Hongjun spoke those words calmly.
His tone was light, as though he had merely mentioned it in passing, without the slightest trace of worldly heat.
Yet the deeper meaning within those words struck Laozi and Yuanshi's hearts like an invisible sledgehammer.
Laozi's half-closed eyes snapped open.
Yuanshi's face, as still and solemn as deep water, also changed slightly.
They exchanged a glance, each seeing a shock in the other's eyes that could not be concealed.
On the surface, Hongjun seemed to be urging all the Sages to work together, but in truth, he was putting the two of them in their place.
No!
More precisely, he was warning them.
Warning them not to ruin the grand undertaking of the Buddhist School's rise over sectarian prejudice or disputes between Dao lineages.
In the past, Primordial World Heaven and Earth had been divided between east and west.
The Eastern World was prosperous, crisscrossed with spirit veins and flourishing with fortune. It was the foundation of the Profound Gate's Three Teachings.
The Western World was barren, its earthly energy thin. Even spiritual flowers and exotic herbs struggled to grow there, let alone the recruitment of disciples and propagation of Dao arts.
Thus, even Sages such as Laozi and Yuanshi had never been willing to let Jieyin and Zhunti interfere in the Eastern World.
In their eyes, the Two Sages of the West were outsiders after all.
Even though they stood under the same Profound Gate banner, even though they were all Hongjun's disciples, the divide between east and west and the differences between their Dao lineages formed an invisible chasm that had always lain between them.
Even when the Interception Sect had been powerful, Laozi and Yuanshi had been unwilling to let the Buddhist School lay a finger on the Eastern World.
How