pertwk Chapter 217 Enlightenment in Water
Chapter 217 Enlightenment in Water
After having dinner at home, Lin Yan drove the two of them home. Mike, the foodie, was still savoring the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup as he got out of the car. "See you tomorrow, Mike!"
See you tomorrow, Lin!
Lin Yan drove away. He intended to go straight home, but paused slightly when he made a U-turn at the intersection.
An indescribable feeling vaguely came from the east. He looked up and saw the direction of the sea.
Without further hesitation, he turned the car around and drove towards New York Harbor. In a quiet alley not far from the harbor, he stopped the car, scanned the surroundings with his divine sense to make sure no one was around, and then stored the car in his storage ring.
He cast an invisibility talisman on himself, instantly concealing his figure and aura. Then, he activated his Wind Control Technique, and like a wisp of night wind, he swiftly swept across the sky above New York Harbor, arriving in no time at the mouth of the Hudson River where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Under the cover of night, the sea breeze carried a salty and biting chill, and the water was dark and deep. Without pausing, he sank into the icy river without a sound.
The river enveloped him, cold and heavy.
Lin Yan did not resist this force. At first, he instinctively tried to steady himself and fight against the ocean current. But the force was omnipresent, pushing and pulling him, making it difficult for him to stay still.
He gave up the fight.
He relaxed his body and let the water carry him. He was no longer himself; he became part of the water, rising and falling with its rhythm.
He was led to the front lines where fresh and saltwater clashed. The Hudson River stubbornly surged outward, while the Atlantic Ocean flowed steadily inward. The two forces churned and mixed here, indistinguishable from one another. He felt how the dust particles in the river were slowly swallowed and assimilated by the seawater, and how the saltiness of the seawater gradually permeated the river's freshness.
This reminded him of many things.
I recall the babbling of mountain streams, and also the scenes I saw on screen in my past life—turbid floods destroying dikes and engulfing fields; deep blue tsunamis forming walls of water and flattening the coastline.
Water can be gentle, flowing quietly along a riverbed; or it can be raging, destroying everything in its path. It can be contained in any container, adapting to any shape; and over long years, it can wear down even the hardest stone.
He stopped trying to control and started to experience.
Experience that resilience, that inclusiveness, that seemingly contradictory yet harmonious coexistence. His consciousness wanders in the water, sometimes in the surge of the river, sometimes in the depths of the ocean.
After an unknown amount of time, deep within his consciousness, beside the illusory human figure, a faint blue light quietly shone. It existed silently, sometimes soothing, sometimes surging, following his will.
The essence of water: an introduction.
He understood. Rigidity cannot last, nor can gentleness be maintained. True control is not about brute force, but about being like water—knowing how to flow, how to adapt, how to gather into a mighty wave when needed, and how to transform into a gentle, nourishing rain when needed.
A sudden realization dawned on me.
It turns out that the mysterious "Way of Heaven" that Charles and Master Fu spoke of was not something unattainable; it was contained within the most fundamental laws governing the operation of all things in the universe. The Way of Water is one such law.
At that moment, he seemed to find the key to the problem he had always encountered in basketball and piano—the difficulty of transforming raw power into delicate control.
Doesn't the flow and control of power, in essence, perfectly align with the characteristics of water's "flow" and "surging"?
Instead of viewing immense power as a ferocious beast to be suppressed, it should be seen as a vast river. What needs to be done is not to block it, but to guide it. Like water, it should condense into an invincible torrent when needed, and disperse into rain and dew that nourish all things when needed.
With a thought, he pointed his fingers like a sword and gently slashed across the water.
Without using any true energy, he merely used the essence of water to guide the surrounding water flow.
"laugh!"
A ripple, as sharp as a water blade, shot out silently, neatly slicing through a dark current in the distance, and only slowly healed after a while.
He then gathered the surrounding water to envelop himself, forming a thick water sphere. He guided the water sphere to the confluence of the river and the sea, feeling the impact of external forces. Once the water sphere was on the verge of breaking, he made the water sphere slowly rotate, feeling the force being drawn to the entire surface of the sphere until it was completely disintegrated.
His control over power reached a whole new level at this moment.
The eastern horizon was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.
Lin Yan awoke from that profound state of enlightenment, feeling an unprecedented clarity and fullness in his soul. He even wanted to let out a long roar to express his inner joy. With a swift movement, he broke through the water and hovered on the sea surface before dawn.
"Clang!"
A clear, melodious sword cry rang out, and the Flowing Cloud Sword transformed into a streak of azure light, appearing beneath his feet. Unlike before, the sword light was surrounded by a subtle, flowing aura of water, echoing the vast ocean below.
He vanished again, and as the dawn approached, he stepped onto his flying sword, transforming into a streak of blue light. He swept across the gradually awakening New York City, heading towards the villa, and his figure quickly disappeared into the morning mist.
The enlightenment he gained in one night surpassed that of a hundred days of arduous cultivation. The Way of Heaven had already revealed a corner of itself before him.