"Of course it has everything to do with it. An affair this big naturally needs a middleman. I represent the cultivation powers of the secular world, Yi Jie represents the Primordial Alliance, and Leng Leng is the go-between chosen by both sides. Once she is gone, this disciple selection assembly cannot be held at all. That would be to make an enemy of the entire Primordial Alliance and the secular world. Are you certain the Snow Sword Sect has the nerve for that?" Wei Zhao countered.

"That..." Xue Jianfeng did not know how to respond for a moment. His insistence on dragging Leng Leng back for punishment had been born of selfish motives from the start, and if anyone truly examined the matter, his position would not hold up at all. Now that Wei Zhao had dragged out this title of middleman as well, if he kept stubbornly pushing ahead, the affair would surely blow up, and once that happened there would be no reining it in.

"Let's go." Wei Zhao paid the clown no further attention. Smiling, he took Leng Leng by the hand and strode off.

Xue Jianfeng could not help but want to strike out and stop them, but one glance from Wei Zhao sent him shrinking back in terror at once, his face a pageant of shifting expressions. Watching the two of them leave with his own eyes, he was of course ten thousand times unwilling—but what could he possibly do?

By now the Primordial Passage had already been activated. Xue Jianfeng even wished he could make the trip back himself; if he laid on the embellishments and concocted a few excuses, then let his old man work some connections within the Primordial Alliance, there might still be a chance of finding a Golden Core expert to deal with Wei Zhao.

But there was no guaranteeing such a thing would succeed. The key point was that Wei Zhao was also the martial uncle-founder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island. Since his Snow Sword Sect could call for help, the Cangwu Sect of North Island could naturally do the same—and Xin Yijie was the expedition's martial uncle besides. To rely on such a method to deal with Wei Zhao, the odds of success were exceedingly slim.

After turning it over and over in his mind, Xue Jianfeng could at last only choose to endure. If he wanted revenge, he could only swallow it down, and wait until the proper opportunity appeared before washing away his shame!

On the other side, Wei Zhao and Leng Leng strolled hand in hand along the mountain path, taking in the pristine scenery of Shennongjia while savoring their own little world.

Leng Leng could not resist stealing a glance at Wei Zhao. At that moment she actually had a thousand words to say, yet she did not know what to say, and a bellyful of words she did not know how to express. She could only walk on in silence, led by his hand.

"You..." The two of them spoke at the same moment, then both paused at the same moment, looked at each other and smiled, and said together, "You go first."

"We really are perfectly in sync—such rapport!" Wei Zhao could not help laughing, then asked, "How have you been these past days?"

"I just found a secluded cave and cultivated. Thanks to the pills you gave me, I advanced two levels in a row. Nothing else particularly happened." Leng Leng smiled. Though advancing two levels at once was a tremendous stroke of fortune for the vast majority of people, set against Wei Zhao's deeds it was utterly insignificant. A little unable to hold back, she asked, "You, on the other hand, are a different story. You did so many earth-shaking things, and then suddenly became the founder-elder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island—what on earth happened?"

"Actually, all of it was thanks to you," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"Thanks to me?" Leng Leng blinked, at a loss.

"That's right. I was badly injured that time, so badly that this Primordial Spirit body was on the verge of collapse. So I thought I would hurry and release myself, return to my true body, cultivate for a while, and then project my Primordial Spirit back into the secular world. Little did I expect that the lump of charred coal you left me actually contained incomparable spiritual-consciousness energy. Not only did it stabilize my Primordial Spirit body when it was on the verge of collapse, it also helped me rapidly restore my strength to the great perfection of the Foundation Establishment stage. A fine thing indeed." Wei Zhao sighed with feeling. Without that piece of Star-Ink Charcoal from Leng Leng, the secular world would probably already be in utter chaos.

"I'm glad it was useful to you. Honestly, that thing was of no use at all to me. At most it could gently nourish my spiritual consciousness a little—precious and useless both. At first I even planned to leave it in the little martial world of the Primordial era and not bring it out. Good thing I didn't. Otherwise there would have been real trouble." Leng Leng could not help counting her blessings.

"For a Foundation Establishment expert, that thing is indeed of no use. But once you reach a certain realm, its value will naturally reveal itself. It is a priceless treasure," Wei Zhao said gravely.

In Wei Zhao's view, it was actually not a good thing for a Foundation Establishment expert like Leng Leng to have such an item—it was simply that she did not know how to use it. Otherwise, if she truly had known its use, it might well have ended in tragedy. The spiritual-consciousness energy contained within was simply too vast; if one's Primordial Spirit was not strong enough, it would be instantly overwhelmed—at best leaving the Primordial Spirit wounded, at worst killing one on the spot.

But once one reached the Nascent Soul stage, and especially a realm like his present Profound Ascension stage, the spiritual-consciousness energy contained in this thing was a truly priceless treasure.

"Then it's perfect to leave it for you to use." Leng Leng said it offhandedly. After having faced death together last time, the bond between her and Wei Zhao was long since no ordinary friendship—at least in her heart, she would never have another man in this life. That was why she took it so calmly when Wei Zhao gave her pills. In the same way, she would not stint on her own things for Wei Zhao either, even if it was a treasure her master had passed down to her.

"Good, then I'll keep it." Wei Zhao was not polite about it either. He would not stint toward his own people, and he would not stand on ceremony with them either.

"Now can you tell me? Just who are you, and how did you become the founder-elder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island?" Leng Leng asked again. Ever since she learned the news about Wei Zhao, she had been thinking about it for days. She could more or less guess at how Wei Zhao had recovered, but his suddenly becoming the founder-elder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island was utterly baffling.

"If I told you it was a lie, would you believe me?" Wei Zhao said with a half-smile.

"Impossible. You might fool others with such a thing, but Martial Uncle Xin is an elder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island—there is no way you could fool him," Leng Leng said with a decisive shake of her head.

"All right, it isn't purely a lie either. Given my origins, it's really no great matter for Xin Yijie to call me martial uncle-founder," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"So you really are a Primordial Spirit left over from the Primordial era?" Leng Leng instantly wore the horrified expression of one looking at a monster. Though she had already settled the nature of their relationship, if Wei Zhao truly were such an ancient being, she really could not accept it for a moment.

"Do I look like one?" Wei Zhao said, amused.