"In Great Qian, if you want to cultivate smoothly, you still need someone from a lineage to show you the way.
"The Confucian School's Spring-Autumn Brush is indeed a good choice for you."
"Dong Chunqiu may be a little pedantic, but he deserves to be called a great Confucian scholar. As for those disciples of his, well—"
Elder Wei lowered his head. He stopped looking at Li Shun and continued polishing the Sword Branch with his fingers.
Perhaps it was Li Shun's imagination, or perhaps it was because he had held it every day lately, but to him, the long branch looked more and more like a sword rather than a tree branch. Even when it lay still, with no cold gleam showing, it looked that way.
"I understand, senior." Li Shun nodded thoughtfully.
A long while passed.
"Why are you still here?" Wei Wuqi glanced up at Li Shun, who remained standing in the courtyard.
"I still have a question, senior, but I don't know whether I ought to ask it. So I've been standing here, wavering—"
Seeing Li Shun's show of restraint, Wei Wuqi shook his head slightly. "Go on."
"Why do you seem to favor me, senior? You taught me Empty Boat, Self-Erasure, the Emperor-Slaying Sword Technique, and all manner of other divine abilities without holding anything back. And whenever I ask a question, you tell me almost everything you know. Why have you treated me so differently?"
"Is it because of Li Qing, or because I possess Threefold Self-Reflection?" Li Shun looked steadily at Wei Wuqi, his eyes full of sincerity, and voiced the question that had troubled him.
Wei Wuqi's gaze turned distant. "Do you truly want to know?"
Li Shun nodded.
"In that case, I may as well tell you. The reason this old