Chương 435: The Courtyard of Laws

Li Yu drifted down through the canopy of the Jungle and was guided by the unseen currents of the wind. He didn't land with a thud; he touched down on the mossy floor as softly as a falling leaf and disturbing nothing. The jungle here seemed ancient. The trees were so wide that ten men linking arms couldn't circle them. The canopy was so dense that the forest floor existed in a perpetual bioluminescent twilight.

The air was thick with humidity, buzzing with the sound of insects the size of hawks and the distant guttural roars of apex predators. Li Yu took a deep breath of this forest that was so full of life. However, it smelled of rot, blooming orchids and wet earth.

"A good place," he whispered. He wandered for half a day until he found what he was looking for. It was a secluded valley and cut off from any trails he could find by a sheer cliff face and a rushing river that acted as a natural moat. In the center of the valley was a small elevated clearing surrounded by towering ferns.

"Here," Li Yu decided on the location of where he will be staying. He didn't rush to meditate and ponder the laws more. First, he needed a home. Li Yu approached a massive iron-wood tree that had died of natural causes but remained standing. Its wood is as hard as iron, thus the name. Li Yu wanted to practice using the laws so reached out and placed his index finger against the base of the trunk. He saw the Law of Earth holding the tree up. He saw the Law of Life that had long since abandoned it.

And then, he saw the tiny microscopic fracture in the structure, the flaw. Tap. He sent a pulse of Qi into the flaw. CRACK. The sound was like a cannon shot. The massive tree sheared cleanly at the base and was falling precisely where Li Yu wanted it.

"This is incredible! Though it is a lot harder to use now, using qi and my physical strength would have been easier, I can only imagine what I can do when I combine it all together," Li Yu smiled.

"Just you wait Seven so called Fears, I will show you the true meaning of fear!" For the next three days Li Yu built. He tried using aspects of the laws whenever he could. To transport heavy logs without lifting them, he was simply folding space to move them from the ground to the roof. He used the Law of Wind and Metal to strip the bark. He used the Law of Water to mix the clay for the foundation. It took much longer than if he just did it normally but he was practicing.

Both minds were set to the task of exploring and understanding the laws. It was a slow progress and it will continue to be slow but even seeing a little bit of progress was a joy. This time, he didn't just build a hut. He built a sanctuary. It was a simple structure with a wide sloping roof to catch the rain. But in front of it he cleared a space and laid down flat river stones to create a courtyard. He transplanted wild jasmine and spirit-bamboo to create a natural fence.

In the center of the courtyard he carved a low table from the stump of the iron-wood tree and placed four stone stools around it. He sat down at his new table. He brewed a pot of tea using water from the nearby river and leaves he had stored. He poured a cup that was brewed using the laws of fire and water. He couldn't say it tasted better, if he was honest it was worse because he was still a novice, but the joy that came from using laws to brew a cup of tea made it taste better because of his mood.

Steam curled up and was joining the mist of the jungle. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Not bad," Li Yu said, taking a sip. Li Yu chuckled to himself.

"I like the view here too." For the next month Li Yu didn't move from the valley. He lived a simple life here. He fished in the river to improve his mastery, he tended to his small garden and he drank tea. But while his body was still his soul was traveling. He spent some of his mornings with the Law of Water. Li Yu sat by the riverbank to draw inspiration. He was watching the water rush over the stones. With his eyes closed he pushed his consciousness out. Push. The world dissolved and the headache came.

It was now a familiar dull throb that he ignored. What he realized was that one of his minds could stay with his body while the other one went to explore the law's 'rivers.' He could continue enjoying nature and ponder about techniques while his other mind was away in the law rivers. He stood on the River of Water. It was vast, endless and deep blue. It didn't just flow; it churned. It took the shape of crashing waves, spiraling whirlpools and gentle streams simultaneously. The Spirit of Water formed ahead of him.

It was a serpent made of clear liquid. It was constantly shifting, dissolving and reforming but like the others it said nothing at all. Li Yu walked forward. The pressure here was heavy and suffocating, like being crushed at the bottom of the ocean. It tried to fill his lungs, to wash away his ego. The Koi Soul was ecstatic here. It leaped from Li Yu's spectral chest and swam alongside him. Its golden light cutting through the murky depths. With the Koi's help Li Yu quickly found his rhythm here.

He took a total of ten steps before he couldn't anymore. He saw that water was not just a liquid. It was the principle of yielding but always moving forward. It moved around obstacles, yet over time, it destroyed them. It was soft yet uncompressible. He saw the connection to the Law of Blood inside living creatures. He saw the connection to the Law of Ice. When he snapped back to reality, Li Yu looked at the river differently. He dipped his hand in.

He didn't use Qi to manipulate the water, he simply resonated with it. A sphere of water rose from the river. It hovered above his palm and was perfectly round. Then, with a thought he made it spin. It spun so fast it became a flat disc and the edge formed was sharp enough to cut diamond.

"Softness becomes hardness," Li Yu murmured. He spent some of his afternoons with the Law of Life. The jungle was a chaotic cacophony of life and a constant war for survival. Li Yu sat in his courtyard and watched all the wildlife and plants surrounding it. He entered the River of Life once again. Here, Li Yu felt the most at home or at least this place just gave off that feeling. His Koi Soul and the Fisherman worked in perfect harmony. The Fisherman kept Li Yu steady while the Koi absorbed the pressure.

He was able to walk twenty steps this time before stopping. He could feel his knowledge of beast medicine and anomaly increasing and deepening. It wasn't direct knowledge that he was learning but an increase in his comprehension towards them. Things that were more murky before became clearer. He saw the threads of vitality connecting everything. He saw how the death of a beetle fed the moss, which fed the deer, which fed another demonic beast. It wasn't individual lives; it was one massive and breathing organism.

It was a constant struggle for life but life always found a way to continue on, regardless of the odds. He learned to hide his presence not by suppressing his Qi but by merging his life aura with the background noise of the forest. It was more effective than any stealth or suppression technique he had learned up till then. His mind began to work on how to incorporate it into the suppression techniques he knew to make it even better.

Weaving in his understanding of the law of life to better perfect his healing arts as well. He was growing at a tremendous rate and he was only just starting to touch the surface of laws.

'I need to be careful or else I will get addicted to this' Li Yu thought while reassessing the situation.

'This feeling of growth and seeing the wonders of the world. If I am not careful, I could be trapped in these rivers of laws, forever. Always wanting to peer into their secrets that I get lost in them. How utterly terrifying…' Li Yu thought and then concluded with a chill running down his spine. This was a very dangerous thing. Back where his body was, Li Yu was still sitting on his stool. A colorful jungle bird flew down and landed on his shoulder. It didn't perceive him as a human or a threat.

To the bird Li Yu felt like just another tree branch. Like he wasn't even actually there, almost an illusion in feeling and sight. He fed the bird a crumb of his bun.

"Eat well, little friend. I will be your neighbor for a while."