Li Yuan did not continue exploring the questions that arose about the flexibility of Core Consciousness.
Something else had captured his attention.
With Chaos at the center of his consciousness, his mind, which now moved in unexpected patterns, suddenly focused on something familiar yet different. Something he had always considered a part of the Chaos Understanding, but now—in this unexpected mental chaos—began to appear as a distinct entity.
Chaos Qi.
The twelfth understanding he had ever achieved. But now, viewed through the lens of a Chaos Core Consciousness, Li Yuan began to realize that this was not merely an "understanding of irregular energy."
It was something much more... fundamental.
Li Yuan felt his unpredictable, chaotic thoughts actually lead him to a strange clarity about the nature of Chaos Qi.
This isn't ordinary energy.
Qi—in the sense of the name given to what was once a pure energy, which Li Yuan named Chaos Qi when he first found it—is an energy that has a pattern, is always chaotic, and cannot be controlled.
But Chaos Qi was something fundamentally different.
It was pure possibility.
Li Yuan felt his Chaos Qi Understanding vibrate with a frequency he had never noticed before. It wasn't a vibration that had a rhythm or pattern, but a vibration that... had the potential to become any rhythm.
Like the silence before music is played. Like a blank canvas before a painting begins. Like a word that has not yet been spoken but is already on the tip of the tongue.
Chaos Qi had no definite structure or direction.
That was what made it unique among all his understandings. Water had the nature of flowing. Silence had the nature of stillness. Anger had the nature of being fiery. All other understandings had definable characteristics.
But Chaos Qi was... undefinable. It contained infinite potential, but also extreme instability.
And that made it both the most dangerous and the most creative.
Li Yuan began to understand why Chaos Qi felt so different when he first touched it. It wasn't about understanding something that already existed. It was about interacting with something that had not yet become anything, but could become everything.
Pure possibility.
In the chaotic mental state he was in now, Li Yuan felt a deep resonance with the nature of Chaos Qi. His unpredictable mind, which changed without pattern, turned out to be the most suitable mental condition to understand an energy whose nature was also unpredictable and patternless.
This is why I liked it.
The realization came with a strange clarity. All this time, Li Yuan had felt a special connection to the Chaos Qi Understanding, but he had never fully understood why. Now he knew.
Because Chaos Qi was a reflection of his most authentic personality aspect—the part of him that didn't like to be limited by expectations, that loved to explore possibilities that had never been tried, that felt alive precisely in uncertainty and unpredictability.
And now, with Chaos as my Core Consciousness, I can truly understand what Chaos Qi is.
Li Yuan began to feel something extraordinary happening with this twelfth understanding of his.
Chaos Qi wasn't just about feeling irregular energy. Chaos Qi was about feeling the possibility that didn't yet exist.
If his other understandings made him sensitive to "what already exists"—water that flows, silence that is still, emotions that surge—then Chaos Qi made him sensitive to "what could be."
I can sense potential.
Li Yuan began to experiment with this new awareness. In his Zhenjing, he focused his attention on Chaos Qi and let his consciousness flow with that unpredictable energy.
And suddenly, he began to "see" something he had never seen before.
Possibilities that had not yet happened.
Around every other understanding, Li Yuan began to see faint outlines of what they could become. The Water Understanding didn't just vibrate as an existing ocean, but also as all possible forms of water—vapor, ice, dew, tsunamis, gentle drizzles, tears, the sweat of happiness.
The Silence Understanding didn't just vibrate as a familiar stillness, but also as all possible kinds of silence—the silence before a storm, the silence after a song ends, the silence in a hug, the silence in a prayer, the silence in a peaceful death.
This... this is the bridge between what is and what can be.
Li Yuan felt an unexpected excitement. Chaos Qi provided access to a layer of reality he had never touched before—the layer of possibility, potential, and "what if."
But it was also very unstable.
Every time Li Yuan tried to focus his awareness on a specific possibility, that possibility changed into another possibility. It was like trying to catch a shadow with his hand—the harder he tried to grasp it, the more the shadow shifted.
And that could be a force of creation or a force of destruction.
Li Yuan began to understand the dual nature of Chaos Qi. In an uncontrolled hand, this energy containing infinite possibility could become a destructive chaos—destroying existing structures without creating something meaningful to replace them.
But in a hand that had wisdom and restraint, Chaos Qi could become an endless source of creativity—opening a pathway to possibilities previously unimaginable.
And now, in this state of mental chaos, I can feel it more clearly than ever before.
Li Yuan realized an interesting irony. When his mind was calm and orderly with a Water Core Consciousness, he couldn't fully connect with the chaotic nature of Chaos Qi. But now, when his own mind became chaotic, he could resonate with Chaos Qi on a much deeper level.
Perhaps some understandings can only be accessed in a certain state of consciousness.
That was a surprising insight. All this time, Li Yuan had assumed that all his understandings could be accessed equally well in any condition. But perhaps each understanding had an optimal "mood" or "state" where it could shine to the fullest.
Water might be best understood in a calm and flowing state. Anger might be best understood in a passionate and protective state. And Chaos Qi... might be best understood in a chaotic and unpredictable state.
This opens up a new possibility for how I interact with my understandings.
Li Yuan felt that the experiment with Chaos as his Core Consciousness had not only given him a new perspective on spiritual flexibility, but also a revelation about the unique nature of Chaos Qi as "pure possibility."
In the unexpected mental chaos, surrounded by potential energy that had no fixed form, Li Yuan felt something paradoxical.
In total uncertainty, I found a new certainty about who I am.
I am someone who thrives in uncertainty. Who feels alive precisely when he doesn't know what will happen next. Who finds beauty in chaos and possibility in confusion.
And Chaos Qi was a perfect mirror for that aspect of his personality.
Li Yuan smiled with a smile as chaotic as the energy he was exploring. Unpredictable, unfathomable, but somehow... perfectly authentic.
The journey to understand pure possibility had just begun.