The reason he simply could not dodge Wei Zhao's slaps, no matter how he tried, was that every time Wei Zhao raised his hand, an inexplicably powerful suction would clamp onto his primordial spirit—more precisely, it was like an invisible giant hand trying to rip his primordial spirit bodily out of him. He had no way to break free, and that was why his consciousness blurred and his reactions slowed.

This kind of technique was far beyond ordinary applications of divine consciousness. If Xue Jianming had been a cultivator of deep foundations at the peak of the Golden Core stage, he would have had at least some capacity to defend himself in this regard; but he had shot straight to the top on the strength of a Center Pill, and in the matter of the primordial spirit he had made no progress whatsoever. He was, so to speak, utterly without power to resist.

"A dirty trick? You are closer than you think. Yes, a dirty trick indeed. Care to sample it once more?" Wei Zhao smiled with an air of unfathomable mystery. What he had just used was a Soul-Reaping Hand crafted specifically to deal with primordial spirits—an improved version, however.

His original knockoff Soul-Reaping Hand had limited effect and was utterly useless against a primordial spirit at Xue Jianming's level. Fortunately, he had learned the Devouring of the Primordial Spirit from the Nine Infants, and as they say, one method mastered opens the way to a hundred. The core essentials of the two arts were interchangeable, and so the power of the improved Soul-Reaping Hand had risen enormously. Even if it could not match the true Soul-Reaping Hand of the old Western Mountain Sect one hundred percent, it came very close.

Never mind that Wei Zhao's primordial spirit body was only at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage; the key point was that what determined the power of the improved Soul-Reaping Hand was not the strength of his physical body but his primordial spirit. And do not forget—he was a being of the Xuan Sheng stage! Even if he could not fully unleash the might of a Xuan Sheng-stage primordial spirit, even a ten-thousandth of it was enough to give a Golden Core expert like Xue Jianming a thoroughly miserable time.

Seeing Wei Zhao reach out again, Xue Jianming recoiled as if he had seen a ghost, scrambling back a good dozen meters before he dared stop. His face was full of shock and lingering dread—that sensation of having his very soul nearly torn out was simply too horrifying. He would rather die than go through it again.

"You... stay back... we... we can talk this over..." Xue Jianming was in a blind panic. By now, in his eyes, Wei Zhao was no peak Foundation Establishment cultivator at all, but something demonic.

Faced with a sinister and uncanny primordial spirit art like the Soul-Reaping Hand, his only option was to flee.

"Heh. Now you want to talk things over. Why didn't you think of that earlier?" Wei Zhao deliberately made a clawing motion at empty air, giving Xue Jianming such a fright that his heart nearly leapt from his chest and he almost bolted on the spot.

"I... I was momentarily blinded... please, senior, be magnanimous and overlook a petty man's fault..." Xue Jianming stammered. It was not that he did not want to run; the trouble was that he knew Wei Zhao's movement technique was far faster than anyone else's. Unless Wei Zhao agreed to let him go, he had no hope of escape at all.

"Hmm, now that is an interesting thing to say. A few days ago you nearly trapped Duanmu Yu and me to death in the River of Divine Consciousness, and now you ask me to be magnanimous and overlook a petty man's fault. Do you take me for someone whose brains got waterlogged when I fell into the River of Divine Consciousness?" Wei Zhao could not help laughing—and his laughter made Xue Jianming's hair stand on end. Were their positions reversed, his own choice would unquestionably have been to pull the weed out by the roots.

Just as Wei Zhao said, letting him go at a moment like this would be sheer waterlogged nonsense.

In truth, given Wei Zhao's temperament, he would never simply let the man off. Granted, before his Soul-Reaping Hand, a fellow of Xue Jianming's strength could hardly stir up any real trouble. But this was, after all, a peak Golden Core expert, and once a tiger was released back to the mountains, it would be a huge latent threat to everyone else present.

"My... my old man is the vice sect master of the Snow Sword Sect. Killing me does you no good at all. And you will all face the Snow Sword Sect's pursuit—especially her!" In his desperation, Xue Jianming brought out his father. Had the Center been a secret organization rather than one that could be openly paraded about to overawe people, he would certainly have brandished it first.

Pointed at by Xue Jianming, Leng Leng shrugged noncommittally. If the Snow Sword Sect were a place where Xue Jianming's father called the shots, she would long since have been a disciple expelled for treason, and she could not care less about one more charge.

"Heh. This place holds only us and you. Even if I killed you, no one would be the wiser. Or do you think any of them would leak it?" Wei Zhao said with an easy, unhurried curl of his lip.

Apart from his own people like Leng Leng, the only others present were the two outsiders, Duanmu Yu and Ling Tianyou—and of those two, one had been kicked into the River of Divine Consciousness by Xue Jianming himself, and the other had been hunted by him until he was half dead. Who among them would talk?

"Uh..." Xue Jianming was instantly struck dumb, cold sweat pouring down. A moment ago he himself had been thinking of silencing witnesses; now, in the blink of an eye, he had become the fish on the chopping block.

Fortunately, Wei Zhao's next words let him breathe a little easier: "You mentioned benefits just now, and it reminded me—I believe you obtained a Divine Consciousness Grass, did you not? Trading one stalk of Divine Consciousness Grass for your life strikes me as a decent bargain. What do you think?"

"You want the Divine Consciousness Grass?" Xue Jianming was startled at the words and instinctively wanted to refuse. This was one of the greatest prizes of his entire expedition, and the key to his becoming a supreme Golden Core expert in the days to come—how could he possibly just hand it over!

"Of course. Surely you are not thinking of refusing? That is fine too. It would merely cost me a little extra effort. I dislike handling corpses, but for the legendary Divine Consciousness Grass I do not mind enduring it." Wei Zhao shrugged indifferently.

Xue Jianming was immediately torn. He did not want to give up the Divine Consciousness Grass, but he wanted even less to lose his life here. Compared with his own life, the finest heavenly treasures in the world were so much passing cloud.

In fact, with his strength he could well have attempted to flee, or even to turn the tables on Wei Zhao—after all, Leng Leng and the others present were ready-made hostages, and he might not have been without a chance to reverse the situation. Unfortunately, the Soul-Reaping Hand had frightened him out of his wits.

This is a common failing of humanity: faced with the unknown, people are always filled with boundless terror, and that terror gradually devours all reason, bringing thought to a halt. Such was Xue Jianming at this moment.

"Three. Two. One." Wei Zhao began the countdown—and Xue Jianming, very sensibly, flung out the Divine Consciousness Grass.

"Only half?" Wei Zhaofrowned at the sight. Someone who did not know better might have taken this for the whole of the Divine Consciousness Grass, but he and Duanmu Yu had seen it in its entirety. (To be continued.)