Deep in the primeval forest, Wei Zhao and the others pressed onward. Having already witnessed what the Ancient Goumang King and the Crimson-Scaled Serpent were capable of, Wei Zhao now kept his true qi cycling and condensing at every moment of the march, so that no sudden turn of events would catch him flat-footed.

Of course, he could not hold a true-qi bomb in his hand at all times; even if he had no fear of running short of true qi, it would be exhausting, and one careless slip could unleash disaster. What he did instead was raise the intensity of the true qi circulating in his body far beyond the ordinary, which cut by several times the time needed to condense a true-qi dan-fire bomb. This way he did not drain his stamina unduly, nor would he be helpless when something unexpected arose—a solution that served both ends at once.

Beyond that, Wei Zhao kept his divine-sense perception extended to its maximum range at all times, so that he could sense the faintest stir at the earliest instant and have time enough to respond.

With these two measures in place, the party's safety was assured to some degree; at the very least, they would not casually run into a powerful spirit beast comparable to the late Golden Core stage. And if it were only some ordinary spirit beast blocking the road, Wei Zhao need not lift a finger at all—he had merely to stand by and watch, and Leng Leng together with Qiu Lingshan and the rest could finish them off. It was a rare chance for hard, practical training.

After the party had beaten down the third road-blocking spirit beast, the sky was already darkening. Wei Zhao called out to the others, "Let us rest here for now. Traveling after nightfall is too dangerous; we will set out again when the day breaks."

"Agreed!" The others nodded one after another. To be honest, though these three spirit beasts had not been especially formidable, for those of them mostly at the peak of early Foundation Establishment and at early Foundation Establishment, they had been quite a handful. They really did need a good recovery.

"Leader, shall we set watches by group?" Yu Bing reminded him.

"No need. Your task is to rest well and get yourselves into the best shape you can before dawn. As for watching, leave that to me." Wei Zhao smiled. To him it was a trifling matter. Besides, in surroundings like these, real vigilance required powerful divine-sense perception; without it, a watch would be mere form, and that was plainly beyond the others' reach.

"Good!" No one objected. They did need to recover properly, or tomorrow they would only drag the others down.

Wei Zhao personally arranged the group into a formation in which they could answer one another swiftly, and had them sit and rest. After all, this place was riddled with danger, and with nightfall they could not afford to relax their guard. As for himself, he picked a great tree at the edge of the clearing, one with a broad field of view that was also convenient for sensing.

Gazing up at the brilliant stars, listening to the strange cries that rose now and again from every direction, replaying the scenes of the day, Wei Zhao felt no trace of lingering fear. Instead, a faint thrill stirred in him—he was a born adventurer. Had this ancient trial ground, the chance of a millennium, not been so thick with hidden dragons and crouching tigers, he would not even have been spurred to action.

Still, to say he was not worried at all would be a lie. Even with the true-qi dan-fire bomb as his trump card, at his present cultivation of Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, guarding the whole party's safety was no easy feat. At best, he might stake everything on one desperate gamble when crisis struck; as for controlling the situation, that was sheer wishful thinking.

"But what exactly is it that's missing?" Wei Zhao sighed. In the past he had never been troubled by the matter of a breakthrough, not even when he reached the Nascent Soul stage or the Xuansheng stage; yet this time he was stuck at the mere Foundation Establishment Great Perfection. And he truly could not make heads or tails of it—not heads or tails, not even a rock to grope along, so what was he to use to cross the river?

But no matter what, Wei Zhao would keep trying, even in a predicament like this one. After all, when he cultivated, his divine-sense perception did not weaken but grow keener, so it would not interfere with his watch.

What Wei Zhao did not know was that, even as he kept trying, far away on the Middle Isle of the Heavenly Steps, his true body had suddenly shown an abnormal reaction.

"Wei Zhao? Wei Zhao, are you awake?" Tianchan saw a powerful aura suddenly radiating from Wei Zhao's body, and she was startled out of her wits.

Ordinarily, apart from refining pills, she would keep watch at Wei Zhao's side. For so many months he had never returned, and she, Xue Li, and Wei Shenjin alike had been sick with worry. Fortunately, Wei Zhao's aura had remained steady throughout, and word had come back through the Central Chamber of Commerce, which was what had set their hearts at ease.

But this situation now was unprecedented in all those months. The aura around Wei Zhao was plainly strengthening fast, with no sign of abating, growing fiercer by the moment, and in the blink of an eye it had caught up with his former peak state, far stronger than an ordinary Xuansheng early-stage expert. Had the buildings of the Middle Isle commercial district not all been reinforced with special formations, his mere presence would have blasted them apart.

"What's happened?" Xue Li sensed something strange from the room and, heedless of the business, rushed straight upstairs. Seeing Wei Zhao's state, she too stood stunned, then cried out in mingled alarm and joy, "Is he coming back?"

"Per... perhaps..." Tianchan was not certain either. She did not know what it would look like when a primal-spirit projection returned, but at least one thing was sure: in this state, something was bound to happen to Wei Zhao.

"Then what do we do now?" Xue Li was flustered. Helpless, she could only look at Wei Zhao, then at Tianchan. Though ordinarily she was the one who handled all affairs great and small at the Tian Dan Pavilion, when Wei Zhao was absent Tianchan was the true backbone.

But this time Tianchan did not know what to do either. After thinking a while, she said, "Why not have Brother Wei fetch Senior Brother Cai Zhongxuan and Senior Brother Hou Guanqi to have a look? They are seasoned and skilled in the healing arts; if anything is wrong, they should be able to tell."

"Right, right, I'll go call him now." At those words Xue Li went straight downstairs to fetch Wei Shenjin and send him for the others.

Watching Wei Zhao's state grow ever more violent, Tianchan prayed silently. In truth, she knew that even if Cai Zhongxuan and Hou Guanqi were brought in, they might not be of much help at a time like this—unless Zhang Lifeng himself came, perhaps. But that patriarch was like a dragon glimpsed in the clouds, never to be found when one looked for him. (To be continued.)