At the mountain gate deep in the Shennongjia, Xin Yijie's first act upon his return was to report to the Antiquity Alliance. Though he had given Wei Zhao his word that he would step forward and mediate, a matter of this kind was not his alone to decide—he would have to seek instructions from above, or else his authority would be unfounded and the disciples of so many Antiquity sects might well refuse to heed him.

There was, moreover, another matter of even greater weight for Xin Yijie: he had to report the business of Wei Zhao to the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Isle. To have encountered in the mundane world an ancestral elder of their own sect—that was a great event for the entire Cangwu Sect of the Northern Isle.

Above all, Wei Zhao could still recite the whole of the original Qingyun Pingxin Formula from memory, and to the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Isle, stripped of its foundations after the upheavals, that was of extraordinary significance. And if Wei Zhao still recalled the oral formulas of other high-grade cultivation methods, their value would be beyond all reckoning.

For a matter this great, the best way to report it was of course to speak in person, and now that the Antiquity Passage had opened, the conditions for it did exist—yet Xin Yijie lacked the nerve. It was not that he did not wish to; he simply had only so many spirit jades to his name.

One had to understand that transmitting a single person through required no small quantity of spirit jade, and in the Antiquity's little martial world this substance was exceedingly scarce. Even Xin Yijie, a sect elder, seldom got his hands on a few pieces. To use them up merely to deliver a message would be a wanton waste of heaven's bounty. So, after much turning it over in his mind, the best course was to send in only two letters—one to the Antiquity Alliance and one to the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Isle—which would require but a single small piece of spirit jade.

A day later, word came back from the Antiquity Alliance: in principle they approved Xin Yijie's proposal. After all, all they needed was to successfully recruit disciples of outstanding aptitude, and they had never harbored any intention of making enemies of the mundane world. Xin Yijie's approach suited their requirements precisely.

If, on the other hand, the disciples of the various sects were simply left to do as they pleased, the situation would inevitably spiral out of control, until the whole Antiquity Alliance became loathed by gods and men alike—and that would be a fine mess indeed.

As for the Cangwu Sect of the Northern Isle, no reply had yet come. For one thing, the Northern Isle lay rather far from the Antiquity Passage; for another, a matter of such magnitude would certainly require the entire sect to deliberate for some time, and no result could be expected in the short term.

With the Antiquity Alliance's approval in hand, Xin Yijie at once issued a summons to the senior brothers leading each sect who remained garrisoned at the mountain gate, ordering them to recall their sects' training disciples to the Shennongjia. Though these lead disciples harbored doubts, once they saw the Alliance's written approval in Xin Yijie's hand, they chose to comply.

Several days later, the training disciples scattered across the mundane world returned one after another to the Shennongjia, and just as at the start of the training, they gathered on the open ground of the square, waiting for Xin Yijie to address them.

"Fellow training disciples, I trust you have all heard something of the recent goings-on. Certain sects, in their eagerness to be first to recruit disciples, have acted most improperly, gravely damaging the image and reputation of our Antiquity Alliance. Therefore, by decision of the Antiquity Alliance, from this day forth no training disciple shall act willfully or recklessly. You must coexist peacefully with the cultivation powers of the mundane world, and there must be not the slightest coercion. Violators will be severely punished!" Xin Yijie announced in a loud, clear voice.

The crowd exchanged glances. In truth, apart from the Snow Sword Sect and the Qiankun Sect, quite a few other Antiquity sects had committed excesses of late, and in their eyes these were only natural. After all, they were accomplished Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Antiquity Alliance—why should they show courtesy to those mere ants of cultivators in the mundane world?

By Xin Yijie's account, a group of seasoned Foundation Establishment cultivators wishing to accomplish something could not rely on their superior strength to force the issue, but must instead consult politely with a pack of lowly mundane cultivators. Was this not absurd?

"Impossible!" A voice suddenly rang out from the crowd. Everyone turned to look, and who should it be but Xue Jianfeng, just back from the Mysterious Investigation Bureau in a thoroughly bedraggled state.

"What did you say?" Xin Yijie's face darkened at once. He was the leader in charge of this mundane-world training, and this time he had the Antiquity Alliance's written approval besides. For Xue Jianfeng to dare question the Alliance's decision to its face—was this open rebellion?

The others all wore expressions of eager spectatorship. Though they too were somewhat displeased by what they had just heard, at most they would grumble in private; they would never dare challenge Xin Yijie so openly. After all, he was the martial uncle appointed by the Alliance to lead them—who would have thought Xue Jianfeng had such audacity!

"I said impossible!" Xue Jianfeng strode to the front of the crowd, his expression cold and sinister. Before, he had given the impression of a proud son of heaven, lofty and aloof; but now, with his dantian destroyed, his whole bearing had changed utterly, and he had become a venomous serpent that made one's blood run cold.

"This is the Antiquity Alliance's decision, and you dare defy it in public? Who gave you the nerve?" Xin Yijie said in an unfriendly tone. He knew well enough that the other sects might not truly take him, their appointed martial uncle, all that seriously, but the barest minimum of authority could not be called into question. If he let Xue Jianfeng confront him like this in public, he might as well give up any thought of leading the group.

"I never said I would defy the Antiquity Alliance's decision. You want to live in peace with the mundane world—fine, that's no problem. But there is one man I will never let off. He is the one who reduced me to this state, and he and I cannot coexist under the same sky!" Xue Jianfeng said through gritted teeth.

With his dantian destroyed he was now a pure cripple; by any ordinary reckoning he ought to have tucked his tail between his legs and conducted himself with utmost caution, never daring to be so arrogant as he was now. After all, even if he had once been the senior disciple of the Snow Sword Sect, at this moment he was nothing but a powerless wreck, utterly useless to his sect, and his fate could only be to be cast aside as Wei Shenjin had been.

But Xue Jianfeng was different. He was the only son of the Snow Sword Sect's vice sect master; even without strength, he still had a powerful background to lean on. What was more, though his dantian and meridians had ruptured, so long as he could obtain a top-grade fifth-rank Great Restoration Pill, in theory he could still be cured.

That was why he had the confidence and the capital to bluster. As for anyone else, he could not be bothered; but Wei Zhao, by whatever means, had to die!

The crowd was utterly baffled. All they knew was that Xue Jianfeng had suffered badly and had his dantian destroyed, but not which ruthless figure had dared strike such a vicious blow. Only two people present truly knew the ins and outs of it—one was Fei Yangsheng, and the other was Xin Yijie.