A Chaotic World

"It is kind of embarrassing if you are to keep staring at me like that, you know?"

Lu Tianzi's voice immediately broke Nanlan Qianxue out of her daze.

"Who is staring at you?" Nanlan Qianxue immediately snapped in response. "I was just caught by surprise just now. If I had been ready for your attack, then I would definitely be able to break out of it!"

Lu Tianzi only smiled in response.

He knew that for someone like Nanlan Qianxue, she might truly be able to break out of the illusion if she faced it a second time, of course only after she made sufficient preparations.

Seeing Lu Tianzi's patronising smile, Nanlan Qianxue felt her cheeks turning red in embarrassment.

"You don't have to worry, Nanqing Haowen is not that close with his brother Nanqing Zhengxian," Nanlan Qianxue changed the topic. "On a side note though, are you aware of the Nine Suns Trial?"

"The Nine Suns Trial?" Lu Tianzi shook his head.

"You have just joined the sect, so it is no wonder that you are unaware of it," Nanlan Qianxue continued. "The Nine Suns Trial is an annually held event for the Nine Suns Sect, meant to assess every member on their cultivation progress. But more so than that, it can also be considered as the annual ranking tournament of the Nine Suns Sect. The top rankers are always given additional benefits by the sect, often able to further boost them along the path of cultivation."

"There is such a thing?" Lu Tianzi remarked in surprise. "And the reason Miss Nanlan is telling me this is because…?"

"According to previous years' traditions, the Nine Suns Trial will be in a month's time, and I will be entering an intense training period in preparation for it. So if there is anything you need, you might have to look for others for help," Nanlan Qianxue explained.

"I see," Lu Tianzi nodded in understanding.

Nanlan Qianxue knew that Lu Tianzi had just arrived in Bluenight City and believed that he was still unfamiliar with many things. Now that she was about to enter a period of training where she could not afford any distractions, she was naturally worried if Lu Tianzi would be able to cope on his own.

And it was no wonder that Nanlan Qianxue was treating this Nine Suns Trial so seriously as well. From the way she described it, the Nine Suns Trial seemed to be an extremely highly regarded event in the sect.

In that case, there was not just fame and rewards to be earned.

Obtaining good results in such a test could also be considered as a validation of a martial artist's hard work.

This self validation would strengthen the will of martial artists, reaffirming them of their martial path and smoothing their future road of cultivation.

"I understand," Lu Tianzi nodded. "Don't worry, I have long gotten used to the practices of the people in Bluenight City, as well as that of our fellow members of the Nine Suns Sect!"

"As if! If that is so, you would not have gotten into a conflict in the Nanqing Family in the first place!" Nanlan Qianxue rolled her eyes. "In any case, the Nine Suns Trial is divided into two sections – the Trial of the Heart and the Trial of the Fist. The former is a test of the strength of your martial heart, and is something that is difficult to prepare for. On the other hand, the latter is a test of your combat prowess. Outer Sect members will also be tested in the exact same way as Inner Sect members during the Nine Suns Trial, so I will be looking forward to your results as well!"

Lu Tianzi went silent for a moment as he finally realised something.

Could it be that Nanlan Qianxue's main aim of coming today actually be to inform him about the upcoming Nine Suns Trial so that he could start preparing for it as well?

"W-Well I will be leaving first!" Nanlan Qianxue hurriedly broke the awkward silence upon realising that Lu Tianzi was contemplating deeply while looking at her. "See you at the Nine Suns Trial!"

"See you," Lu Tianzi muttered blankly as he watched Nanlan Qianxue leave in a hurry.

After a few moments, Lu Tianzi finally broke out of his stupor.

Now was not the time to be zoning out!

According to Nanlan Qianxue, there was only a month's time before the Nine Suns Trial. To a martial artist, one month was an extremely short amount of time.

He definitely had to make full use of this remaining time to further increase his combat capability!

When Lu Tianzi arrived at the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower that day, Inscription Master Nanbai personally briefed him on his new role.

Inscription masters were required to accrue contribution points by taking actual inscription jobs.

The inscription materials required for these jobs could be requested from the stores of the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower, making things much more convenient for the inscription masters.

But at the same time, with each job they took, inscription masters had to pay the organisation an amount of beast cores double the value of the materials they expended.

This might seem like a huge cost, but the inscription masters were still able to profit easily by simply transferring this cost to the customers.

Even though he had already become an inscription master, Lu Tianzi had yet to take in any assistants. Yueya was Inscription Master Nanbai's assistant and did not have any spare time to help him either.

Thus, Lu Tianzi had no choice but to continue handling the processing of the materials on his own.

But Lu Tianzi actually preferred it this way.

After all, processing of the inscription materials allowed him to familiarise himself with the minute details that he might never have noticed otherwise, further improving his understanding into the art of inscriptions.

Unfortunately, Lu Tianzi's cultivation level was still far too low.

Previously, he had expended almost all of his Essence energy just to place a single inscription.

Although that was because Lu Tianzi had to unravel and redo a part of the process in his pursuit for perfection, his entire pool of Essence energy was still insufficient to place two inscriptions at one go.

Thus in order to complete every inscription that followed the first, Lu Tianzi had no choice but to tap into the beast cores that he had earned to replenish his energy. Even by doing this, Lu Tianzi could only manage a maximum of three inscriptions per day.

At the same time, by expending the low ranked beast cores in such a manner, his daily earnings were actually kept to a minimal level.

But by pushing himself in such a manner, it was only natural that his skill in the art of inscriptions would grow at a rapid pace.

Not just that, but Lu Tianzi's control of energy, strength of perception, and understanding of inscriptions all improved simultaneously.

By the time two weeks had passed, Lu Tianzi was already able to rely far less on energy from the low ranked beast cores. Because of that, his profit per day had also increased by a huge margin.

On this day, Lu Tianzi sat cross legged in meditation as a dozen low ranked beast cores lay around him.

The primordial Slaughter Essence energy flowed freely towards him from within the low ranked beast cores. At the same time, the World Origin Energy within the room was also being pulled in, as though he was at the eye of a raging vortex of energy, hungrily devouring everything that came his way.

Lu Tianzi was currently taking full advantage of the perks given to him as a member of a member of the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower.

He was now sitting silently within a private inscription room, relying on the energy gathering formation within it for his own cultivation purposes.

Activating the Slaughter Essence particles within his body according to the Heaven Devouring Divine Art, Lu Tianzi was now preparing to impact the boundary of the Peak Essence Building realm of the Slaughter Essence system!

Lu Tianzi had already spent quite a bit of time at his current boundary, and had already fully consolidated his cultivation. In fact, he had long felt that he was already starting to touch upon the boundary of the Peak Essence Building realm.

Now, he was intending to provide that slight push needed to directly break through that boundary!

Devour all the powers of heaven, absorb all energies and laws. Only then could he form a separate world within himself that could stand toe to toe with the heavens.

This was the concept of the Heaven Devouring Divine Art.

Right now, Lu Tianzi was trying to do exactly that.

Be it World Origin Energy from the surroundings or the primordial Slaughter Essence energy from the low ranked beast cores, everything was sucked into Lu Tianzi's inner world in an indiscriminate manner, rapidly refined into Slaughter Essence particles.

These newly refined Slaughter Essence particles spread out to every corner, sending out a wave of power that surged through his entire body.

This feeling was almost like a drug, infinitely addictive!

At this moment, Lu Tianzi could clearly feel that his strength had reached an even greater height as compared to before.

Peak Essence Building realm, reached!

Even though the increase in strength was not as much as the time when he broke into the Essence Condensation realm in the Spiritual Essence system, this was still quite a big boost in his overall combat capability.

This was especially so, considering that he was now restricted from relying on his Spiritual Essence system most of the time.

The Essence Building realms of both cultivation systems were similar in a way.

At this stage, martial artists refined as much Essence particles as they could, packing their inner world with countless of these particles that could explode out with Essence energy whenever required.

The greater the density of Essence particles within their inner world was, the stronger the foundation of these martial artists.

The difference lay in the fact that Spiritual Essence particles were compacted within a sphere in the inner world, while Slaughter Essence particles were spread out to every corner of the body.

Even so, the requirement to enter the Essence Condensation realm was the same.

Cultivators of the Slaughter Essence system had to unify the direction in which the Slaughter Essence particles within their body flowed, achieving at least a fifty percent unification rate before they could force a breakthrough with external help.

Or alternatively, there was also the path of aiming for a perfect transition.

Though for the Slaughter Essence system, even if Lu Tianzi was aiming for a perfect transition, there would still be a need for a final impetus in order to condense the particles into a flowing stream of Slaughter Essence within his inner world.

Having already achieved a perfect transition in his Spiritual Essence system, Lu Tianzi had a much greater understanding of the unification process. This gave him a natural edge over others and ensured that his cultivation speed would only be much faster than before.

With such an advantage in hand, Lu Tianzi would naturally settle for nothing less than a perfect transition this time as well.

After all, only with the most stable foundation could he truly aim for the pinnacle of martial arts!

Now, it was just a matter of how far he could go before the date of the Nine Suns Trial.

---

The Eastern Star Restaurant was one of the most prestigious restaurants in the Eastern region of Bluenight City. At this moment, a young scion sat alone in one of the many private rooms, fiddling impatiently with the wine cup in his hands.

This young scion was none other than the younger brother of Nanqing Haowen, Nanqing Zhengxian.

He had already been in a foul mood for the past few weeks.

Firstly, he had lost his most treasured Torrential Sabre to some young inscription assistant who appeared out of nowhere to stand up for his clueless senior.

Next, his family actually chose to side with the inscription assistant, asking Nanqing Zhengxian to give in to his demands.

And now, this supposedly nameless inscription assistant suddenly became an inscription genius that Bluenight City had never seen!

As punishment for his recklessness, his parents actually cut his allowance by more than half and grounded him for two weeks!

What kind of luck was that?

That treasured sabre of his was a Peak Essence Condensation rank weapon!

No, now that it had an inscription placed on it, maybe it could even be considered as half a rank higher?

No matter what, since he had finally been allowed to leave the family residence, Nanqing Zhengxian swore that even if he was unable to retrieve the sabre, he had to make sure this Nanlu Tianzi suffer for taking it from him!

At this moment, a knock came from outside as a servant called out, "Sir Nanqing, your guest has arrived."

"Let him in," Nanqing Zhengxian let out a sinister grin.

The door only opened just enough for the guest to step in before he hastily closed the door behind him.

"Welcome," Nanqing Zhengxian gestured to the seat across the table from him. "Do take a seat."

This guest of his was dressed in a white robe that had a huge sun embroidered at the back, surrounded by eight other smaller suns.

This was the signature sect robe that only members of the Nine Suns Sect possessed!

If Lu Tianzi was here, he would have recognised this man as well.

He was Nancheng Wei, the man who had lost to Lu Tianzi when he challenged the latter at the Iron Soldiers Combat Array.

"I believe Brother Nancheng knows why I invited you today," Nanqing Zhengxian smiled as Nancheng Wei took his seat.

"Naturally," Nancheng Wei sneered as he leaned forward into the table. "The two of us have a lot to talk about."