The Innkeeper-Novel

The treant seemed slightly disgruntled that he would not be able to meet the Innkeeper, but did not show it too overtly as it was used to doing. Luthor was, admittedly, much stronger than Pinophyta had anticipated.

Few forces could boast Golden core cultivators, and fewer still had Golden cultivators who could actually match their might with those of the races living in the shadow of the tree of Heaven.

But then again, this much should be expected by a force which so boldly claimed itself to belong to the creator of the whole world! Now that was an absurd claim if Pinophyta ever heard one. He would not be surprised if the Midnight Inn had even more Golden core cultivators, and perhaps even a few Nascent realm cultivators. That much was, at the very least, expected.

One of the reasons Pinophyta was here, besides creating ties, was to scout out the strength of this force. What would be done with that information was none of Pinophtya's concern, as the higher ups would be the ones to decide, but one could easily guess.

After all, although the Tree of Life had given orders to make contact, it had not elaborated beyond that. Besides, the lands of Menara had long been ruled solely by the various races under the shadow of the tree. For an upstart to just appear and make such bold claims…

Once again, it was none of Pinophyta's business. But he could very well imagine that smight not take to it as kindly as others have.

He watched as his servants unloaded his and his retinue's belongings, and transferred them to the train. It was an absurd notion to ride in smetal container rather than atop a mighty beast, but splaces had strange cultures. It would suffice for the more mundane members of his escort, but not for him. Besides, he was too large to fit in it anyway.

But Luthor had a solution to that as well, as he summoned sof the local peacocks who had reached the Foundation level. Upon request, they stopped suppressing the size of their bodies, and quickly grew large enough not only to carry Pinophyta, but many others alongside him as well.

But, considering how he had behaved so far, Luthor got the feeling that he might not be the biggest fan of sharing.

"Why don't we go on ahead, the other workers will bring the rest of your team. I can give you a tour along the way as well," said Luthor, doing his best to extend his hospitality. He was succeeding in doing so with everything other than his voice and facial expressions.

The treant merely nodded, agreeing to the arrangements of his host. Pinophyta had to admit that the mounts that had been arranged were quite impressive. They did not cower or tremble as he approached, and even as his roots slithered over the back of the peacock and pulled him up, it did not resist in any way. In fact, it made the mounting process much easier.

"Very well trained," he could not help but comment as Luthor climbed the second peacock.

Once they were both seated the peacocks took to the air, not flapping their wings but using a special bloodline technique that manipulated the air beneath their wings.

They did not immediately set off, as Luthor circled around the region a couple of times to observe the caravan and so thatPinophyta could get a good view of their surroundings. Then they set off.

The treant was, naturally, much more attuned with nature and the environment, so he could feel that there was something in the air that somehow made this place better for plant life than the rest of Menara, but it could not understand what.

Most of what it observed as they flew was nothing special, as a majority of the lands were undeveloped, and so were just like the rest of the continent. Then it saw a massive shape in the distance. One could almost assit was a mountain if not for its odd shape.

"What is that?" the treant asked, it branches pointing towards a figure in the distance.

"That is Ming Jie, one of our guests at the Midnight Inn," Luthor said. "Although, most just commonly refer to him as the Mountain-man."

"That- that is a guest?" Pinophyta asked, shocked by the size of it. Although Menara housed many large species, such as the Leopolds, but even then they hardly reached the size of actual mountains!

Before it could get over the shock of the guest, it sensed something else beneath it. The ground… the ground seemed to be moving on its own! No wait, it was not the ground! It was a vast metallic body that was just very close to the ground.

"What is that?" it asked again, and pointed towards the ground.

"It's a ship. It flies through the air normally, but right now it's just hugging the ground," Luthor answered, just as impassively.

The ship, as Luthor called it, was absolutely massive! It was hundreds of miles long and just as wide, and Pinophyta could feel that it was extremely dangerous.

Before the poor treant could get over the shock he had already received, a massive pushchair being pulled by countless, beautiful undead with wings flew through the air. The baby Cthulhu was sucking on a pacifier as it looked around and tried to jump out of its chair whenever it saw something exciting. Behind it, Anita and Qawain were casually strolling through the air, a small hint of their aura surrounding the pushchair, keeping the baby in place lest it fall out.

Pinophyta tried to point once more, but the dread caused by the aura of immortals caused its brain to shut down momentarily, leaving him stuttering as he tried to comprehend a level of power their world could not technically support.

"What… what… what…" he kept repeating, right up until the pushchair flew out of sight. Luthor resisted the urge to scoff. Trees. The only things they were good for was bonfires.