Li Chuping reported his own recommendation and Hou Niao's request to his superiors, not daring to decide on his own. Nor was this something he could decide-even an Infant Transformation patriarch could not speak lightly on the matter. After all, the other side was a colossus even greater than Shanmen, with several hundred Golden Core cultivators and twenty Infant Transformation cultivators, surpassing Shanmen, to say nothing of the several great Daoist Sects lending their full support from behind.
He knew perfectly well what answer would come from the Jade Capital, yet still clung to a thread of hope. The higher one's position, the smaller one's courage; the Xiuzhen world was no different. There was no reason the Infant Transformation patriarchs could not see a problem that he and Hou Niao both could, but seeing it and daring to act on it were two different things.
Their priorities differed. Faced with the same matter and a ninety-percent chance of success, he and Hou Niao focused on that ninety percent, while those above guarded against the ten-percent chance of failure.
This led to completely opposite ways of handling things.
Under such guiding principles, the Jade Capital's instructions were plain to see. Without question, they would sacrifice the individual to preserve the greater whole.
A mere Accompanying Rong from the Minister of Justice Prefecture was not worth staking all of Shanmen Quanzhen on, especially in what appeared to be a fair duel. Even if he lost and died, Shanmen would not seem to lose face, would it?
He was powerless in all this, caught in the middle with neither heaven above nor earth below to reach. He could not influence the decisions above him, nor persuade that wretch below him to turn back from his wayward path.
Given the fellow's nature, perhaps it