Even with resistance reduced to its absolute minimum, if the Spirit Convergence Formation had not compressed his primordial spirit into a single point, Wei Zhao felt certain he could not have lasted even a moment in the broken space, let alone achieved a boundary-breaking projection. He would have been scoured to nothing the instant he entered.

His primordial spirit traveled through the broken space for an unknowable stretch of time, until at last, worn down to less than a tenth of its original strength, the way ahead suddenly opened wide and it entered a whole new, stable space. Wei Zhao's heart leaped with joy—this must mean the spirit-projection had succeeded, surely?

Before him stretched a vast, hazy mountain forest. He could not tell exactly where it was, but he soon sensed keenly that this must already be the mortal realm.

This was not mere guesswork. The spiritual energy here was nowhere near as dense and abundant as on Cloud Terrace Island; there was simply no place on Cloud Terrace Island where the spiritual energy was so thin as to be almost nonexistent. So this had to be the mortal realm, without a doubt.

In the past he had not noticed it, but now, after personally experiencing Cloud Terrace Island's environment for so long, Wei Zhao understood at once why Cloud Terrace Island kept itself isolated from the mortal realm, and why the cultivators of the mortal realm pined so desperately to go there.

Even as a common nobody with no backing at all, one's cultivation environment on Cloud Terrace Island would be far superior to that of the mortal realm. Even those ancient sects hidden away beyond all discovery could only look on in hopeless envy. Heaven and earth—such was the difference between them.

Yet a child does not despise a homely mother, nor a dog a poor home. Cloud Terrace Island might be beyond comparison with the mortal realm, but to Wei Zhao this was, after all, his homeland. That long-missed sense of closeness was something no corner of Cloud Terrace Island could match. Even at the North Island headquarters he had rarely known such a feeling of belonging, as though he were home. Now, at last, he was home.

Home though it was, Wei Zhao found his present state deeply uncomfortable. He was nothing but an amorphous mass of primordial spirit, like some ghostly thing that might dissipate at a single gust of wind. There was no sense of security in it at all.

It was too insubstantial a state to endure. Wei Zhao hurriedly began shaping his primordial spirit into a spirit-body formed in his own likeness. In essence there was no difference between the two, but once he had assumed a spirit-body he could recover some familiar sense of having a physical form.

Moreover, a spirit-body was a condensed version of the primordial spirit—in a sense, a substantiated existence. Many things impossible for a primordial spirit in its raw form could be done by a spirit-body, though the transformation would consume more than half of his remaining consciousness. His primordial spirit was already less than a tenth of its original strength; now not even a twentieth would remain.

As he shaped the spirit-body, Wei Zhao carefully observed his own condition. Just as Steward Sun had said, he could clearly sense the faint thread of spirit-link between himself and his true body. The sensation was exquisitely subtle. It was not as distant as he had imagined—unexpectedly near, in fact, as though his spirit and his body were not far apart at all, separated only by a single layer of broken space.

Had anyone been nearby, they would surely have been stunned by the sight. A mass of white mist swirled slowly, resolving into the faint outline of a human form. Torso, limbs, and head grew gradually clear and distinct from top to bottom, until even clothing materialized along with it. In but a moment, there stood a living, breathing man.

Wei Zhao was not surprised by this, but once the spirit-body was fully formed he gave a sudden start—there, hanging at his chest, was the jade pendant!

"How can this be?" Wei Zhao was stunned. He had only conjured clothing just now; it had never crossed his mind to conjure the jade pendant along with it. After all, the thing was worn by his true body back on Cloud Terrace Island. Even if he conjured one here, it would be a mere trinket, bereft of any meaning.

Wei Zhao hastily took it in hand, and the expression on his face grew even more astonished. This solid, tangible feel was unmistakably that of the real jade pendant. He had actually carried the thing over with him!

But he had done nothing at all! Recalling the pendant's many miraculous, heaven-defying properties, Wei Zhao suddenly had a thought—could the thing have followed him of its own accord?

A physical jade pendant, projecting into the mortal realm together with his primordial spirit—outlandish as it sounded, when he thought it over, which of this pendant's powers was not outlandish?

Wei Zhao absolutely refused to believe the pendant had no sentience. And if it was a sentient thing, then its following its master across was not so hard to understand. It merely proved that the world was vast and full of wonders. Having witnessed so much of the world, Wei Zhao was no longer easily amazed by such things.

The mortal realm had no worthy experts to speak of, but the pendant's presence would make many things considerably more convenient for Wei Zhao. This was an unexpected stroke of good fortune.

Yet more than this, Wei Zhao was concerned about the ghostly fellow residing within the pendant. If the pendant had crossed over, then the ghostly fellow ought to have come along with it.

"Senior Ghost, we're finally back!" Wei Zhao could not wait to speak with the ghostly fellow. The fellow seemed to have been in secluded cultivation all this time, but now that they had finally returned to the mortal realm, disturbing him once was hardly excessive.

"Mm, finally back. It's been a long time, little Linzi!" A most familiar voice came from within the pendant.

"Pfft! Cough, cough..." Wei Zhao choked on hearing that voice, and it was a long moment before he could react in disbelief. "Elder Jiao? How is it you?"

"What kind of thing is that to say? Why shouldn't it be me? Don't tell me you didn't miss me?" Jiao Yazi said, his tone tinged with teasing.

"No, I mean, how are you awake?" As he spoke, Wei Zhao sent a thread of consciousness into the pendant's space. Sure enough, Elder Jiao within had returned to his normal state, no longer the disconnected, unresponsive phantom he had been before.

"This is the mortal realm, not Cloud Terrace Island. Of course I'm awake." Jiao Yazi stretched lazily within the pendant's space. Wei Zhao had spent three years on Cloud Terrace Island, and he had slumbered along with him for three years. He might not rust like a true physical body, but there was still an indefinable sense of unfamiliarity.

"Wonderful!" Wei Zhao was overjoyed. To him, Jiao Yazi was an elder, and to see him restored to normal was cause for great celebration. But then, catching sight of a shadowy mass of black mist, he froze again. "Senior Ghost, what is..."

"Don't ask me. I don't know what's going on either—if anything, I'm more baffled than you are. Little Linzi, how did you get back?" Jiao Yazi asked, wholly at a loss.

"Cloud Terrace Island has a method for spirit-projection. It doesn't transport the body itself, but projects the primordial spirit into the mortal realm. That's how I came—right now I'm nothing but a spirit-body. For some reason, this jade pendant followed along on its own. But Senior Ghost's condition, I can't make sense of..." Wei Zhao said with a frown.