Dreaming within a dream, realizing the self beyond the self
A century later, after Lin Shi's eight avatars returned to her original body through the reincarnation channel, she immediately changed from a cross-legged meditation posture to lying back on her bed. She closed her eyes, sorting through her experiences of eight lifetimes and processing the resentment and conflicting emotions of love and hate. Once she finished sorting through them, she fell asleep peacefully, just like any ordinary person.
Lin Shi had another long dream within a dream. From her initial life as the Heavenly Dao's incarnation in a different realm, she dreamt all the way to the present. She saw countless scenes of reincarnation. In her memories of reincarnation in the mortal world, Lin Shi always dreamt of the old man who offered sacrifices to his deceased relatives. Then, following the memories of the old man, she would trace back to her past life, always dreaming of different appearances and vastly different upbringings, but whose temperaments and preferences were similar to her own.
Of all the more than one hundred reincarnations, Lin Shi had the deepest impression of her past lives as the incarnation of the Heavenly Dao and Li Feini. In both of these lives, she was a cultivator, with a lifespan far exceeding that of mortals. Lin Shi belatedly realized that the Heavenly Dao of the Lie Tian Small World had shown her mercy because she had once been the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao in another realm.
Most importantly, through the layers of awakening within dreams, Lin Shi comprehended a true self that transcends the physical body: life is like a dream, the physical body in reincarnation may be illusory, but the true essence is the body outside the body, that is, the immortal soul or spiritual entity. A person's life is not perfect; there will always be many things beyond one's control. Although living in the secular world, through cultivation, one can transcend the limitations of the physical body, sever attachments, and ultimately comprehend the true self, becoming an immortal spiritual being who transcends reincarnation.
But Lin Shi felt a bit of a headache thinking about her first life as the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao and Li Feini's previous life. Her first life was alright, but the obsession in Li Feini's previous life was hard to let go of.
Li Feini only realized she loved Wen Zhao'an after her death, but could only reincarnate with resentment. She longed to be with Wen Zhao'an forever, but the separation of life and death prevented her from fulfilling this wish. Therefore, each of her subsequent reincarnations was filled with intense resentment, a constant yearning to rekindle their past love. She reincarnated twenty times, but the first nineteen times she was reborn as a mortal, and the first eighteen times she died alone. In her nineteenth reincarnation, she married Xu Xinghao, who shared the same origin as Wen Zhao'an in her previous life, and only in her twentieth reincarnation did she successfully become Lin Shi, a cultivator.
The karma and obsession accumulated from Li Feini over twenty lifetimes have continued into this life. Wen Zhao'an has also left a mark on Li Feini's soul. Unless their karma is resolved, their bond severed, and their obsessions dispelled, neither their original forms nor their reincarnations can ascend to immortality.
Thinking of this, Lin Shi deliberately chose to go to Li Feini's lifetime in her dream within a dream. She tried to change some things in the dream within a dream, hoping to directly sever the karmic ties in that lifetime, but each time she was repelled by the mark that Wen Zhaoan had placed on Li Feini's soul.
Lin Shi tried nine times, but failed each time. She couldn't be there to change anything; she could only watch as Li Feini went through her life again and again as an observer.
The last time, Wen Zhaoan was still in his soul form at the peak of the Mahayana stage, yet he suddenly appeared before Lin Shi. He stood before her, looking down at her with a scrutinizing yet nostalgic gaze. He said in a deep voice, "Lin Shi, you cannot change anything that has happened, including your own past life!"
Lin Shi was taken aback, then couldn't help but sigh.
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