Chapter 1520 — 1520: Kyron Race

Within the Artica Realm, Axios finally concluded a meeting that had been going on for days. He had not reached the exact resolution that he was hoping for, but things were on a positive track. If everything went according to plan, then he would be invited by the Artica race to participate in the more exclusive portions of the New Age Expo, which is where the Nas would begin their true plan.

Free from the meeting, he did not allow himself to rest, and instead turned his attention to the other matter that had been occupying his attention. He oversaw the Go board, and received a lot more information from it than his opponent would.

To begin with, he already knew the relevance of each level of the board, and exactly what he needed to do to gain an advantage. Yet, because of his system, he could also glean some information about his opponent - a clear advantage that his opponent lacked.

Unlike all his previous opponents while playing the game, this one had learned of the existence of the board fairly quickly, and had even somewhat gained some level of control over the pieces. Axios could tell, for he could see that the opponent had accumulated a number of beads which he was not deploying.

This could be considered a decent strategy, depending on what the opponent wanted to do. Clearly, it also prevented him from being targeted by Axios' Rook piece as well. But sometimes, not placing pieces could also be a disadvantage, for it could allow Axios to take key areas.

Of course, what the opponents strategy was, Axios did not know yet. What he did know was that this opponent was already proving to be far more formidable than his previous opponents even this early in the game.

That's exactly why it was fun to play, and exactly why Axios wanted to pull out all the stops. He had previously used a perk that his system gave him. The perk gave him a hint as to a good time to disrupt his opponents flow, and it had given him the hint a short while ago.

The hint was not too accurate, but it was close enough. The short amount of time wasted in exiting the meeting should not have made too much of a difference.

Axios sacrificed some of the ordinary pieces he had accumulated, and summoned another Rook piece, sending it onto the board and crushing one of his opponents pieces.

Whether his opponent realized it or not, one of the core principles of the game was the accumulation of soft and hard power. Whether that came in the form of accumulating allies, affiliations, knowledge, personal strength or anything else, it was all relevant if it was of a sufficient amount keeping the both of them in mind.

As such, a key point of the game was disrupting each other in key moments, preventing them from grasping opportunities. The consequences of this game were very, very real.

Axios smirked to himself as he watched the opponent's piece get crushed, and then diverted his attention away from the board. Right now, his opponent was surely experiencing another form of cultivation deviation.

Yet what Axios hadn't accounted for were two key things. When he received the hint was exactly when Lex's meeting with Wu Kong began. If he had deployed the Rook piece at that exact time, the result really may have been something unexpected. Yet as a result of the time difference, the few seconds Axios waited before acting resulted in more than enough time in the Midnight Realm for Wu Kong to set up his barriers.

Even the Midnight Inn system suffered as a result of Wu Kong's barriers, let alone any other system. The effect of the Rook piece did not reach Lex, for the Go board in his mind was isolated from Axios' system.

Unaware that he had inadvertently avoided disaster by hurrying to investigate Z's behavior and then meet Wu Kong, Lex waited for his guest to explain the relevance of mentioning the Primordial Garden.

"Of course, you've heard of the Primordial Garden. Everyone has heard of the Primordial Garden. It's the one realm Ventura has a monopoly over because no one else can find its location!

"Just imagine it! A vivarium of sorts of the Primordial Age in the form of a realm, forever stuck at the peak of the Celestial realm. Its inability to fully mature limits the actions and access of Dao Lords, and yet it contains races, plants, treasures all long extinct in the universe since the end of the Primordial Age itself.

"You asked me, Innkeeper, what I want from you, and what I can do for you? I've heard that you can access any place in the universe through your Inn. I want your help in reaching the Primordial Garden, and in exchange, I can aid you in earning the favour of the Kyron race - one of the Elder races - and take them on as workers for your Inn.

"It's not everyday that an opportunity to hire one of the top 100 races from the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum just appears right in front of you, so what do you say? The Kyron race, as I'm sure you know, were well known for their enlightened and hospitable culture. They can be found nowhere other than the Primordial Garden in the entire universe, so if they start working at the Inn, they would far outshadow your other workers, perfectly hiding your human workers in plain sight."

Lex did not immediately answer, even if he had no idea how he would ever gain access to the Primordial Garden to begin with. He'd just received a lot of information, and he needed to carefully process all of it, lest he miss something important.

As such, he accelerated the speed of his thoughts, going through a million different possibilities each second.

The first thing that occurred to him was that if Ventura had a monopoly on the Primordial Garden, that could be one of the reasons they had one of their schools try to take over the Crystal realm.