Silence...
Not an empty silence, but a full one—brimming with all unsaid possibilities, filled with the subtle vibrations that can only be felt by a soul that has shed its final ties to form.
Li Yuan no longer had flesh to contain his spirit, no bones to restrain his steps, no breath to count the seconds of his life. He was... pure essence. A floating awareness in the space between existence and non-existence.
Yet, just as water naturally seeks a vessel, his abstract soul began to take form—not out of necessity, but from a habit etched over hundreds of years. A human figure slowly formed from a mist of consciousness, the familiar but transparent lines of a body, like a shadow made of moonlight.
He floated above an expanse of slow-moving white clouds, carried by a wind he could not feel but could still understand. His eyes—or what resembled eyes—opened, gazing at the boundless horizon with a serenity that had become his fundamental nature.
"My age now..." his voice echoed without sound, a vibration of pure meaning that needed no air to travel, "...is not measured by time, but by understanding."
The words flowed like water finding its own path, without force, without haste. Each syllable carried the weight of wisdom gathered over four centuries.
"The Dao is a path..." his gray eyes looked far into the distance, piercing through unseen layers of reality, "...the Dao will never end. As long as I do not cease to question, the path of the Dao will never die."
The high wind blew, moving the clouds beneath him like a slowly undulating white ocean. Li Yuan felt every movement—not with a skin that no longer existed, but with his entire being, which had merged with the rhythm of the universe.
"Now..." he took a breath that wasn't there, a habit of a soul still remembering its old form, "...I will understand the Oldest Breath."
The sentence hung in the air, heavy with an anticipation and uncertainty that were no longer frightening. Li Yuan had learned to embrace the unknown as a gateway to deeper understanding.
"Perhaps it will take a thousand years..." his gaze drifted to the changing horizon, from sky blue to a golden twilight, "...or perhaps even longer."
Time... a concept that once bound him, was now like a distant river—it could be heard, it could be felt, but it no longer held him captive.
With a movement that flowed like water finding its place, Li Yuan folded his legs into a cross-legged position. His transparent soul-form floated stably above the clouds, unbound by the laws of gravity yet still maintaining a familiar spiritual balance.
His eyes slowly closed—or more accurately, his consciousness began to fold inward, like a flower closing its petals at nightfall. Yet this was not sleep. This was... focus. The gathering of his entire self's essence into a single point of understanding that would expand infinitely.
The world around him began to fade—not because it was disappearing, but because his attention was shifting to a deeper dimension. The clouds, the wind, the twilight light, all became a backdrop for the true journey that was about to begin.
In a perfect silence, Li Yuan began to listen...
To the vibration that was before all vibrations.
To the breath that was before all breaths.
To the beginning that was before all beginnings.
The journey toward the Oldest Breath... had begun.