the scene is definitely more tense in the Novel...
Also, that skill-honing part is very different in the Novel. It's called the thousand skill tempering art (or something like that), and if I remember correctly, Lin TianAo actually told Zhou Weiqing about it when he asked him how he could get stronger quicker. In fact, there's a ton of material that was skipped. Especially the training 'montage' if you will.
Another fun fact: Lin TianAo is actually bearded in the novel...
