid Alliance. As long as you stay here, I can give you the clearance for that information as my special assistant, but if you try to leave you will automatically be deemed a criminal. We’ve had a long, fruitful cooperation so far. There’s no need to end things on such a note."

Velma shook her head, all emotions once again disappearing from her expression.

"Make your decision Ur. Will you attempt to stop me, or will you make the wise choice," she said, before she began to walk forward.

Ur grit his teeth, and made the difficult decision to detain her first. He did not want Velma to be branded a criminal - if that happened, it would be too difficult to redeem her. He needed to offend her a little, if only for her own good.

He made a move, but his every action was laid bare in front of Velma. She not only saw his intentions, but she saw the finer details of how he weaved his laws, so much so that she knew exactly how to break his Lawcraft. She did not even need to attack - she simply waved a finger, shifted a law and his Lawcraft broke before it could even be launched.

That simple exchange was what triggered the chaos. It wasn’t that everyone attacked Velma, nay. Instead, the dwarf standing on the side heard a whisper in his ear about the person who had stolen his family’s brew recipe. An elf heard the name of the perpetrator who burned his forest. An Oolin heard the name of the person who slept with his girlfriend. An Angel heard about a lover who was only with them on a dare, and a Devil learned about a groupchat dedicated to making fun of him.

One after another, secrets were revealed and spread across not just the room, but the entire alliance building. With the war going on, and the situation tense, Velma knew exactly where all the Dao Lords were, and what it would take to attract their attention, and this wasn’t it.

By the time Ur recovered what he saw was madness. All his workers were fighting, but they were not fighting Velma. Instead, they were fighting each other as if they had encountered their worst enemy!

Not only had she revealed their secrets to the ones they were trying to hide them from, she also spread them across the base, thoroughly humiliating them. If they could have pretended previously that their honor wasn’t marred, and that they weren’t humiliated, now they had to deal with the fact that everyone knew.

Everyone knew their deep, dark secrets, their humiliating moments, moments of weakness, and everything they wished to hide.

Many of them were immediately triggered, unable to control themselves as they attacked whoever had betrayed them. Others had no choice to defend themselves as they were attacked. Others still acted only because if they didn’t, they would lose all face! They had to make it seem like they were fighting to reclaim any lost honor or get revenge for whatever wrong they had suffered.

Ur was shocked. It had been a second - no, not even a second. How had she...

The formation in the room that was preventing Velma from accessing her tavern shut down, and when he looked over he saw that all she had done was give it a simple kick.

Velma Nyxheart turned to look at Ur in the eyes one last time. Working for the Humanoid Alliance had actually been a genuinely educational and insightful experience. This last lesson they taught her, too, was one she would remember for a long time.

Ur tried to stop her, but discovered to his abject horror that his body was filled with a strange, pink energy he had never noticed before. The energy in his body was being guided by the pink energy in completely random and chaotic ways, entirely beyond his control.

Such was the way of rumors. They would take on a life of their own, growing and spreading far beyond what anyone could control. Ur was learning that through his own body.

By the time he looked back up, she was gone.

Velma returned to the Midnight Inn, garbed in her golden armor that made her appear more angelic than even angels, and more fearsome than warriors and soldiers who had lived entirely on the battlefield.

She wasted no time in taking control of the House she had founded and spreading out her orders.

"I have uncovered the details of the conspiracy behind why Z was captured, and the location of the realm of the one known as the Grand Conqueror. Ready the Midnight Battalion. He has been away for long enough - it’s time to bring him back."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!