Chapter 2439: Someone show him

Anyone who knew Harriot knew that the number of things that he cared about besides Eclipses’ matters were very few, and the people he cared about were even fewer. His goals were always aligned to Eclipse’s goals, and his concerns were always his concerns.

Thus, the very obvious frown on his face would take many by surprise if they could see it, especially if they knew the context in which it appeared.

"Are you sure you don’t want me to help him? He looks like he’s going to die any moment now," said Harriot as he looked down into the crater at what was soon to be Lex’s corpse.

"There’s still a tribulation field all around him," responded Eclipse from her throne, even though it was far away. "Do not, under any circumstances, interfere with his tribulation in any way. If he dies... then that is simply the consequence for his own actions. Neither he nor the Innkeeper can blame me for that."

Harriot turned to look at Eclipse, who also seemed to be watching Lex, and then looked back at the human. His hand was manually pumping his heart which was keeping him alive somehow. He suspected that it had something to do with the Primordial Farham Egg Shell that had become embedded in his heart and then fused with it, but he couldn’t say.

After all, he had a Dragonheart, and those things were notoriously difficult to stop.

"If you don’t want to interfere with his tribulation, why did you have me bring him here from the Dream realm?" Harriot asked as he narrowed his eyes and searched for any signs of vitality. Unfortunately, to avoid disturbing the tribulation field around Lex’s body, he could not use any of his powers to observe, so he genuinely couldn’t tell what state he was in.

"It’s not the same," explained Eclipse. "The Dream realm is connected to every other realm, and the literal fabric of the realm almost tore open. Lex would have ended up in the Void. You know what happens when Primordials enter the Void unprotected - we do not need a repeat of the Acorn realm. So, I just let him fall from the Dream realm into the Garden. You can blame the Innkeeper for being an absent parent - forcing me to act in his stead."

Harriot rubbed his eyebrow as he tried to accept that logic. To be fair, Eclipse was right. With Lex, more or less, being considered a Primordial now, entering the Void unprotected would have led to unpredictable results.

But just leaving him there also felt kind of bad.

"I’ll be subtle about it. No one needs to know we helped. Watching him beat his own heart is just..."

Harriot just didn’t want to admit that he was concerned about Lex, but Eclipse had already diverted her focus. The Enigma Pillar was where she hid all her secrets. It was a tool far more powerful than anyone could imagine, and it also held far more secrets than anyone could imagine.

Yet Eclipse was still limited by many things, as unbelievable as it was. During the early years of the universe, she was incredibly weak. In those days, she was nowhere near as strong as she was now, and there were too many people stronger than her. Thus, she did not know the fine details of many things that occurred before her birth in the early to middle years of her life.

For example, the name Pangu was one she drew from the memories of an enemy she had once slain. She knew almost nothing about him, save that he was apparently incredibly large and unbelievably powerful.

The problem with ’incredibly powerful’ was that it lacked a lot of context. How powerful was he exactly? Knowing that answer... would allow her to guess the strength of whoever had stood in Pangu’s path that fateful day.

As for what day it actually was, why they clashed, and what the outcome was were all things she did not know. The fact, however, that the universe chose to give it such incredible emphasis reflected just how important that confrontation was.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the fight Pangu had that day changed the universe forever. It was just that no one knew how or why.

"His pace is slowing down - if you want to do something, this may be your last chance," said Harriot, interrupting her reading.

Eclipse sighed, and then looked at her poodle. Sometimes, she forgot that it was in his nature to be cute.

"Someone show him what’s going on," Eclipse said before turning back to the Enigma Pillar.

Harriot wasn’t sure who acted, but suddenly he could see the tribulation field around Lex.

The Dao Body tribulation was more than just a memory, or a test. The more severe the tribulation, the more realistic the memory.

Lex’s tribulation had summoned the figure out into the open, allowed it to speak, and to strike with his axe. Everyone focused on the attack from the axe, failing to realize that every single aspect of the memory was the tribulation.

The moment Lex looked up and spoke to it, he was not talking to Pangu, the ancient being, but he was entering a confrontation with the tribulation itself. It was just that the tribulation was using this particular memory to enact it out.

Thus, it wasn’t just the axe strike that landed on Lex that was a part of the tribulation, but the figure’s final curse as well. When he had yelled out ’die’ at Lex, it was not just simple verbal venting, but an actual, genuine curse.

That curse was still active now, all around Lex, using whatever energy was left from the tribulation to try to kill him.

In turn, Lex’s resistance so far was not just an attempt at continued living, but was direct resistance against the tribulation. Everyone thought that Dao Body tribulations had no feedback. Well, in Lex’s state, Eclipse wasn’t so sure.

"Don’t take this away from him," she said to Harriot. "If he can survive this on his own, then the significance of it will be far greater than you realize."

There was another thing that she didn’t mention. Inside the Primordial Garden, Lex would also remain protected from any chances that happened to the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum. That was significant because humanity seemed to be losing its position on that list, and fast. Celestial Immortals humans across the universe started to suffer from tremendously terrible luck, and while that sounded simple, in truth it was leading them to their deaths.

The human race was losing its position, and that was further causing the unlucky Celestials to suffer. The timing... could have been better. If Lex hadn’t entered the Primordial Garden, he would have likely already died.