The morning sky slowly lit up, like ink seeping into white cloth.Thin mist still lingered between the thatched rooftops and dew-covered leaves.At the foot of the shaded mountains, the village of Ziran was no longer what it once was.
Three hundred souls now walked upon earth once trodden by only a hundred pairs of feet.New children laughed with those born earlier in the village.People from distant towns and valleys arrived carrying questions the outer world could not answer—but here, answers were not always given.Only silence.Sometimes a book with no words.And a man who walked slowly at the edge of time.
Li Yuan sat beneath an old tree, his eyes resting on roots digging into the earth.He said nothing, yet the world responded.A bird landed gently on his shoulder, and a passing child did not disturb him—only bowed, with a reverence no one had taught.
After Ganjing: A Quiet Shift
Days had passed since his understanding of wrapping entered the Realm of Ganjing.He hadn't told anyone—not even himself.What changed was only a deeper silence,a thicker feeling.
His understanding of Water, which had arrived earlier, no longer flowed outward.He now wrapped them both within—like the sky holding clouds without releasing rain.
Change Without Sound
Zhao Ren, one of the earliest newcomers, noticed something odd.When he sat near Li Yuan, he felt no need to speak.Not out of fear,but because the air itself seemed to protect silence as something sacred.
"Why do I feel… no need to say anything?" he murmured, barely audible to himself.
At the library, visitors read wordless books.But they didn't feel cheated.In fact, from those blank pages, they began to recognize themselves.Page by page, they mirrored an inner life often too loud to be seen.
Someone once said,
"The most honest book… is the one that doesn't speak."
Directionless Growth
Ziran offered no cultivation techniques.There were no exams, no levels, no ranking of the strongest youths.Yet people still came.
They came not for power,but for understanding.For some reason, they sensed that true strength did not always look like strength.
A farmer from the north came with his family.A widow from the west brought her nursing child.A student from the eastern academy came quietly, without telling her teacher.And an old man from the south came only to see the sunrise from a different place.
Li Yuan never told anyone to stay—but he never asked anyone to leave.
He simply was.
"Elsewhere, we are always forced to change.Here… change happens because the force stops,"someone once said.
The Elderly and the Moving Roots
The elderly of the village, once powerless before a world that wouldn't stop spinning, now learned alongside children.
In the Library of Rooted Souls, there was no age divide.Some read letters,some just stared at pages,some simply sat in silence for hours.
"Even sitting is a form of learning,"said an old mother, gently stroking a blank page.
And the world responded.Crops grew faster.The stream no longer flooded during heavy rains.Birds no longer feared humans.Nature itself seemed to be listening.
One Quiet Vessel
Li Yuan realized something:Wrapping was not merely about hiding,but the willingness not to spread.
In a world obsessed with visibility,to hold understanding inward became true strength.
And in the Realm of Ganjing,that strength was not used to protect himself from the world—but to protect the world from himself.
As he walked through the village,a radius of silence followed.
Children stopped fighting.Adults spoke more softly.Even the wind refused to blow too hard.
But none of it came from force.It came from a quiet that protected.
Unreadable, Yet Felt
Some newcomers tried to understand who Li Yuan truly was.But whenever they tried to "read" his heart,they found only absence—as if he were an empty space with no walls for reflections.
And yet…they felt something.
Something warm, yet never touching.Deep, but never drowning.Like a calm lake hiding immeasurable depth.
"He's not strong in the usual way,"said a former warrior."But the world… doesn't dare touch him."
Present Without Disturbance
The power of wrapping grew clearer during near-conflict.
A new youth, hotheaded and used to leadership, spoke loudly.He questioned the lack of rules in the village.
But before his anger could spread,he felt… tired.
Tired of yelling.Tired of being the center.Tired of explaining what needed no explanation.
And so, he fell silent.Not out of defeatbut because he understood:not every chaos needs to be answered with a voice.
The Soft Settling
Some said:
"Near Li Yuan, you forget ambition… only to remember yourself."
To some, that was frightening.But to those seeking a path unmarked—it was a blessing.
For those who only wanted power, this silence was a wall.But for those seeking meaning, it became space.
A Garden Without a Name
Li Yuan began something without announcing it.
He cleared a small patch of land beside the library.Planted wildflowers and grasses he'd gathered from the forest.He gave it no name.Put up no fences.Invited no one.
Yet one day, some children sat there.The next, the elders joined.Then someone meditated.Someone wrote.Someone simply looked at the sky.
The garden grewbut it was never owned.
Like understanding.Like Li Yuan himself.
A New Realization
At night, Li Yuan reflected within his inner world.
Two understandings had entered the Realm of Ganjing:Water,and now,Wrapping.
Neither wished to become power.
They only wished to be.
And he realized—perhaps that is the purpose of Daojing:Not to conquer.Not to dominate.But to resonate with meaning without harming it.
The Realm of Ganjing is not the beginning of strengthbut the beginning of hearing.Of feeling.Of not wounding meaning.
Ziran did not radiate a bright light.But it drew those tired of the light that burns.
And Li Yuan, in his silent steps,continued to hold meanings that grew in stillness.
He did not offer them to the worldbut the world knew he carried them.
Not because the world read him.
But because the world felt.