A Chaotic World

That night, as per any other, Lu Tianzi sat cross legged on his bed at he practised the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique.

Lu Tianzi quickly entered into a meditative state, sinking his perception into his inner world.

Now that Lu Tianzi had reached the very limits of the Essence Building realm, it was no longer as easy as before to progress in his cultivation.

Before, all he needed to do was to refine Spiritual Essence particles to increase the mass of particles within his inner world.

That was the basis of Essence Building, and with every newly refined particle, his strength increased proportionally.

However, an Essence Building realm martial artist's inner world was limited in size.

At his current level, there was hardly any more space within his inner world for more newly refined Spiritual Essence particles. Due to that, his cultivation speed had slowed down drastically, and that had frustrated Lu Tianzi to no end.

But if other martial artists were to so much as hear of the reasons for his frustration, they would probably feel like killing him before committing suicide!

To have one's inner world filled to the brim with Spiritual Essence particles was to realise the maximum potential of the human body, opening up the possibility of potentially possessing the highest level of strength!

That was a feat that others could only dream of!

Unfortunately, Lu Tianzi needed to gain strength rapidly so as to ensure his own safety, as well as to contest the Origin Core realm Hu Yuanbo in battle.

While he was glad that he had attained such a perfect foundation in the Essence Building realm, Lu TIanzi now needed to make the transition towards the Essence Condensation realm as soon as possible.

His perception arrived before a mass of Spiritual Essence particles that had formed up into an illusory sphere.

Every single particle was moving in its own independent direction, completely disregarding any concept of unity with other particles.

Now, Lu Tianzi's job was to make sure every last Spiritual Essence particle moved together in one unified direction.

If he were to achieve that, the illusory sphere made of countless Spiritual Essence particles would also naturally condense into a true rotating Spiritual Essence sphere.

This process was termed as Essence Condensation.

When martial artists finally managed to condense a solid rotating Spiritual Essence sphere within their inner world, they would have officially made their first step into the Essence Condensation realm.

However, unifying the movements of all Spiritual Essence particles within the inner world was easier said than done!

That was no doubt the optimal way of breaking into the Essence Condensation realm.

But due to its ridiculously high difficulty, many martial artists had instead chosen to rely on potent pills and medicine to aid them in their breakthrough into the Essence Condensation realm.

These pills and medicine usually bore characteristics that helped to forcefully form up the mass of Spiritual Essence particles, condensing it into a true rotating Spiritual Essence sphere.

Even though martial artists would still need to align at least half of their Spiritual Essence particles before attempting to break though in such a way, this was still a much easier way of breaking through.

However, it naturally came with its fair share of side effects.

If a true Spiritual Essence sphere was forcefully condensed with the help of pills and medicine, there would be parts of it that would not be able to resonate completely with the main sphere body.

While the sphere would still continue rotating, these tumour-like areas within the sphere would remain still, and had to be dragged along by the main body, resulting in a slower and more sluggish rotation of the sphere.

Essence Condensation martial artists drew strength from the true Spiritual Essence sphere within their inner world, which in turn generated energy from its unified rotations.

If a martial artist's true Spiritual Essence sphere rotated sluggishly, then the level of strength that the martial artist could draw upon would also proportionally decrease.

On top of that, this also made it more difficult for a martial artist to progress further in their road of cultivation!

With all these negative consequences, it might be misunderstood that no martial artist would wish to take such a shortcut.

However, that could not be further from the truth!

The reason for that was that the natural method of breaking into the Essence Condensation realm was simply far too difficult!

Even the most talented of individuals would give up upon reaching a certain stage, when they were finally satisfied with their degree of unifying the flow of Spiritual Essence particles within their inner world.

A good gauge of talented martial artists would be having attained eighty percent unification rate.

That would mean eighty percent of the Spiritual Essence particles in their inner world had been were moving in one unified direction.

After which, most talented martial artists would rely on pills and medicine to move on.

As for affecting them on any further progression on their road of cultivation, that would be referring to attacking the Origin Core realm!

That was something that most martial artists in Ivory Rock City would not even dare to dream about, much less worry about the consequences of not being able to achieve it!

By breaking into the Essence Condensation realm, one would enjoy a lifespan multiple times that of non martial artists, living up to hundreds of years.

Moreover, Essence Condensation martial artists were deeply respected for their strength.

This meant that for the hundreds of years of their remaining lifespan, these martial artists would be able to enjoy luxury and prestige borne of their diligent cultivation in the initial years of their lives.

That was hundreds of years of enjoyment!

It was not a short duration by any measure!

With all the above reasons combined, most martial artists would not even hesitate to use such pills and medicine to break through!

But unfortunately for them, this demand also pushed the prices of such cultivation materials to the limit!

On top of its medicinal usage, the Rainbow Lotus was actually also one of the main ingredients for making such medicine, thus explaining how expensive it was even for someone as rich as Gong Shengjie.

While Lu Tianzi was ambitious, he was not one to go without a backup plan as well.

Just like every other talented martial artist, Lu Tianzi obviously wished to attain a natural breakthrough into the Essence Condensation realm.

But at the same time, the pragmatic side of him had also come to terms with the fact that at some stage, even he might have to resort to relying on medicine to complete the break through.

That was the main reason why he chose to accept the Rainbow Lotus from Gong Shengjie despite knowing that both Uncle Ye and he did not need it for recovery at all.

Lu Tianzi's perception swept over the swirling mass of Spiritual Essence particles in his inner world, and then narrowed down to focus on a sole particle as he tried to further refine it to obtain greater overall control.

Particle by particle.

Step by step.

That was the only way for Lu Tianzi to cultivate at his current boundary.

Thankfully, after hitting the second level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, his control over the Spiritual Essence particles within his body had risen far above any of his peers.

This allowed the process to progress at a much faster rate, though it still felt excruciatingly slow in his mind.

But regardless of his thoughts, it was simply impossible to speed up his cultivation any more than what it was, perhaps unless he broke into the third level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique.

However, that was something far out of his reach at the moment.

The night passed quickly, but when the first light shone across the sky, the Workers District did not stir into activity like it always used to at the break of dawn.

News about the demons attack had struck the workers too hard.

The houses in the Workers District were built in tight clusters, and thus most of the workers lived extremely near to each other.

In such a neighbourhood, even without any official announcements, it was not difficult for the workers to realise that dozens of their peers had not returned.

Having heard of that, who would still dare to risk leaving the safety of the city walls for work?

Gong Tiesha did not even have to announce the banning of workers from exiting the city, because none of them wanted to in the first place!

Regardless, there was still a need to officially announce the ban so that some desperate workers did not accidentally go against the ban.

Gong Tiesha, despite being the District Head of the Workers District, had been against the ban in the first place. Thus he had refused to send his men to do the dirty job of making the announcement.

Not wanting to waste time arguing with him, Hu Yuanbo decided to have his capable assistant Rui Xucheng send someone from the Officials District.

And acting with the authority bestowed upon him by Hu Yuanbo, Rui Xucheng had wisely chosen someone who was by no means a pushover.

"The city administration is going to address all workers at the main square! It is about an important matter so make sure you are there at noon to listen to the address!"

Multiple men spread out across the Workers District, shouting and clanging cymbals as they sought to spread the news to every single corner of the district.

Hearing those words, the workers all started to stretch their jaws and get ready to exercise their lungs.

After all, who could be blamed for the loss of their peers if not the city administration?

If wild beasts could be spotted from a long way out, then why could the sentries not spot the demons approaching until it was too late?

If the sentries atop the city walls had been more observant and alerted them in advance, then none of the workers would have been placed in a position of peril yesterday!

That was why all the workers were already warming up, getting ready to express their dissent during the assembly at noon!

What the workers did not understand was that most wild beasts did not care to hide their presences, making it much easier for the sentries to spot them from afar.

However, that was not the case for the demons who actually took special care to move stealthily. That way, it would be extremely difficult for the sentries to spot them among the dense vegetation of the forest.

But whatever they did not know, the workers did not care.

All the workers wanted was to hear how the city administration intended to take responsibility for this matter!

Even before noon, all of them had already started to gather at the main square of the Workers District.

Seeing that Uncle Ye and his family were going, Lu Tianzi tagged along as well.

He, too, was curious about what the city administration had to say about the unprecedented attack by the demons.

Attending this assembly was different from the naming of Holy Guardian that he had refused to attend due to the dangers involved.

Firstly, there would not be any of his peers from the martial academy around at the Workers District.

Secondly, the number of high level martial artists in the Workers District was minimal, and thus he was not too worried that he would encounter many martial artists of a higher cultivation realm than himself.

Lastly, even if there were martial artists of a higher cultivation realm than he was, they probably would not sweep their perception over every single one of the workers.

In the end, this was the Workers District. Nobody would have even thought about checking the workers for their cultivation realms.

Hiding amidst the crowds, Lu Tianzi felt relatively safe as he stood with Uncle Ye and family. Just like most others, they arrived long before noon, choosing to wait patiently in the sun for the address to start.

The city administration was right on time.

Just as noon arrived, a group of individuals strolled casually to the front of the main square, stepping up onto an elevated platform so that even those standing behind could see.

Among the group were familiar faces that Lu Tianzi recognised immediately.

Cui Zhenghao!

He was the one who stopped Lu Tianzi when he was returning to the city yesterday!

But even with his identity as the son of a District Head as well as an Essence Condensation martial artist, Cui Zhenghao was surprisingly not the one in the lead.

Leading them was another young man who gave off the dignified air of a noble. His eyes were sharp and shone with a vibrant light, further accentuating that handsome face of his.

Seeing the young man who was in the lead, a sinister light flashed past Lu Tianzi's eyes.

Lu Tianzi definitely recognised this man.

He was Hu Shenwei, the talented son of Hu Yuanbo, and also the man publicly recognised to be the next in line to succeed his father as the Lord of Ivory Rock City!