For years he had been stuck at the early Golden Core stage without the slightest progress. Part of that was surely a matter of innate talent and constitution—he could hardly compare with a freak of nature like Bing Wushuang—but all things considered, he was not really so poor; middling, at the very least. The crux of his inability to advance lay in pills.

If he could never get his hands on a Golden Core Pill, what was he supposed to do about it?

"Here." Wei Zhao tossed him several Golden Core Pills without ceremony. Over the time he had spent observing him, Xin Yi'an had won his approval, and Wei Zhao meant to entrust him with heavy responsibilities hereafter; giving him a few pills to shore up his strength was only proper. After all, a mere early Golden Core cultivation really was a bit too inadequate to look at.

"This... I..." A fond dream come true without the least warning left Xin Yi'an at a loss, and it was a good while before he had the pills securely in hand. Then, weeping with gratitude, he said, "Thank you, Martial-Uncle Grandmaster!"

"No need. You have earned it. You may go and summon them," Wei Zhao said.

"Summon whom?" Xin Yi'an blinked.

"Lu Ping'an, of course. Now that Bing Wushuang has been sent off just as they wished, it is about time we laid our cards on the table. That Supreme Elder's patience must be nearly exhausted by now, wouldn't you say?" Wei Zhao said mildly.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than several figures came slowly toward the Heaven-Ascending Cliff from the opposite direction—one of them Lu Ping'an, carrying the limp and unconscious Chen Dongcheng on his back, and the old man walking ahead of him was none other than the Supreme Elder Chen Jiu.

As expected, Wei Zhao had been right: the Supreme Elder's patience had long since worn away. In truth, even without the unexpected complication of Bing Wushuang, he had already been preparing to confront Wei Zhao outright. Chen Dongcheng's present condition, after all, could not be called reassuring in the least.

Once a person's primordial spirit is drawn out, the body will naturally begin to wither and even die a slow death—a fate no cultivator, however powerful, can escape. Compared with ordinary mortals, they differ only in that their flesh has greater vitality and can hold out a little longer; there is no difference in kind.

And now Chen Dongcheng had plainly reached the brink of bodily death. Even Chen Jiu was at his wit's end before this unprecedented condition. Once Chen Dongcheng's body died, all would be lost; even if his primordial spirit survived, it could only be a lonely wandering ghost, doomed not to last.

The crux of the matter was this: how could the weight of so great a thing as the Northern Island Chen family ever be placed in the hands of a lonely wandering ghost?

Without greeting or word, Chen Jiu and Lu Ping'an strode straight into the Step-into-Heaven Formation and laid the utterly feeble Chen Dongcheng before Wei Zhao. Their intent was plain.

Though the Supreme Elder had come in person, this time he put on no great display or array of force. Apart from Lu Ping'an, he had brought none of his disciples—from where he stood, the fewer people who knew of this meeting with Wei Zhao, the better for him.

"I trust you have a way to cure Dongcheng?" Chen Jiu studied Wei Zhao from head to toe. Though their standoff had lasted no short while, this was their first meeting face to face, and the youthful air Wei Zhao gave off was far beyond his expectations. At first glance he was certain: this fellow was no ancient Martial-Uncle Grandmaster at all, but a genuine young man through and through!

"Of course," Wei Zhao nodded.

"Then begin the treatment," Chen Jiu said bluntly.

"Oh? You do not intend to discuss terms with me first?" Wei Zhao raised an eyebrow at that, and Xin Yi'an at his side could not help curling his lip as well. Even if the other party was the exalted Supreme Elder, after so long a standoff he no longer inspired much dread in Xin Yi'an's heart. To demand Chen Dongcheng's cure outright without so much as a single condition—did he take them for fools to be toyed with?

"What terms do you want?" Chen Jiu regarded Wei Zhao with an inscrutable expression.

"Heh. No terms are needed. Give me the identity token that is mine by right. That is all," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile.

The answer was no surprise. With the identity token, he would have official recognition, the Supreme Elder's included, and Wei Zhao would be the ancient Martial-Uncle Grandmaster in name and in truth. None could question it any longer; it was the natural order of things.

More importantly, with the identity token he could come and go freely from the Heaven-Ascending Cliff, and the Step-into-Heaven Formation would no longer be an insurmountable obstacle. For Wei Zhao, this was the greatest benefit of all.

Had it been Lu Ping'an, he would surely have fobbed him off with some excuse about Sect Master Hong Zijun being absent. But now Chen Jiu stood here in person; for a dignified Supreme Elder to fall back on the pretext of a mere sect master—however plausible it sounded—would still be beneath him, and if word got out he would be a laughingstock.

"Cure Dongcheng, and I will give you the identity token." Chen Jiu's answer was crisp and clean. Though he had confirmed that Wei Zhao was no ancient Martial-Uncle Grandmaster at all, weighed against Chen Dongcheng's life, none of that mattered.

"Good." Wei Zhao's answer was just as brisk.

Before, Lu Ping'an and Xin Yi'an had served as each side's spokesmen, probing and wrangling back and forth, and after all that time they had not settled a single thing. Now that the two principals had come forward in person, the negotiation was a matter of a single sentence.

The treatment of Chen Dongcheng was a simple process: release the primordial spirit confined within the jade pendant's space and let it return to his body, and he would naturally be well.

Yet Chen Dongcheng's body was now far too frail. Even with his primordial spirit intact, he could not easily recover for a time; once the spirit returned, he remained in a half-dead state, the only difference from before being a faint, indefinable aura about him.

Lu Ping'an could not make it out, but Chen Jiu's eye was keen enough to tell the difference easily. The Chen Dongcheng of before had been a rotting log, beyond saving, fit only to be left to wither; now, though he still looked like a rotting log, a thread of vitality had been renewed in him. With proper care hereafter, it would not be long before he recovered as before.

"Very well. Now it is your turn to keep your word, Supreme Elder," Wei Zhao said, raising an eyebrow.

"So it is." Chen Jiu shot Lu Ping'an a look, signaling him to take away the still-unconscious Chen Dongcheng. Only once the two of them had stepped beyond the bounds of the Step-into-Heaven Formation did he say slowly, "Before that, I would have you answer one question honestly.

"

"Speak," Wei Zhao said, his face betraying not the slightest oddity.

"Who exactly are you?" Chen Jiu asked the question he most wished to ask. At that moment even Xin Yi'an at his side could not help holding his breath; from the very start, this too had been the greatest doubt in his heart. (To be continued.)