Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 225: Heavenly Beacon

The leaves turned yellow, and then they fell, and snow covered many parts of the Mystical Qilin Sect. However, Anji remained blissfully unaware of the time passing.

Shut off from the world, Anji made slow but steady progress. Grandpa Jin was not always there. However, he imparted to her part of the Diamond Sutra that helped Anji understand the Heart Sutra deeper. With the new insight that everything was created equal in life and death was absolute, Anji spent many days and nights thinking about the meaning of life.

Just like the leaves that grew and fell with the seasons, humans were the same. They were born, grew old, and died. Anji had a longer lifespan now after the surgery, but it changed nothing. Even sages left the world and ascended to a place that they will never return from. Unless they chose to return like leaves that grew in spring, it was absolute.

So what was the meaning of life when it is so fleeting in the face of time?

While pondering over the meaning of her existence that defied even fate, Anji finally managed to host two different energy signatures in her body simultaneously. The method was completely different from what the Elders had theorised. It only proved Grandpa Jin’s point when Anji discovered how it worked.

"To empty one’s mind and vessel is to be wholly accepting of fate," he concluded when Anji reported her first success. "Of course, they were not wrong. Five is the limit for the human body. However, when you transcend understanding from body and mind to the soul, there are no limits."

Hearing it from the golden dragon who had lived from the beginning of creation, Anji did not doubt his words. Grandpa Jin watched as Anji meditated. Once more, her inner world changed. It was still rich, but there was more depth to it than pretty pictures. The girl was still confused. It was only to be expected. Even sages took several lifetimes to accumulate their understanding of life through their soul cultivation. Anji was no different. However, he was satisfied just seeing how quickly she adapted to the discovery.

From two energies, Anji started to host more. Grandpa Jin watched as the girl slowly learned how to erase the boundary between self and nature. It was an art of becoming one with the environment that only those in the Enlightened Core stage would begin to grasp. At barely a Refined Core stage, Anji was miles ahead of the curve. Her golden core did not increase in volume. Instead, it slowed down to an almost hibernating mode, simmering silently.

Like a stock pot, the more different energy signatures Anji hosted in her meridians, the richer her golden core’s depth became. Anji sought to adopt new energy signatures each time she attempted. At first, there was resistance, and she could only adopt complementary energy types. The conflicting energy natures would often collide and go out of control.

Met with a high obstacle, Anji wondered how she could make oil and water get along. Fire-type energy signatures are incompatible with water-type energy signatures. They were natural enemies.

For a long time, Anji meditated to find a solution. Grandpa Jin did not offer any help. He continued to observe as the base of Anji’s Refined Core stabilised. It was on the verge of evolving to something more. The vague depth planted like a seed in Anji’s inner world started to take root. It was about time for it to start spreading its roots and germinating.

True enough, Anji gained a new insight by revisiting parts of the Diamond Sutra. Energy, like people and weather, is semi-permanent. They often change because energy evolves all the time. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

When Anji finally understood the true meaning of non-self and non-ownership, she revisited the Five Elements and quickly realised what she had done wrong. The reason why Fire and Water energies went out of control was that they converted into a new type of energy when reacting to each other. Instead of nourishing each other like water and wood, they create Air or Steam in reality.

Grandpa Jin smiled to himself as the seed finally spread its roots wider, taking a firm hold in Anji’s inner world. Although it had yet to germinate, Anji’s strong foundation would allow her to surpass even her master with time. The depth of Anji’s inner world had to be at least several times more concentrated than that of her peers of her cultivation stage. Vessels with the Heavenly Eyes were often called the Heavenly Beacon. It was not the vastness of their inner world that gave them strength, but the density that provided them with the ability to pierce through the thickest night like a beam of clarity.

After several days, Anji finally succeeded at integrating opposing energy types. Her success cemented her progress, and at long last, she could see the tip of reaching the intermediate stage of Refined Core. Her golden core continued to siphon knowledge in a sleep-like state, as if telling her it was not enough for metamorphosis.

Anji was not disappointed at the lack of progress from her Golden Core. If anything, she had a feeling this would happen. According to her shifu, her Seven-Star Celestial Root constitution and late progress would not match her cultivation understanding. Anji was a patient person. It would take many years of dedicated care for a tree to bear fruit. If Anji were the gardener of her inner world, the Refined Core was just like a newly planted seed. Growth cannot be rushed. The seed would germinate when it was ready. However, that did not mean she could not prepare water and good fertiliser while waiting.

Moving to the next stage of assimilating three different types of energy signatures, Anji wondered if she could master harmonising all five types of energy signatures before her eighth birthday. At the very least, she should write or contact her family to let them know she was making amazing progress thanks to the surgery.