"Yes." Xin Yijie was not surprised. In his mind, since this man was an ancestral elder of his own Cangwu Sect of North Island, now that he had revealed his identity, he would naturally want to return to the Cangwu Sect of North Island and take a look—so of course he would want a proper understanding of the situation in the Primordial Alliance. He asked, "What aspect would you like to know about, Martial Uncle?"

"Just tell me about the current power structure of the Primordial Alliance," Wei Zhao said mildly. This was the most basic and most important intelligence. Only by understanding it in detail could he take the true measure of the Primordial Alliance's real strength, know his enemy and himself, and have a reference for how to respond in the future.

"All right. Every power in the Primordial Small Jianghu falls into one of two kinds: sects and clans. And among all these sects and clans, great and small, the Four Great Sects and Clans stand at the head, the Ten Minor Sects and Clans come next, and below them are the ordinary cultivation sects and clans," Xin Yijie explained.

"Oh? How are the Four Great Sects and Clans, the Ten Minor Sects and Clans, and the ordinary ones distinguished from one another?" Wei Zhao asked carefully.

"By the strength of each sect and clan, of course. Beyond the most basic factors—the number and strength of disciples—the key criterion is the number of top experts each sect and clan possesses. Put plainly, it comes down to how many Nascent Soul old monsters they have," Xin Yijie continued.

"Go into detail." This was the very question Wei Zhao cared most about. It seemed the strongest experts in the Primordial Alliance must be at the Nascent Soul stage, but exactly how many Nascent Soul experts there were, he would have to hear him out.

"Each of the Four Great Sects and Clans, the strongest, has at least three Nascent Soul old monsters. The Ten Minor Sects and Clans ranked beneath them each have one or two Nascent Soul old monsters in residence, more or less. Take our Cangwu Sect of North Island—we have one Nascent Soul old monster, the Grand Elder currently in seclusion, and that is the only reason we rank among the Ten Minor Sects and Clans. Without a Nascent Soul old monster in residence, a sect can only sink to the rank of ordinary sect or clan," Xin Yijie said.

Wei Zhao could not help feeling a secret shock. The disciples the Primordial Alliance had sent out to the mortal world for training this time were only at the Foundation Establishment stage—even Xin Yijie, who led the group, was merely at the early Golden Core stage. He had assumed that even if the Primordial Alliance had Nascent Soul old monsters, their number must be exceedingly small.

But by Xin Yijie's account, the Primordial Alliance as a whole must have at least twenty or thirty of them. That number was in no way comparable to the Cloud Tier Island, where experts were as numerous as clouds—yet compared with what Wei Zhao had imagined, it was already far stronger. From what Xin Yijie was telling him, the Primordial Alliance was truly not to be underestimated.

After all, just two years ago, a Nascent Soul expert was still a being Wei Zhao could only look up to. Even on the Cloud Tier Island, such a one was enough to serve as an elder-level figure of a sect's power. Who would have thought there were so many of them in this Primordial Alliance!

"The Cangwu Sect is one of the Ten Minor Sects and Clans. What about the Soaring Heavens Sect and the Mystic Mechanism Sect—how do they stand now?" Wei Zhao asked.

"The Soaring Heavens Sect has two Nascent Soul old monsters and is likewise one of the Ten Minor Sects and Clans. As for the Mystic Mechanism Sect, it has fared poorly these past two years—its original Nascent Soul old monster has vanished without a trace, so it was struck from the ranks of the Ten Minor Sects and Clans and now counts only as an ordinary sect," Xin Yijie said with a sigh.

The three great sects of North Island were of one blood. Though among themselves there were inevitably all manner of open and covert struggles, against outsiders they always closed ranks as one. Individually, each could rank only among the Ten Minor Sects and Clans, but put the three great sects of North Island together, and even the mightiest of the Four Great Sects and Clans would never dare take them lightly. Now that the Mystic Mechanism Sect had fallen into decline, it was hard to avoid a sense of shared peril—when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold.

"By the way, there is a question I meant to ask earlier. Why does 'North Island' precede the names of the three great sects? Could it be that there are other islands in the Primordial Small Jianghu?" Wei Zhao said thoughtfully.

"Uh—our sect has been called the Cangwu Sect of North Island since ancient times. Why would you ask such a thing, Martial Uncle?" Xin Yijie grew somewhat suspicious at once. Still, Wei Zhao had just recited the entire original Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula for him, so he would not go so far as to suspect Wei Zhao of being a fraud again; he merely found the question odd.

"No—at least in my time, it was simply called the Cangwu Sect, without the words 'North Island' prefixed to it," Wei Zhao said with a perfectly straight face, making it up as he went.

He was certain Xin Yijie knew nothing clear about matters of the Primordial era—after all, such things were hardly possible to verify. Unless the man could find an elder of the sect who had truly survived from the Primordial era and confront him face to face, and even then Wei Zhao could spin whatever tale he liked. For matters so unrelated to core interests, no one would truly care.

"That..." Xin Yijie was indeed stumped. He shook his head with a bitter smile. "Though I already hold the position of elder in the Cangwu Sect of North Island, I truly know nothing of such matters. All I know is that it has been called the Cangwu Sect of North Island for as long as I can remember. Still, this is only natural—after all, geographically our three great sects lie to the north of the Primordial Small Jianghu, and gazing across the lake, it is fair enough to call it North Island. Moreover, our three great sects of North Island also belong to the Northern Cultivation Alliance."

"The Northern Cultivation Alliance?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.

"Yes. The Primordial Alliance is merely a unified name; in truth it is composed of an alliance of five top-tier powers, divided into East, West, South, North, and Center. Our three great sects of North Island and certain other sects and clans belong to the Northern Island Cultivation Alliance, the Northern Cultivation Alliance for short. The Snow Sword Sect and the Thousand Blades Sect, for instance, belong to the Central Cultivation Alliance, while the Qiankun Sect and the Purging Evil Sect belong to the Southern Cultivation Alliance. There are also the Eastern Cultivation Alliance and the Western Cultivation Alliance," Xin Yijie explained.

"..." Wei Zhao was utterly speechless at hearing all this. Was this not simply a replica of the five great islands of the Heaven Tier? Apart from a few differences in detail, the overall arrangement was almost identical. This only made him all the more convinced of his earlier bold conjecture: the Cloud Tier Island and the Primordial Small Jianghu had absolutely come from the same womb!

"Martial Uncle, the strength of the five great alliances is determined by the strength of the sects and clans under each of them. Beyond that, however, the five great alliances each have their own exclusive forces. Of those, disciples like me know little; only by entering the alliance's council of elders can one grasp such core secrets. At my present level, I am far from qualified," Xin Yijie said with some embarrassment.