Wei Bo appeared under the eaves with a smile, then said, "It's alright, I can wait."0

Only after an hour had passed did Chen Ping'an open his eyes, and he exhaled as he apologized, "Sorry to keep you waiting."0

"What's going on?" Wei Bo asked.0

A resigned look appeared on Chen Ping'an's face as he said, "Back when I met Liu Laocheng on Palace Willow Island and heard him talk about his past struggles with his inner demons, I came to realize that the growth in my mental state had been too fast, sacrificing stability in the process. 0

“After that, Senior Cui also told me that the trial of self-reflection that I endured in Bamboo Scroll Lake was something that only a Golden Core Tier cultivator or even a Nascent Tier cultivator should've had to endure. The main problem is that my mental state was shattered alongside my bonded porcelain. 4

“Over the course of these past few journeys, I've been piecing together the shattered remnants through accumulating more experiences and gleaning more insights about the world, but I'm still far from reconstructing a bridge of immortality that can remain resilient against the elements. My woes were only further compounded when I shattered my own scholarly core on Cyan Gorge Island. 5

“The crux of the problem was that there was a fundamental conflict between the principles in my heart and my real-world experiences. It has nothing to do with Bamboo Scroll Lake, it's purely a problem within myself."0

Chen Ping'an took a sip of wine, and this time, he was truly attempting to drown his sorrows.0

"I once firmly believed that the more principles I knew, the quicker I would be able to strike with my fists and my sword. However, as I came to learn more and more about the complexity of this world and just how much of a gray area existed between good and evil, I became more and more hesitant to strike. 0

“I wanted to consider as many possibilities about one's nature as possible, the worst-possible scenario, the best-possible scenario, and everything in between. I would then use my sword techniques to carry out a process of severance and delineation, and only then can I be sure that I've done my due diligence, thereby allowing me to strike swiftly, but what if the situation is urgent, and I have to make a split-second judgment? 0

“What if I won't have time to slowly and meticulously mull over the situation?"0

Wei Bo nodded as he said, "The more correct a principle is, the heavier it weighs. As a pure martial artist, you are placing restrictions upon yourself,...1