The Innkeeper

Chapter 1388  Paradise II

The scorching heat or Arra-kiss turned the very ground into a proverbial stovetop, burning or cooking anything that touches it. At least where the sands covered the ground, the insects could bury themselves within the dunes, but in the tough, impenetrable grounds of the barren desert, these insects could only hide within the cracks in the ground, emerging only at night.

Considering that the daylight cycle on this planet was a hundred hours long, that was a long time to stay hidden within a few cracks. But the soil around the treehouse was no longer scorching, even if the shade had only existed for a few minutes.

The burning, insufferable winds suddenly became cool and pleasant as soon as they entered beneath the tree, as if a formation existed around the tree, preventing the boiling heat from entering.

In fact, it was not just the heat that was being kept out. The tough soil began to soften, and turn fertile. Though nothing had grown here for a long time, over the centuries countless creatures had died and turned to dust atop these lands, fertilizing them. Now that the conditions finally allowed for it, the ground was ready to support life once more.

Lex, sitting at the top of the tree, also noticed the subtle change, and had an idea. From within his spatial ring, he summoned a few patches of grass he had plucked from the Midnight realm.

The grass from that realm was a treasure, and could literally save a dying man's life, or turn a mortal into a cultivator. He recalled back on Earth there was a cultivator who turned from a mortal into a Nascent soul cultivator. His grass did something similar, but not exactly. The reason it did not bring a cultivator all the way to the Nascent realm was because it maintained, if not enhanced the potential of the eater to cultivate further.

Of course, the grass could not propagate in this 1 Star world, but Lex did not intend for that either. Instead, as he planned those few tufts of grass, right at the base of the tree, touching the trunk, he expected a lesser variant of it to grow and cover the now soft soil beneath the tree.

Since the tree was already foreign to this world, there was no reason to hold back. He would turn the area under the tree into a paradise.

Indeed, right before Lex's eyes, the grass began to break down, for the energy and soil of this place could not support it. Yet as the grass turned to dust and spread all around, new grass started to grow in a wider area, but even that broke down.

As the process kept replicating itself in wider and wider areas, with simpler versions of the grass, Lex thought of what other things he could plant. After a brief consideration, he decided to plant a few fruit trees.

He planted a few fruits from Earth, and one fruit tree native to the Midnight realm called Bombo which had the appearance of a kiwi, but texture and taste of jelly. It was highly nutritious, and extremely delicious and Lex loved it. In fact, he decided right there and then to turn Bombo into a universal fruit if it already wasn't. No one should be deprived of the deliciousness of Bombo. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He also decided to plant a few flowers here and there. Yet no matter what he planted, all of it began to turn to dust, before growing again as a baser, weaker version of itself.

The process was actually a little creepy if one didn't know what was going on, but Lex estimated that it would calm down in a bit.

Lex also added the one thing that every single treehouse needed the most: a swing. At first he was going to go with a tire swing, but decided to keep it natural, and used a wooden plank instead, hanging from a branch 250 feet in the air.

Things were really starting to look up, and that was a good thing because the first batch of guests appeared on the edge of the tree treehouse, to investigate what it really was.

Originally, Lex expected that Tetsuya would be his first guest. But a group of people, dressed entirely in white, with even their faces covered, emerged from the ground riding giant mole-like creatures.

Yet since they did not actually approach the treehouse yet, Lex did not greet them. He decided that everything underneath the tree canopy would be treehouse territory, but he would not venture outside of that, nor would he address anything outside of it.

One of the first rules of running a business such as that of a tavern or an Inn was to stay neutral, and not get involved with local politics.

Of course, should they try to make contact with him first, he would gladly respond.

The group in white whispered amongst themselves as they watched Lex tend the garden. At first, they were definitely creeped out by everything constantly dying, but as that slowly stopped, and grass began to grow. Fruit trees finally started to grow, and so did the flowers.

Despite the foreignness of everything, the group of observers could not help but find the scene beautiful.

Even though they did not know what they were looking at, they felt an attraction to it that they could not explain.

One of the group stepped forward and removed their facemask, and arrived at the very edge of the grass, taking in a deep smell.

Lex raised an eyebrow, surprised. He never would have imagined that a desert planet, lacking vegetation at all, would have had elves. No wonder they were so attracted to the trees and the grass.

"What… what is this?" the elf murmured as he reached forward with trembling hands, finally touching the freshly grown grass. It was slightly moist, and soft to the touch. It was even covered by a thin layer of spiritual energy, and though the elf did not absorb that energy, he felt completely reinvigorated just feeling it.

Though natives of Arra-kiss never let the water in their body go to waste, the elf could not help but shed a tear.