203: Chapter 203 Demonstration of the Heavenly Dao

Seven lights shone within the Chaos, like seven oil lamps that would never be extinguished.

Lu Mingyuan sat before them with his eyes closed, his heartbeat synchronizing with the breath of the Dao. He was in no hurry to touch, to comprehend, or to achieve Fusion. He simply sat there like a tree, taking root in the Chaos. Only when roots are deep can one grow tall. Only when the heart is still can one see clearly.

The first light was the first to brighten. It wasn't that the other lights had dimmed, but that this light was so bright it made the others seem faint. It was a golden light, as gold as the sun and as bright as day. Within that light resided order, rules, and cycles. That was the Heavenly Dao.

Lu Mingyuan opened his eyes and looked toward that light. Within the light, the Chaos was evolving. There was no heaven or earth, and no myriad things—only Chaos. The Chaos swirled, tumbled, and brewed. Then, a rift appeared. It wasn't split open from the outside; it cracked open on its own. Because the Chaos had reached its limit, it had to crack. Once it cracked, clarity and turbidity emerged. The clear rose to become the Heavens, and the turbid sank to become the Earth. Thus, Heaven and Earth were separated.

That was not Pangu opening the heavens, but the self-manifestation of the Heavenly Dao. Pangu was the executor, while the Heavenly Dao was the rule. Without rules, Pangu could not have split the Chaos. Without Pangu, the rules could not manifest. The two were two sides of the same coin, both indispensable.

The scenes within the light continued to evolve. With Heaven and Earth came the sun, moon, and stars. The sun and moon were not Pangu's eyes, but the essence of Chaos. The stars were not Pangu's teeth, but the condensation of Dao principles. They moved in an orderly fashion across the sky, rising in the east and setting in the west, repeating in cycles. That was order, the first meaning of the Heavenly Dao.

With the sun, moon, and stars came the alternation of the four seasons. Spring birth, summer growth, autumn harvest, and winter storage. All things grew, reproduced, and perished within the four seasons. It was not random, but followed a pattern. The pattern is the Dao, and the Dao is the pattern. The Heavenly Dao was not established by anyone; it was simply 'natural'. To be natural is the Dao.

Lu Mingyuan watched those scenes, completely entranced. He saw the beauty of order, the beauty of rules, and the beauty of cycles. The Heavenly Dao was neither anxious nor impatient, neither hurried nor slow. It simply operated like a precise machine. A machine has no emotions, but it has logic. Logic is the language of the Heavenly Dao.

The scenes within the light changed again. They were no longer large-scale things, but microscopic. A seed fell into the soil, sprouted, grew, flowered, bore fruit, withered, and decayed, turning back into earth. From that earth, another seed grew, and the same process happened all over again. It wasn't repetition; it was a cycle. A cycle isn't spinning in place; it is a spiral ascent. Every cycle is different, yet every cycle follows the same rules.

Lu Mingyuan suddenly remembered a saying: 'The movements of Heaven follow a constant course; they do not exist for a Sage-King like Yao, nor do they perish for a tyrant like Jie.' The Heavenly Dao will not change because of a good person, nor will it stop because of a bad person. It is what it is—neither changing nor altering, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Yet the Heavenly Dao also has deficiencies. It isn't that it wants to be deficient, but it must be. Because Perfection is death, while deficiency is life. With deficiency comes change. With change comes life. With life come the myriad things. The deficiency of the Heavenly Dao is the vitality of all things.

Lu Mingyuan saw a rift appear within the light. It wasn't a rift between Heaven and Earth, but a rift in the Heavenly Dao itself. The Rift was very thin, as thin as a strand of hair. But it existed, and its existence could not be ignored. What seeped from The Rift was not light, but darkness. Darkness is not evil; it is deficiency. The deficiency of the Heavenly Dao is the possibility of all things.

He stared at that rift for a long time. He thought of The Rift in the Northwest, he thought of the Dark Heavenly Emperor, and he thought of what the Queen Mother of the West had said: 'The Heavenly Dao is deficient, yet all things have spirits.' Deficiency is not a disease; it is destiny. The destiny of the Heavenly Dao is deficiency, and the destiny of all things is to supplement. You supplement me, and I supplement you; only by mutually completing each other can we coexist.

The Rift within the light slowly healed. It wasn't patched by an external force, but healed on its own. Because the Heavenly Dao has the ability to self-repair, just as a body has the ability to heal itself. But this repair is not infinite. If the deficiencies are too many, they cannot be patched. If they cannot be patched, it collapses. A collapse is a Seven Great Calamities.

Lu Mingyuan suddenly understood the essence of the Seven Great Calamities. A calamity is not a punishment; it is a reboot. When the Heavenly Dao has too many deficiencies and cannot patch them, it collapses. When it collapses, it reboots. After the reboot, it starts from the beginning. From the opening of the heavens to the Vicious Beasts, from the Vicious Beasts to the Dragon and Phoenix, from the Dragon and Phoenix to the Lich, from the Lich to the Investiture of the Gods, from the Investiture of the Gods to the Journey to the West, and from the Journey to the West to the Dharma Ending Age. Seven Great Calamities, seven reboots.

He let out a sigh. It wasn't out of sadness, but out of deep emotion. The Heavenly Dao is heartless, but it is not evil. It simply operates according to its own rules. Yet the living beings walking within the Heavenly Dao have feelings and love, hatred and resentment. The collision between rules and emotions is history.

The scenes within the light stopped. It wasn't that they were gone, but that the performance was over. The Heavenly Dao had demonstrated everything it needed to; the rest depended on Lu Mingyuan's own comprehension. However much he comprehended was his own. If he couldn't comprehend it, he could watch it again. The Heavenly Dao was in no hurry; it could perform countless times until he finally understood.

Lu Mingyuan closed his eyes, reflecting on everything he had just seen. Order, rules, cycles, deficiency, and reboot. Five keywords intertwined within the Heavenly Dao. Order is not rigidity, rules are not inflexibility, cycles are not repetition, deficiency is not a disease, and rebooting is not destruction. They are all manifestations of the Dao, the language of the Dao, and the breath of the Dao.

Inside his Dantian, that tree grew a little more. Ninety-one feet, ninety-two feet, ninety-three feet. it was very slow, moving like a snail's crawl. But it was growing because the power of the Heavenly Dao was being injected into the trunk. The Heavenly Dao patterns on the trunk became clearer, golden-yellow like a net woven from sunlight. The net wasn't dense, but it was sturdy. Sturdy enough to prop up a world.

Bai Ze looked at him and didn't speak. It knew Lu Mingyuan was comprehending. Comprehending the Dao requires silence, and silence requires being undisturbed. The little cat also woke up and crouched on Lu Mingyuan's shoulder, looking curiously at that light. It didn't understand the Heavenly Dao, but it felt the warmth within the light. The Heavenly Dao is not cold; it is warm. It is not heartless; it is sentient. It's just that its sentiment is different from human sentiment. The sentiment of the Heavenly Dao is fairness. It treats all things equally, without bias.

Lu Mingyuan opened his eyes and looked at the light of the Heavenly Dao. The light was still there, not extinguished. It would stay lit until the end of Chaos. He reached out his hand, wanting to touch that light. Halfway there, he stopped. It wasn't that he didn't dare, but that he wasn't in a hurry. He wanted to see the other six lights first, then integrate them all together. It was better to comprehend them all at once than to comprehend them separately. Only by comprehending them together could he see the connections between one Dao and another.

He withdrew his hand and looked toward the second light. It was earthy yellow, as thick as the earth. That was the Earthly Dao.

But he knew it wasn't time to look at the Earthly Dao yet. He had to completely digest the Heavenly Dao before looking at the Earthly Dao. One shouldn't bite off more than they can chew; one must take it one step at a time. Cultivation is like walking; you can't walk by jumping. If you jump, you'll fall. If you fall, you can get up and keep walking, but it hurts, and the pain will slow you down. It's better to be steady than to be fast.

He closed his eyes and went over the Heavenly Dao he had just seen in his mind. Order, rules, cycles, deficiency, and reboot. Every word became a picture, and every picture became a principle. Principles aren't about quantity, but depth. They must go deep into the heart and take root. Only when roots are deep can the tree grow tall.

The tree in his Dantian grew a bit more. Ninety-five feet, ninety-six feet. The Heavenly Dao patterns on the trunk turned from gold to golden-red because warmth had been added. The Heavenly Dao is not a cold set of rules; it is an order with temperature. The temperature comes from living beings, and living beings have emotions. Where there are emotions, there is temperature; where there is temperature, there is change. Where there is change, there is vitality.

Lu Mingyuan smiled. He had realized another side of the Heavenly Dao: sentiment. It wasn't that the Heavenly Dao itself had emotions, but that the Heavenly Dao did not reject emotions. Emotions are within the Dao, and the Dao is within emotions. A Heavenly Dao without emotion is dead; only a Heavenly Dao with emotion is alive. Only a living Heavenly Dao can give birth to all things.

He stood up and bowed deeply to the light of the Heavenly Dao. It wasn't worshipping a god, but an expression of gratitude. He was grateful to the Heavenly Dao for letting him see the beauty of order, the power of rules, the wisdom of cycles, the necessity of deficiency, and the hope of rebooting. Now that he had seen it, he was no longer afraid. Now that he wasn't afraid, he could move forward.

The seven lights were still shining, with the light of the Heavenly Dao being the brightest. But the other lights were not weak either; they were waiting for Lu Mingyuan to look, to comprehend, and to integrate them.

Lu Mingyuan was in no hurry to look at the second light. He sat down and continued to digest. The Heavenly Dao was too deep—so deep that he needed a long time to fully absorb it. But there was no time in the Chaos; he had plenty of time. No rush, no impatience, no obsession. He comprehended slowly, steadily, and gently.

The oil lamp glowed before him, its wick flickering. The green lotus fragment and the axe blade fragment were placed next to the oil lamp, one green and one gold. The three lights converged with the light of the Heavenly Dao, illuminating his face. There was no expression on his face, but his eyes were glowing. That light was golden, as gold as the Heavenly Dao.

Bai Ze looked into his eyes, feeling an indescribable sensation. This scholar had walked from Heyin City to Zhongnan Mountain, from Zhongnan Mountain to the three mountains, three temples, three academies, and three sects; from the Three Teachings to the secret history of the Great Desolation, from the Great Desolation to the Purple Cloud Dao Discussion, from the Purple Cloud to the fires of the Great Calamity, and from the Calamity to the pursuit of truth in the Chaos. Every step was slow, but every step was steady. So steady that he never fell and never looked back.

“Finished watching the Heavenly Dao?” Bai Ze asked.

“Finished.”

“Understood it?”

“I understood a part of it. The rest, I will understand slowly in the future.”

“That’s enough. The Dao isn't something that can be understood all at once; once you understand enough, you can walk. As you walk, you will understand more.”

Lu Mingyuan nodded. He stood up, preparing to look at the second light. But his feet didn't move because he felt he should sit for a while longer. It wasn't that he didn't want to go, but that he wasn't ready yet. The impact the Heavenly Dao had on him was too great; his heart was still vibrating. Only after the vibration stopped could he move on.

He sat down again and closed his eyes. The tree in his Dantian was now ninety-eight feet. It was only two inches away from one hundred feet. One hundred feet was a hurdle. Once crossed, it would be the Peak of the Quasi-Saint Perfection. One more step beyond that would be a Saint. But that step required the integration of all seven lights. One was not enough, two were not enough; only when all seven were present could they be unified.

He wasn't in a hurry. He would take it slow, one step at a time.

Deep within the Chaos, the light of the Heavenly Dao continued to shine. It shone to light the way for those who followed. Lu Mingyuan was a follower, yet he had already walked very far. Far enough to see the essence of the Heavenly Dao, far enough to touch the source of the Dao.

He opened his eyes, stood up, and walked toward the second light.

An earthy-yellow light, as thick as the earth. That was the Earthly Dao.