Hearing Zhou Qiucheng's words, Zhang Chen smiled lightly. "Are you giving up already, sir? Have you not heard: mountains and rivers may seem to leave no road, yet beyond dark willows and bright flowers lies another village?"
"Where are there any more mountains and rivers?" Zhou Qiucheng sighed helplessly, his voice filled with bitterness. "To know Heaven's mandate is to know how difficult it is to defy Heaven. At my age, with half my body already in the grave, once I fall into the dust, where would I find another chance to rise again?"
Zhang Chen smiled at that. "Sir, do you know Chen Sanliang's path to rise? As far as I know, Chen Sanliang was crippled after a debate on the Dao in those days. Yet from his rise to sweeping across the South of the River Lands, it took less than five years."
For the Confucian path, enlightenment and reaching the summit could happen in a single thought; having one's cultivation crippled could also happen in a single thought.
"Chen Sanliang is a miracle that cannot be replicated. I do possess some self-awareness. How would I dare compare myself to Chen Sanliang?" Zhou Qiucheng gave a bitter smile.
Yet Zhang Chen did not think so. "What you do not know, sir, is that I was the one who guided Chen Sanliang to enlightenment. Even his understanding of the great Dao he follows today came from my guidance."
"What?" Zhou Qiucheng stared at Zhang Chen in astonishment, his eyes full of disbelief.
Chen Sanliang had stirred up such enormous waves across the world, and the true culprit turned out to be the man before him?
Zhou Qiucheng then let out a sigh. "A pity. Even if you were struck by inspiration and could guide Chen Sanliang, you cannot guide