The fourth week on the ice continent brought a new awareness that was beginning to form within Li Yuan's understanding.
He stood at the edge of a great fissure—one he had explored last week—and gazed at the layers of ice stacked on the walls. But this time, he wasn't focused on a single layer or the history it held.
He looked at the overall structure. At the bigger pattern.
And he saw something he hadn't seen before.
A cycle.
The ice on the surface—the newest layer—was formed from falling snow. Snow that came from water vapor that evaporated from the ocean, rose into the atmosphere, cooled and condensed into crystals, which then fell and were compressed into ice.
But this ice was not eternal. At the edge of the continent, where temperatures were slightly warmer or where pressure wasn't enough to maintain the structure, the ice melted. It became liquid water that flowed back to the sea. Which then evaporated again, continuing the cycle.
"Three phases," Li Yuan mused, his hand touching the ice. "Solid, liquid, gas. Ice, water, vapor. Not three separate elements but three manifestations of the same essence."
"And most importantly—they are not static. They move in a cycle. Ice becomes water. Water becomes vapor. Vapor becomes water. Water becomes ice. Constant transformation, never stopping."
He closed his eyes and sensed with his Water Understanding, which was now beginning to see the broader pattern.
Within five centimeters of his body, he felt water in various forms—small ice crystals carried by the wind, the moisture in the air, even traces of water in his own body of consciousness that mimicked a physical structure.
But more than that, he felt... a rhythm. Like a breath.
"The first breath: Ice becomes water." The transformation from static to dynamic. From storing to carrying. From a rigid crystal structure to free fluidity. Like inspiration—taking something solid and bringing it into a flow.
"The second breath: Water becomes vapor." The transformation from liquid to gas. From visible to invisible. From carrying a story directly to carrying it in a dispersed form that can spread everywhere. Like expiration—releasing, letting go, allowing it to scatter.
"The third breath: Vapor becomes water, water becomes ice." The transformation from gas back to liquid, from liquid back to solid. From dispersed to collected. From scattered to stored. Like... a pause between breaths. A moment when movement ceases and something new can begin.
"Three breaths," he pondered with a quiet excitement—an awareness that he was touching on something fundamental. "Not three separate phases but three parts of one complete breath. A cycle that never truly ends, only repeats in an eternal pattern."
Li Yuan opened his eyes and gazed at the vast icy landscape.
"This is what I came here to understand. Not just how ice stores memory or how water flows. But how all three—solid, liquid, gas—are manifestations of the same essence, moving in a rhythm that underlies all existence."
"And if I can understand that rhythm with enough depth... then my Water Understanding will evolve. Not just understanding one phase or two, but understanding the cycle itself. Transformation. Change. The rhythm of the three breaths."
In the following days, Li Yuan spent his time observing the transformations directly.
He found an area where ice was melting—not because of the season (there was no summer here, not in a meaningful way) but because of pressure or friction or a local phenomenon that created enough heat to change the phase.
He sat beside a small stream of liquid water flowing from the melting ice, and he listened.
Within five centimeters of his hand touching the water, he felt the transformation—the moment when the rigid crystal structure broke, when molecules locked in a fixed pattern were suddenly free to move.
And most interestingly: the memory stored in the ice was not lost when the ice melted. The memory was transformed—from being stored in a static structure to being carried in a dynamic flow.
"Like reading a book," he mused. "Ice is a closed book, pages stored in perfect order. But when the ice melts, those pages open, are read, carried by the flow—no longer in perfect order but still carrying the same information."
"Transformation is not destruction. It is only a change from one mode of existence to another."
He followed the flow of water until he reached the edge of a fissure where the water fell into the depths—a small waterfall that dropped perhaps a hundred meters.
And at the base of the waterfall, where the water hit the surface with force, he saw something else: mist. Water vapor that formed from the impact, rising into the air in an almost invisible form.
"The second breath," he realized. "From liquid to gas. From carrying in a flow to carrying in dispersion."
He went down to the base of the waterfall and stood in the mist. Within five centimeters of his body, he felt the water molecules suspended in the air—no longer connected in a continuous flow but scattered, individual, moving in what seemed like random patterns but which actually followed the same precise physical laws as ice and water.
And through his Water Understanding, he heard something new.
The memory in the vapor was different again. It wasn't stored with perfect fidelity like in ice. It wasn't carried in a coherent flow like in water. But it was scattered, dispersed, becoming part of the broader atmosphere.
"Like shared knowledge," he mused. "When knowledge is stored in one place—like in a book or in one mind—it is protected but limited. When knowledge flows from one person to another, it is carried but still coherent. But when knowledge is truly scattered—becoming part of a culture, of a community's spiritual atmosphere—it is no longer clearly visible but it influences everything."
"That is the third phase. The phase of dispersion. The phase where the individual becomes universal."
Li Yuan stood in the mist for a long time, allowing the water molecules to touch his body, feeling the way they moved—not with a predictable flow but with a more complex, more diffused, more... free pattern.
"Three breaths," he mused again. "Ice that stores. Water that carries. Vapor that scatters. Solid, liquid, gas. Structure, flow, freedom."
"And all of it is water. All of it is the same essence, just in different manifestations."
"This is the understanding I was searching for. This is the reason I came here."
That night—or what passed for night—Li Yuan returned to the area he had found last week. The place that felt special, where the ice surface was so smooth and the formations around it created a natural amphitheater.
He stood in the center of that area and felt the resonance of the place.
Yes. This was the right place.
But it was not yet time. He knew this with an instinct that had been honed over fifteen thousand years of cultivation.
He needed more observation. More understanding of how the three phases interact, how the transformation occurs, how the rhythm of the three breaths truly works.
"Maybe another month," he estimated. "Maybe two. Or maybe more—there is no urgency. No deadline. Just the awareness that when I am ready, I will know."
"And then I will sit here, in this place, and I will meditate. A cultivation that might last longer than any cultivation I have ever done."
"A cultivation that will bring my Water Understanding to a new phase—from understanding one or two phases to understanding the complete cycle of the three breaths."
He looked up at the pale sky with the low sun.
"Three breaths," he whispered—not with a sound but with a spiritual resonance that made the ice crystals around him vibrate ever so slightly.
"Solid. Liquid. Gas."
"Ice. Water. Vapor."
"Storing. Carrying. Scattering."
"Structure. Flow. Freedom."
"Three manifestations of the same essence."
"Three parts of one complete breath."
"Three paths that all lead back to the source—which is not a spring but the stillness that reflects everything."
The wind blew, carrying dancing ice crystals.
And Li Yuan stood in the center of the natural amphitheater, feeling this place, preparing for the next phase of a journey that never truly ends.
It only evolves.
Like water that changes phase.
Like a breath that repeats.
Like understanding that deepens with every question answered and every new question that arises.
Three breaths.
And a cultivation that will bring him closer to the essence of all that flows, that stores, that scatters.
The essence of water itself.
In all its manifestations.