Still, whether he could learn any new, powerful techniques from the Nine Infants was not, in the end, all that important to Wei Zhao. Apart from divine-consciousness arts like the Devouring of the Primordial Spirit, he was not short of ordinary powerful techniques at all—one more made no difference, one less no great loss.

As long as he steadily raised his rank, super-killing moves like the Five Phases and Eight Trigrams Slaughter Qi and the Thunder Burial would naturally become usable. Even if the techniques the Nine Infants had devised for itself were formidable, could they possibly outmatch those two?

And as for the divine-consciousness art that would serve Wei Zhao best right now, the Nine Infants knew only the one trick—the Devouring of the Primordial Spirit. Beyond that, it knew nothing at all...

"Good, good, good." The Nine Infants could not have asked for more, and at once hurried to clear the way for Wei Zhao.

After swimming for a while through that sunless underground river, Wei Zhao clearly felt the current above growing swifter. At the Nine Infants' signal, he surfaced with Duanmu Yu in tow, and immediately a current seized the two of them and bore them swiftly upward. In less than a moment they saw daylight again and were back on the bank of the River of Divine Consciousness.

The Nine Infants followed them all the way to the shore and saw them off with impeccable courtesy: "Take care, both of you. Forgive me for not escorting you farther."

At last this thing was gone! The Nine Infants was just about to heave a sigh of relief when, before it could properly catch its breath, Wei Zhao suddenly turned his head and said, "Wait a moment!"

"What now?" The Nine Infants' heart lurched, terrified that Wei Zhao might pull some new trick—after all, a Xuan Sheng-stage primordial spirit that had learned the Devouring of the Primordial Spirit was truly not someone to trifle with.

"Nothing much. You can go back—but I need to borrow this one for a while." Wei Zhao pointed at the Water Lily. He had to regroup with Leng Leng and the others now, and he would need this creature to guide the way.

"No problem. Guardian, this is your charge—follow the senior's instructions well." The Nine Infants sold out the Water Lily without a flicker of hesitation, turned, and dove back into the River of Divine Consciousness, leaving the Water Lily behind with a face full of grievance.

Fortunately, Wei Zhao had no intention of making things hard for the Water Lily. Led by it, the two of them soon found Leng Leng and the others upstream along the River of Divine Consciousness. The group was on the bank, eager and restless, just as Wei Zhao and Duanmu Yu had been when they first found this place, trying to figure out how exactly the River of Divine Consciousness tempered one's divine consciousness—little knowing that the whole thing was nothing but a decoy the Nine Infants had put out.

"Wei Zhao!" Leng Leng, the strongest among them, spotted him first and was overjoyed.

"Leader!" The others caught on and were likewise delighted, immediately cheering and crowding around Wei Zhao, all talking at once about what they had been through these past days and asking where on earth he had gone. Though they had absolute faith in Wei Zhao's strength, to say they had not worried at all would have been a lie.

"Everyone all right?" Wei Zhao looked each of them over carefully, and only when he had confirmed that no one was missing an arm or a leg, that no one was gravely wounded, did the stone in his heart finally settle.

"We're fine! All of us are doing great!" The group grinned from ear to ear.

"Ha, a few days apart and you're all darker and thinner—but your spirit's stronger than before, and your eyes are brighter. Seems this ancient trial has brought you no small gain." Wei Zhao was genuinely gladdened. There was no need to ask to know that these past days had been full of hard fights and that injuries had been unavoidable—but it was all worth it. Without being tempered on the edge of life and death, how could they have been reborn as they were now?

Yes—reborn. Never mind that their cultivation ranks were unchanged; their bearing was utterly different. As one who had been through it himself, Wei Zhao knew better than anyone that this mattered far more than rank, for it was the first step on the road to becoming a powerhouse.

"Don't even mention it. We finally found the River of Divine Consciousness, and we can't find a single thing in it that tempers divine consciousness—what gain is there to speak of..." The group looked thoroughly deflated whenever the subject came up. Like everyone else, they had come here hoping to temper their divine consciousness properly, only to end up empty-handed, not a scrap of benefit to show for it.

"Don't fret. I'll explain on the way. Everyone get ready—we're heading back," Wei Zhao called out.

"Back? Back where?" The group stared at him in unison.

"The Transit Isles. Let's go." Wei Zhao waved a hand and took the lead back toward the teleportation array.

The group was baffled, but since it was Wei Zhao's decision, they naturally would not question it, and they immediately fell in step behind him.

Leng Leng, Qiu Lingshan, and the other women drifted over to walk with Duanmu Yu. Where there was a will, women always found it easy to draw close to one another, for they never ran out of things to talk about—even a tomboy like Duanmu Yu was no exception.

The journey passed without incident. Now that even the Nine Infants had bowed its head before Wei Zhao, to say nothing of the other spirit beasts great and small—they had all heard the Nine Infants' warning and did not dare raise a hand against human cultivators, or they themselves would become tribute.

By the time Wei Zhao and the others returned to the teleportation array, the other disciples of the Ancient Alliance had also come back one after another, all of them bedraggled and bewildered. The vast majority of them had already been captured as tribute—some had even been delivered to the River of Divine Consciousness—only for a single word from Wei Zhao to change their fate, and all of them had been released and sent back, though they themselves had no inkling of it.

Still, ignorant of the truth as these people were, they at least knew the danger. This ancient trial ground, a once-in-a-millennium affair, was so fraught with peril that they dared not linger a moment longer. Compared with their own lives, the River of Divine Consciousness and rare treasures and heavenly materials were all so much passing cloud. So every one of them, without prior agreement, made the same choice: retreat the way they had come.

Only, they had come full of anticipation, and the result was a bedraggled mess—setting out in high spirits and returning in low. Not only had they gained nothing, but they had to cough up the spirit jade to activate the teleportation array besides. Their feelings were truly a tangle of all five flavors.

But on second thought, this place was so dangerous, and at least they had kept their lives—a blessing in disguise, all told. Their losses had not been ruinous after all.

Entering the Fire Bat Cavern, the group activated the teleportation arrays one after another to return to the Transit Isles. Just as it was Wei Zhao's party's turn, a commotion suddenly broke out at the cave entrance.

"What's going on?" The group exchanged glances. Wei Zhao was puzzled too—had some spirit beast ignored the Nine Infants' warning and come charging in?

A few breaths later, a figure fled in, in a truly wretched state, covered head to toe in blood, all but turned into a man of blood. When the group finally made out the man's features, they could not help but start—this man was none other than Ling Tianyou, the young sect master of the Thousand Blades Sect!