Chapter 746
Ren Xue
He paused, as if recalling that distant moment: "I said 'I do.' Then, I didn't 'gain the power of the ocean,' but... at that moment, the existence of 'Tang San' resonated with and overlapped with the concept of 'ocean.' I was no longer someone who used the power of the ocean; I was the manifestation of the ocean's will in the human world."
Tang Wulin's eyes lit up: "Exactly! It's not about control, but about recognition and resonance! And then? After becoming the Sea God, what changes occurred in your cultivation method?"
"From accumulating soul power to understanding the laws," Tang San replied. "I no longer need to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to improve my cultivation. Instead, I need to deepen my understanding of the ocean, water, and life through comprehension. The more I understand, the deeper my resonance with the ocean becomes, and the stronger the power I can mobilize. But this power... is less 'my power' and more 'the power of the ocean that I, as the Sea God, am allowed to use.'"
"What if I give up my position as the Sea God?" Tang Wulin pressed. "Will these understandings disappear? Will your resonance with the ocean be severed?"
This time, Tang San pondered for a longer time before slowly shaking his head: "Understanding won't disappear; it's part of 'knowing.' But resonance... will weaken. When I'm no longer the Sea God, the ocean will no longer be my 'responsibility' and 'power,' and my connection with it will regress from 'oneness' to 'intimacy.' I will still understand it, and I can still mobilize some of its power, but it will no longer be as easy as using my own limbs; instead, it will require requests, exchanges, and sacrifices."
Tang Wulin took a deep breath, his eyes growing brighter: "So, a divine position is actually a kind of... 'identity verification'? It verifies that you are qualified to resonate deeply with a certain law, qualified to exercise power on behalf of a certain law. And cultivation is about constantly improving your understanding of this identity, deepening your compatibility with this identity?"
“A very insightful metaphor,” Tang San nodded, then gave his son a deep look. “Wu Lin, you’re asking these questions because you want to…”
“I want to skip the ‘identity verification’ step,” Tang Wulin said, shocking his parents. “I want to resonate directly with the laws, not as a god, but as the essence of the existence of ‘Tang Wulin’.”
Xiao Wu's chopsticks fell onto the table with a crisp sound.
"Is this... possible?" she couldn't help but ask. "Without the guidance of a god, without the blessing of divine inheritance, how can mortals resonate directly with the laws? It's like... like trying to understand the contents of a book without language, or crossing a great river without a bridge!"
“That’s why I need to rethink everything,” Tang Wulin’s voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable firmness. “What is soul power? What if it’s not energy, but a primary manifestation of the ‘power of existence’? What is a soul ring? What if it’s not a fragment of a soul beast’s soul, but a ‘contract mark made with the world’? What is a martial soul? What if it’s not a bloodline inheritance, but a manifestation of ‘existential traits’?”
His series of questions plunged Tang San into deep thought.
After a long silence, the Sea God slowly spoke: "Your line of thinking... is very dangerous, but if it works, it might open a completely new door. However, Wu Lin, you must know that the existing cultivation system is a safe path that has been verified by countless predecessors over billions of years. The path you want to take has no guarantees, and may even... fundamentally negate everything about you as a Soul Master and as a god."
"I have nothing left to lose, Father," Tang Wulin smiled, a smile that held both relief and resolve. "My power is almost gone, my divine position is shattered. Standing on the ruins, I am ironically qualified to rebuild everything. And..."
He looked at his palm, which was empty, but he could feel the faint light of those memories burning quietly deep within his soul.
“Moreover, I think this path may not be a ‘new path,’ but rather the ‘original path,’” he said softly, as if revealing an astonishing secret. “Before the Soul Master system appeared, before the establishment of the God Realm, before all cultivation concepts were defined, how did the earliest beings understand the world and interact with it? Perhaps this is the path they walked—not cultivation, but ‘becoming’; not control, but ‘resonance’.”
Silence fell over the courtyard, broken only by the rustling of leaves in the wind. Tang San looked at his son, at the burning light in those azure eyes that resembled his own, and suddenly remembered that afternoon many years ago, in that small village called Holy Soul Village, when he lifted the forging hammer and first felt the breath of metal.
At that time, he didn't know what soul power, soul rings, or martial souls were. He just felt that the hammer in his hand was like an extension of his arm, like the rhythm of his heartbeat.
“Perhaps you are right,” Tang San suddenly smiled, a smile that contained pride, expectation, and a father’s worry for his son who was about to embark on a perilous journey. “Go for it, Wu Lin. If this path truly exists, if anyone can truly make it through, it can only be you.”
“Because,” he paused, then said, word by word, “you have convinced nothingness with your existence.”
In the days that followed, Tang Wulin began a completely new endeavor.
He didn't meditate to absorb soul power, didn't practice soul skills, and didn't even try to repair the broken Golden Dragon Spear. The first thing he did was recall.
Deep within the Tranquil Garden, Tang San prepared a quiet room for him. Tang Wulin sat in the center of the room, closed his eyes, and began to relive his life bit by bit, starting from the source of his memories.
The first memory is the cry at birth. Not a specific image—infants can't remember their birth—but a feeling: warmth, being enveloped, then sudden cold and light, the stinging pain of inhaling the first air into the lungs, the uncontrollable sound from the throat. That sense of arrival "from nothing to something," that initial confirmation that "I have come into this world."
He captured this feeling, not by memorizing it with his brain, but by experiencing it with his entire soul. Then, deep within his soul, a glimmer of light appeared—weaker, more primal, yet more fundamental than any previous memory. That was the first anchor of "existence": I was born.
The second memory is the warmth of his mother's embrace. Xiao Wu held him in her arms, humming a tuneless lullaby, gently patting his back with her fingers. That sense of security, that feeling of being enveloped in love, that sense of belonging—"I belong here."
Another glimmer of light.
The third memory is the first time I called out "Mom." It wasn't the specific pronunciation, but the impulse to express myself, to connect, to let that warm presence know "I'm here."
Another glimmer of light.
Tang Wulin sat there, reliving his life from birth to childhood, from adolescence to youth, from the Douluo Continent to the God Realm, from mortal to god, and then back to mortal. He relived every important moment, every profound experience, and every crucial turning point. (End of Chapter)