"That's good to hear. Thank you for your understanding, Elder Xin." Wei Zhao and Qiu Lingshan exchanged a glance and breathed a quiet sigh of relief in unison.

"I am merely speaking to the matter at hand, not deliberately doing anyone a favor, so there is no need for thanks," Xin Yijie said evenly. Though that fleeting moment had been nothing but an absurd illusion, it had made him all the more convinced that Wei Zhao must be someone of no small consequence. He had no wish to make an enemy of him lightly—there was no point souring things over such trivial matters.

There was, of course, another reason as well. The Pixie Sect's strength was hardly impressive within the Antiquity Alliance, and its conduct had always been eccentric and unorthodox. Its standing among the Alliance's people could not exactly be called good—indeed, it had made enemies on all sides. Naturally, then, he would not stick his neck out for two dead men of the Pixie Sect. Had it been a mainstream sect like the Snow Sword Sect, however, his attitude might well have been different.

"For someone of Elder Xin's standing to remain impartial and judge matters on their merits alone is already a rare blessing for the mundane world. Had someone else been in charge, these matters would not have been so easy to air out," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile.

From the beginning until now, Xin Yijie had accepted virtually every word he said without dispute. Granted, it was only sound reasoning to begin with—but for a man who was one of the Antiquity Alliance's fine early Golden Core cultivators to hear him out calmly and reasonably was remarkable in itself. Wei Zhao's opinion of Xin Yijie had imperceptibly improved quite a bit.

"President Lin is too kind. In truth, the Antiquity Alliance itself branched off from the mundane world; it is only that the two realms have been sealed off from each other. One might say we share the same ancestry and the same source. We have never harbored the slightest hostile intent toward the mundane world. This journey to the mundane world is less a training exercise for the disciples of the various sects than a homecoming," Xin Yijie said, deliberately seeking to close the distance between them.

"If that is so, then I hope Elder Xin will keep the training disciples of the Antiquity Alliance's various sects in line, so that trouble is not stirred up again and again, leaving both sides with no room to back down," Wei Zhao said gravely.

"To be frank with you, President Lin, the Antiquity Alliance has long had explicit rules that no training disciple may disrupt the order of the mundane world at will. These frictions arose purely from the differences in our respective backgrounds. There was not the slightest ill intent," Xin Yijie said, deflecting without committing himself either way.

"Differences in background are understandable, but there is an old saying: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Elder Xin himself said just now that yours is a homecoming journey—then all the more reason to abide by the rules of the mundane world, is there not?" Wei Zhao said mildly.

"Speaking of doing as the Romans do, I actually have a question I hope President Lin will not hesitate to enlighten me on," Xin Yijie said, abruptly shifting the subject.

"Oh?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow.

"President Lin is from the mundane world, are you not?" Xin Yijie asked.

"Of course." Wei Zhao nodded. Though he had spent three years on Cloud Terrace Island, he had after all been born and raised in the mundane world—a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool native of it.

"Since you are a man of the mundane world, President Lin, yet a mere primordial spirit possessing such astonishing strength—if I am not mistaken, you must have existed for a very long time. Could it be that you are a mighty primordial spirit left over from the Antiquity era?" Xin Yijie pressed. This was the true reason he had come to this meeting today, the true reason he had been so agreeable. He surmised that Wei Zhao was a formidable figure left over from the Antiquity era, and that was why he dared not provoke him lightly!

At these words Wei Zhao studied the other's expression closely, and something stirred in his heart. He nodded. "That is so. Ordinarily I would not reveal my origins to anyone, but since you have asked, and given the considerable affinity between us, there is no harm in telling you."

"Considerable affinity?" Xin Yijie was instantly taken aback. Even if the man truly was a formidable figure from the Antiquity era, where did this talk of "affinity" come from?

Wei Zhao shot a look at Qiu Lingshan beside him, signaling her to shut the door. Seeing this, Qiu Lingshan's lips curved upward—one look at that expression and she knew he was certainly about to spin a lie. She rose at once and closed the door, deliberately leaving herself outside as well; she feared that in a moment she would not be able to keep her face straight and would give the game away...

"What is said here today goes out from my mouth and into your ear alone. It must never reach a third person. Understand?" Wei Zhao said in a low, solemn voice.

"Hm?" Xin Yijie was even more bewildered now. A moment ago Wei Zhao had still had the perfectly normal tone of a mundane-world cultivator; now all at once he had changed into the bearing of a senior. Recalling that inexplicable shudder from before—could this primordial spirit truly have some special connection to him?

"Xin Yijie, you are a junior of the younger generation. Your sect's martial granduncle stands before you—why do you not pay your respects!"

"What?" Xin Yijie was utterly dumbfounded. What in the world—the sect's martial granduncle?!

"Hmph. I hail from the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Island in the Antiquity era. In a manner of speaking, you are a junior of my own sect. I had not intended to make this relationship explicit, but now that it has been spoken, ought you not pay your respects?" Wei Zhao snorted coldly.

Though he had said this on the spur of the moment, when it came down to it, it was not necessarily an empty claim. From the sect names alone one could roughly determine that the three great sects of the Northern Island in the Antiquity Alliance must surely share countless intricate ties with the Threefold Pavilion of the Northern Island on Cloud Terrace Island—otherwise there was simply no explaining those bizarrely identical names.

So although there was an element of risk in what he was doing, his confidence was in fact not small. And if his guess was right, then he, a disciple of the Azure Cloud Pavilion of the Northern Island on Cloud Terrace Island, and this man, a disciple of the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Island in the Antiquity Alliance, were indeed of the same lineage.

The cultivation world has always ranked seniority by strength. Xin Yijie, a mere early Golden Core disciple, was before him—a fine early Mystic Rank expert—nothing less than an out-and-out junior. In this, his words were not wrong at all.

Yet precisely because Wei Zhao said it, Xin Yijie instead refused to believe it. In his estimation the man might well be a genuine Antiquity primordial spirit, but to claim he was a martial granduncle of the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Island was far too absurd—where in the world did such a coincidence come from!

"President Lin, there is no need to toy with me as though I were a three-year-old child," Xin Yijie sneered. He was of the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Island, so the man claimed to be a martial granduncle of the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Island; were he of the Snow Sword Sect, no doubt the fellow would have switched to being a martial granduncle of the Snow Sword Sect. It was nothing but climbing up whatever pole was offered—who could not do that?

"The Cangwu Sect of the Northern Island. The cultivation method it practices is the Azure Cloud Serenity Art," Wei Zhao said flatly.