These were the basic cultivation verses Meng Jueming had taught them when they first entered the Welcoming Pavilion. Every disciple of the Azure Cloud Pavilion had a copy, though most merely glanced at them and few ever bothered to cultivate them seriously—after all, they were hardly a profound or refined cultivation method.

Wei Zhao, naturally, had better things to do than cultivate them out of sheer idleness. He had, however, studied and referenced them briefly, and possessing a photographic memory, he had committed them to heart without effort.

Xin Yijie's face had still worn a look of disdain, but the moment he heard the original Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula, his expression shifted at once—though he still did not rashly believe it.

Outsiders generally knew only the name of the Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula, and very few knew its actual verses. Yet there were always exceptions; with so many disciples in the Cangwu Sect of North Island, it would hardly be strange if someone had carelessly leaked the formula. If anyone could impersonate an elder of the sect simply by reciting a few lines, then Xin Yijie would truly be a fool.

"There is no need for you to keep deceiving yourself, sir..." Xin Yijie was about to cut Wei Zhao off, but in the next instant his expression froze in shock. The Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula Wei Zhao was reciting seemed to differ slightly from the one he knew—ninety-nine percent of it was identical, but there were several exceedingly small yet absolutely crucial alterations!

It was by means of the Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula that Xin Yijie had cultivated all the way to his present strength; he knew every detail of it inside out. Anyone else might have laughed at Wei Zhao as an unprofessional fraud who could not even recite the verses correctly, but the moment he heard it, he knew that Wei Zhao's version was likely the true Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula!

"No wonder I always felt something was off in this place when I cultivated—so the verses were wrong. With these changes, it clearly flows much more smoothly..." Xin Yijie could not help muttering under his breath. By then Wei Zhao was still reciting onward, and as Xin Yijie listened, a look of horror returned to his face. "What? There's more? There are even verses for the Golden Core stage?!"

The Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula consisted of only three hundred and fifty-three characters, and in theory extended at most to the great perfection of Foundation Establishment. That was to say, a disciple like him, who had cultivated to the early Golden Core stage, would have had to switch to a higher-level method. Yet by now the passage Wei Zhao was reciting had long exceeded five hundred characters—these latter portions were entirely cultivation verses for the Golden Core stage!

Had he merely recited the Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula flawlessly, that would have proven nothing at all. But now Wei Zhao had not only recited the more exquisite original version, but even the Golden Core verses—something no outsider could possibly have done.

There was only one explanation: the man before him was indeed an elder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island, and moreover from an era far earlier than Xin Yijie's own. Only thus could he know the original Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula—while the version currently held by the Cangwu Sect of North Island was merely an incomplete remnant left behind after the sect's turmoil.

By the time Wei Zhao finished reciting the entire Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula, fully eight hundred characters and more, Xin Yijie had not a shred of doubt left. With a thud, he dropped to his knees on the spot and paid his respects with trembling reverence. "So you truly are an ancestral elder of my Cangwu Sect of North Island! This disciple was blind and has given great offense—please punish me, Martial Granduncle!"

"Think nothing of it. Offenses born of ignorance are no offenses. Rise." Wei Zhao waved a hand with an indifferent expression, yet inwardly he let out a quiet sigh of relief. Fortunately his gamble had paid off—the Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula, all but useless to him before, had proved immensely valuable at this moment. A good memory truly reaped countless benefits.

"Yes. Thank you, Martial Granduncle." Xin Yijie scrambled to his feet at once with the utmost respect. The look with which he now regarded Wei Zhao held none of his former sense of superiority; instead, he kept himself exceedingly humble.

The three great sects of North Island had strict rules. The man before him was a genuine ancestral elder, and one who moreover possessed the original Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula—and perhaps even knew other lost sect methods as well. To the entire Cangwu Sect of North Island, he was nothing short of a living treasure. It left no room for the slightest disrespect.

Seeing Xin Yijie's attitude, Wei Zhao immediately felt that his gamble this time had been brilliantly wise. True, failure would surely have provoked the other's hostility, but high risk meant high reward, and now that he had become the man's Martial Granduncle, the affairs of the mundane world and the Antiquity Alliance would resolve themselves naturally.

More than that, Xin Yijie's reaction also confirmed Wei Zhao's earlier conjectures. At least one point was now beyond doubt: the Cangwu Sect of North Island in the Antiquity Alliance and the Azure Cloud Pavilion of North Island on Cloud Terrace Island did indeed share the same lineage—otherwise they could never have shared the signature sect method that was the Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula.

By the same reasoning, the Soaring Heaven Sect of North Island and the Mystic Mechanism Sect of North Island were likely in the same situation. Wei Zhao privately surmised there were two possibilities. Perhaps the founders of the three great sects of North Island in the Antiquity Alliance had actually come from the Threefold Pavilion of North Island on Cloud Terrace Island—which would explain why both the sect names and the cultivation methods matched perfectly.

Of course, the reverse was not entirely impossible, but judging by the vast disparity in strength between the two sides, such a possibility was exceedingly slim. After all, one could hardly claim that a group of people emerged from the three great sects of North Island in the Antiquity Alliance, fled to Cloud Terrace Island, and then suddenly saw their strength surge, going on to make the Threefold Pavilion of North Island flourish?

Yet both of these together amounted to only one possibility. Another, bolder hypothesis lingered in Wei Zhao's mind: perhaps, far back in the Antiquity Era, Cloud Terrace Island and the Antiquity Small Jianghu had been one and the same place. Then one day, for some reason, a cataclysm had struck, splitting that place into two isolated planes—one called Cloud Terrace Island, the other called the Antiquity Small Jianghu.

The sects of both places shared the same lineage and should originally have been of similar stature, but because the spiritual qi of the Antiquity Small Jianghu was far inferior to that of Cloud Terrace Island, it had gradually declined, day after day and year after year, until it reached the state it was in today.

Both possibilities existed, though Wei Zhao leaned toward the latter. For if those ancestors of the Antiquity Alliance had come from Cloud Terrace Island, they would surely have left clear records concerning it; yet Cloud Terrace Island was now regarded in the Antiquity Small Jianghu as nothing more than a baseless rumor—which showed this possibility was not very likely.