Li Ling had once created the Myriad Wonders Incense Transformation Art, using supreme wisdom to fathom the five realms of the Incense Path. High-grade incenses such as Formless Incense and Dust-Transcending Incense belonged to this level.
This could also be called Immaculate Incense: dustless and immaculate, the ultimate realm of fragrance. It closely approached the state of clear emptiness and leaklessness attained by the Fragrant-Adornment Youth Bodhisattva described in the Shurangama Sutra, or achieved the same marvelous result through a different path as refining spirit to return to emptiness and refining emptiness and uniting with the Dao.
Daoist scriptures said that true water had no fragrance. Likewise, true fragrance on the Incense Path had already transcended the ordinary distinction between fragrance and stench.
The truth Li Ling realized at this moment was that the mountains, rivers, and earth, along with all conditioned phenomena, flowed and changed without pause. All would eventually transform; all were impermanent.
The Diamond Sutra also said: "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, like dew and lightning. Thus should they be contemplated."
Human perception and understanding were no exception.
Connecting all these things allowed him to feel the supreme meaning of the Incense Path's ultimate realm more deeply. He thus understood truths at the level of origin and gained a deeper comprehension of Incense Path methods in the Spirit Transformation Realm.
Born from these insights was an entirely new incense called Flavorless Incense.
On the Floating Cloud Platform, Li Ling sat cross-legged in a quiet chamber.
Before him lay a colored print.
It had been personally painted by a renowned master of the North Sea: a lifelike Immortal Cranes Dancing in the Sky.
Mountains and countless ravines lay wreathed in immortal mist. Pigments refined through various special methods lent it exceptionally brilliant