As for the grudge between Wei Zhao and the Brain-Eating Worm, apart from being chased around at the very beginning, the second encounter had been the exact reverse—the creature utterly crushed beneath Wei Zhao's heel. If anyone had a score to settle, it was the Brain-Eating Worm that should be seeking vengeance on Wei Zhao; it was the wronged party here.

"Beaten beyond recognition? Heh heh, when it comes to sheer tenacity of life, the Brain-Eating Worm ranks at the very top among all spirit beasts. Did you really think it would be that easy to finish off?" The Nine Infants laughed uproariously.

Of course the Brain-Eating Worm was not dead. Even Duanmu Yu could have worked that much out, and Wei Zhao was naturally no exception. A creature with such formidable racial gifts would not necessarily die even if carved to pieces before your very eyes—unless one could annihilate its primordial spirit entirely.

"So it's not dead—what of it? Am I supposed to be afraid of a defeated foe?" Wei Zhao appeared utterly unconcerned. At his level, facing the Brain-Eating Worm carried no psychological burden to begin with, and now that he had given it a sound thrashing and knew exactly where he stood, that was all the more true.

"Heh heh, if I remember correctly, you still have a pack of underlings, don't you? Aren't you afraid the Brain-Eating Worm will go looking for trouble with them?" the Nine Infants threatened with a cold sneer. By the look of it, it truly knew everything that happened here—perhaps not down to the last detail, but at least nothing it wished to know could escape its eyes and ears.

"Do you take me for an idiot?" Wei Zhao shot back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Nine Infants was taken aback.

"That thing was beaten into such a sorry state—it should thank the heavens it scraped its miserable little life back together at all. Even for the Brain-Eating Worm, there's no recovering from that anytime soon, and you expect me to believe it's off causing trouble for anyone? Who are you trying to fool?" Wei Zhao snorted in contempt.

With injuries that severe, if the Brain-Eating Worm's recovery truly were strong enough to restore it to full health in a matter of days, then it would be utterly invincible—combined with its innate brain-devouring gifts, it could grow into something that defied the heavens themselves. How could a mere Nine Infants primordial spirit possibly keep such a thing in check?

"Uh…" The Nine Infants was instantly choked speechless. It had meant to use this to gain leverage over him—even if it could not make Wei Zhao bow down and submit outright, it should at least have instilled some wariness in him. Never had it expected Wei Zhao to be completely immune to such tactics, wholly impervious, like something neither oil nor salt could touch, neither water nor fire could breach.

"Let me make this plain up front: I'm a man of limited patience. If you discuss things with me properly, fine. But play any more of these childish mind games with me, and don't blame me for refusing to play along!" Wei Zhao's face was dark as he issued his final ultimatum. He had patience enough to spar with the other party at length, but he absolutely could not allow it to keep scheming—otherwise, no matter how long they went back and forth, he would never get it to honestly agree to send the two of them out.

Having been called out to his face like that, even the Nine Infants could not help but feel a little embarrassed, and it was forced to concede: "In that case, why not be straightforward and name your own price—what exactly will it take for you to serve as my guardian?"

"Heh, someone like you—back when I still had my true body, I'd have found it a burden if you came crawling to be my underling, and now you want me to serve under you?" Wei Zhao shook his head and curled his lip.

"Really?" The first one shocked was not the Nine Infants at all, but Duanmu Yu at his side.

She knew Wei Zhao came from Cloud Terrace Island. From those earlier masterful techniques of his, she could tell that despite his current cultivation at the great perfection of the Foundation Establishment realm, his true body's strength must be far from ordinary. But in her estimation, Wei Zhao's true body could at most be at the great perfection of the Golden Core realm—after all, beyond that lay the old monsters of the Nascent Soul, and those were top-tier figures across the entire small world of antiquity.

Yet by what Wei Zhao was saying now, was his true body not even stronger than an ordinary Nascent Soul old monster? And this Nine Infants before them was at the very least a being comparable to a Nascent Soul old monster!

He must be bluffing to intimidate the other party! Duanmu Yu quickly reasoned. Wei Zhao's words were plainly meant to needle the Nine Infants, and their credibility was likely limited. Little did she know that Wei Zhao was speaking the absolute, unvarnished truth.

If even Duanmu Yu reacted this way, to say nothing of the Nine Infants standing across from him—upon hearing this, it burst out laughing. "I'd be a burden as your underling? Hahahaha! No wonder they say humans are the most amusing race of all—the way you people talk is just too damn funny. You're a regular walking joke, aren't you? Spinning tall tales without even blinking…"

"Believe it or not." Wei Zhao could not be bothered to explain—and there was nothing worth explaining, anyway. It would only be a waste of breath.

"Fine, fine, let's be practical here, shall we? You can name whatever terms you like, and we can discuss them properly. I don't care how strong your true body is—right now you're nothing but a primordial spirit, and as the saying goes, when you're under someone's eaves, you have to bow your head. Isn't that the way of things?" The Nine Infants sounded utterly sincere.

"Very well." Wei Zhao nodded. He had meant to play the patience game with the creature all along, and this posture suited him perfectly. So he said, "I don't know what abilities you actually possess, so having me name terms would be a bit blind. Better that you speak—what terms can you offer me?"

"Good. I can give you countless rare treasures of heaven and earth. Whatever can be found here, you may take your pick. How does that sound?" the Nine Infants said.

The human cultivation world reveres four words: wealth, companionship, method, and place—and among them, wealth is the most crucial. Yet this wealth does not simply mean spirit jade or money; more importantly, it refers to rare treasures of heaven and earth. This is what all human cultivators value most, and practically everything human cultivators do, from beginning to end, revolves around such treasures. For their sake, there is no shortage of those who resort to any means, who shout and fight and kill.

In the end, it all comes down to one saying: men die for wealth, birds die for food.

In the Nine Infants' reasoning, since this was a weakness no human could escape, Wei Zhao would obviously be no exception. Besides, this entire trial ground of antiquity was under its control, and most of those treasures were useless to a primordial spirit like itself—so being generous once would cost it nothing.

In the end, a single sentence from Wei Zhao choked it silent: "Fine. Then give me a thousand or eight hundred divine consciousness grasses, and I'll agree to the deal."

"…" The Nine Infants nearly choked to death on the spot. It took a long while for it to catch its breath, and then a whole cluster of its heads began screeching in unison: "A thousand or eight hundred divine consciousness grasses? Do you take them for roadside weeds? There aren't that many!"

"Then I'll concede a step—a hundred or eighty," Wei Zhao said.

"Do you even know what you're saying?" The Nine Infants looked at him as though he were a fool.