Unsheathed

Before they knew it, summer had already transitioned into autumn.

After resting for a period of time and nurturing his body, the two acupoints in which Chen Ping'an had placed his bonded items were now brimming with spiritual energy.

Regarding fist techniques and Qi refinement, Chen Ping'an tried his best to maintain a balance between the two and not favor one over the other. However, after becoming a genuine Qi refiner recently, it was necessary for him to spend at least eight hours a day on meditation and breathing techniques. This also allowed Chen Ping'an to become increasingly clear on the cultivation bottleneck that he would face in the future. There would eventually come a day when he would advance to the seventh tier of martial arts and the Middle Five Tiers of Qi refinement, and at that time, he would need to make another choice.

One day, Mao Xiaodong joked to Chen Ping'an, "I didn't see you holding back from absorbing the spiritual energy of the academy when you were cultivating in Cui Dongshan's courtyard before, so why were you unwilling to absorb a single drop of the academy's spiritual energy when we were atop Eastern Splendor Mountain back then? Were you being overly fussy?"

"After adhering to the fundamental rules, one can be more flexible and take into account the local customs and personal relationships," Chen Ping'an replied. "Cui Dongshan, Xie Xie, and Lin Shouyi can all rely on their cultivation bases to absorb spiritual energy in this courtyard, and this behavior is also something that the academy tacitly views as acceptable. That being the case, I can naturally absorb spiritual energy in the courtyard as well.

"To draw an analogy, one can view Eastern Splendor Mountain, the area outside the small courtyard, as... the Majestic World. In that sense, the small courtyard can be viewed as a nation or a small world. Since I'm not going against my conscience or the rules and etiquette of Confucianism, I'm... naturally free to act as I please."

Chen Ping'an paused as he spoke, using these brief moments to contemplate before he continued his response.

Mao Xiaodong nodded in response.

By the looks of it, he hadn't wasted his breath in speaking those well-thought-out and well-intentioned words to Chen Ping'an when he was refining the golden scholarly core atop Eastern Splendor Mountain back then.

"The tallest trees in the forest will inevitably be blown over by the wind, just as the most talented and moral individuals will attract jealousy and criticism from others. What do you think about this?[1].

"This is originally a warning to noble individuals, alerting them to the importance of keeping a low profile and acclimatizing themselves to a society that isn't very good," Chen Ping'an replied. "In terms of how society isn't good, I can't explain this right now. However, I feel like the current society is very far off from the ideal world in the eyes of Confucian teaching. As for why I think this, I can't find a good explanation either.