After a full night of contemplating the contents of Roots of the Soul, Li Yuan once again sat cross-legged in his dormitory room. The morning air brushed softly against his skin, and his breath flowed gently, like a fine thread connecting him to the universe.
Silence.
Within that silence, he tried once more, not a technique, not a form. But simply: to feel. And in that moment... he felt it again.
Something that had once been faint now emerged more clearly.
A sensation he once knew while watching water flow through the village of Ziran, the moment he asked himself, "Why is water so strong… despite appearing weak?" It wasn't just a question. It was the beginning of understanding. And that understanding now shaped something, a realm within himself.
This realm wasn't vast, but it was deep. Not bright, but not dark either. Like an empty space that wasn't truly empty.
Within it, a small ripple stirred… like the surface of a lake, still, yet alive. The air inside felt silent, yet as if it could hear every whisper of the soul.
This realm was no dream. No imagination. It was him.
Li Yuan realized, this was the initial form of an inner realm, a mental and spiritual space born not from power, but from true comprehension.
At the bottom of the lake, he saw a faint light. It was the understanding of water, one he had reached long ago. But it wasn't physical water. It was the meaning of water. Water that is soft, yet drills through stone. Water that yields, yet shapes the world.
"If I continue to understand… will each of my insights give shape to another part of this realm?"
Li Yuan slowly opened his eyes. His face remained calm, but something inside him had shifted.
"The outer world can crumble," he murmured, "but the inner world… is something even death cannot touch."
The World Within
Li Yuan sat cross-legged in the corner of his study. The Roots of the Soul lay open in his hands, but his thoughts had long drifted beyond its pages.
Silence.
One breath in, one breath out.
His awareness sank deeper, into stillness, into the self.
That inner realm returned, clearer than ever before. It was no longer just an empty space. Now, it was taking form.
He no longer saw only the surface of a calm lake. At its edges, something had begun to grow, soft earth, wisps of grass, and scattered stones.
"Water… represents gentleness that carves. That was my first understanding."
Li Yuan moved through this inner space. He didn't feel his feet, but he traveled, as if thought itself was his body. And as he recalled the concept of fire, something flickered in the distance.
He remembered his conversation with Yu Shan, not about strength, but sacrifice. About how one might burn, so others could see. Fire was not just heat, it was will, it was resolve. And there, in the distance, a red-orange glow appeared.
A small torch burned atop a stone, and the ground around it had blackened, dry, scorched, but warm.
"Fire is conviction… and steadfastness."
On the opposite shore, he recalled another truth, the silence beneath an old tree in Ziran. Days spent in stillness, when the world outside stilled, but the soul delved deeper. Suddenly, on another edge of the lake, a tall stone pillar rose.
Unmoving. Unshaken.
Still, but filled with quiet strength.
"That is understanding of stillness. Of silence that pierces through."
Now, Li Yuan understood: Each realization shaped a place within his inner realm. And those places did not emerge by desire, but by true understanding.
He looked up at the sky within that realm, not blue, but a soft gray. As if holding every color, but choosing none.
"If I understood the sky… would this sky begin to change?"
His steps came to rest at the lake's edge, between the fire and the stone.
"If understanding creates territory… then how vast could this world grow?"
Li Yuan gave a small smile.
The outer world has limits. But the world within, if shaped by insight, might be limitless.
Back in the real world, he opened his eyes slowly. His breath was light. His mind, calm. He said nothing aloud, but in his heart, he had made a decision:
"I will understand… until the world within me becomes complete."