Old Liang calmly sipped another mouthful of tea before looking at Lin Sheng.
"So..."
"What are your plans going forward?"
Lin Sheng placed his teacup down.
"I plan on travelling around the Eastern Region for a few years."
"Oh?"
Old Liang raised an eyebrow.
"You don't intend to complete any family service?"
Lin Sheng smiled faintly.
"With the merit points I obtained from the secret realm, I no longer need compulsory service."
He had accumulated enough contributions through the treasures and inheritances recovered inside the Heaven Seal Gate Secret Realm.
Those merit points were sufficient to exempt him from ordinary assignments.
Thinking about it, Qian Feng, Lou Han and Lin Xiaolu were in the same situation.
They could have chosen freedom.
Yet they still decided to accept guarding duties in Jade Heaven City.
Everyone had their own reasons.
As for Lin Shou...
He had remained in closed-door cultivation ever since returning from the secret realm.
He seemed determined to completely digest his recent enlightenment.
Lin Sheng suddenly smiled.
"Enough about me."
"What about you, Old Man?"
"I saw you chatting quite happily with the Head Elder."
Old Liang almost choked on his tea.
He glared at Lin Sheng.
"Brat."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"There is nothing between us."
Lin Sheng looked unconvinced.
"Oh?"
"So training me wasn't simply an excuse to gain favour with the Head Elder?"
"After all..."
"My sister is her disciple."
Old Liang's face darkened.
"You little rascal."
"You really deserve a beating."
Lin Sheng laughed.
"So I guessed correctly."
Old Liang immediately stood.
"Get out."
"Now."
Lin Sheng quickly raised both hands.
"Fine."
"I'm leaving."
"But before I go..."
"I have one question."
Old Liang snorted.
"What?"
Lin Sheng's expression gradually became serious.
"The Martial Will Grand Elder displayed during his battle with the Flood Dragon..."
"I wish to understand it."
Old Liang looked at him quietly.
Then he shook his head.
"You mean Martial Will."
"Yes."
"Martial Will."
Lin Sheng nodded.
"You once told me that after comprehending Martial Intent, I first needed to stabilize it."
"I've already done that."
"But I still don't understand how to step into the stage of Realisation."
Old Liang placed his teacup aside.
"Release your Martial Intent."
Lin Sheng nodded.
The next moment...
Wind and lightning quietly gathered around his right palm.
A circular force continuously revolved.
The destructive power of lightning and the freedom of wind no longer clashed violently as before.
Instead, they maintained an increasingly perfect equilibrium.
The force neither scattered nor exploded.
It simply revolved endlessly.
Old Liang observed silently.
After several breaths, he nodded with satisfaction.
"Very stable."
"Much better than the last time."
"You've truly consolidated your foundation."
Lin Sheng waited patiently.
Old Liang continued,
"Which is exactly why you've encountered your problem."
Lin Sheng frowned.
"My problem?"
"You misunderstand the next step."
Old Liang extended a finger.
"You believe Martial Intent must become increasingly stable before it can advance."
"But..."
"That isn't Realisation."
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed slightly.
Old Liang continued,
"The first stage is Comprehension."
"The second is Realisation"
"The third is to Will it."
He slowly pointed toward the sky.
"When your Martial Intent reaches Realisation..."
"It no longer exists solely within you."
"It begins influencing Heaven and Earth."
"It affects the surrounding Spiritual Qi."
"It leaves the boundaries of your body."
Lin Sheng's pupils contracted slightly.
"So..."
"My Martial Intent is too stable?"
Old Liang smiled.
"Exactly."
"You've trapped yourself."
"You've been trying to perfectly balance wind and lightning."
"But Martial Intent was never meant to remain perfectly balanced."
He gently flicked Lin Sheng's forehead.
"What you need..."
"...is controlled instability."
"The moment your Intent begins resonating with the Spiritual Qi around you..."
"The surrounding world itself will acknowledge your Martial Intent."
"That is the beginning of Realisation."
Lin Sheng fell into deep thought.
Wind...
Lightning...
One was gentle.
One was violent.
Yet during the Flood Dragon's attack...
The two had merged naturally without suppressing one another.
Old Liang stood up and walked toward the courtyard.
Without turning around, he spoke one final sentence.
"Remember this."
"There is stability in chaos."
"And..."
"There is chaos within stability."
"If you understand that..."
"You won't be far from the Realisation stage."
Hearing Old Liang's explanation, Lin Sheng's eyes suddenly became incomparably calm.
Without saying another word...
He activated the Emptiness State.
His breathing slowed.
His heartbeat seemed to disappear.
Even his presence became faint, as though he had merged with the surrounding world.
Old Liang's pupils immediately contracted.
"This..."
He stared at Lin Sheng in disbelief.
"An enlightenment state?"
Even he had never experienced such a thing.
A state of enlightenment could not be sought deliberately.
It depended upon opportunity.
The right person...
At the right time...
Encountering the right Dao.
Many cultivators spent their entire lives without entering such a state even once.
Yet this brat...
Had entered it merely from a few words.
Old Liang silently swallowed the words that reached his throat, afraid that speaking would interrupt Lin Sheng's comprehension.
---
Around Lin Sheng's right palm...
The wind and lightning Martial Intent slowly changed.
Previously...
The two intents had remained in partial equilibrium.
Everything was orderly.
Controlled.
Now...
The balance began to loosen.
The wind no longer merely carried the lightning.
The lightning no longer simply followed the wind.
Instead...
The two continuously chased one another, clashed, intertwined, and separated before merging once more.
The surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi began responding.
Tiny currents of wind formed around Lin Sheng.
Strands of lightning occasionally flashed through the air before disappearing.
The Martial Intent...
Was beginning to influence its surroundings.
Old Liang's breathing unconsciously became heavier.
"So this..."
"...is what I meant."
"There is stability in chaos..."
"...and chaos within stability."
---
Within the Emptiness State...
Lin Sheng ignored everything around him.
His mind replayed the battle against the Flood Dragon countless times.
The movement of the wind.
The path of the lightning.
The circulation of spiritual qi.
The resonance between Heaven and Earth.
Perhaps...
The Flood Dragon possessed something he currently lacked.
Perhaps...
His cultivation was still too low to truly reproduce that phenomenon.
But...
That did not matter.
He had already grasped the direction.
That alone was enough.
His body instinctively moved.
The Zen Heaven Technique circulated.
The First Form.
The Second Form.
The Third Form.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Every movement became increasingly natural.
Every circulation route became smoother.
Every strike seemed to carve itself deeper into his body.
Hours quietly passed.
By the end...
It no longer felt as though he was consciously executing the technique.
Rather...
His body itself remembered it.
The technique had become instinct.
Perhaps...
This was one of the greatest advantages of creating one's own martial art.
Every movement...
Every circulation...
Every principle...
Had originated from himself.
There was no need to force understanding.
Everything naturally belonged to him.
---
The surrounding spiritual qi gradually settled.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
The Emptiness State faded.
Only then did he notice Old Liang still standing where he had been several hours earlier.
The old man stared at him as though looking at some rare monster.
After remaining silent for a long while...
Old Liang finally spoke.
"What technique..."
"...was that?"
Lin Sheng answered honestly.
"I created it."
"A while ago."
"I wanted a technique that could better utilize my Martial Intent after I first comprehended it."
Old Liang's eyelids twitched.
He looked at Lin Sheng for several breaths before quietly muttering beneath his breath,
"...Monster."
Creating a martial technique...
Was never an easy matter.
It required profound comprehension.
Countless years of accumulation.
Repeated failures.
And enormous resources.
Many Grandmasters spent decades perfecting a single move.
Yet...
Lin Sheng had managed to create an entire martial technique while only possessing knowledge of a handful of martial arts.
Old Liang could not even find suitable words to describe such talent.
After a moment, he simply shook his head with a helpless smile.
"Either way..."
"That's a good thing."
"A martial artist who walks his own path..."
"...will always travel farther than one who merely follows the footsteps of others."