Hou Niao said nothing. He was waiting for the two True Persons to explain. He had to show that he would not involve himself too deeply, because besides being an Anhe disciple, he was also the leader of Shanmen Quanzhen.
It was a contradiction. Xiao True Person had summoned him to hear his opinion, yet he could not state that opinion in full. Doing so might have the opposite effect.
Sometimes he even wondered whether the two True Persons had summoned him precisely to discover whom Shanmen Quanzhen favored most, so they could eliminate that person from consideration.
Personal relationships were one thing; the interests of a lineage were another. The two could not be confused. If the Anhe Daoist Sect sought genuine independence, they should not only avoid being controlled by the Wu Sect, but also avoid being swayed by Shanmen. That was the breadth of vision a lineage's leaders truly needed.
True Person An spoke. "Over this period, we've learned a great deal from the Daoist sects large and small across the Southeast, and come to understand some of these Upper Realm Envoys' methods. They essentially center their efforts on three people: Taiqing's Zhixuan, who took charge of the Qi Sect; Yuqing's Juemingzi, who took charge of the Wu Sect; and Shangqing's Tianfeng, who took charge of the Chu Sect. They then expand from that foundation."
Sighing, True Person An continued, "What a clever maneuver. Their targets are all the Daoist sects on the continent, large and small, and their method is to advance in a group. Several of them enter at once, driving out competitors outside the Three Purities system, and then decide among themselves who gets the final position.
"Through this method, they've already determined the direction of several small Daoist sects' inheritances. Now it's the