Rock Ghost Devours the Human Emperor, Halos Rise in the Water Prison

"You have a point, but when it comes to knowledge and experience, it is still improper," Xi Muyuan said, his tone much calmer now. "Forcing them into the fields will inevitably breed resentment. It may not broaden their experience at all. Besides, life is finite—how can one experience everything?"

"That is true. Without experience, one may not necessarily make the wrong judgment, but..." Qiu Yan pointed at his forehead. "If one's line of thought is wrong from the very beginning, then there is a problem. Perhaps, as the Human Path develops, some matters can no longer be understood through reality alone and can only be accomplished through thought. Yet even that involves method."

"Method?" Xi Muyuan grew even more puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Brother Xi, do you remember Lu Han?" Qiu Yan asked.

"Of course I remember."

Qiu Yan continued, "Since you remember him, you should also remember his conversation with the soldiers. Back then, Lu Han did farm work and found it exhausting, so he looked down on the soldiers. Yet he did not know that the soldiers' daily drills were even more arduous. This revealed the flaw in his way of handling matters: he could not judge others by himself, and his vision was limited. To his senses, hardship meant farming, while ease meant standing by and watching."

"That was merely a passing feeling." Xi Muyuan's voice had already lowered considerably. He glanced at Xi Muyuan again. "Even when studying abstract concepts, can anything truly be achieved without an effective method? The unity of knowledge and action does not mean one must personally try everything. It is a method of conducting oneself. It can be applied to handling concrete matters, and even with abstract concepts, the process of deduction is likewise the practice of what one knows