After finishing the scroll of Dao writings, Fan Zhou smiled and shook his head.
He felt that although Li Fuyuan's idea was admirable, it was impractical. In his view, this was precisely why Li Fuyuan had been unable to advance.
Since one had chosen the path of chaos, one should not dream of rejecting chaotic qi. That would only bind one's own cultivation.
Moreover, the Dao method vaguely questioned whether he could dispel chaos and maintain himself, claiming that he would sooner or later be assimilated by the Great Chaos. Yet his Dao method lay in constantly elevating himself. Once he rose high enough, every trouble would cease to be trouble.
If one could not achieve that, then even the self would no longer exist. Why consider such matters at all? Every step along the path of chaos was like treading on thin ice. It ought to be ever-changing, not fixed and unchanging.
After reading it, he said to himself, "You have your Dao, and I have mine. But this is good as well. It is precisely because you have your Dao that mine may be completed!"
Two days later, Li Fuyuan came to the forbidden formation again and asked, "How did you find it, sir?"
Fan Zhou smiled. "Before answering that, let me ask you something, fellow Daoist."
Li Fuyuan solemnly said, "Please speak, sir."
Fan Zhou said, "You must have seen the difference between your cultivation and mine."
Li Fuyuan did not deny it and nodded.
Fan Zhou stared at him and slowly said, "Since you and I cultivate the same Dao, and my cultivation surpasses yours, what gives you the right to say that your Dao can surpass mine?"
It was a formidable question. In terms of Dao methods, the higher one's cultivation, the more principles one