This Lantern Festival was no different from usual. Wang Yan had not gone out to socialize, merely eating and chatting at Old Bao's home. When Old Bao returned from the palace, he gave Wang Yan some further advice.
It was still about how to handle relations with other schools of thought.
As the saying went, literature had no first place, while martial arts had no second. Wang Yan had been outrageously bold, proposing his own doctrine at eighteen, even publishing a book—and what was more, it had sold like wildfire. This posed a challenge to other schools of thought, so a debate was necessary.
Scholarship was politics. Those old diehard conservatives, for example, would never become disciples of the Wang School even on their deathbeds. Wang Yan's doctrine contained considerable progressiveness and a challenging spirit; that was the foundation of reform. If Wang Yan's school were allowed to grow unchecked, it would inevitably set off another frenzy of reform. He still had to be targeted.
That was the purpose Wang Yan had mentioned before: to launch an academic movement.
But Old Bao meant well. As the saying went, the tree that stood above the forest would be battered by the wind. He was quite satisfied with Wang Yan, this junior. Wang Yan had cured his son's illness, and even Old Bao himself had found that after practicing the cultivation method Wang Yan taught him, his appetite had improved greatly, his energy had increased considerably, and he even had the strength to take a piss.
Since he had not gone out socializing, Wang Yan naturally had not shown off. There had been no "raising a cup to ask the blue sky," nor "that person stood amid the fading lights"...
This was not the time to go out showing off. He had