180: The path to enlightenment is complete!

A gentle river breeze blew, and the cargo ship swayed gently with the waves, as if the earth-shattering legends of the Innate battle were nothing more than a faint ripple on the vast Luolong River, carried away by the wind.

After speaking for nearly half an hour, the merchant ship's guard captain, Wang Hun, was now tired. He leisurely drank a little wine on the deck, gazing contentedly at the distant river surface.

As for the other guards, some were gambling and shouting loudly, while others cracked jokes, occasionally spouting off some raunchy lines that made everyone burst into laughter.

Suddenly—

On the deck, Lin Yi's brow twitched, and a sense of foreboding arose within him.

Almost simultaneously.

"Boom!"

The ship suddenly sank downward, as if pressed hard by an invisible giant hand, then was thrown high into the air!

"Ah—!"

Screams erupted. Lin Yi steadied himself against the ship's railing and looked up.

Ahead, the originally calm river surface had, without warning, swelled into a massive, dark wall of water!

The water wall spanned the river, its ends unseen to the left and right, and its height was terrifying—nearly twice as tall as the ship's highest mast!

It did not advance rapidly but moved with a calamitous, slow, and irresistible majesty, bearing down on the fleet. The sunlight was completely blocked, plunging the world into darkness, with only that moving, roaring deep-blue water wall filling everyone's vision.

Before the wave arrived, its terrifying pressure had already made the air stagnant. A howling gale, carrying icy, biting moisture, whipped against everyone's faces.

"The Dragon King is angry! It's the Devouring River Wave!"

"I... why am I so unlucky! I only go on a mission once every half month, and I run into such a natural disaster!"

"Ahhh! I can't accept this! I haven't married yet, I haven't continued my family line! Father! Mother! Your son is unfilial, I've let you down!"

...On the deck, guards and sailors alike wailed in despair.

"It's over... this kind of wave... even an Innate Master... an Innate Master would surely die if they encountered it..."

The merchant ship's guard captain, Wang Hun, had long lost the flush from his earlier boasting. His face was as pale as paper, his hand holding the sword trembling violently as he muttered to himself.

Seeing all this, Lin Yi's expression turned truly grave for the first time. This wave... was unusual.

It wasn't an ordinary storm wave; it seemed more like the earth's energy churning and the river's spiritual essence running wild. The violent power contained within was enough to twist steel into knots.

With his cultivation at the Innate Golden Core level, protecting this one ship would require his utmost effort.

As for the other four ships, there was simply no possibility of protecting them!

And even more frightening was that he had not yet comprehended the Dao. If he acted rashly and revealed his Innate Golden Core strength, he would inevitably attract the attention of the Great Yuan Dynasty.

And the Great Yuan Dynasty would surely investigate the origins of an unfamiliar Innate Golden Core thoroughly, possibly tracing it back to him.

At that time, he would not only lose the peaceful cultivation days he enjoyed now but might even provoke Yuan Emperor to hunt him down again.

That would truly be troublesome.

"Forget it! I only met these merchant ship people by chance. It's not worth risking myself for them. Later, I'll secretly save a few who catch my eye. As for the rest, let them be! There's nothing more I can do!"

Lin Yi shook his head gently. With his strength, secretly saving a few people without alerting others wouldn't be a problem.

But saving too many would make even a fool notice something was off, something he absolutely could not do.

Once his mind was made up, Lin Yi stood on the deck, silently waiting for the colossal wave to strike and destroy the ships.

And as time passed.

"Rumble!"

The massive waves grew closer and closer.

Fear! Despair! Instantly enveloped everyone.

The fleet was in complete chaos.

Some desperately tried to steady the helm, others despairingly hid in the cabins, and some even collapsed on the ground, closing their eyes to await death. Women tightly hugged their crying children, merchants clung to chests filled with gold and silver, and the ship owner looked at the cargo ship about to capsize, tears streaming down his aged face.

The myriad forms of life—fear, greed, attachment, despair... were laid bare before this overwhelming natural force.

Not far away, the increasingly close, turbid, roaring giant waves, the river water turning into billions of sparkling droplets refracting faint light in the gloom, and the thunderous sounds all appeared before Lin Yi.

All living beings, their myriad forms, fear, greed, attachment, despair, raging waves, specks of dust, all beings, and oneself.

Movement and stillness, destruction and struggle, the might of heaven and earth and the frailty of human power... and the crude application of force that Wang Hun spoke of, "splitting the river water," compared to the "water" itself before him, which encompassed everything, destroyed everything, and seemed to nurture everything.

At this moment, all of it appeared before Lin Yi, appearing in his mind.

For a moment, an indescribable, profound sensation, like this sudden, unnatural giant wave, crashed into his consciousness, leaving him completely stunned.

"Iron Sword! Are you fucking scared stiff?"

Seeing him standing motionless, Wang Hun shouted hoarsely:

"Waiting to die? Hurry and find something to hold onto!"

Wang Hun shouted while clinging tightly to the main mast, the scar on his face twisted with extreme fear.

But at this moment, Lin Yi completely ignored everything outside.

The experiences of the past five years in the bustling Mortal World, traveling through many provinces, observing the myriad forms of life, and the insights gained from each attempt at comprehending the Dao—all converged now.

Finally, as if a chemical reaction had occurred, a massive explosion took place in Lin Yi's mind, forming something new!

"Haha! So that's it! So that's it!"

On the deck, Lin Yi suddenly laughed heartily.

He laughed joyfully, laughed freely, and a glimmer of pilgrimage-like light appeared in his eyes:

"I understand! I understand everything now!"

"What is water? It is the softest, taking the shape of whatever contains it, penetrating everywhere; it is the hardest, shattering mountains and rocks, sweeping away all things."

"It can carry boats, and it can also capsize them. Its ceaseless flow is 'movement,' its gathering into deep pools is 'stillness,' its evaporation into vapor is 'change,' its freezing into ice is 'solidity'..."

"What the Innate Master split was merely the 'form of water' at a specific time and place, while what this giant wave before us displays, and what the entire Luolong River and all the rivers under heaven contain, is the 'momentum of water,' the 'nature of water,' and even more... the Great Dao of Water!"

"The Great Dao of Water is achieved!"

Once his mind was settled, an intangible, formless power, far stronger than anything Lin Yi had before, suddenly erupted from heaven and earth.

In an instant, the violently surging giant wave that had been crashing toward the ship split to both sides, leaving a calm stretch of river surface between the five ships.

The five ships floated quietly on the river surface. Despite the deafening roar of the giant waves and the suffocating icy moisture in the air, the ships remained as steady as Mount Tai, completely unmoved!

"This... this... Dragon King! The River Dragon King has manifested!"

"Dragon King, show mercy! Dragon King, show mercy!"

"Thank you, Dragon King! Thank you, Dragon King! We humble folk will definitely set up a memorial tablet for you when we return, kowtowing three times morning and night, offering incense daily!"

"Hahaha! I'm not meant to die yet! Thank you, Dragon King!"

...On the ship, the ship owner was the first to kneel, kowtowing frantically toward the river surface. The deck was instantly filled with kneeling figures, the sounds of weeping and worship echoing.

Waves of noisy gratitude and reverence filled the air, and everyone's faces were filled with boundless joy at having survived the disaster.

"No need to worship. There's no Dragon King in this river!"

Amidst the frantic kneeling and worship, Lin Yi on the deck smiled, his gaze clear, as if able to penetrate the river water and reach its essence:

"Just now, there was no Dragon King manifesting either. It was just an ordinary Martial Artist who happened to understand a little about the 'principle of water.'"

Before his words faded, reflected in the suddenly contracted pupils of everyone on the ship—

This young man in coarse cloth and short attire, named "Iron Sword," underwent a sudden transformation in his aura!

The cautious, lowly guard demeanor completely dissipated, replaced by an indescribable, profound, and boundless presence, like the Luolong River before them. It wasn't a deliberate pressure, but it made the Souls of all who felt it tremble.

Then, he stepped off the ship's railing.

He did not fall into the water but walked on air as if on solid ground, gliding past the stunned fleet. His speed was beyond Mortal imagination, instantly becoming a tiny black dot on the horizon before disappearing completely.

So fast, it was like an illusion.

Only the river breeze remained, blowing over the completely petrified people on the deck.

And Wang Hun, who was completely stunned:

"This... this, Iron Sword... he's the Dragon King, no, not the Dragon King! He's a Martial Artist, an incredibly powerful super Martial Artist!"

"Even the legendary Heaven Ranking Grandmaster don't have such Divine Abilities!"

"Could he have reached the legendary level of the Martial God? I... I, Wang Hun, just... cursed a Martial God?"

Thinking this, Wang Hun felt dizzy, then his head tilted, and he fell straight down from the main mast.