As time gradually passed without any instructions from the Golden Core elders above, the cultivators began to relax.
Many of them reasoned that if the negotiations had lasted this long without breaking down, the differences could not be too great.
That thought put them much more at ease, dispelling their initial tension.
Liu Yu likewise did not believe the fighting would resume.
After all, the Primordial Yang Sect alone had already lost fifty or sixty Foundation Establishment cultivators. Those were no small casualties.
The Primordial Yang Sect only had a little over four hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators on its public roster.
The casualties among its subordinate forces were even worse-at least twice as many.
If the fighting continued, it really would wound their sinews and bones, benefiting none of the Five Great Sects.
Liu Yu even privately suspected that the Nascent Soul cultivators of the various sects might already have settled the precise division of the Cold Mist Spirit Stone Mine.
Today's gathering was merely to announce it formally to the outside world, while letting the Golden Core cultivators beneath them discuss mining operations and garrison arrangements.
As for setting up an arena and having the Five Great Sects arrange bouts between Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core cultivators to determine their shares of the mine?
That was simply wishful thinking.
Just as Qi Refining cultivators could scarcely interfere in battles between Foundation Establishment cultivators, the gap between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators was even greater. Between the Golden Core Stage and the Nascent Soul Realm lay an unbridgeable chasm.
Such an immense difference in "quality" could never be made up for with "quantity"!
Nascent Soul cultivators could effortlessly sweep away those beneath them, as easily as striking from a higher dimension. No number of opponents could close