Everything within the Palace Tree before Zhang Tie's eyes suddenly became "clean" in his consciousness, shifting into another state. Zhang Tie could not describe what that state was, but in it, he discovered that everything he saw seemed to have lost its "name."
The clothes on Heller's body were no longer clothes.
The stone steps beneath his feet were no longer steps.
The furnishings in the Palace Tree's hall were no longer furnishings.
All things were seamlessly one, yet each stood alone, free of the shackles of every label and concept in the human mind, restored to their purest, cleanest, most solemn state—a state brimming with infinite possibilities.
Zhang Tie quietly gazed at the steps beneath his feet. They no longer had a name; they were no longer even stone. They were no longer humble or ordinary. In this world, nothing was truly humble or ordinary. It simply existed somewhere, in some form visible to you—solemnly and beautifully. As Zhang Tie looked at it, it looked back at him. Then, both Zhang Tie and it became "joyful." Zhang Tie stared blankly at the steps, and all at once, his heart filled with boundless serenity and sweetness.
In this state, when Zhang Tie looked at a stone, he felt as though a person deeply in love were looking at a long-separated lover reunited at last, or as though a jeweler were beholding a peerless piece of beautiful jade.
The feeling gave Zhang Tie quite a fright. He wondered if something had gone wrong with his head. He was merely looking at the stone steps before him, yet his heart held the same joy one would feel when looking at a lover or the most flawless treasure in the world.
The moment Zhang Tie's attention scattered, he abruptly withdrew from that strange