The Innkeeper

So there he was, standing next to Vera, who was awkwardly looking away from Giselle, who was trying not to stare at the whole situation, while Levi stared at Vera, Liz stared at Lex and Nemo, who had turned his tattoo invisible, was staring at everyone.

For some reason, the situation felt more taxing and exhausting than painting a formation at the base of a dormant, crystal volcano.

"How about we all take a seat and get a handle on the situation?" Lex asked calmly, as if there was nothing wrong. Honestly, he was the only one in that situation still maintaining composure. Everyone else was already acting like children. Seriously.

Before any of them could offer up any excuses, especially Giselle who looked like she was about to run away, Lex teleported the whole bunch of them to a park nearby. Of course, he teleported them using his own abilities instead of the systems, since the system was still upgrading, which meant that any of them could have tried to resist the teleportation - except Liz, who had a very weak cultivation level. Fortunately, no one did.

"Guys, this is my friend, Giselle. We sometimes fight terrorists together, and other times explore lost, ancient temples," he said, looking at Liz and Levi. "Giselle, this is my sister, Liz, and her friend, Levi."

"It’s a pleasure to meet you," Giselle said, composing herself effortlessly, showing not even the slightest hint of awkwardness. "Unfortunately, I can’t stay for long. I was actually coming back to let you know that I changed my mind about the weapon-smith. It turns out that the Midnight Tailor is much better suited to my needs than an actual forger, so I won’t need your friends’ help anymore."

Liz was suspiciously staring at both Giselle and Vera, and then at Lex, trying to discover if there was something amiss. To be fair, it was very easy for her to do. While fusing with Nemo had granted her an ability that was so powerful, she could basically never use it at all, it also granted her a passive which allowed her to ignore any and all barriers below Dao level barriers.

Now that didn’t just include physical barriers, but also mental and spiritual barriers. After a lot of experimentation, Liz learned that the rules of her ability were a lot more flexible than she assumed because what was a barrier, really? Apparently, whatever Nemo decided was a barrier would count as one, so...

"Hey Nemo, do you think that if someone is keeping a secret from me about my brother, that counts as a barrier?"

Nemo thought for a moment, considering the details of the question.