There was no such thing as sending representatives. When immediate interests were involved, no one dared pin their hopes on someone else. In any case, there were only a handful of factions, so they might as well all go together.
There was nothing wrong with making the occasion a little more formal. Faced with a major sect like Mount Hua, lowering their stance a bit was not something anyone would laugh at.
Dragons did not dwell with snakes; even in the jianghu, status and standing mattered. If not for the war between the righteous and the wicked, they would not have had the chance to build connections even if they wanted to.
It was precisely because of this sense of hierarchy that, in the original work, the moment Yue Buqun lowered his posture and put aside his airs, he immediately gained a huge wave of prestige in the jianghu.
Unfortunately, that sort of prestige had no real meaning. At most, they would help wave flags and shout support in ordinary times; it brought no tangible benefit.
For the famous righteous sects, they already had more than enough underlings of their own. They did not need these unreliable fence-sitters to bolster their momentum.
Sometimes, having too many friends was also a burden. On many issues, one had no choice but to stand up for them because of personal ties. But even that kind of support came at a price; offending others was the least of it.
The real problem was, what if the party in conflict happened to be one's own sect, or one's allies, underlings, or even a clash between friend and friend? What then?
One should not fantasize that mediation could satisfy everyone. More often than not, seemingly fair mediation only left every side dissatisfied, making one wrong both