In truth, once Chen Dongcheng had been dealt with, the rest of them had largely settled down. The only one still leaping about was Lu Ping'an, and that was only because he had been speaking for Chen Jiu in the negotiations; otherwise, even Lu Ping'an probably would not have dared to stay so active. Nobody is a fool, after all—everyone knows the saying that the bird that sticks its head out gets shot. Who, knowing full well that Wei Zhao was not to be trifled with, would still dare to prance around like that?

And now Wei Zhao had proven, by the most concrete of means, just how untouchable he was. Chen Dongcheng had been merely a trial of the blade; Chen Jiu was the true quarry he meant to bring down.

The whole process had been effortless.

At the thought, Xin Yi'an could not help but feel excited. Though the notion of taking over the North Island Cangwu Sect still seemed unreal when he pictured it, with a towering tree like Wei Zhao at his back, it was not entirely impossible.

"But is my strength really enough?" Xin Yi'an was still far from confident. Now that they had the Supreme Elder as an example, the effect of killing the chicken to frighten the monkeys was beyond question. If he had even mid-Golden Core cultivation, Xin Yi'an believed he could hold the situation in hand; the trouble was that early Golden Core was simply too pitifully weak.

"Not quite, so I will step forward myself to hold the field. That should just about do it," Wei Zhao said.

"You yourself?" Xin Yi'an was startled. Even Chen Jiu had been left half-dead with such ease; if Wei Zhao appeared in person, the deterrence would go without saying. Never mind the Golden Core higher-ups and ordinary disciples within the sect—even another Nascent Soul monster would have to weigh the matter very carefully. But the problem was: could Wei Zhao get out?

Do not forget, they were still inside the One Step to Heaven Formation. Even having easily disposed of the Supreme Elder Chen Jiu did not mean Wei Zhao could break the formation and leave. These were two entirely different matters.

To break the One Step to Heaven Formation, there was only one way, and it came down to four words: one step to heaven.

"Precisely. So you may go and gather the men. I will be along shortly." Wei Zhao smiled slightly, full of confidence.

"Then... very well!" Xin Yi'an nodded emphatically. Since Wei Zhao had said so, he naturally had no reason to doubt it, and he at once dragged the insensate Chen Jiu out with him.

Watching Xin Yi'an leave, Wei Zhao closed his eyes and slowly drew a deep breath; then he reached out and slowly extended his hand forward until it touched that invisible yet substantial barrier, whereupon the corners of his mouth curved upward. "One Step to Heaven Formation—after studying it so long, it is surely time I walked out of it, is it not?"

All this time, Wei Zhao's efforts had not been limited to cultivating his primordial spirit and the Soul-Hooking Hand. How to break through the One Step to Heaven Formation had always been one of the greatest questions before him. After all, he had never counted on the likes of Chen Jiu to obediently hand over an identity token.

Of course, it would be no disaster if he truly could not break through. With the North Island Cangwu Sect now leaderless, having Xin Yi'an find a way to obtain an identity token should not prove too difficult. It was only that such a wondrous formation was rarely encountered; if he could not stride out through the front gate with dignity and was forced to slip in through the back door, would he still be Wei Zhao?

The One Step to Heaven Formation—in theory, the only person who could truly break through it by his own power was that legendary figure of the North Island Cangwu Sect known as the Great Emperor. It was, after all, a formation he had set down with his own hands; apart from him, no such case had ever been heard of.

By Xin Yi'an's account, even a Nascent Soul monster like Chen Jiu had never truly broken through the One Step to Heaven Formation, and had rarely even attempted it—because that was the domain of a legend.

And now, at last, Wei Zhao was to be the first to eat the crab.

His fingertip came into contact with the formation. In an instant Wei Zhao felt once more that uncanny sensation, as though it were close at hand yet far beyond reach. Through his constant probing these past days, the feeling was no longer the least bit unfamiliar to him. To bridge this barrier of a footspan that stretched to the horizon, he had devised no fewer than a hundred methods, front to back, and every one of them had failed.

It was not entirely a problem of approach; the true shackle lay in his strength itself.

Without power surpassing the Nascent Soul stage, there was no breaking the One Step to Heaven Formation by any means whatsoever. This was likely the very purpose the legendary Great Emperor had in mind when he set the formation down.

Originally, even realizing this would have left Wei Zhao helpless. But thanks to the great mass of spirit-herb roots he had obtained, setting aside the strength of his primordial spirit body, his primordial spirit had already risen another level compared with when he first came to this little world of the ancient times. In terms of tier alone, it had even recovered to the standard of his true body on Cloud-Tier Island—the genuine Profound Ascension stage!

Were it not so, the power of his Soul-Hooking Hand would never have suddenly grown so formidable, enough to easily dispose of even a Nascent Soul monster like Chen Jiu. To this little ancient world, accustomed as it was to treating Nascent Soul monsters as the very peak, the present Wei Zhao was beyond all question a monster—a terrifying monster who had effortlessly punched clean through the entire ceiling.

One step forward, and Wei Zhao switched in an instant from his primordial spirit body to primordial spirit form, then swiftly condensed into an exceedingly fine and exceedingly long thread of primordial spirit. If any observer had sharp enough eyes, they would discover that this form was almost exactly the same as when he projected his primordial spirit!

That was right—this was the countermeasure Wei Zhao had devised. The footspan-to-horizon was profound and mysterious, to be sure, but in the end it could not compare with a true cross-boundary projection. The difficulty here lay not in whether a primordial spirit projection could cross the footspan-to-horizon, but in whether Wei Zhao could successfully perform a replica version of the primordial spirit projection.

Even a crude imitation, even one whose effect was a mere hundredth or even a thousandth of the original—the difficulty involved was still no small matter. After all, primordial spirit projection depended on a specialized formation to succeed, and now he was relying purely on himself.

That difficulty was something no one but Wei Zhao himself could comprehend.

A single instant in reality seemed to Wei Zhao to stretch on for a very long time. The next moment, a thread of primordial spirit, so faint as to be all but imperceptible, suddenly appeared at the other end of the formation; then the thread grew visibly to the naked eye and gradually coalesced into the figure of Wei Zhao.

One step to heaven—achieved!

"Boss, are we leaving now?" Wu Chengtian's voice suddenly sounded from behind, and the others—Qiu Lingshan and the rest—all poked their heads out as well, every face alight with excitement. Although Wei Zhao's showdown with Chen Jiu this time had not taken much effort and no great commotion had been raised in the course of it, it would be a lie to say they had sensed nothing at all. Nominally they had been in secluded cultivation, but in truth every one of them had been straining their ears to eavesdrop.