"Brother Shenshu, don't say that. We're friends."
"Besides, you were the one who gave me [Big Tree Stump] first, weren't you?"
"You gave me something valuable, and now I'm giving something back. That's only fair, isn't it?"
"And anyway... I think you've underestimated yourself. Other people have, too."
At that, Li Yun's expression grew much more serious.
"I've underestimated myself?"
Zhang Shenshu looked puzzled.
"That's right!"
"You have."
"You may have reached only the Mastery Realm before, and more than ten years of training may seem like painfully slow progress. But as I see it, you simply lacked some guidance."
"You have a good grasp of things, and you're remarkably well suited to [Big Tree Stump]."
"Without your own ability, those ten-odd years of training as a foundation, and such a strong affinity for [Big Tree Stump], how could my guidance alone have taken you from the Mastery Realm straight to the Perfection Realm in two days?"
"You've even kept a glimmer of hope for Limit Breaking!"
Zhang Shenshu's heart jolted. He was already in his thirties, long past the golden age for Martial Dao training. If not for the breath of determination sustaining him and his fierce desire to restore the Zhang Family to the glory its ancestors had once known, he might have given up Martial Dao long ago.
In his own mind, as in the eyes of everyone around him, he was no Martial Dao genius.
Some even thought he was unsuited to it.
Yet no one had ever told him so earnestly that he had a good grasp of things, or that he had a solid foundation.
At that moment, he felt a powerful surge of encouragement.
Before he knew it, his eyes had reddened.
He was about to thank Li Yun again when Li Yun