Hearing that Wang Zhenren intended to join hands with him to unravel this so-called Heaven's Mandate, Sun Shaozong silently lowered his assessment of the man by a notch.
This Daoist might have some cleverness, but he was still inevitably rough and rash in his dealings.
Conspiring to manipulate the heir to a nation was a deadly business. How could he blurt it out upon meeting someone for the first time?
Even if Sun Shaozong truly intended to cooperate with him, he would never give a definite answer and leave himself open to criticism—let alone when he was only half-convinced by Wang Zhenren's claims.
For one fleeting moment, Sun Shaozong had even considered reporting him to the Crown Prince and sending Wang Zhenren after those eunuchs.
But he quickly cast that thought aside.
The reason Wang Zhenren could establish himself in the Crown Prince's Residence was not this talk of Heaven's Mandate at all, but rather his method of Artificial Insemination—and to the Crown Prince, that was an irresistible temptation he could never pass up.
So even if Sun Shaozong exposed Wang Zhenren before the Crown Prince for using the Heaven's Mandate as a pretext while harboring other motives, he most likely still would not be able to get rid of him once and for all.
Since he could not kill him with one blow, he at least had to maintain outward harmony.
Thus, Sun Shaozong gave an ambiguous reply. It could be taken as willingness to cooperate, or as stalling and evasion. In short, Wang Zhenren could not quite grasp his thoughts, yet could faintly sense a measure of goodwill.
It sounded vague and elusive, but was truly not easy to pull off.
Had Sun Shaozong not spent two years honing himself in Wuxi Prefecture, he might not have been