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You do not discard this comprehension. Instead, you dig deeper, latching onto it with your hands! No, you aren’t grabbing it, you’re scooping it! You adjust your posture to cup your hands together. There are several moments of silence. Then, it begins to drop. Not from the ceiling of this cave…
From somewhere else entirely. Your hands become wet and you’re careful not to twitch or spill a single drop. The feeling passes but the water remains. You bring your palms to your lips and sip, drinking what’s in your hands. This is the clearest water you’ve ever tasted. It is pure, without the slightest disturbance. Finally, your thirst has been quenched!
You open your eyes and realize your hands are dry. That must mean you were dreaming. Unless that water was real, and somehow deeper than the body? That would mean this was some kind of vision. You think about the feeling. You don’t have any thirst anymore. You gaze inward to examine your flow of qi. Your dantian is drenched in Water (水), just like it was buried in Death (死亡)!
Consequently, the rest of your qi has been tinged with water and will take some effort to separate them. You’re amazed by this. You look closer and find that this water is attached to your body, rather than anchored in the soul, like death. Once you improve your physique to new heights, you’ll be leaving it behind. Curious. Does that mean there are different levels of enlightenment? Is there any way you could elevate this insight of water to match your insight of death? Is it even worth doing?
Perhaps you need to take as much advantage of it as possible, while it lasts. You consider the thought of reaching a deeper understanding in all five elements and learning to balance them all, like you did for your foundation. That would be an incredible achievement. If you managed it. You aren’t even sure how you did this! Was it your thirst that let you open your mind to the floodwaters? Was it the will of the Dao?
This is strange, very strange. As you leave the cave, you realize that at some point in your meditations, you turned eleven years old. You are coming closer to death. That’s nothing to be afraid of. Grandfather Shun clearly notices your water-drenched qi but doesn’t speak of it. Perhaps he’s waiting for you to break the ice? Perhaps he has different plans…
There's no way to know for sure, and you don't think it's the right time to ask.
