I glanced at the silk scroll and said, "After losing the thoroughfare to immortality, I resolved to stop using the Dao arts and return to my true nature. I had even considered going south to the farthest southern lands and spending the rest of my life there. Unfortunately, the world was in turmoil, and there were far too many injustices. Whenever I saw a rough road and an injustice, how could I be any different from a stone?"
"That's not the line..." Feng Xiaonan saw that I had deliberately recited another passage, then directly read out the final few lines: "I have never regretted turning to stone today, so if one day the immortal Dao takes pity on me and bestows life upon me once more..."
I shook my head and said, "Since he turned to stone, it's impossible for him to live again. Petrification of the meridians is the final outcome. Without the spark of life, what use would the immortal Dao's descent be? How could he be reborn?"
"Can you stop interrupting? Compare yourself with him and you'll know the gap between you!" Feng Xiaonan was naturally unhappy at my pessimism, but still couldn't help continuing: "He said in the end that he would fulfill his remaining wish and bring peace to all the injustices under heaven! Look—now that is a true hero!"
"He doesn't even have any strength left, yet he's still indulging in wishful thinking? Besides, there are plenty of people who can deal with the injustices under heaven. He's hardly needed. He couldn't even properly resolve the matters in his own household, yet he dreamed of handling great affairs. That's a classic case of having lofty aims but little ability. In my view, a man like that would have been better off going home to