90: Chapter 91 The Final Chapter of the Mortal Transformation Realm

Amidst the waves, the Kunpeng's back was like a moving continent.

After discussing the Dao with the Divine Birds, A Fan stood in the eye of the hurricane whipped up by the Kunpeng's travels, his sleeves unmoving:

"Senior takes the movement of the sea and the mandate of heaven as your breath. May I ask, Senior, what is it that your Dao seeks?"

His small dharma body, compared to that ninety-thousand-mile Kunpeng body, was as tiny as a mustard seed.

A massive consciousness pressed down like a tsunami: "Kid, you are quite bold!"

"No one has ever dared to stand upon my back."

Hearing this, A Fan quickly apologized:

"My apologies..."

"No matter!"

The Kunpeng replied heartily.

"Since you have asked with such sincerity, I shall show mercy and tell you!"

This was somewhat beyond A Fan's imagination; not only did the Kunpeng not mind that small matter, but it was actually happy to discuss the Dao with him.

"My Dao is freedom."

"The sky? The sea?"

"I transform my feathers to become a Peng and grow fins to become a Kun. Where can I not go?"

"And..."

In the next moment, the continent-sized body of the Kun suddenly transformed, leaving an empty space in the entire sea area.

In the blink of an eye, the Kunpeng turned into a seven-foot-long green fish.

But the waters it swam in were still this very sea.

Seeing this, A Fan remained silent and silently took out the measuring ruler he had used while managing the floods in the mortal world.

He reached out and placed the ruler into the emptied sea area.

That ruler could not measure the original size of the waters, but it could measure the transformed seven-foot green fish.

"The great carries the small to achieve its magnitude."

"The small reflects the great to reveal its depth."

"Knowing the great and being able to be small, knowing the small and being able to be great, expanding and contracting at will, free and unfettered—this is my Dao."

"As for the true [Dao], it is formless and substanceless, a thing of the ultimate subtle; even I have not been able to find the answer."

Looking at the transforming Kunpeng, A Fan was lost in thought.

He stared at a water droplet kicked up by the Kunpeng; before returning to the rivers, it actually mirrored the reflection of the entire sky.

"This Junior has been enlightened!"

He immediately bowed with cupped hands... "There are legends that the great sun in the sky is one eye of the Zhulong."

"Senior, could it be that your Dao is just chasing the sun so aimlessly?"

A Fan followed the tracks of the sun-chaser and met Kuafu passing through the Wilds of Cangwu.

One of Kuafu's eye sockets was chillingly icy, while the other was blazingly fiery.

"Hahaha, whether it be the eye of the Zhulong, the Golden Crow perched on a branch, the teachings of Xihe, or the stars of the Universe."

"I want to know them all!"

"So, it is the pursuit of knowledge?" A Fan asked.

"You could say that."

"But my Dao is not that shallow. What I chase is not just the sun, but the act of 'chasing' itself."

"Even if you die of exhaustion because of it?" A Fan continued to press.

"Exactly! Hahaha!"

"If I stop, then I am dead!"

Kuafu laughed loudly, his laughter shaking off the snow from the mountain peaks for ten thousand miles around.

Watching the back that disappeared over the horizon while running, A Fan was lost in thought... After encountering all kinds of life in the Mountain and Sea, A Fan came above the Nine Heavens.

This place was without sound or color.

In the absolute silence, he looked back on what he had seen and heard in the Mountain and Sea and the mortal world.

When a thought arises, do not welcome it; when a thought perishes, do not see it off.

Just like ripples occasionally appearing on the surface of a lake, knowing it is the wind and knowing it will settle, one simply lets it rise and fall.

His feather robe suddenly moved without wind, and the hem flowed with a halo of circulating star rivers.

In the Void Realm, fine dust of light attached to his feather robe, condensing into new patterns.

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is..."

At this moment, he finally understood what "the ultimate subtle" of the Great Dao was.

It was not that there was nothing, but rather the most authentic state of all things.

A Fan saw his own memories fading.

But it was not forgetting; rather, it was having a different understanding of his past memories.

The fear of being pecked and injured in his youth transformed into the universal instinct of birds to survive.

The unwillingness of falling during a Lightning Tribulation while flying transformed into the ambitious aspiration to start over.

"So [I] am just a set of reaction mechanisms pieced together by chance."

When this thought emerged.

The silhouette named "A Fan" dissipated like morning mist meeting the early sun.

There was no pain, only a lightness of finally having laid down a heavy burden.

It turned out that he himself was originally an illusion created by the "Notion of Self."

In the next moment, his human form collapsed with a bang.

Five fingers gathered into feathers, two feet merged into tail plumes, and the spine stretched section by section into the arc of flight feathers.

But before completely turning back into a bird, this process suddenly froze.

A Fan realized that the human form was also just a state, a type of Dao Rhyme.

The sense of groundedness from measuring the earth with feet, the reality of holding life in palms, and the weight of bearing responsibility on shoulders.

These were all experiential filters imposed on consciousness by this skin bag obtained by chance.

Now he saw through it.

The filter naturally shattered.

Neither was more real, nor was either more illusory.

All forms flowed between each other.

Like water migrating between different containers, yet remaining water throughout.

After this thought flashed by, a new collapse began within his consciousness.

All the faces, voices, and stories he had once remembered were reduced from individual plot points back into segments of characters.

There was no good, no evil, no sacrifice, and no scraping by.

Only the combination and decomposition of matter under the heavenly laws of the Mountain and Sea.

The enlightenment continued, and his sense of time disappeared.

A Fan saw his entire life laid out flat like a scroll.

The first second the eggshell cracked and the last moment of ascending to the azure clouds were actually the same coordinate point in absolute spacetime.

All development, growth, and transformation were merely projection errors of his consciousness on the timeline as an observer.

The great war of Yao Beasts and the destruction of cities by floods happened simultaneously.

The incense of the Qingming Temple and the weeds of the old nest on the low cliff grew together.

Breaking out of the shell and flying into the azure clouds occurred at the same time.

Even this very moment of "presently attaining enlightenment" was itself becoming the "past."

At the instant he realized the "now," A Fan finally touched that eternal "present."

A singularity without length, without passage, encompassing all past and future.

"All that has form is deceptive and illusory," A Fan muttered silently.

These eight words were not scriptures, but a factual heavenly law that was currently unfolding.

A Fan.

He used this name for the last time.

"From now on, I am not called A Fan; I am called..."

"[Qingming]."

He was no longer A Fan, but the vast and distant azure sky.

When the dust of all forms settled, [Qingming] opened his eyes.

He saw it.

He saw the Dao.

No words could describe what he saw and heard at this moment.

Future seekers of the Dao would only know... "The Dao dwells in emptiness; so this saying was not a lie after all."

[Qingming] lowered his gaze, looking down upon all living beings in the Mountain and Sea, and could not help but show compassion.

"The true [Dao] is formless and substanceless, a thing of the ultimate subtle..."

In the face of the eternal [Dao], everything in the Mountain and Sea.

Had no story, no meaning.

No distinction between greatness and insignificance.

"Is this the truth of the [Dao]? How cruel..."

[Qingming] felt a sense of lament.

Within the void of the Universe's torrent, individual life holds no meaning whatsoever.

No matter if you are a Divine Bird capable of constant Nirvana or a Kunpeng soaring freely, you are but a grain in the void.

Suddenly, in the midst of nothingness, [Qingming] froze.

Within the spiritual sense he left in the mortal world, he heard the cry of a baby.

"Waah—waah—"

The cry was not loud, yet it resonated in his heart.

Suddenly, all the memories of the past in the Mountain and Sea became clear again.

The corners of his mouth curled up, first in a bitter smile, and then in a wild, frantic laugh.

"Ha..."

"Hahahaha!!!!"

[Qingming] laughed loudly, his laughter trembling the Nine Heavens.

So what if there is no meaning and everything is void?

Better to be like Kuafu, living towards death!

...In a small house in the Qingming Grotto-heaven.

"Revered Master! You're back!"

Ziwei rushed toward Qingming and gave the man a big hug.

"A Zi, while I was away these past few days, have you been slack in your cultivation?" Qingming gently braided the girl's hair.

"I've been very diligent! But as for you, Revered Master, were there any interesting things while you were out these days?" Ziwei pouted, a Spell he had left for her to practice floating on her fingertips.

"Not bad, you've mastered the Illumination Spell just like that; as expected of my Disciple." Qingming smiled gently.

"It just so happens that I visited a few old friends and learned a few more Divine Abilities. Do you want to learn?"

"It seems there really is something new! I want to hear stories!" Ziwei had little interest in learning new Spells, but was very interested in the stories of her Revered Master's travels.

"Good, good, I will tell them all to you one by one."

...The Mountain and Sea and the mortal world.

A certain baby who had just learned to crawl suddenly looked up and stopped crying.

A strand of strange light leaked through a gap in the clouds.

He reached out to grab it, his palm touching a void of warmth.