Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 224: Origin of Energy

For a while, Anji repeated the process. Each time she had to pull out her icy hands, she thought she lasted a little longer. Yet, without any time indicator, it might be her optimistic thinking.

"Like grasping at straws and thinking you found a lifeline, foolish!"

The sudden voice startled Anji badly enough to bite her tongue. Although it was not bleeding, it still hurt.

"G-grandpa Jin?"

Ever since Anji’s surgery, she had not heard the golden dragon. It was unexpected for him to show up when she was not sleeping. Then again, she barely needed sleep after the surgery.

Since the beginning of her isolated training, Anji had only rested once for a quick sip. Her ears had started to become more sensitive to the sound of water softly bubbling in the rock pool. The silence made ordinary sounds seem louder. Grandpa Jin’s voice was like a thunderclap out of the blue for Anji, who was living in sensory deprivation.

Feeling bad about scaring the child, the golden dragon softened his tone.

"Ahem! Harmonisation is not about balancing and trying to control two wild energies with their own will. You cannot overpower them and force them to get along. True harmonisation is not intimidation but acceptance."

Nodding along, Anji meditated to enter her inner world. She could afford to chat with the golden dragon, seeing how he seemed eager to teach her something new.

"Anji greets Grandpa Jin," she smiled.

Not used to vibrant and bright colours from extended time of navigating in complete darkness, Anji winced. Her retinas might not hurt, but her brain was suffering from the visual richness.

Anji had grown. Her inner world was much richer after the surgery, and Grandpa Jin could finally feel the pulse of her world that was previously dead. Whatever surgery the blind prophet did, it brought life back to Anji’s starved world. Anji could only cling to the Heart Sutra to understand emptiness as a default state. However, now that she was able to start filling the empty world with more things, he noticed how she was starting to learn how to comprehend deeper meaning.

In other words, as her world grew richer, Anji began to lose that purity, with the noise clouding her vision. Energy was just like that. Life was always messy. Yet, to make sense of chaos, humans gave patterns names instead of viewing them as a whole. No two energy signatures are truly the same. Yet, Anji was taught to use seven categories to harmonise them.

What rubbish!

"Child, I’m going to ask you a question. Is your thinking from today the same as it was yesterday?"

Without hesitation, Anji denied.

"I learned what I did not yesterday, and that knowledge influences my thinking."

Nodding, the golden dragon then asked if energy signatures work the same way.

Here, Anji stumbled. She had no books or teachers to refer to. However, if she were to make an informed guess, they should be the same because, unlike living beings, energy is a natural existence that provides life.

Hearing Anji’s answer, Grandpa Jin could not say it was wrong. Fundamentally, energy was the basis for all life. It could take on many forms to balance life. It was the power source for the world they came to understand. However, to say that energy was unchanging would be wrong.

"The Five Elements that you practice are energy," Grandpa Jin pointed out. "Which of the five energies do you think is created first?"

Stumped, Anji remained silent for a very long time. She knew that the five types of qi coexisted for as long as there was life and could be found in different places more naturally. However, to think there was an original energy among the five, Anji dared not assume one was more important than the other. It was similar to wondering if a chicken or an egg came first. In reality, the chicken should come first to give an egg. However, if chickens were born from eggs, where did the first egg come from?

"Anji does not know," she confessed. "Five Elements are in equal balance. One cannot exist without the other. It’s why the five must work together."

Afraid that this was a bad answer for not knowing any better, Anji braced herself for scolding. However, nothing of that sort happened. Instead, the golden dragon lowered his head and looked at Anji with one glassy eye.

"That is what non-conformity means," he explained. "Never forget this. No matter what form anything assumes, it comes from the same origin and has chosen to evolve differently. Energy is energy. At the end of the day, it brings life no matter how we define it. The only thing that is not energy is death. Energy is non-constant. It is fickle. But death is the same regardless of energy signatures. It cannot be reversed. As long as energy does not die, it can always come back in a different form."

Although it was confusing, something in Anji started to understand what the golden dragon was hinting at. Earth and Wood energy might behave differently, but they were still sources of life. Although she had no idea what she was doing wrong, she started thinking differently. As long as energy does not die, it can return differently. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Grandpa Jin observed as Anji pondered over his hint. It was not the full Diamond Sutra, as it was far too profound for someone barely eight years old. No matter how much of a genius Anji was, she was still a child who lacked life experience. Growing up shielded from the world for most of her life did not help either.

From outside the isolation chamber, Senior Researcher Mo wondered how Anji’s training progress was. For the first few weeks, he could still faintly sense activity inside. Anji’s qi was unmistakable. However, after a month, almost everything inside fell silent. The unusual stillness was worrying. Anji’s subdued but steady energy pulse that Yan Ping was monitoring closely was the only thing preventing him from barging in.

The girl was frail before the surgery. Even after recovering from the surgery, there was no guarantee she would not suffer a health relapse. However, Yan Ping and the Elders were firm with their instructions. Nobody was to interfere with Anji’s training. In fact, they wished she would stay there for the next few years. Elder Quan gave Anji enough fasting pills to last ten years if required, not that Anji knew.