[twic]

> “Like a whetstone hurled at eggs.”

The translation i read has this as "like a grindstone hurled against eggs", and i'd always understood that to mean a millstone, rather than a whetstone. That makes the analogy far from anti-climactic: it's a perfect illustration of a huge force meeting entirely unequal resistance.

[chongli]

The whetstone I think it’s referring to is not the small brick-shaped ones you use to sharpen kitchen knives but the large wheel-shaped ones used to sharpen swords. Very similar to a millstone actually.