Hou Niao didn't feel much pressure, but from where he stood, he couldn't see the overall situation of the Dao Discussion, and he couldn't be bothered to look.
He had no idea that his persistence had led to so many deep-seated schemes, long-term plans, and plots and intrigues. To him, it was simply a promise he'd made to the old Daoist Chongling. The old Daoist had held fast to something, and all Hou Niao had to do was help carry it on.
As for everything else, to hell with it.
The monks were weaker than the Daoists in combat. Maybe it was because the True Disciples hadn't entered the fray yet? But if the Buddhist Sect fought like this, taking on fifty or sixty of them by himself wouldn't be a dream; it would be a very real possibility. If that really happened, no matter how things turned out, where would that leave the Buddhist Sect's face?
The Wu Sect True Disciples, on the other hand, had vanished without a trace.
He kept one principle firmly in mind: keep it simple, simpler still. He would treat this whole experience as a chance to train himself.
He was speeding up the cultivation of his Sword Consciousness.
There were many ways to cultivate Sword Consciousness, but the most effective was battle, victory after victory. A victorious army stayed victorious not because its soldiers were especially brave or its general was peerlessly astute, but because it possessed a belief in victory.
That belief helped an army refuse to give up even in adversity, because it was convinced that final victory would surely belong to it.
The same was true of people.
The process was one of a person and a sword cultivating their belief together, strengthening their confidence, and becoming unyielding, undefeated, and