"So that's how it is—you're the one who ruined my Primordial Alliance's good name, and now you actually have the gall to bring it up. Well, I shall have a thing or two to say to the Alliance about the fine achievements of Xue Jianfeng!" Xin Yijie promptly piled on.

Xue Jianfeng nearly coughed up a mouthful of his heart's blood. Still refusing to give up, he jabbed a finger at Wei Zhao and said, "And what about those female cultivators lying in endless slumber? Surely you cannot claim that they, too, do not wish to come? Left in the mortal realm, they can only wait to die—only by going to the Primordial Alliance do they have any chance of recovery. You keep them in the mortal realm by force to gratify your own selfish desires, and such a heart deserves death. Surely you are not going to pin this on me as well?"

"How clever of you. This one really does fall on your shoulders. I am their guardian, and I do not trust your character in the slightest. If I sent them to the Primordial Alliance, who knows what furtive, lightless deeds of villainy you might get up to?" Wei Zhao wore the sort of disgusted look one reserves for human refuse.

Oh, the agony! This time Xue Jianfeng truly did spew out his old blood. Ringed about by a crowd staring at him with every manner of strange look, his vision went black and he was on the verge of keeling over on the spot. He had merely meant to take this chance to make trouble for Wei Zhao—how had he become a villain whom every eye despised and even ghosts and gods shunned on sight?!

Looking at Wei Zhao's loathsome, half-smiling face, Xue Jianfeng wished he could fight this scoundrel to the bitter end. Alas, he simply did not have the strength. At present, there was only one way to deal with Wei Zhao—to muster every disciple of the Snow Sword Sect to strike together. Yet Wei Zhao was an ancestral elder of the Cangwu Sect of North Island, and Xin Yijie would certainly not stand idly by. What could he possibly do?

"Is the farce over yet? If it is, then take yourself off to the side. Do not hinder me in presiding over the disciple selection assembly!" Xin Yijie glared at Xue Jianfeng.

Xue Jianfeng gave a cold snort. Knowing that he would gain nothing by pressing on this way, he had no choice but to slink off to one side and scheme anew.

"Then I shall be going back first?" Qiu Lingshan said, batting her eyes at Wei Zhao. She had come this time purely in her capacity as deputy director of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau, to keep order—and like the rest of Wu Chengtian's people, she had never entertained the slightest notion of joining the Primordial Alliance. It was as she had said before: if that were truly her intention, she would have gone with Wei Zhao to Cloud Terrace Island in the first place. Why bother with the Primordial Alliance?

Wei Zhao was just about to nod when Xin Yijie suddenly spoke up. "Martial Uncle Ancestor, there is no need for Deputy Director Song to hurry off. It would not hurt to wait and hear the rules of the second round of selection before deciding."

"Oh? Then we shall wait a while." Wei Zhao glanced at Xin Yijie with some surprise. He did not much care about the Primordial Alliance's disciple selection; so long as the two sides could dwell in peace, that was enough for him, and so he had paid no particular attention to the selection process. Judging by Xin Yijie's tone, could it be that the second round was not as simple and straightforward as the first, but held some hidden trick?

Xin Yijie nodded, then turned to the crowd and declared in a ringing voice, "Everyone, the very fact that you have passed the first round of selection held by the various primordial sects is in itself an affirmation of your potential. Though it does not mean you are already members of the Primordial Alliance, as a reward for passing the first round, the second round that follows—whether you succeed or fail—will, I believe, benefit you no small amount."

At these words, the eyes of the crowd lit up at once. During the first round they had been somewhat muddled, never quite knowing what the examiners were looking for before they were passed through. But this reward that Xin Yijie spoke of set their hearts racing—the Primordial Alliance would hardly be handing out anything paltry. Could it be that each person was to receive a treasure of the Primordial Alliance?

Yet Xin Yijie's next words swiftly shattered their illusions—though they stirred the blood all the more: "Do not misunderstand, everyone. I will not give you any treasures or resources. What I will give you is a chance you have dreamed of—a chance to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage."

Foundation Establishment! An uproar swept the assembly at once, and everyone's breathing instantly grew heavy. Even if they had once had no notion of what Foundation Establishment meant, in the wake of the Primordial Alliance's appearance, even those in the most benighted of places knew what those words betokened. This was the legendary Way of Heaven!

It was not only the mortal realm's cultivators—even Wei Zhao could not help but be moved. The Primordial Alliance truly had such means at its disposal; he had indeed underestimated them somewhat before.

"There is no need for astonishment, everyone. The Primordial Little Jianghu is the land that all cultivators dream of. To become a formal disciple of any primordial sect, one must at the very least possess the strength of the Foundation Establishment stage. Now that you have passed the first round, you are quasi-disciples of your respective sects. You will each receive your sect's elementary introductory cultivation method, and you are about to be taken to a place brimming with spiritual energy to make your breakthrough to Foundation Establishment. If you can successfully advance before the Primordial Passage closes, then you may become formal disciples!" Xin Yijie explained.

"Elementary introductory cultivation method? But we already have our own cultivation methods. Even if you give us another method, what use would it be?" The mortal realm's cultivators could not help but ask in confusion. Everyone knew that a cultivation method could not be changed at will—especially not by practicing two methods at once, the consequences of which were unthinkable. At best one would suffer injury from backlash; at worst one would be driven to qi deviation, or even die on the spot.

"Under normal circumstances, you indeed cannot change your cultivation method. However, once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage—or, to be precise, in the very process of your breakthrough to Foundation Establishment—you will have the opportunity to change your method, and there will be no aftereffects whatsoever," Xin Yijie explained.

At this the crowd came to understand, and then someone else raised a hand and asked, "And if we fail in our breakthrough to Foundation Establishment?"

"Then naturally you are eliminated. But even so, you will suffer no loss at all—at the very least you will have gained an elementary introductory cultivation method from your respective sect. True, given the spiritual conditions of the mortal realm, these elementary introductory methods alone cannot possibly carry you to a successful breakthrough to Foundation Establishment. But compared with the cultivation methods you originally practiced, they are certainly far profounder, and that in itself is no small harvest," Xin Yijie said with a faint smile.

The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief, each feeling as though a pie had fallen from the heavens and struck them square on the head. To gain, for no effort at all, a cultivation method capable of leading to Foundation Establishment—this was an unexpected delight indeed.

"Then when does the Primordial Passage close?" someone else asked, raising a hand.