After leaving the lone peak in the wilderness, Lin Yan did not hurry on his way.
Although he had forcibly suppressed the backlash from his failed divination with the Qingjing Jing, the injury to his sea of consciousness would not heal overnight.
He needed time to gently nurture it back to health.
More importantly, this failure had deepened his understanding of this world.
He found a secluded stream valley and sat cross-legged, regulating his breathing as he reflected on why he had failed.
I took too much for granted, Lin Yan admitted to himself.
All along, he had unconsciously equated Nen with Qi.
He had believed they were merely different names for what was essentially the same life energy.
That understanding was not wrong.
But it was not comprehensive enough.
Nen was indeed an energy possessed by every living being in this world.
However, this world's rules endowed Nen with an exceptionally unusual-and exceptionally powerful-property.
That property was adaptability.
Through Hatsu, a person could mold their Nen into all manner of Nen Abilities with astonishing powers.
Enhancement could make the body harder than steel.
Emission could strike people at a distance, taking a life from a thousand miles away.
Transmutation could alter Nen's form and properties.
Manipulation could control all things, even people's minds.
Conjuration could even create objects with special abilities out of thin air.
And then there was the most mysterious category, Specialization, whose abilities defied all conventional reasoning.
Nen is like this world's clay.
Understanding dawned on Lin Yan.
And Hatsu is each Nen user's unique method of shaping that clay.
Before, I kept trying to use the carving tools I brought with me-Taoist arts-to carve directly into this world's unyielding stone: its rules. No wonder I ran into obstacles at every turn.
*The right approach should