Enlightenment

There were no cultivators in the world, and Ye Qin was currently the only snake who had embarked on the path of cultivation. Faced with this question, he could not help sinking into deep thought.

At present, there were only two possible answers:

One was that cultivators truly did not exist in this world;

The other was that cultivators were too secretive to be discovered through ordinary books, and only the nation knew of them?

Ye Qin could not say how to distinguish between these two possibilities, but no matter which was true, finding out would help his cultivation.

"The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth; the named is the mother of the myriad things."

"Therefore, ever without desire, one observes its wonders; ever with desire, one observes its boundaries."

"These two arise from the same source but differ in name. Together they are called mystery. Mystery upon mystery—the gateway to all wonders."

Looking at the Dao De Jing before him, Ye Qin was instantly drawn in. These words from the Dao De Jing had spread far and wide; in his previous life, he had heard them countless times.

Basically, anyone from Great Xia could recite a couple of lines.

But back in his previous life, he had only chanted them like a rhyming jingle. He had never been able to grasp the feeling he had now.

"Is this because of cultivation?"

The Dao De Jing had been written by Laozi. It could be said that the book contained unique insights into the formation of the universe and the laws of nature.

Even the concept of the "Dao" had first been proposed by Laozi. He believed that Heaven was not eternal, nor was it the most fundamental existence. The most fundamental thing was the Dao.

Walking the Dao, cultivating the Dao, and attaining the Dao—all of these took the Dao as their ultimate goal.

Yet this believer in the "Dao" had never clearly stated that he had "attained the Dao."

Because of the limitations of his own condition and his lack of innate spirituality, he could only stop there. Otherwise, what the book described would not have been limited to this; it should have contained specific cultivation methods.

Through these scattered words and fragments from the ancient texts, Ye Qin, as someone who had lived through it himself, formed some speculations.

From the clues hidden between the lines, he guessed that Laozi might well have been on the verge of embarking on the path of cultivation back then. It was even highly possible that, like himself, Laozi had once entered a state of meditation for a fleeting moment!

That state had been too wondrous. Ye Qin still remembered it vividly, but unfortunately, it was not something one could enter at will. It required an immense stroke of fortune.

After entering that state, one would fall into an extraordinary feeling of sudden enlightenment. Thoughts turned at astonishing speed, and understanding of all things seemed innate, filled with profound mysteries.

Ye Qin had also opened the path of cultivation by a fortuitous coincidence after entering that state of meditation.

However, Ye Qin discovered that ancient sages like Laozi had been trapped by their own limitations and stopped outside the gates of cultivation. They had been unable to advance even one step further throughout their lives.

That was why Laozi had summarized everything he had thought and felt and left behind these words.

Because that state of meditation, though fleeting, had given him considerable inspiration, allowing him to create many renowned works of thought.

He hoped to inspire later generations, placing his hopes in the possibility that someone with extraordinary talent would appear in the future and fulfill the long-held wish he himself had been unable to complete.

Later generations recorded that Laozi had traveled west and withdrawn from the world. When he reached Hangu Pass, Yin Xi, the commandant of Hangu Pass, climbed a tower and gazed into the distance. Seeing purple qi coming from the east, he knew that a sage was about to arrive.

Legend had it that before Laozi passed through Hangu Pass, Yin Xi, the official guarding it, saw a mass of purple qi drifting from the east. Believing that a sage must be arriving, he hurried to welcome him. Sure enough, he saw Laozi slowly approaching on a blue ox.

Yin Xi hosted Laozi for several days and asked him to write something. Unable to refuse, Laozi left behind the famous Five Thousand Words, which the world called the Dao De Jing.

This was the origin of the Dao De Jing.

Perhaps it was true, but some of it had also been exaggerated.

"It seems Laozi's journey west back then may have been for the sake of breaking through his own limits and seeking a method of cultivation. Perhaps, like me, he discovered that humans lacked spirituality and could not enter the path of cultivation. In the end, he could leave behind only a legacy of thought, without any method of cultivation."

Ye Qin did not know whether Laozi had ultimately found a solution.

But there was a very high chance that he had not. Otherwise, when he reached Hangu Pass, what he left behind should have been a specific cultivation method, rather than the famous work of thought known as the Dao De Jing.

It could not be denied that Laozi had possessed extraordinary talent. Merely through a moment of sudden enlightenment, he had gained such profound insight—enough to show his gifts and brilliance.

Unfortunately, his innate conditions had been insufficient. Bound by innate shackles, he was still a human and ultimately possessed no Spiritual Energy. Otherwise, who could say that he might not truly have become the first cultivator?

Over the five thousand years from antiquity to the present, there had perhaps been many sages like Laozi. Perhaps, in ancient times, some people had truly touched the gates of cultivation and glimpsed the dawn. Yet because of their own limitations and those imposed by Heaven and Earth, they had been unable to find a cultivation method and could only leave behind a few scattered words to enlighten later generations.

One could name several such people offhand, such as Lü Dongbin and Zhuangzi.

Ye Qin was deeply moved and found it a great pity, but even works of thought were enough to inspire him greatly.

Before entering the path of cultivation, these great works of thought could only enlighten the mind. But after entering cultivation, one would discover that the thoughts of these ancient sages were truly far ahead of their time and profound, containing great wisdom!

They were not cultivation methods, but rare summaries of insights into Heaven and Earth and the natural world.

He continued flipping through the ancient texts, while also reading quite a few books related to snakes.

"I am different from these people. They could not break through the limitations of Heaven and Earth, but I have a snake's body and a human soul. Spirituality and wisdom coexist within me. This is my fortune."

In other words, Ye Qin had now been reborn into this Little Black Snake, possessing wisdom and surveying the past and present. He was the sole exception—and the variable.

When an extraordinary object descended from Heaven, great change was sure to follow.

Human wisdom combined with the innate spirituality of an animal, evolving into an unparalleled talent for sudden enlightenment. On top of that, he himself was someone who had died and returned to life, one who had been born only to die again.

With all these factors reinforcing one another, Ye Qin could easily sense the natural world and all living things. What those people could not sense, he could.

Their sudden enlightenment might last only a moment, but Ye Qin's could last a long time.

After all, since ancient times, snakes had been endowed with divinity by humans and had always carried an air of mystery.

The snake totem had existed since time immemorial. In ancient times, it had possessed a vast popular foundation. Many ancient tribes and peoples worshiped snakes, believing them to be sacred beings capable of bringing blessings that endured through generations.

Fuxi, Gonggong, Zhulong, and other ancient deities all had human heads and snake bodies.

Needless to mention the famous Nüwa, who repaired Heaven and created humanity and was hailed as the Mother of the Earth—she was the most typical example of all.

Of course, his original body had merely been an ordinary Little Green Snake. But right at the moment between life and death, he had crossed over into it.

The body that should have died had once again burst with vitality. Combined with the reason of a snake's body and a human soul, a wondrous magnetic field had formed. Then, with the spirit of an animal added to the mix, the collision produced an unparalleled talent.

With all these blessings, Ye Qin had been able to grasp the knack of entering the path so quickly, and had even gained an extraordinary ability for sudden enlightenment. This could be seen directly from his cultivation.

Everything could only be described as a twist of fate. At its root, it all came down to a single word: "fate."

Yet the workings of fate were wondrous beyond words and impossible to explain.

All of Ye Qin's cultivation methods had been explored and created by him alone. They belonged exclusively to him. One could say that he had opened a road with no precedent in the past and no successor in the future.

But that did not mean that there were no traces left by those who came before.

If he had not seen the Yellow Emperor's Classic of the Inner Elixir, he would never have thought of using cultivation to resolve his predicament.

The workings of fate were mysterious indeed.

Just as he was now studying ancient texts in the library, Peering into Antiquity and Exploring the Present, searching for traces of those who came before to answer his own questions.

Before he knew it, the night had already passed. Hearing footsteps outside, Ye Qin abruptly came to his senses and glanced at the sky beyond the window.

"The sky's already bright?"

To him, it seemed as though only a dozen minutes had passed.

(End of chapter)