Lex could tell from Ripley's expression that he probably misunderstood something, but he couldn't exactly guess what it was. All he wanted was to make use of a Celestial immortal's labor for free, while slowly impressing upon him that the Inn was not yet ready to cater to beings of such power so they should just wait till the Inn is ready.
Ripley, on the other hand, was thinking of the ramifications of such a feat. He had obviously heard of the Innkeeper even before he came here. He had audited the Origin realm, and so he knew about the Dao Lord who had unleashed his power on the realm without causing it to lose balance even in the slightest.
The Inn's latest cooperation with the Henali had also not gone unnoticed by Ripley, and in fact the scale of how massive that success was ended up being one of the reasons Ripley arrived at the Inn so quickly.