A Daring Gamble

"Or else?"

"Maybe we could keep waiting a little longer."

"Wait? Wait for the Eastern Sea Lord to emerge from the ruins alive, then purge the forces surrounding the Flood Dragon Clan when he was on the verge of death? Including us."

"Or wait until our potential becomes prominent enough, until the benefits we gain tempt the Pill Alliance and Artifact Alliance into joining the Yuan Dao Alliance and our ally, Golden Ao Palace, to deal us a fatal blow."

"Or wait for slow development, gritting our teeth through one stage after another, facing pressure from the sects across the surrounding regions and yielding again and again."

"Or become provisions for those two sects."

"If the Venerable tells us to go east, we go east. If he tells us to chase dogs, we cannot go after chickens."

Taiyi spoke with great calm, as though he were not discussing the fate of the sect, but some utterly insignificant matter. Only when his robes suddenly rustled did a cough sound out, and a white handkerchief appeared in his hand.

"Junior Brother, we cannot wait until a crisis arrives before considering how to respond. We should strangle the crisis in its cradle."

Tu Shan Jun shook his head. He did not refute any of those matters, and he would firmly help Taiyi see them through, but at least in this matter, they needed to think things through more thoroughly.

He said in a low, resolute voice, "The sect's disciples are not chess pieces. They are living people."

Taiyi glanced at him in surprise, then smiled. "I never expected Junior Brother to view life this way."

Then he said indifferently, "War is filthy by nature, no matter what grand and righteous banner it flies beneath. And I am willing to be the one who