Shen Luo and Nie Caizhu walked side by side for quite some time, neither of them speaking.
"Cousin, when it comes to cultivation, diligence should be tempered with letting nature take its course. Why are you pushing yourself so hard?" In the end, Shen Luo was the first to break the silence.
Yet after saying it, he found it somewhat amusing. Nie Caizhu's cultivation was now far beyond his own, so speaking this way did make him seem rather presumptuous.
"I had no choice. After Master brought me back to the sect, I kept wanting to leave, but she never allowed it. She gave me a strict order: unless I reached the Great Vehicle Stage, I was absolutely forbidden from leaving the sect," Nie Caizhu said.
"Does she treat you poorly?" Shen Luo's heart stirred as he asked.
"No, don't misunderstand. Master treats me very well. As the current head of Mount Putuo, she has many affairs to attend to, yet she has never been perfunctory or lax in guiding my cultivation. Otherwise, no matter how diligent I was, I could never have achieved my current cultivation," Nie Caizhu said, hurriedly waving her hands in explanation.
"That's good... I thought it would be many more years before I saw you again. I never expected... to come to Mount Putuo so soon," Shen Luo said with a soft sigh.
Nie Caizhu stopped and turned to study Shen Luo carefully. Suddenly, her eyes reddened slightly.
"What is it?" Thinking he had said something wrong, Shen Luo immediately grew flustered.
"Only after I began cultivating did I realize how much hardship cultivation entailed. Even with my sect's support, there were so many times when I felt I could not keep going. You must have suffered greatly too, walking this path all these years,