The first light was mystery—deep, weighty, saturating all things and seeping through every crack. It was skill at the absolute pinnacle, perfection achieved, dense without the slightest flaw.
Its name was water, and it was also mystery: the manifestation of the Dao. Dispersed, it became Qi; condensed, it became weapons. Used with consummate mastery, it gave rise to countless Supernatural Abilities.
[Method]
The so-called "method" was a discipline, but also a means. Any action that used power to achieve an end could be called a method.
It was structure, and it was order. It cleared riverbeds for water, shaped molds for ice, created vessels for mist, and laid down immutable Dao and commandments for every transformation. It was understanding, and imitation; law and decree, and a form of control.
The source of methods was breathing, eating, sleeping, and sexual desire. For the original laws that life could not defy—the first commandments—were these self-evident actions: methods that, so long as they were followed, achieved the goal of "existence and continuation."
Yet these were, in the end, merely for "humans."
To become an "immortal," to become a "god," one needed new methods—higher methods, stronger methods, harsher methods, deeper methods... methods that could restrain human nature, suppress beastly nature, bring sublimation, grant release, resist corruption, and fulfill the self.
Thus, the first lawmakers laid down the first "commandments."
"Restrict output, and gain precision." "Restrict precision, and gain power." "Restrict range, and gain force." "Restrict targets, and enhance effects."
"Microscopic mastery beyond common sense." "Unthinkable eruptions." "Power refined down to the smallest detail." "Spirit-light that endured without extinguishing"...
That was what methods were. The same power, through different methods, different restrictions, different commandments and molds, could form entirely different "arts."
Cultivators used methods to shape the Dao, then used edicts and laws to refine