Enlightenment, Peril

Lu Qing had a feeling about it and believed some of the information leaked by that disciple who supposedly had insider knowledge.

He counted on his fingers—ah, no, he merely recalled the countless pieces of information overflowing from the jade slip. Geniuses drew attention wherever they went, and Lu Qing had learned that those people had likewise reached the Violet Palace Realm. As for which stage of the Violet Palace Realm they were at, that was unclear.

He frowned and temporarily set aside the matter of the grand competition. Whether he participated or not, Lu Qing did not particularly care. Now that he had reached the Violet Palace Realm while stationed here, he would presumably be allowed to leave in a year.

Counting it out, two months had already passed, leaving eight more. Lu Qing did not want any accidents to occur in the meantime.

The grand competition was a stage for geniuses to display their brilliance. Lu Qing knew his own limits. More importantly, in a place that was clearly such a grand stage, even a brick falling from the road would have an extraordinary background.

It was also the place most likely to breed resentment, hatred, and jealousy.

Impossible to kill, impossible to reason with, impossible to cut clean—a huge headache.

Lu Qing cleared away that stray thought and turned his attention inward to his dantian. His spiritual power was becoming increasingly solid, faintly giving off a flawless aura.

Within his Violet Palace, his divine soul sat in a cultivation posture.

Lu Qing's aura gradually calmed. Strands of spiritual qi were drawn by the formation into the center of the courtyard, gathering around him.

The Profound Heaven Origin Scripture was a profound, enduring high-grade cultivation art, following the path of water nourishing all things.

The Great Dao of Water was one of the fundamental laws of the cultivation world. It was commonplace enough to encounter, yet to truly enter its gates, one first had to see the mountain before entering it. Otherwise, everything would be like admiring flowers through mist; in the end, one's cultivation would instead lead to madness.

There had been no water in Lu Qing's earlier surroundings, but water did not exist in only one form. Clouds, mist, dew, and the like were also water. Lu Qing had first penetrated the Cloud Mist Formation. A grand formation capable of serving as the sect's plaque naturally possessed its own unique profundities.

Then, when he faced Jiang Lang today, Lu Qing had struck out with a palm and used Thousandfold Waves. By a fortunate coincidence, as his mind emptied, he had instead faintly touched the edge of that Great Dao.

The Great Dao was boundless and formless, emotionless and nameless. It existed throughout the myriad phenomena of past, present, and future, across all space and time.

For an ordinary person, a lifetime would ultimately yield no more than a few insights into laws.

Even Lu Qing had never imagined that he would suddenly enter such a state of enlightenment.

And it had not been enlightenment on the spot. Rather, as though the time had silently ripened, he had faintly touched that layer's edge.

The solemn sound of the Great Dao—ten thousand years could not measure its length.

Cultivating in the mountains, one did not count the passing days.

At last, the figure seated cross-legged in cultivation moved. The nameless hazy aura flowing around his closed eyes and body slowly withdrew into his flesh.

Judging from the outside alone, Lu Qing's cultivation realm did not seem to have broken through.

Yet when he opened his eyes, they revealed a rare trace of excitement, along with caution and lingering fear.

"This time, it is fortunate I was not greedy. Otherwise, I would have dissolved into the Dao."

Since beginning cultivation, Lu Qing had never encountered any great danger. Though he constantly warned himself inwardly, it was impossible to detect every danger on the path of cultivation at every moment.

This time, the danger had not come from anything else, but from this enlightenment.

He was excited because this enlightenment had indeed allowed him to touch the nameless Great Dao of Water. The vast sea's surging waves, the boundless blue of the universe—these unimaginable existences among all living things were no more than fireflies compared to the sun before the Great Dao.

Immersed in enlightenment, the Profound Heaven Origin Scripture, which had remained motionless for so long, instantly broke through to the seventh layer. His Dao Heart seemed to undergo a cleansing from within and without, washing away all the mixed impurities.

The cleansing of his Dao Heart made one unconsciously feel that this was truth itself, that the world's wonders had unfolded before one's eyes.

That rare, marvelous sensation—as though one could climb high and ascend to immortality with a mere lift of the hand—was precisely where the danger lay.

He glanced at the ominous hexagram in his mind that had warned him.

It was when the skill activated, when a sudden flash passed through his heart, that the marvelous feeling instantly dissipated and he withdrew from that enlightenment.

Thinking it over, Lu Qing understood that he had nearly stepped into grave peril just now.

To hear the Dao and behold the Dao—how could such things be done by ordinary people? If they did not die, they went mad. More often, they dissolved into the Dao, and all their cultivation became empty.

"Perilous. Truly perilous."

"I must be careful in the future and must not be greedy. On the path of cultivation, I must place one foot firmly after another."

Lu Qing silently set another rule for himself. There would always be great pits and small pits on the path of cultivation, but in the end, none could escape the mischief of greed and desire.

"After the cleansing of my Dao Heart, both my aptitude and comprehension have invisibly improved. And my understanding of the laws of water seems to have become more harmonious and intimate."

Lu Qing formed a hand seal. Threads of damp, cool water vapor emerged from his fingertips. He withdrew the seal, opened the cultivation chamber, and stepped out. With a flicker, his figure landed in the courtyard.

When he reached the front yard, he looked toward the tea tree in the corner. With a thought, he formed another hand seal, and a stream of water appeared at his fingertips. From the thickness of chopsticks, it gradually grew to the width of a bamboo tube, and he directly used that stream to irrigate the tea tree.

It was already winter. The goose-feather snow falling from the sky had stopped, and a layer of white snow covered the courtyard inside and out.

Yet the tea tree remained a deep green, especially striking beneath the vast white sky.

The weather was cold, but Lu Qing had cultivation and felt nothing. The tea tree was the same. It was not an ordinary tea root to begin with, and the icy water could not harm it in the slightest during this season.

Moreover, that icy water contained threads of spiritual power. Compared with natural rain falling from the heavens, it was even more favored by the tea tree.

Its branches swayed gently, every green leaf stretching as far as it could to absorb this sudden sweet rain.

After testing his idea and seeing the tea tree's spirited movements, Lu Qing could not help but smile. "You do know quality. You can tell the difference between rain from the sky and water from my hand."

This tea tree possessed only a faint trace of spirituality. Lu Qing could not say whether it was instinct or whether it had truly developed intelligence.

But that did not stop him from plucking two leaves to brew tea after finishing his cultivation.

This enlightenment of his was more akin to comprehending the Dao, and comprehending the Dao differed from person to person.

Yet when he emerged, Lu Qing calculated that this period of seclusion had lasted roughly half a month.

Half a month was neither long nor short.

Previously, Lu Qing had wondered why Spirit Terrace County did not resemble a county entering winter, with neither snowy light nor frozen rivers. But now, upon leaving seclusion, he saw the traces left behind by the heavy snow.