The Innkeeper

Chapter 1273  Through the lens

Whether it was honing himself, learning about laws, learning about energy, or getting used to his new realm, all of them could be achieved in the same way, which was to throw himself into the fray.

The planets which had appeared within the Mirage were actually like small islands of safety. Since the planets were filled with countless innocent people, the Henali forces avoided targeting them, and the forces of Sanguis Pluvia did not specifically target them, which did not necessarily mean they were going to survive. It just meant they were the safest places around - relatively speaking.

Not that Lex needed to specifically stay in a safe place. The immortal realm had subtleties and complexities he had yet to understand, and the higher immortal realms were no doubt much more powerful than just the Earth immortal realm.

But Lex too had his unique advantages. His danger sense was much, much stronger now. It was as if his instincts were no longer sensing danger, but were directly divining danger, which allowed him to grasp a perfectly clear view of how to escape.

From a certain point of view, it could be said that Lex was only a hairʼs breadth away from danger. But for Lex, the breadth of a hair, under the guidance of his instincts, might as well be as vast as an entire realm.

Amidst the rippling chaos of the battlefield, Lex flitted about like a kite in the wind, completely unharmed from the surrounding carnage.

The irony of the situation was that any of the attacks around him would be enough to cripple him if not kill him, and would have an effective radius far larger than he could escape ordinarily. But there were so many of such attacks, that they constantly canceled each other out, or at least diminished each other.

That created the perfect playground for Lex, who fought countless villains, saved countless people - though whether they were actually saved was yet to be seen - and learned numerous secrets from reading peopleʼs minds.

At the same time, he gained a deeper understanding of his own tenet.

In essence, a battle between two forces was just a struggle for supremacy, regardless of the scale. The scale of the battle was beyond Lexʼs perception, yet just by being within it, he could sense a subtle, invisible balance forming as a result of a push and pull.

Two large forces were fighting each other, attempting to crush one another and gain ultimate supremacy, with countless smaller forces all trying to influence the struggle as well.

That was the larger battle for supremacy - the one for dominance over one another. But besides it, there were countless others as well.

There were infinite battles that were being fought, not to achieve some larger goal, but for mere survival. Those smaller battles were like a fight between individuals and a force of nature. It was like ants fighting against the rain, where a single drop of water might be the death of a few.

That too was a fight for supremacy. They were fighting to survive, and the invisible hand of Death was clawing at them trying to pull them within its grasp. This was a battle for supremacy that began as soon as one was born - one between the living and Death - but the struggle became greater in moments of great peril.

Something within Lex trembled, as he felt like he touched upon something he was not yet ready to understand. It was only the unique circumstances of the Mirage that allowed him to see it.

In fact, Lex felt that he was ready to face another tribulation, but that it would not be triggered until he exited the Mirage.

Even if Lex did not want to continue sensing the invisible forces of the universe, trapped in the Mirage he had no choice, let alone that he was extremely greedy for knowledge and understanding.

The laws of the universe were visible to Lex through the lens of his tenet, which revealed to him the obvious battle between two enemy forces. The vast number of immortals dying all around him revealed a harder to detect battle, one fought by all living beings.

Upon closer scrutiny, Lex noticed another invisible battle for supremacy taking place. It was all those who were weaker than the enemy they faced, yet continued to fight on, and even managed to put up a good fight.

The battle of supremacy they were fighting… seemed to be against something much more esoteric than Death. Lex could not understand it, so he decided to intervene. One by one, he saved those on the verge of death, or gave the slightest helping hand, and watched the tide of the battle change.

The more often he saved them, the more he gained bits of understanding, until he finally realized what it was, and something within Lex trembled once more.

Lex groaned. Great. Now he had two tribulations waiting for him.

The speed of his growth was astronomical. Even when he began cultivation, he was not as fast as he was now. It seemed the level of comprehension his cultivation technique afforded him was much greater than that of ordinary Earth immortals.

Since growth in the immortal realms was heavily dependent on comprehension, the more secrets of the universe he learned, the quicker he would grow. Fortunately, or unfortunately, each secret Lex learned was so massive that it automatically triggered a tribulation, pushing him up levels.

The battle for supremacy that he noticed with great effort was that of those fighting against fate, or Destiny.

Much less obvious and apparent than Death, Destiny was like an invisible hand, guiding, forcing everyone along to a destined event even if the path was not determined. Yet it could be fought against, but matter what, Lex never saw a single person succeed against Destiny.

Each tiny victory they had just changed the path or route that Destiny led them on, but not the destination. Unaware, everyone would stop fighting the moment they stepped onto a slightly more preferable path.

For the weak, the path they stepped on in the middle of battle was not dying immediately. If they kept at it, they might survive the whole ordeal. But would they actually survive?

For too many, Death and Destiny were pulling them in the same direction, gaining the upper hand in that particular battle for supremacy.