Immortal Dao is dead, I am the mastermind behind it all.

Amidst the surging waves, the back of the Kunpeng resembles a moving piece of land.

After discussing the Dao with the divine bird, Afan stood in the eye of the hurricane stirred up by the Kunpeng's flight, his clothes unmoved.

"Senior, you take the destiny of maritime trade as your guide. May I ask, what is the purpose of your path?"

His tiny Dharma body was as insignificant as a mustard seed compared to the body of the Kunpeng, which stretched for ninety thousand miles.

A massive, overwhelming force crashed down like a tsunami: "Boy, you've got guts!"

"No one has ever dared to stand on my back."

Upon hearing this, Afan quickly apologized:

"I'm sorry..."

"It's alright!"

Kunpeng responded generously.

"Since you've asked so sincerely, I'll mercifully tell you!"

This was somewhat beyond Afan's imagination. Kunpeng not only didn't care about that trivial matter, but was also happy to discuss the Dao with him.

"My way is freedom."

"The sky? The sea?"

"I will transform into a roc with feathers and a kun with fins; where can I not go?"

"and……"

The next moment, the Kun body, which was the size of land, suddenly changed, and a space was cleared out in the entire sea area.

In the blink of an eye, the Kunpeng transformed into a seven-foot-long green fish.

But the waters it roams in are still this vast ocean.

Seeing this, Afan remained silent and quietly took out the measuring ruler he had used when he was controlling the floods in the human world.

He reached out and placed the ruler into the empty area of ​​the sea.

That ruler could not measure the original size of the water, but it could measure the ever-changing seven-foot-long bluefish.

"The great can be made by carrying the small."

"A small reflection reveals a great depth."

"Knowing the big and being small, knowing the small and being big, scaling freely and at ease, this is my way."

"As for the true Dao, it is formless and without substance, a mysterious and elusive thing, and even I have not been able to find the answer."

Looking at the ever-changing Kunpeng, Afan seemed to be deep in thought.

He gazed at the water droplets stirred up by the Kunpeng, which, before returning to the river, reflected the entire sky.

"I have learned a great deal!"

He immediately bowed with his hands clasped.

……

"There is a legend that the sun in that day was one eye of the Candle Dragon."

"Senior, is your path simply this: aimlessly chasing the sun?"

Following the footsteps of the sun chaser, Afan met Kuafu, who was passing through the wilderness of Cangwu.

Kuafu's eye sockets were filled with a chilling, icy light and a blazing, fiery intensity.

"Hahaha, whether it's the eye of the Candle Dragon, the Golden Crow perched on a branch, what Xihe bestowed upon it, or the eternal stars of the universe."

"I want to know everything!"

"So, it's about seeking knowledge?" Afan asked.

I guess so.

"But my path is not so superficial. I am not only chasing the sun, but also the act of 'chasing' itself."

"Even if it means dying from exhaustion?" Afan continued to press.

"That's right! Hahaha!"

"If I stop, I will die!"

Kuafu laughed loudly, and his laughter shook the snow off the mountain peaks for thousands of miles around.

Watching the figure running and disappearing on the horizon, Afan seemed lost in thought.

…………

After encountering all sorts of life forms in the mountains and seas, Afan arrived at the highest heavens.

This place is silent and colorless.

In absolute silence, he reflected on what he had seen and heard in the mountains, seas, and human world.

When a thought arises, do not welcome it; when a thought ceases, do not send it away.

Like the occasional ripples on the surface of a lake, knowing it's just the wind and that it will eventually subside, we let it rise and fall as it will.

Suddenly, the feathered robe moved without wind, and the hem flowed with a halo of starlight.

In the void, fine dust particles adhered to his feather robe, condensing into new patterns.

"I see, I see..."

At this moment, he finally understood what the "Xi Yi" of the Great Dao was.

It is not emptiness, but rather the most authentic state of all things.

Afan saw his memories fading.

But it's not forgetting; rather, it's having a different understanding of past memories.

The fear of being pecked in childhood transforms into a common survival instinct in birds.

The unwillingness to accept the fall caused by lightning while flying, and the ambition to start over.

"It turns out that I am just a reaction mechanism pieced together by chance."

When this thought came to mind.

The outline of "Afan" vanished like morning mist meeting the rising sun.

There was no pain, only a feeling of lightness as if a heavy burden had finally been lifted.

It turns out that I am just an illusion created by my own self-image.

The next moment, the humanoid figure collapsed with a crash.

The five fingers curl up to form feathers, the two feet merge into tail feathers, and the spine stretches out segment by segment into the arc of flight feathers.

But the process suddenly freezes before it can fully transform back into a bird.

Afan realized that human form was nothing more than a state, a kind of Daoist rhythm.

The solid feeling of measuring the earth with your own two feet, the real feeling of supporting life with your own hands, and the heavy feeling of bearing responsibility with your own two shoulders.

It's all just a filter of experience imposed on consciousness by this accidentally acquired physical body.

Now he sees through it all.

The filter shattered naturally.

Neither is more real nor more illusory.

All forms are flowing between each other.

Like water moving between different containers, it remains water nonetheless.

As soon as this thought flashed through my mind, a new collapse began.

All the faces, voices, and stories he once remembered were restored from individual storylines into individual characters.

There is no good, no evil, no sacrifice or compromise.

Only matter can combine and decompose under the laws of mountains, seas, and heavens.

His enlightenment continued, but his sense of time vanished.

Afan saw his life unfold like a scroll painting.

The first second the eggshell cracks open and the last moment of ascending to the heavens are actually at the same coordinate point in absolute spacetime.

All development, growth, and transformation are merely projection errors of his consciousness as an observer onto the timeline.

The battle between the monsters and the flood that destroyed the city occurred simultaneously.

The incense at the Qingming Temple grew alongside the weeds of the old nest on the low cliff.

The hatching and soaring into the clouds occur simultaneously.

Even the very moment of "enlightenment at this moment" is itself becoming "the past".

Realizing the moment, Afan finally touched that eternal "present moment".

A singularity that has no length, no passing, and encompasses all past and future.

"All phenomena are illusory," Afan murmured to himself.

These eight words are not scripture, but a fact of divine law that is happening right now.

Afan.

This was the last time he used this name.

"From now on, I will not be called Afan, I will be called..."

"【Azure Sky】".

He is no longer Avatar, but the vast and distant blue sky.

When all the dust settled, [Qingming] opened his eyes.

He saw it.

I saw the path.

No words can describe what He saw and heard at that moment.

Those who seek the truth afterward will only know...

"The Tao dwells in emptiness; this statement is not mere idle talk."

[Qingming] lowered his eyes, looking down at all living beings in the mountains and seas, and couldn't help but show compassion.

"The true Tao is formless and without substance; it is a mysterious and elusive thing..."

Before the eternal Tao, everything in the mountains and seas...

There is no story, no meaning.

There is no distinction between great and insignificant.

"Is this the truth of the Tao? How cruel..."

【Qingming】felt a deep sense of emotion.

In the vast, empty universe, individual life has no meaning.

Whether you are a divine bird capable of continuous rebirth or a Kunpeng soaring freely, you are nothing but a grain of sand in the sky.

Suddenly, in the void, [Qingming] froze.

In His remaining consciousness on Earth, He heard the cry of a baby.

"Wow!"

The cries were not loud, but they resonated in His heart.

Suddenly, all the memories of the mountains and seas that had once been there became clear again.

His lips curled up, first with a bitter laugh, then with a maniacal laugh.

"ha……"

"Ha ha ha ha!!!!"

[Qingming] burst into loud laughter, his laughter shaking the heavens.

What does it matter if it's meaningless and all is vanity?

Why not be like Kuafu, facing death to live!

……

Inside the small house in the Azure Cave.

"Master! You're back!"

Ziwei rushed towards Qingming and gave the man a big hug.

"Azi, have you slacked off in your training while I was away?" Qingming gently braided the girl's hair.

"I've tried my best! But Master, what interesting things have happened to you these past few days?" Ziwei pouted, the spells He had given her to practice before He left floating on her fingertips.

"Not bad, you've mastered the Illumination Technique just like that. You truly are worthy of being my disciple." Qingming smiled gently.

"I just happened to visit some old friends and learned a few new supernatural skills. Would you like to learn them?"

"Looks like there's something interesting going on! I want to hear the story!" Ziwei wasn't interested in learning new spells, but she was very interested in the story of her master's trip.

"Alright, alright, I will explain it to you one by one."

……

Mountains, seas, and the human world.

A baby who had just learned to crawl suddenly lifted his head and stopped crying.

A strange ray of light pierced through a gap in the clouds.

He reached out to grab it, and his palm touched a hollow warmth.