Legend of the Great Sage

br>Everything was constantly changing.
Form itself was emptiness.

But “emptiness” did not mean “nothing” and death did not mean “disappearance”.
They would only turn into other substances like soil.

All phenomena bore the mark of emptiness, where there was no birth nor death, no defilement nor purity, no increase nor decrease…

That was why his powers neither grew nor decreased in this Formless realm.
He could neither live nor be destroyed.

It was just like how he could forget about ever finding that “fifth brother” if he travelled the Road to the Yellow Springs alone.
None of the wicked fiends banished to the Formless realm would ever meet.
He had to face everything alone.

Upon realising this, he did not feel disappointed at all.
Instead, he felt extremely excited.
He gradually understood this world, breaking through the realm of the four Rūpa-dhyāna and entering the realm of the four Ārūpyasamāpatti.

The first Samāpatti of the four Ārūpyasamāpatti—Ākāśānantyāyatana Samāpatti, the attainment of Infinite Space.

At that instant, his body stopped swelling and whitening.
With a smile on his face, he meditated in silence.

Normally, no matter how profound the realm of cultivation and comprehension was, it required power to sustain, or he would just come off as a fool.

For example, someone slapped you across the face.
Instead of properly training yourself, you go off to a monastery to meditate, coming back to spout a bunch of nonsensical buddhist truths at them.
It would only earn you another slap across the face.

That was why emptiness itself was form.
Emptiness could not go without form.
It had to rely on it.

The so-called comprehension, the so-called truths, the so-called dharma that could not be converted into power was all like dogshit.

However, the wondrous part about the Formless realm was that it did not rely on anything.
If you really did possess that comprehension, then everything would bend to your will.
You could directly kill the enemy with “nonsense” on the spot.

It was also possible to reveal all your crimes on a mirror before producing various genuine tortures.

It was exactly because of this special characteristic that he could defeat the glaciers of ice and seas of fire through seeing through the various appearances of reality, allowing him to undergo the sixth heavenly tribulation in the end.

However, it was as clear as day that this state was very abnormal.
If he could obtain whatever he wanted just from the thought of it, then all fatties would succeed in slimming down and all nerd shut-ins would have started a harem.
There would be free lunches every single day.

Why is the Formless realm so wondrous and so different?

Li Qingshan sank into a lengthy thought.
His consciousness began to gather and condense together again as his messy thoughts became sorted too.
He entered the second Samāpatti of the four Ārūpyasamāpatti—Vijñānānantyāyatana Samāpatti, the attainment of Infinite Consciousness.

Issues arose one by one.
“Form is no other than emptiness” was relatively easy to understand, but what did “emptiness is no other than form” mean?

The primordial spirit turtle had turned into Ruin’s End.
What were the origins of the Formless realm then?

As the central component of the trichiliocosm and the six realms of saṃsāra, the Formless realm was far more important than Ruin’s End.

The primordial spirit turtle was created by the world.
It was already the highest level of existence there could be, so who created the Formless realm? The buddha? Nüwa? No, not even they were capable of something like this.

Then there was only one possibility…

In his lengthy thought, he rediscovered his own existence.
His heart was filled with joy, no longer feeling empty anymore.

The third Samāpatti of the four Ārūpyasamāpatti—Ākiṃcanyāyatana Samāpatti, the Attainment of Infinite Nothingness.

The answer was crying out to him.
He smiled and said, “Emptiness is no other than form.”

His voice rumbled thunderously, booming through the entire place and breaking the eternal silence.

“Emptiness is no other than—the Dao!”

Brilliant light illuminated the entire place, dyeing the unchanging pure-white.

The myriad paths led off in different directions to the same destination.
They were just different names with different objectives.

Buddhism wanted to bring salvation to all living creatures, so they spoke about form and emptiness, using a heart of impermanence to eliminate the living creatures’ desires and obsessions.

Daoism pursued liberation, so they spoke about the great path, searching for a path that allowed them to transcend mortality.

At this moment, what Li Qingshan wanted was liberation, so he abandoned the Four Dhyāna and Eight Samāpatti freely.

He recited loudly, “The dao presents itself as empty, yet it can never be filled nor emptied.
Infinitely deep, the dao appears to be the source of everyone and everything.
It is hidden, yet always present.
I do not know what produced the Dao, for it seems even older than the concept of God.”

TL: This is chapter 4 of the Dao De Jing.

This was the answer to everything.
The Formless realm was where all the laws throughout the myriad worlds gathered.
It was a world of “Dao”.

Whether it was the apple falling to the ground or the orbit of stars, they all followed “Dao”.

Ever so profound, it is the gate of wonders.

Only with the Formless realm as the source of everything was there the trichiliocosm of the Form realm.
Only with the Form realm was there sentient beings and thus the Desire realm.

So-called cultivation was moving against the flow, rapidly approaching this source, approaching the Dao.

He realised this, so he entered the fourth Samāpatti of the four Ārūpyasamāpatti—Naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana Samāpatti, the attainment of Neither Perception Nor Non-perception.

Ps： 归墟已经够难描绘了，这无色界简直要人命。如果看不明白，那不是你的错，但也请不要喷我，我只是完成我的承诺，带你们经历一个个奇妙世界，而不仅仅是换张地图，我也没得选择。不过还好，接下来就没这么抽象了。

Author’s PS: Ruin’s End was already difficult enough to describe.
The Formless realm was basically out to end my life.
If you don’t understand it, that’s not your fault, but please don’t rage at me.
I’m just completing my promise, bringing you wondrous worlds after wondrous worlds, not just changing the map.
I don’t have a choice in this either.
But fortunately, what comes next won’t be so abstract.