At first, it was just a game. Mr. Big-fat-guy found a Kun Peng, an endangered yet powerful race, and wanted to pass on its heritage lest it be lost in time forever. Such a thing was not the purpose of the jungle, but that did not mean it could not be used like that either.

Everything that happened afterwards, too, was of little consequence. Let alone a small army of Earth Immortals, even if a billion such armies appeared, it would not pose any threat to the purpose or foundation of the jungle. Watching the human, toying with him, teasing him, all of those things were done in the spirit of entertainment.

They could easily inform him that his friends were safe, but where would be the fun in that? Playing with the human was almost as entertaining as watching Mr. Big-fat-guy get irritated every time they brought him closer to entering the innermost layer of the jungle.

But then something unexpected happened. The human did something they had never seen before, and suddenly the jovial atmosphere within the jungle turned into a sombre silence. Those who were awake all turned their attention to him, and those who were asleep all woke up. Those who cared not for him at all suddenly learned to care, and those who were toying with him suddenly took him very seriously.

It was not that the power he gained was phenomenal, nor was it unprecedented in magnitude. No, the thing that attracted their attention was that the nature of this power was something that they had never seen before. It was entirely and genuinely a wholly new cultivation path.

Lex, unaware that he had gained so much attention, focused entirely on understanding what was happening to him, and where the power was coming from.

Lex, a man with great exposure and excellent comprehension as a result of his own cultivation technique, was able to gain an immense amount of insight not only about the process itself, but the origin of the Paladins power, and some of the finer nuances relating to it.

He felt… recognition, and traced it back to events in his past. His oath, feeble as it was, had a foundation in truth and hardship. He saw the Midnight Battalion, fighting on a stranded planet, fragile space all around them, and uncertainty grabbing at their hearts. He saw how, despite their resilient expressions and courageous acts, hints of fear crept into their hearts.

He saw how feeble they felt in the face of circumstances, and saw how the only hope they had were the words of the Innkeeper that help was on the way.

Lex could fool his workers, and he could fool the universe at large, but he could never fool himself. He was the Innkeeper. The Innkeepers words were his words, and his actions were the Innkeepers actions. He crossed space, threatened the Henali with bombs, flew through endless space, unraveled a conspiracy and fought against a weakened Deity, putting himself in risk every step of the way, just to save those he cared about.

His actions and intentions had been recognized, and they had been acknowledged.

Lex saw another vision, one of an ancient history he had only heard about. He saw David Paladin - the founding father of the Paladin order. Despite the story, the praise, the legacy he had built, the vision of the past revealed the truth.

He was no warrior with an iron will. He was a clerk, weak and feeble bodied. When the demon horde came for his settlement, he did not stand defiant, sword and shield in hand. He had not ripped a door off its hinges and grabbed a pillar, defying the odds through sheer will.

No, he cried and prayed and hoped for a higher power to save him. Yet through eyes, blurry with tears, and with arms that had only ever known the weight of books, he stood alone, afraid but unyielding.

He had not a door torn off its hinges, but a drawer pulled out of his desk. He had not a pillar that supported a building, but the leg broken off his chair. David Paladin had not made his first stand with an iron heart and an unbreakable will - he had done so filled with desperation.

For his wife, for his child, he had faced death, swearing with every breath to not let them come to harm. It was not the onset of battle that granted him powers, like his legends told. It was his demonstration of his oath, in the face of impossible adversity, and his subsequent success that granted him the powers that the Paladin were so proud of.

In that moment, Lex gained a deeper understanding of the Paladins path than most actual Paladins themselves. Only the High Justiciars and above understood the truth as he understood it. But, perhaps, even they might not know the significance of it like Lex did.

The power of the Paladins came from demonstration and recognition. The Paladins had a Holy aura because the entity that witnessed and granted them recognition was the Heaven - not like Eden or the others, but the Heaven that made up the entire space of the Universe.

It wasn't as if Heaven was a sentient entity or something like that - at least as far as Lex understood. It was more like, everything that happened in the universe was being witnessed by it, and it had a significant amount of power, so much so that its mere acknowledgment of a Paladin's actions and oaths triggered their power.

The Holy aura was also as a result of that recognition stemming from Heaven.

But the thing that Lex did not understand was that despite the type of power being influenced by Heaven, the power itself did not originate from Heaven. Instead, it was still a part of the same power paradigm that Deities were a part of, as a result of the Paladins own faith in their oath.

But how could something as fragile as faith transform into actual power? That was like literally saying that a cultivator was becoming stronger using the power of friendship. Since both were abstract concepts, with no physical existence to speak of, they were technically interchangeable, right?

But why did that work? Lex felt like the moment he understood that, he would unravel the secrets of the Paladins powers.

Oh, there was also one more mystery for him to solve - because, of course, his experience was abnormal compared to other Paladins. Why did he feel like he was being observed and acknowledged by more than just Heaven?