Time does not pass—it flows.
In the silence that enveloped Li Yuan's soul, the concept of time had become like water moving at its own rhythm. Not hurried, not stagnant, just... flowing in accordance with a law deeper than seconds or minutes.
Li Yuan remained in a cross-legged position, his transparent soul-form floating above an expanse of clouds that were never the same, yet never changed. His eyes were closed, but his consciousness was wide open—open to an understanding that was beginning to crystallize with a clarity he had never before experienced.
*The Oldest Breath...*
The name resonated in the depths of his soul, no longer as a distant call, but as a presence he was beginning to comprehend with his entire being. Like a person who slowly recognizes the face of a loved one in the light of dawn, Li Yuan was beginning to see—not with eyes, but with his whole essence—what he had truly been searching for for centuries.
"You..." he whispered into the silence, his voice a vibration of pure meaning that spread through the spiritual dimension, "...are not something I have just come to understand. You are... something I have experienced from the beginning, but only now recognize."
The understanding flowed like water finding a crack—slowly, but unstoppably. Li Yuan began to contemplate, with the meticulousness of a scholar but the gentleness of a mother gazing at her child, every aspect of the Oldest Breath that was now being revealed.
**Perfect Harmony...**
"You are perfect harmony," he said, and the words trembled with a profound understanding. "Not a harmony created from chaos, but the harmony that existed before chaos itself was born. You are... the original state."
Li Yuan felt how every understanding in his Daojing resonated with this truth. Water flowing without resistance—that was an echo of the Oldest Breath's harmony. The silence that enveloped without judgment—that was a shadow of the Oldest Breath's peace. Even the Qi of Chaos he had once encountered, an energy moving aimlessly and full of despair—even that was a cry of longing to return to this harmony.
"All that exists, all that has ever existed, and all that will ever exist..." his voice flowed like a prayer offered to the universe, "...all comes from You. You are the source of all sources, the origin of all the mysteries that once made my heart wonder."
In that silence, Li Yuan remembered himself as a young boy in Ziran Village, looking at the flowing river water and asking why it moved like that, where it was going. Now he understood—the water wasn't searching for something. The water was... returning home. Returning to the sea, returning to the cycle, returning to the Oldest Breath that moves all life in a perfect rhythm.
**Silence and Presence...**
"You are the silence behind all sounds," he continued, and in those words was an understanding of every silent moment he had ever experienced—the silence in the ancient library, the silence in meditation at the academy, the silence in the most profound moments with the Hexin community.
"But not an empty silence," he gently corrected his own understanding. "You are a full silence—full of all possibilities yet to be realized, full of love yet to be spoken, full of wisdom that needs no words."
Li Yuan felt how all the identities he had ever worn—as Li Yuan the village boy, as a student at the academy, as a wanderer, as Li Qingshan living in Hexin—were all layers over a more fundamental existence. The Oldest Breath was what lay behind all the masks, behind all the names, behind all the stories he told about himself.
"You are my true self," he whispered with a recognition that trembled with emotion. "The self that was never born and will never die, the self that existed before I had a name, before I had a form, before I had a story."
**Home and the Beginning...**
The next understanding came like a wave of warmth that swept through his entire being. Li Yuan felt tears he could not shed—because he no longer had eyes—but the emotion was there, pure and profound.
"You are home," he said, and his voice trembled with the longing he had carried for over four centuries. "The home I never truly left, even though I thought I had wandered so far. Every step I took, every understanding I reached, every community I formed... they were all ways of remembering the path back home to You."
He remembered the warmth of the Hexin community, how he felt so at home there, how the simple love from Lin Sao, the friendship of Chen Wei, and the trust of his adopted children had brought him immeasurable happiness. Now he understood—that happiness was an echo of a greater happiness, an echo of the feeling of true homecoming.
"Every time I felt at home," he continued in a voice full of awe, "it was because I was remembering You. Every time I felt peaceful, it was because I was in contact with Your ever-present presence."
**The Gathering Point of All Possibilities...**
Li Yuan felt his consciousness begin to expand, like ripples on the surface of water that kept growing. He began to feel not only his own presence but also... something greater. A space, a point, a place that was not a place.
"The lowest ground," he whispered, using a term he had known but only now truly understood. "The place where all waters gather, the place where all souls return, the place where all possibilities wait to be manifested."
He felt that spiritual gravity, a gentle but unstoppable pull that directed everything toward a single point—not a point in physical space, but a point in the dimension of meaning, a point where all searching ends and all journeys begin.
"It is there that You breathe," he said with a deep understanding. "It is there that the rhythm of the universe pulses, it is there that all harmony originates, and it is there that all who are lost will eventually find their way home."
**A Shift in Perception...**
Li Yuan remembered his long journey, how he first felt the vibrations of the Oldest Breath as a faint whisper in his childhood dreams. A vibration so subtle he barely noticed it, yet real enough to make his soul restless, to make his heart wonder.
"From the very beginning, You have been calling me," he said with awe. "Not with a loud voice, not with promises or threats, but with... longing. Your longing to be known, to be remembered, to be understood."
He felt how that vibration had changed over the course of his journey. When he was young and understood nothing, the vibration was like a very distant song. When he began to develop his first understandings of Water and Silence, the vibration became clearer, like a heartbeat becoming more audible in the quiet of the night.
"And now," he smiled—a soul's smile that needed no lips, "Your vibration is so clear that my entire being trembles in resonance. No longer a call from afar, but... the same breath. The same rhythm. The same existence."
**The Relationship with the Qi of Chaos...**
The most surprising understanding came when Li Yuan contemplated the Qi of Chaos he had once encountered. An energy that moved without purpose, filled with unnamed despair and longing.
"Even the Qi of Chaos..." he said with deep gentleness, "even that most lost of energies... it weeps from a longing to return home to You."
Li Yuan felt an understanding that made his soul tremble with compassion. The Qi of Chaos was not an enemy of the Oldest Breath. The Qi of Chaos was... a lost child, an energy that had forgotten the way home but whose heart still remembered the warmth of that home.
"The Qi of Chaos is the result of lost harmony," he continued, "like a noise that obscures beautiful music, or mud that sullies clear water. But behind all that chaos, there is still a longing to return to the original state, to return to perfect harmony."
He understood now why his understanding of the Qi of Chaos became a gateway to something more fundamental. To truly understand the Oldest Breath, one needed to understand what happens when that harmony is lost, when that unity is broken, when the one becomes many and the peaceful becomes chaotic.
"And in understanding the chaos," he whispered with awe, "I understood how precious the harmony is. In feeling the longing of the Qi of Chaos, I felt my own longing to return home."
**The Cycle of Nature...**
Li Yuan felt the next understanding flow like water finding its channel. The Oldest Breath was not an endpoint, but part of an unending cycle.
"You are not a destination," he said with an understanding that surprised himself. "You are... the cycle. Like water that falls as rain, flows into a river, gathers in the sea, evaporates into a cloud, and falls again as rain."
He felt how his own journey was a part of this cycle. From the innocence of childhood, through searching and wandering, to enlightenment and service, then back to the state of pure soul, and now... returning to the source.
"But not returning as an end," he continued with awe, "but returning as a new beginning. Every time someone returns home to You, they do not end—they... begin again, with a deeper understanding, with a greater love, with a broader capacity to give."
**Goodness and Fear...**
The final understanding that flowed into Li Yuan's consciousness was the most personal, the one that touched the core of all his life experiences.
"You are what happens when a person is no longer afraid of the consequences of their goodness," he said in a voice trembling with emotion. "When a person chooses to breathe even if the world stops breathing with them."
He remembered all the moments in his life when he chose to do good even though he didn't know the consequences. When he shared his understanding at the academy, when he helped stop a war, when he chose to live simply in Hexin and serve the community, when he chose to "die" as Li Qingshan so that his legacy could continue.
"Every time I chose goodness without calculating the profit and loss," he continued, "I was breathing in Your rhythm. Every time I chose unconditional love, I was moving in Your harmony. Every time I chose understanding over judgment, I was returning home to You."
**A Complete Understanding...**
Li Yuan felt all these understandings merge into a single, complete awareness. The Oldest Breath was no longer a mystery he was searching for, but a reality he was living. No longer a future destination, but a presence in the current moment. No longer something separate from him, but... his true self.
"I understand now," he whispered with perfect peace. "The journey to You is not about going to a place. The journey to You is about... remembering who I truly am. About letting go of all that is not my true self, until all that remains is... You breathing through me."
In the silence that followed, Li Yuan felt something change in his being. Not a dramatic change, but a subtle and profound one—like the sun slowly rising, turning night into morning without commotion, simply with a gentle, yet unstoppable presence.
The journey toward the Oldest Breath... had become a journey with the Oldest Breath.
And in that awareness, the thousand years he had anticipated... began to take on a completely new meaning.