At the end of the fifteenth lifetime's reincarnation, Lin Ming once again encountered a dangerous trial.
It was a world built entirely from nihilistic will. All meaning was deconstructed, all effort was proven futile, and all beauty ultimately turned to dust.
Amid the emotion he had been clinging to, what was the reason? There was no reason. Then why keep holding on? He did not know.
Lin Ming sat upon an ashen-white wasteland, watching his soul disintegrate bit by bit. It was not being devoured, but actively dispersing.
Since everything was destined to end in silence, why resist?
The dark-blue lotus also stopped spinning, and its petals began to close.
Just as they were about to shut completely, a speck of light emerged from the depths of the blue heart.
It was not soul-light, but something more primordial. A realization whose very existence was will itself.
No reason was needed. What was empty and illusory, what was fleeting—simply because I exist, I continue.
The blue flower bloomed again. This time, a tiny blue seed formed at the heart of the flower.
By the end of the nineteenth lifetime, the purified area of the Bodhi ancient tree had expanded to one-third.
Below the main trunk, all the secondary branches and old limbs had recovered their jade-green original color. The newly grown Bodhi leaves shone with a jade-like luster, and what flowed through their veins was no longer dark energy, but pure life essence.
Occasionally, several leaves trembled on their own, producing clear chimes like wind bells. That was the ancient tree's spiritual wisdom stretching awake.
The remaining dark patterns still sprawled over the core of the main trunk and the veins of the principal branches, but they had already lost their vitality.
The darkness no longer stirred. It clung quietly to