Chapter 173: CH. 173 | Philosophy
Lin Tian’s mind and soul drifted back through memories long past, starting from the very moment he’d first set foot in Sect Lingxian, all the way to that life or death battle against twelve Perfect Nascent Soul cultivators.
His soul now stood in a different dimension altogether, a sky scattered with stars and galaxies, meteorites streaking across it now and then.
The sight alone was enough to leave him disoriented.
He wasn’t in the saintess valley anymore, nor the golden palace, nor Sect Lingxian.
He stood on an empty, flat expanse of land, ground submerged beneath standing water. He stood directly atop its surface.
Beyond the strange setting itself, he heard nothing at all from the world around him.
No trickle of water, no ripple of waves, despite the pool beneath his feet churning endlessly.
Silence. That’s the only word that fits what’s happening to me right now.
That tea Senior Ling poured me... it wasn’t ordinary tea at all.
Is this the kind of vision cultivators witness when seeking heavenly enlightenment?
Still, Lin Tian had no idea what he was supposed to do in this state. He didn’t know whether to cultivate, to meditate, or something else entirely.
No clear guidance existed about this world or what he was meant to do within it.
Ling Weixi had only told him not to resist whatever came, and not to run from it either.
Stay calm and reflect on everything.
That had been Ling Weixi’s final message to him, just before his soul’s awareness had washed up on this empty, silent expanse.
Amid his solitude, Lin Tian’s attention drifted skyward as countless lights of different colors streaked across the heavens.
Two distinct factions emerged, one bathed in a spectrum of colors, the other dominated by a deep violet glow.
A massive battle broke out between them, one that tore apart entire star clusters across the universe.
The vast land beneath Lin Tian’s feet flared crimson and exploded outward, other stars meeting the same fate. Billions of lives perished, and countless stars were reduced to nothing.
Lin Tian found himself drifting through a sky stripped of all light, every star extinguished, the very same place where those immortals had just clashed.
What does this mean?
Amid his contemplation, particles of dust began drifting through the darkened sky, gradually coalescing together.
What started as a small meteorite grew into an asteroid, and eventually into a brand new star.
The same cycle repeated itself with star after star. Lin Tian found himself back on that flooded expanse, watching existence itself rise up from nothing right before his eyes.
His gaze swept the horizon. The vast, water logged land began pushing new earth up from beneath the seabed.
Trees took root and grew, and life stirred into being once more.
Lin Tian sharpened his focus, watching every shift unfold with careful attention as his mind began turning things over.
He felt certain now that whatever was happening to him tied directly into the enlightenment the heavens were offering him.
They wouldn’t simply hand it to him outright. He’d have to grasp it himself, no matter how long that understanding took to come.
He took a step to the side, and that single step carried him instantly to a new location.
He stopped, finding himself facing a peach tree growing thick and full atop a wide, grassy field.
His eyes locked onto the leaves clinging to its branches. As time passed, the old leaves withered and fell one by one, leaving the branches bare.
Yet once the seasons turned again, new leaves sprouted from that same emptiness, growing lush and full once more, just as they had in spring.
What is heaven trying to show me here?
He reached out toward the tree before him. But something unexpected happened instead.
His body shifted instantly, carrying him away from the peach tree to a small mortal village.
Lin Tian found himself standing before a simple wooden house, home to a small family, a father, a mother, and a young son.
Their lives unfolded and aged at a startling pace, as though time itself had been compressed, yet only Lin Tian remained unchanged, watching every shift within that home unfold before him.
He witnessed the boy grow into a man. That man returned to the house one day, placing incense on the family altar, offering prayers for parents who’d since passed away.
The table that once buzzed with laughter, teasing, and warm conversation fell silent, leaving only the man seated alone.
Lin Tian did nothing, only watched, taking in every detail with quiet attention.
Time compressed forward again. The grown man married and had two children of his own.
The empty seats at that same table filled once more, as his wife and children entered his life.
Color returned to the man’s world, laughter and warmth filling the house once again, until he and his wife grew old and passed on in turn, their children going on to build homes of their own.
The house stood empty for a time, until a new family arrived to fill it once more. Lin Tian watched the cycle unfold, again and again.
Death and life?
No. This runs deeper than that.
There were stretches where the house stood empty, life absent entirely, before life returned and filled its halls once more.
Amid one such moment, Lin Tian’s eyes narrowed, drawn to a young girl, no older than six or seven, holding out a bowl full of rice toward her mother, even though the bowl was already brimming full.
Her mother told her she needed to empty the bowl first before she could receive anything new.
Emptying it, in this case, simply meant finishing what she already had.
Lin Tian felt certain now that whatever the heavens were trying to show him wasn’t about death, or life, nor was it about the cycle of existence, or even cause and effect.
It runs deeper than that, something far more profound. I still don’t fully grasp what it is.
Then, without warning, the scene before him shattered into dust and ruin, torn apart by another cosmic battle.
In an instant, Lin Tian found himself back at the very beginning.
He stood once more on that flooded expanse stretching across the planet’s surface.
His eyes went wide with shock, confusion washing over him at what kept unfolding before him.
The immortal battle erupted again, the universe tearing itself apart once more, and the scattered dust in the sky began coalescing into new life all over again.
The peach tree, its leaves falling and returning. The mortal household, cycling between emptiness and warmth, again and again.
Everything kept repeating, as though Lin Tian had no power to stop it.
The only way to break the cycle, he realized, was to grasp the true meaning behind this heavenly enlightenment.
This cycle keeps happening, over and over, without end.
I don’t even know how long I’ve been trapped in this dimension anymore.
Lin Tian let out a slow breath. His mind drifted back suddenly to that little girl, holding out her bowl for more rice, even though it was already full.
To a mortal, that moment probably meant nothing at all, just an ordinary, unremarkable act.
But to Lin Tian, that single gesture felt like the precious key he needed to finally understand what was truly unfolding before him.
That little girl’s action... It mirrors something deep within xianxia philosophy itself.
To receive new knowledge, one must first empty their mind. In the same way, to receive new rice, or new tea, one must first empty the bowl.
It seems... I’m going to need time to fully understand all of this.