The Innkeeper

Lex did not immediately jump to any conclusions. Even though there was a similarity, there were significant differences as well. To start with, instead of a notification appearing in his own personal field of view, this was more of a projection of a prompt.

From what he could tell, he would need to interact with it in some way to actually begin, or rather initiate the challenge. As far as he could tell, anyone who was there with him would have been able to see the projection as well, so it was not specific to him.

There was no notification sound that accompanied the appearance of the projection, though the fact that it appeared dead in front of him, and would move wherever he looked, meant that he wouldn’t miss it. If he closed his eyes, then the projection appeared within his spirit sense, and if he sealed that it appeared directly in his mind, ensuring that any race, regardless of their senses, would have been able to interact with it.

Lastly, and most significantly, the font was only similar, not identical. Unlike the system notifications, which appeared in English, the text on this projection was written in some ancient language that Lex could inherently understand, independent of his universal translator.

Instead of reacting to the projection, Lex turned towards the mural because there was another interesting thing he noticed.

Upon the mural loomed a grand figure – half man, half serpent – his ancient eyes brimming with celestial knowledge. Lex almost felt as if the figure was looking at him through the mural, just as Lex was looking at him upon the mural.

His upper body was muscular and weathered, clad in flowing robes marked by sacred symbols. In fact, the symbols almost felt like array characters to Lex. The reason he felt they were almost like array characters, and wasn’t sure, was because the memory of those characters kept escaping his mind, slithering out as if they were escaping imprisonment.

Long white hair draped over his shoulders, and his hands held out in front of his chest seemed to imprison a glowing orb.

It was exactly that orb which attracted Lex’s attention, because it was something he had seen often on earth. It was the symbol of Yin and Yang, also known as the Taiji.

In the mural, the taiji was also surrounded by a total of eight sets of characters, with each set made of three straight, horizontal rows containing either a complete line, or a line broken in two from the middle. Lex didn’t recognize the lines, but he felt that the image of it was powerful, as if merely viewing it had added weight to his very existence.

It was an odd feeling, the weight. Lex almost felt like the weight was a good thing, for its presence would help him build a stronger, firmer foundation for his cultivation. At the same time, he felt like if he could not handle the weight, then the weight would quickly become a curse, even going as far as killing him.

Lex turned his attention back to the figure. His serpentine lower half coiled beneath him, its dark, scaled length rooted in the earth like the axis of creation. Golden characters, once again reminding Lex of array characters, drifted around him like spirits, each representing some great yet unknown power.

The halfman, half serpent was clearly the central character of the mural, but he was not the only one in it. There was another character, but hidden behind white clothes and a pink veil, nothing of her could be seen save her eyes, which looked very human, and very similar to the serpent man.

Lex, of course, had no idea as to the gender of the character, and merely assumed it was female due to the veil. It could very much be a guy as well.

The two of them stood in a deep, threatening looking valley, with dark clouds hanging overhead. It was not stated clearly, but the whole scene and setting of the mural made it look like the two characters were in immense danger. Some unspoken danger was lurking just around the corner, threatening to defeat them. Simultaneously, it also seemed like the serpent man had a great purpose which he needed to complete.

Lex studied the mural for a while, and the longer he looked the more minor details he had previously missed started to become obvious. For example, the shadows cast by the two characters did not correspond to their bodies. For example, the mural was well lit, but the dark clouds should have made the mural dark. For example…

Lex closed his eyes and turned his attention away from the mural. For every little bit of detail he learned, the slightest bit of weight was added to his soul. For now, the weight was all but insignificant, but Lex wanted to save as much of his capacity as possible. Who knew how many murals he would encounter?

While learning the minute details of the mural might aid him in uncovering some hidden secret, for now he was content with learning the major, overarching theme or story of each mural.

Lex raised his hand and gently pressed on the ‘Initiate Challenge’ option on the projection, and felt a pulse of power travel from the projection into the city around him. The text in the projection began to fade, and new text began to replace it.

Lex got goosebumps as he read it, though he didn’t quite understand why. It was as if he was walking on a very delicate sheet of ice, and the slightest misstep would cause it to break, making him fall into the abyss below.

The text read:

‘Reality and Fantasy. Heaven and Earth(Hell). Order and Chaos. A perfect balance is an illusion, and yet imbalance is the natural order of the universe – if only because change is constant. But the illusion of chaos and imbalance are only an illusion, for the universe prefers balance.

See through reality and fantasy, identify heaven and the earth, and bring balance between order and chaos. Use only the characters from the Book of Changes.’

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