Under the sandmen's practiced control, the Mandala sailed through the Storm Sea with ease. Aside from the occasional need for Chen Rui to strike and cleave apart an unavoidable hurricane, they encountered no obstacles along the way.
Chen Rui stood quietly on the deck, feeling the sea breeze wash over him. More than that, he was experiencing the wondrous insights brought by nature's might between heaven and earth. This insight was something he had not felt on his previous two journeys. While his increased strength played a part, the main reason was that this time, there was no mission or urgent matter weighing on him, leaving his state of mind especially relaxed.
A Zen master once said that an ordinary heart was the foundation of enlightenment.
"Laws" were, in truth, the mystery of using oneself to evolve the natural forces of the universe. Chen Rui had already condensed the rudiments of a law. In the state of mind of an "ordinary heart," while facing the same forces of nature, the insights in his heart differed greatly from before.
By a stroke of chance, he had already touched upon the true origin of destruction—but he had merely "touched" it. The power of all things in the universe could not be mastered through idle fancy or illusion; one had to truly "comprehend" it. As an amateur enthusiast of history and traditional studies, Chen Rui clearly remembered a line by Chen Liang of the Southern Song Dynasty: "When the Way is under heaven, what thing is not the Way? A thousand paths and ten thousand tracks—all make their rules according to circumstance." The "Way" was not some illusory, untouchable thing. It existed not only in all things of the universe, but also amid everyday life.
Though this was a magical world rather than