The Innkeeper

Chapter 1413  Karma I

Lex was struggling to come to terms with the fact that he was having tea with a Dao being. This was such an abrupt thing, with no forewarning at all whatsoever. Not only that, the Dao being had even offered to train him, which was extremely flattering as well as an enticing offer. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the conditions that came with that offer were too strict. Being restricted to the Origin realm for a few billion years did not exactly sound like a prison sentence, but Lex did not want to give up on the Midnight System.

He had a feeling that between the two, the system was the more precious opportunity, especially his.

To top it all off, he was inside the Dao beings Holy Kingdom, which had a spiritual field that came from the Dao being herself. This reminded Lex of the Mirage that he entered back when he faced Sekhmet.

The Dao Lords transported everyone to a place called the Mirage, which was literally inside their thoughts. Was the Holy Kingdom somewhat similar? Was that the secret to touching the Dao?

"I want to ask if you have a temple on a planet called Earth. Have you heard of it? I don't know if it's a coincidence, but there's a temple there just like yours."

"Oh yes, of course. Back in the day the Milky Way Galaxy was a really popular hunting spot for us. I think a number of powerful beings probably left their marks in that galaxy. Some might still even be there. Of course, this was before I became a Dao being, and before that place became a Death zone."

"Oh? Is there something special about the Milky Way?" Lex asked, catching onto the point that multiple powerful beings used to hunt there.

But instead of responding, Mama Pari just gave him a mischievous smile. Lex understood that maybe this was one of those things he could not casually know about. "Little boy, some things cannot be said so casually. But, to make up for it, I'll tell you something else. There's another reason I've had my eye on you since the Sekhmet incident, and I'm not the only one."

Lex suddenly straightened his back as he was alarmed. Was he being targeted by someone? Or rather, multiple people? Was there a specific reason?

"Let me give you a small lesson. I hope you don't mind. Maybe the Innkeeper has already mentioned this to you, but it won't hurt to tell you again."

"Not at all senior. Please enlighten me," Lex said.

"Don't call me senior. I prefer Mama Pari. Anyway, before I begin, what do you know about Karma?"

A light flashed through Lex's eyes. He seemed to be having trouble with Karma lately, and the issue seemed a lot graver than he initially assumed if it could even attract the attention of a Deo being.

"Not much. I know the basics. If you do good deeds, you sow good Karma and if you do bad deeds you sow bad Karma. I know having an imbalanced Karma is not good for you, though I don't understand why that is or how that happens."

"I see someone may have guided you a bit, but not quite enough," said Mama Pari. "You, my child, have quite a severe degree of an imbalanced Karma. You see, you meddled in the plans of a Dao being, and so affected the literal future of the entire Origin realm and saved or affected the lives of hundreds of trillions of beings for millions of years to come.

"You, my friend, are a literal walking, talking piece of good Karma fruit, begging to be plucked. In fact, if ordinary cultivators, even immortals, accumulate even 0.00001% of the amount of good Karma that you have, there would be a literal halo of white light over their head, visible to the naked eye.

"I cannot say why that is not happening to you, but I can only suspect it's because you have dealt with things on a similar scale before, something is balancing out your Karma, or the Innkeeper has kept it hidden. But the last one is unlikely, because to anyone with decent eyes the amount of Karma you carry is still clearly visible."

Lex's expression turned solemn. He did not quite understand the repercussions of this, but considering he was planning on traveling to a new realm for the Expo, having a literal halo of good Karma over his head visible to certain beings might not be a good idea.

"Let me explain a little. Karma is too profound a concept for you to learn. Even Dao Lords cannot fully master the intricacies of Karma, yet the basic overview can be given. It's not that doing good deeds or bad deeds affects your Karma, but that everything you do affects it. Your very existence affects Karma, and even the lack of your existence affects Karma. Every breath you take provides fuel and sustenance to a plant, yet deprives another of the same breath of air.

"The scales of good and bad, on a universal level, are not so easy to understand. For example, if you save a child's life you may think that you did a good thing, but if that child grows up to be Hitler, did you do a good thing or did you commit a sin?"

Lex was stumped, not just by the question, but from the reference Mama Pari threw as well. Had she kept an eye on Earth all this time?

"You may encounter numerous other such moral problems. For example, would you kill one person to save ten others? Would you steal from someone else just to feed your family? Would you ignore a slice of pizza in the fridge just so you can diet, only for that slice to eventually go bad? Who can judge whether these things are objectively good or bad?

"Technically, everyone can. Morality is independent of how the universe calculates Karma, and that is exactly why Karma is so difficult to calculate or understand. Keep in mind, I am still only discussing the good and bad Karma concept you mentioned, not how each action affects existing Karma, and sows new Karma. A billion years is too short to study this subject."