The Show Was Just Beginning

As his Profound Insight Dao Contemplation reached a bottleneck and gradually settled into place, the Dao Resonance Stone offered Li Shun next to no benefit.

So he sought Kong Changqing out and returned the treasure intact.

Kong Changqing was astonished.

After examining it, he stroked his beard and exclaimed, "If any cultivator under heaven obtained a divine stone that pointed straight toward the Great Dao, wouldn't he treasure it beyond measure? He'd probably want to keep it for himself and turn it over in his hands day and night."

"And yet, in a mere dozen days, you saw through your greed and returned it of your own accord, without hesitation..."

"You truly have the bearing of a Sage!"

Kong Changqing had spoken his honest thoughts before he could stop himself.

A glint flashed through Li Shun's eyes. He immediately bowed his head deep, a fitting trace of alarm appearing on his face. "Senior, you give this junior far too much credit! Must one hoard every rare treasure for oneself? To keep one's heart at peace, neither envious nor grasping—that is what matters."

Seeing Li Shun remain neither servile nor arrogant, Kong Changqing clapped his hands and laughed. "Don't brush it off, lad. My words are no empty praise."

"Years ago, before the Sage attained the Cosmos Realm, a villager sought to present him with a priceless jade. The Sage refused it outright. He said, 'I treasure freedom from greed; you treasure jade. If you give it to me, we will both lose our treasures. Better that each man keep his own.' By returning the Dao Resonance Stone so openly today, have you not, across the centuries, borne out the Sage's words and deeds?"

"Countless Confucian cultivators proclaim their devotion to the Sage and can recite his writings backward. But when