Perfect control had strangled the innate spirituality of "qi" and fettered the movements of "spirit." True mastery did not lie in stronger control, but in the "soul" that governed the three origins and allowed spirit and qi to unite naturally.
It was a deeper form of "identification" and "intermingling."
It meant "letting go," not "drawing in."
In an instant, inspiration flashed. As though drawn by an invisible force, Lu Changfeng's mind sank once more into the artistic realm of the Snowfield Mysterious Crane Painting.
Previously, when he visualized this painting, he had contemplated the wind, clouds, frost, and snow that ravaged its world, trying to reproduce their powers perfectly and strengthen his three peerless arts! He had placed himself within that bitterly cold world, yet he had remained merely an observer-an outsider trying to conquer it.
But now, his perspective abruptly changed.
His mind no longer tried to command the wind, snow, and leaden clouds filling the sky. Instead, it turned involuntarily toward the Mysterious Crane, standing aloof from the world amid those dire surroundings.
The wind still howled, the clouds still hung low, and the frost and snow remained bitterly cold.
But these three were no longer things he needed to laboriously conquer and refine.
They became the painting's "backdrop," the "stage" that set off the Mysterious Crane's proud solitude and wisdom.
The Mysterious Crane stood on one leg in the snow. However fiercely the powers of the three origins raged, its body never swayed and its spirit never scattered. It was not resisting this world-it governed this world. It was the "heart" of this realm of wind, clouds, frost, and snow, its steadfast, unyielding "soul."
I am not the wind, not the clouds, not the frost.
*I am that Mysterious Crane. The wind, clouds, frost, and snow are