At Red Moon Fort, all the divisions gathered.
As expected, the Wu Division had actually performed the worst of the five divisions, suffering the greatest losses and reaping the smallest gains. They had even lost their own leader.
But the other teams had hardly achieved anything glorious either. Overall, the operation had accomplished its goal of dispersing the rogue cultivators, but had eliminated only a limited number of them, with even fewer results in the effort to wipe out the key figures.
That was true of the rogue cultivators in the Three Heavens Realms, and neither of the two great Golden Core cultivators had been dealt with either. So, seemingly, no one could blame anyone else.
The Baishen Sect's inflated opinion of itself, along with its underestimation of the rogue cultivators' cohesion, had been the principal factors behind this outcome.
As another Shanmen judicial officer put it, prolonged peace and distance from war had already cost the Baishen Sect its former glory.
In truth, was the Baishen Sect the only one that had grown unaccustomed to war?
Hou Niao's performance in this operation had been barely satisfactory. He had kept an absurdly low profile, entirely losing his former sharpness.
Li Chuping summoned him alone. "This isn't your style! If you'd done your best, the Wu Division wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses. The Baishen Sect has quite a few complaints about us, especially you!
"Mediocre, idle, looking out only for yourself, with no desire to improve..."
Hou Niao remained silent. He was no longer the hot-blooded young man of the Law he had once been, nor did he believe he had to play the savior in every operation. Cultivation lay in the plain and ordinary.
It was habitual criticism. Li Chuping found that whenever he encountered this fellow, he could