"Heh. You're not as dumb as you look," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

Listening nearby, the Water Lily and Duanmu Yu were both utterly stunned. The Water Lily, who had just been fantasizing about Wei Zhao's primordial spirit being annihilated on the spot, now slunk off to the side without daring to make a sound—though of course it did not dare go too far either. If Wei Zhao caught wind that it meant to flee, its death would be one beyond any burial ground; after all, this was a legendary Profound Ascension cultivator standing before it!

As for Duanmu Yu, though she had once again tasted the flavor of a pleasant surprise, strictly speaking this time the shock far outweighed the pleasantness.

One had to understand: in the ancient small world, a Nascent Soul old monster was already among the highest tier of beings—and only powers above the ten minor sects and clans could boast even one or two of them. Each was a reclusive old monster who could ordinarily never be seen. As for "Profound Ascension cultivator," such a term had appeared only a scant few times in the history books of the Ancient Alliance; in reality, it had never once manifested.

Over these past days she had entertained countless conjectures about Wei Zhao's identity and strength, some of them wild enough to shake heaven and earth. Yet even so, she now found that she had been wrong beyond all measure—she could sooner have been struck dead than guess that Wei Zhao would turn out to be a legendary Profound Ascension cultivator!

The Water Lily trembled with terror; Duanmu Yu was too shocked to speak; and though the Nine Infants had not been wholly cowed, it no longer dared act rashly either.

It understood full well that Wei Zhao was not a normal Profound Ascension primordial spirit. But even the most wretched, bedraggled Profound Ascension primordial spirit was still not something a mere Nascent Soul primordial spirit like itself could casually provoke.

"That move you used just now—it's called primordial-spirit devouring, isn't it? Looked decent enough. How about teaching it to me?" Wei Zhao said suddenly with a laugh.

"Well…" The Nine Infants hesitated, then said cautiously, "You're not learning this so you can devour me, are you?"

From that brief exchange just now, besides confirming that the other party was a Profound Ascension cultivator, it had discovered something else: Wei Zhao was green. Yes, at the level of primordial-spirit duels, utterly green.

He was plainly a Profound Ascension primordial spirit, yet what he displayed was near childish in its rawness. In the duel, beyond instinctive self-preservation, he could do almost nothing else—not even the most elementary attack, let alone devouring the opponent. Otherwise it could never have disengaged so easily just now; in all likelihood it would already have been swallowed clean by Wei Zhao.

The pity of it was that Wei Zhao was not entirely green after all. Not only did he possess instinctive self-preservation, he also had a learning capacity nearly terrifying in its power. The primordial-spirit duel had lasted but a brief moment, yet in that time he had already made progress as dramatic as a thorough rebirth.

Otherwise the Nine Infants might well have risked everything, its head heated with the notion of swallowing this Profound Ascension primordial spirit in one gulp. After all, fortune was sought in peril—if it could devour a Profound Ascension primordial spirit, then it, the Nine Infants, would rise another tier, perhaps even soar to the heavens in a single bound. That was not entirely impossible.

Only, Wei Zhao might look at first glance like a harmless little white rabbit, but in truth his mouth was full of savage steel fangs. The Nine Infants reckoned its own modest frame could not withstand Wei Zhao's rough handling.

"Are you really that weak?" Wei Zhao asked in return.

"That depends on who you're comparing me to. Against trash like them, I'm of course invincible. But compared to a Profound Ascension primordial spirit like you—if I brazenly claimed to be strong, wouldn't that be deceiving myself?" the Nine Infants said with a hearty laugh.

"So then—you won't teach me?" Wei Zhao said, his expression unreadable.

The Nine Infants fell silent for a moment. It had never had any real way to deal with Wei Zhao, and now that it knew he was a Profound Ascension primordial spirit, that was all the more true. Unless absolutely forced, it did not want to fight a Profound Ascension primordial spirit to the bitter end. So it could only say, "Only if you promise not to move against me."

"Of course," Wei Zhao agreed readily. He had no intention of fighting the Nine Infants to the death in the first place—that would not only be enormously risky but would easily leave both sides gravely wounded. After all, he was currently nothing more than a Profound Ascension primordial spirit in name only.

"Good. I can teach you," the Nine Infants said, equally readily. Of course, it did not wholly trust Wei Zhao's character; rather, it felt that even if Wei Zhao turned on it, it had enough strength to protect itself—at worst, its days thereafter would simply be a bit rough.

"I'm all ears," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"You've already personally experienced just what my primordial-spirit devouring is like, so there's no need for me to waste more words on the rest. If you want to learn it, you need only grasp the single most crucial knack at its heart," the Nine Infants said.

"What knack?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Divine-consciousness assimilation." The Nine Infants' tone carried a sigh. In truth, it had done everything else perfectly just now; only this final step had gone wrong. Wei Zhao's entire primordial spirit had already been submerged by it—had it only completed divine-consciousness assimilation, it would have succeeded.

Unfortunately, at the final step it had run into a colossal problem. Not only did it fail to assimilate the other's divine consciousness, it was instead mauled by the other until its face was black and blue—because it had encountered an insurmountable obstacle: Wei Zhao's divine-consciousness intensity was higher than its own.

Divine-consciousness intensity had to surpass the opponent's; this was the most basic and most important precondition for divine-consciousness assimilation. If even this could not be met, then no matter how well everything else was done, it was all for naught.

"Fine. Then teach me divine-consciousness assimilation," Wei Zhao said mildly.

The Nine Infants did not pull any tricks here, for it was entirely unnecessary and entirely meaningless. It simply explained the key points of divine-consciousness assimilation in brief, after which Wei Zhao repeatedly groped and drilled on the spot.

And then, in less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Wei Zhao had done it.

"…" The Nine Infants was utterly stupefied. It was a long while before it said faintly, "You really are a fucking monster."

"What?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow.

"My nine heads can practice separately and independently, and the first time I managed divine-consciousness assimilation, it took me a full two months," the Nine Infants said, speechless. In this respect it already counted as exceptionally gifted, enough to leave the vast majority of other spirit beasts and human cultivators far behind—yet compared to a freak like Wei Zhao, it was simply good for nothing.

"Two months? That's not bad either," Wei Zhao said with a grin, then added, "Got any other good moves, the way primordial-spirit devouring is a fairly formidable one?"