Chapter 56: Dao Rhythm
Everything that happened was a blur as Lin Yuan gently pushed his wife’s wheelchair to the main hall. The doors clicked shut behind them, sealing away the events of the day. Bai Chen followed closely suit, clutching his newly healed right arm, his eyes still wide with the lingering shock of witnessing an ascension to the Nascent Soul realm.
As the three of them moved from the main hall and entered the inner bedroom, Lin Yuan’s hands came to a slow halt on the handles of the wheelchair.
He looked around the room, his gaze scanning the simple furniture and the walls. Suddenly, a strange, intangible feeling enveloped him. It was not a physical sensation, nor was it the residual buzz of his monumental breakthrough. It felt like a heavy, invisible mist settling over his Sea of Consciousness—a profound resonance that tugged at the very edges of his soul.
Lin Yuan stood completely still, staring into the void of his own mind. He tried to chase the sensation, attempting to pin it down with his comprehension, but he simply could not make out what that feeling was. It was too vast, too nebulous, slipping through his grasp like fine sand.
What is this? he wondered, his brow furrowing slightly.
Then, a memory surfaced. He remembered the last time he had felt a fraction of this profound clarity. It was when his wife had played the zither for him. Her music, completely devoid of spiritual qi but overflowing with raw emotion, had caused him to deeply contemplate the meaning of his path, ultimately granting him the great insight needed to solidify his Dao Heart.
Maybe if she plays again, I will understand this feeling! Lin Yuan realized.
Shaking off his temporary daze, Lin Yuan gently bent down and scooped Bai Qingyue out of the wheelchair. He carried her with infinite care, as if she were made of the most fragile, priceless jade, and softly dropped her onto the edge of the bed.
He knelt before her, making sure she was comfortable. The tension that had gripped them all night was finally beginning to dissipate, replaced by a warm, exhausted relief.
Standing near the doorway, Bai Chen let out a loud, exaggerated exhale, forcefully breaking the silence.
"I must say, Lord Lin," Bai Chen began, a comedic smile spreading across his face, "the next time you decide to effortlessly imprison the most terrifying man in the city in our front yard... please, give this lowly servant a slight warning. I nearly swallowed my own tongue out there! And I am fairly certain I need to wash these robes... twice."
Bai Qingyue, who had been wiping the last traces of tears from her eyes, couldn’t help but let out a soft, genuine laugh at her cousin’s dramatic exasperation. Even Lin Yuan’s lips twitched upward into a faint smile.
"I will keep that in mind, Bai Chen," Lin Yuan replied dryly.
Lin Yuan then stood up and walked over to the wooden table in the corner of the room. He carefully picked up the Zither. He brought the instrument over to the bed and gently laid it across Bai Qingyue’s lap.
"Qingyue," Lin Yuan requested, his voice incredibly soft. "Could you play for me? Just one song."
Bai Chen immediately perked up, stepping further into the room and nodding vigorously to back Lin Yuan up. "Yes, Cousin! Please do! After the everything that has happened, my soul desperately needs to hear the Heavens sing again. It is the only thing that will cure my fright."
Caught off guard by the sudden request from both of them, Bai Qingyue was visibly flustered. A delicate, rosy pink hue rushed to her cheeks. She looked down at the zither, her fingers lightly grazing the strings, before looking up at the two who had done everything to protect her.
Her heart swelled with a profound, overwhelming happiness.
"Alright," Bai Qingyue agreed happily, a radiant smile gracing her lips. She adjusted her posture, her demeanor instantly shifting into one of elegant, peerless grace. "Since you both insist... I will play the melody that once earned me the title of the ’Zither that Touches the Soul.’"
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and plucked the first string.
The sound that resonated through the bedroom was nothing short of miraculous. It was a melody of profound sorrow, unyielding resilience, and boundless, eternal love. Without a single drop of spiritual qi to amplify it, the music wove through the air, wrapping around their hearts with the warmth of a morning sun cresting over a frozen mountain.
As the notes washed over him, the strange, elusive feeling inside Lin Yuan violently surged.
The heavy mist in his Sea of Consciousness began to churn. If this feeling became corporeal, it would immediately erupt as a soothing rain to completely calm the violent anger he had suffered in the recent days. It was a resonance of absolute peace, a harmonization of his Dao Heart with the fragility of the world around him.
The aura began to unconsciously leak from Lin Yuan’s body, filling the room with an invisible emotional weight.
Even Bai Chen, standing near the door, began to feel this strange feeling. It was as if the sensation had become contagious, radiating outward from Lin Yuan’s very existence. As the melody played and Lin Yuan’s aura washed over him, a sudden wave of sorrow and profound respect gripped Bai Chen’s heart.
Lord Lin! Bai Chen muttered internally, a tear welling up in his eye as a sense of deep pity for the man washed over him.
Through this strange resonance, Bai Chen felt the echoes of a sorrowful journey. He could not determine what kind of journey it was, nor where it had begun, but the profound sadness within it was impossible to ignore. What he did not realize was that this sorrow did not originate from Lin Yuan himself. It carried the deep grief Bai Qingyue had endured ever since most had turned its back on her, abandoning and ridiculing her after she lost everything.
The resonance emanating from Lin Yuan seemed to amplify those buried emotions, allowing the sorrow within Bai Qingyue to flow through him and manifest with even greater intensity. Yet Bai Chen knew nothing of this connection. He simply felt the overwhelming grief within the resonance and instinctively attributed it to Lin Yuan, believing that the young man before him had also endured some deeply sorrowful journey.
He might have been through a terrifying amount of suffering to reach this height of power! Bai Chen concluded, his loyalty cementing into an unbreakable fanaticism.
Meanwhile, Lin Yuan closed his eyes, trying with all his ability to finally understand this feeling.
He chased it through the void of his mind. But it was agonizingly elusive. It was as if he tried to draw water from a deep well; he would painstakingly pull the heavy rope, feeling the weight of the water, but the very moment the bucket reached the top for him to collect it, the string would violently snap, and all the water would plummet back down into the echoing depths.
The zither melody was definitely helping him isolate and understand the feeling, drawing the bucket closer to the surface, but at the end of the day, it was a profound truth that his own ability must be used to finally grasp!
What is this? Lin Yuan’s mind raced, his Nascent Soul glowing brightly within his dantian. Is this a phenomenon exclusively experienced by new Nascent Soul cultivators?
Then, a sudden spark of enlightenment struck him.
Wait... is this a Dao Rhythm?!
Lin Yuan’s breath hitched. My resonance feeling! That is why it affects the environment! I am sure Bai Chen must be feeling what I am feeling right now since he is a cultivator!
To comprehend this feeling completely would mean giving birth to his very own Dao Rhythm! A Dao Rhythm was the subtle, overarching aura emitted by one’s personal Dao. A cultivator with a high, and refined Dao Rhythm naturally inspired enlightenment in others, aligning the laws of Heaven and Earth to their will without needing to cast a single spell. It was the hallmark of true grandmasters.
But the string kept snapping. He needed an anchor. He needed a bridge to connect his Dao Heart to this profound resonance.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping the room until something pieced together.
The Mountain and River Withered Painting. It was the mysterious artifact he had acquired at the auction house—the very item that had sparked the feud with the Xu Clan. He hadn’t yet devoured the hidden Dao intent concealed within it.
As he looked at it now, with the supreme perception of a Nascent Soul cultivator and his Dao Rhythm on the verge of manifestation, the veil was completely lifted.
He saw it clearly!
The brushstrokes were no longer just ink on parchment. They were vibrant, flowing chains of Dao intent. It was the exact conceptual bridge he needed to complete his comprehension!
Before, his core formation realm had not been enough to assimilate such a conceptual law. But now? Him being in the Nascent Soul realm gave him the ability to absorb various Dao intents.
Without moving from his spot, Lin Yuan closed his eyes and reached out with his consciousness. He seamlessly spread his divine sense across the painting, ready to devour the Dao Intent.