Daoist Qu was still somewhat unwilling to let it go. The anger from Daoist Jiang's scolding had yet to fade, and that man had even escaped from under his hand. He said coldly, "So we're just letting him off this time?"
Mu Juan'an glanced at him and said, "So what if we are? The greater matter takes priority. Celestial Xia is now divided into two factions internally. Perhaps someone wishes to use this to sabotage the envoys' journey to our Origin Xia. True Person Qu, the overall situation comes first!"
Daoist Qu inwardly disagreed, but he had no way to argue forcefully with Mu Juan'an. After a stretch of silence, he could only say, "High True Person Mu is right. Qu was too hasty in this matter."
Seeing him yield, Mu Juan'an nodded in satisfaction and asked, "What of that man?"
Daoist Qu knew he meant Daoist Bai Wang. After pondering for a moment, he said, "This man should be a cultivator who has plucked the superior achievement-fruit. It seems he has also perfected his Dao methods."
Mu Juan'an fell into thought. "Another one." Then he added, "This person seems far from friendly toward us. He should be one of Celestial Xia's hardliners. They are our true enemy."
They did not pay much heed to cultivators of low cultivation, believing that what truly determined the strength of a cultivation force lay chiefly in the Upper Layer—in other words, those who had plucked the superior achievement-fruit.
Yet there were distinctions even among them. Void-Entrusted cultivators differed from those who had attained the mutual aid of Yin and Yang, and those who had attained the mutual aid of Yin and Yang differed further from cultivators who had perfected their Dao methods. The last kind were the true Upper Layer. If these people