Silence...
After the global resonance was pulled back into his spiritual dimension, after the whole world returned to its normal rhythm with a faint, still-vibrating echo of harmony, Li Yuan did not awaken from his meditation. His consciousness did not return to its usual contemplative activity, nor did it resume the analysis or reflection on what had just happened.
He simply... was still.
Not still from exhaustion. Not still from confusion. Not still from being forced or pressured. He was still because... there was nothing that needed to be done.
For the first time in over four centuries, Li Yuan felt no urge to understand something. There were no pressing questions to be answered, no tempting mysteries to be investigated, no new understandings jostling to be born.
This state was strange, yet... natural. Like someone who has traveled a very long distance and finally arrived at a place that requires no further travel—not because the journey is over, but because, for the time being, the need to move has vanished.
Li Yuan was not sleeping in the conventional sense. His consciousness remained, vigilant, and... present. But that consciousness was no longer active in the familiar way. There was no stream of thought, no process of analysis, no internal dialogue echoing in his spiritual dimension.
He existed in a state that could perhaps best be described as... pure being. Like a lake so calm that its surface resembles a perfect mirror—no ripples, no movement, just a clear reflection of the sky above it.
There were no consequences from the global release that had just happened. No energy was depleted, no fatigue followed, no "cost" had to be paid for the phenomenon that had touched the entire planet. This was not like a conventional cultivation system where using great power requires recovery or rest.
In the Daojing, understanding doesn't "use up" anything because understanding is not something that is owned or used. Understanding is... a way of being. Just as an eye doesn't "use up" sight when it sees, as an ear doesn't "use up" hearing when it listens, understanding in the Daojing doesn't "use up" anything when it resonates with the world.
Li Yuan simply wanted to be still.
Not "wanted" in the sense of a desire or will pushing him to be still. But stillness was the state most aligned with his current condition. Just as water naturally flows to the lowest point, just as fire naturally moves upward, Li Yuan was naturally in a state of stillness.
This silence was different from the understanding of Silence he had long held. If the understanding of Silence was about valuing the space where understanding can grow, then this silence was... a state where nothing needed to grow. A state where the present perfection required no addition or subtraction.
In that stillness, Li Yuan did not process the global experience that had just occurred. He didn't analyze its implications, plan his next step, or reflect on its philosophical meaning. All that might come later, but for now... for now, there was only silence.
A silence that was not empty, but full of potential that didn't need to be manifested.
A silence that was not inactive, but active in a way that required no movement.
A silence that was not an absence of understanding, but an understanding that had surpassed the need to understand.
Li Yuan was in a phase that had no name in the Daojing system—because it was not a phase that could be reached or aimed for, but a state that arises on its own when all temporary searching finds its resting point.
Perhaps this is what happens when a person touches the Dao so deeply that, for a time, the difference between the seeker and the sought disappears. Not a permanent merging, but... a pause in the search where the seeker and the sought rest in perfect harmony.
In this state, Li Yuan was neither awake nor asleep.
He was neither active nor inactive.
He neither understood nor did not understand.
He simply... was.
And in that pure existence, there was a peace that needed no reason, a calm that needed no cause, a satisfaction that needed no object.
A total silence that was not the end of the journey, but... a breath within the long journey.
A pause that would allow the next journey to begin with perfect clarity when the time came.