In that instant, Lin Feng saw a great deal in that single slap.
His nominal teacher was an extremely contradictory man.
On the one hand, he scorned other people's nine-rank official hierarchy, mocking them for using nine ranks in cultivation too, as though they were entering government service.
Not an ounce of individuality.
On the other hand, the method he had created himself.
Had not necessarily broken out of the existing mold either.
It also used nine ranks.
He still wanted to become Grand Tutor in life and receive the posthumous title Wenzheng in death.
Lin Feng did not know what realm his nominal teacher had cultivated to.
But the spells the two of them practiced shared the same roots.
Through this single slap, Lin Feng saw the gap between them.
One crucial element was Intent.
His master's slap carried an Intent that belonged to him alone.
To put it in the most mystical terms.
It was the Dao.
His teacher had found his own path.
And walked that path.
Just as Lin Feng had heard Corpse and that Bodhisattva saying, trying to prove that everything was "emptiness."
Everything he held fast to was empty.
Once his convictions collapsed and that sustaining breath was gone, he would defeat himself.
To advance further, he needed to blend his qi, his Intent, and his spirit together and forge a path of his own.
The pillars supporting it.
If any one of them went crooked.
The consequences would be extremely grave.
Just as his nominal teacher's conviction was to annihilate [Ascension Stockade].
If Ascension Stockade assimilated him.
Then everything would become empty.
It would all collapse.
Naturally, another very important aspect was that when a spell contained Intent, even if its caster was absent, as long as some trace of the technique remained.