Beneath the early summer night sky, Wang Qi said softly, "According to Su Junyu, I know only my own joy, not the joy within my joy."
So-called "joy" was merely an emotion, something everyone possessed. Eating well was joy, dressing comfortably was joy, making money was joy, and marrying and having children was also joy.
"To know the joy within one's joy" meant understanding what made one happy, and why.
That was not a state everyone could comprehend.
Some people thought they loved fame and profit, yet after obtaining fame and profit, they felt even more hollow. They sighed things like, "In my next life, may I not be born into an imperial family," and denied their entire lives.
If someone with such a temperament cultivated immortality, then either the world would gain another empty shell lingering on in ignoble existence, or they would be unable to endure the suffering of eternal life, becoming mad, falling into slumber, or ending themselves.
To cultivate life but not temperament—this was the first great ailment of cultivation.
Zhen Chanzi asked, "Then have you figured it out? What exactly do you love?"
Wang Qi smiled. At last, a trace of ease showed in that smile. "I know." He had known all along.
Actually, he should have known on the day Li Ziye brought him to witness the laws of the modern age.
When he verified that the mathematical laws of the two worlds matched.
When he compared the two worlds.
When he discovered that this world could be analyzed step by step.
At that time, he had felt that perhaps he could continue the dream he had failed to finish in his previous life.
"This world is very interesting. The Great Dao pursued by modern Dharma, the truths of this world—they are all very