A Chaotic World

Hu Shenwei clenched his fists nervously upon catching sight of Lu Tianzi's back. He was even about to call out when the latter turned a corner to disappear from his view.

Hu Shenwei's thoughts raced as he thought about whether he should follow, but he eventually calmed down.

What was he thinking?

There was no way that it could be Lu Tianzi…

"What's the matter?" Cui Zhenghao asked from the side upon seeing his nervous expression.

"No, it's nothing," Hu Shenwei shook his head. "I just recognised the wrong person."

"That is no surprise. There are too many similar looking people in this world. On top of that, there are just far too many workers in the city, so much that there are always interesting people who will give you a surprise," Cui Zhenghao replied.

"There are always interesting people who will give you a surprise? Did Brother Cui encounter someone like that from the Workers District?" Hu Shenwei turned to him in surprise.

He knew that Cui Zhenghao was extremely dedicated to his training, and had little time to spare on gossip. Just the fact that he had gained some slight interest in someone from the Workers District was surprising enough!

"Indeed, I have. I am not sure if you already know about this, but that Gong Shengjie actually has a subordinate in the Workers District who is at the Peak Essence Building realm. Looks like he has not been wasting away his time here after all!" Cui Zhenghao answered with a slight smile on his face.

"A Peak Essence Building realm martial artist in the Workers District?" Hu Shenwei could not hide his surprise. "Was he from the martial academy?"

"I don't recognise him at all. Apparently his name is Zhanyuan, have you heard of him?"

"Zhanyuan?"

Even though Hu Shenwei frequently visited the Ivory Rock Martial Academy in order to look out for promising seedlings, he truly did not recall anyone by the name of Zhanyuan.

Seeing the look on his face, Cui Zhenghao's smile grew even wider, "Looks like despite his poor cultivation realm, that Gong Shengjie is at least better than the both of us at information gathering!"

"Seems that way indeed," Hu Shenwei let out a helpless laugh. "Let us leave as well. There is a lot of work waiting for us to do! As for this Zhanyuan, perhaps we could visit him next time."

Lu Tianzi felt extremely awkward as he was leaving the main square of the Workers District.

They were walking in a group.

To his left was Gong Shengjie, to his right was Uncle Ye and his family.

However, Gong Shengjie's eyes had completely bypassed Lu Tianzi and the Ye couple, directly landing on Ye Xiangyuan.

"Xiangyuan, do you want to go visit the marketplace? I heard that there is a new batch of lockets on sale, and they are beautiful without comparison! You might like what they are selling there!" Gong Shengjie asked with a smile on his face.

"This…" Ye Xiangyuan turned to look at Uncle Ye.

She was truly interested in the new batch of lockets, but did not want to act without first consulting her father.

"Do whatever you want," Uncle Ye sighed in response.

He had been against Gong Shengjie due to his frivolous ways. But at the same time, he could not help but admit that recently, Gong Shengjie had truly been acting with sincerity when trying to go after his daughter.

Now that even Zhanyuan seemed to be on good terms with Gong Shengjie, it did not seem too appropriate for him to interfere anymore. So he decided to just leave everything up to his daughter.

"Don't worry, it is just for a short while!" Gong Shengjie quickly added, encouraged by Uncle Ye's words.

"Ah Zhan, do you want to come along as well?" Ye Xiangyuan asked.

"I will pass on that," Lu Tianzi smiled before turning to look at the grateful expression on Gong Shengjie's face. "Make sure you don't do anything strange to Sis Xiangyuan! If anything happens to her, I definitely won't let you off!"

"Ah Zhan!" Ye Xiangyuan snapped.

"Don't worry, I will definitely not allow anything to happen to her!" Gong Shengjie patted his chest in assurance.

Lu Tianzi then watched as Gong Shengjie left with Ye Xiangyuan to head for the marketplace, and could not help but let out a subconscious smile.

"That brat…" Uncle Ye frowned from beside him.

"Well, it looks like Sis Xiangyuan does not truly dislike him after all. And Gong Shengjie obviously likes her a lot. So why not let things be and see how things progress from there?" Lu Tianzi asked awkwardly.

The Ye couple did not respond, and only turned to continue on their way after Ye Xiangyuan turned a corner to disappear from sight.

Lu Tianzi could only sigh helplessly before following them back.

---

In a small hut hidden deep in the forests, Hu Yuanbo sat at one end of a long table, and eyed his counterpart with eyes burning with fury.

At the other end of the long table was a man seated in an unruly manner, his legs placed uncourteously on the table top. He had tanned skin and looked like a man in his thirties. Despite his loose clothing, it was obvious that his body was extremely lean.

But the thing that stood out the most was the tip of his tail that carelessly swayed back and forth in front of him, as though trying to taunt Hu Yuanbo.

If it were anyone else, Hu Yuanbo would definitely not have stood for such a disrespectful posture. Even if he did not strike the demon down, he would definitely not have bothered to stay.

However, the one seated before him right now was not just any random demon.

He was General Nanbai Zhaoyu, leader of the Shadowfront Fortress, and more importantly, an Origin Core realm martial artist of the demon race!

Even for Hu Yuanbo who was similarly at the Origin Core realm, he did not have much confidence in beating Nanbai Zhaoyu in a one on one battle.

As a martial artist progressed on their road of cultivation, the disparity between martial artists at the same cultivation realm only grew wider and wider.

This was because their current strength was directly affected by the foundation formed during their previous cultivation realms, which was in turn further influenced by countless factors.

Every shortcut they took, every mistake they made, all of it would accumulate and impact the strength they currently possessed.

These factors also included the amount of Spiritual Essence particles gathered during the Essence Building realm, and also the unification percentage of Spiritual Essence during the Essence Condensation realm.

That was the reason why Lu Tianzi wanted to achieve as high a unification percentage as possible before attacking the Essence Condensation realm. Because it had far reaching consequences in his future road of cultivation!

For someone aiming for the pinnacle of strength, it was definitely worth slightly delaying his current cultivation speed so as to strengthen his foundation. This way, he would not be sacrificing future accomplishments for a moment of convenience!

Since Hu Yuanbo had managed to reach the Origin Core realm, this meant that his foundation was decent enough.

However, it was definitely not the best either.

Just reaching the Origin Core realm was already Hu Yuanbo's absolute limit. If he wanted to further advance in his cultivation realm, then he would require some heavenly medicine in order to cleanse his current foundation and stimulate his potential!

Even though he was the Lord of Ivory Rock City, it was after all just a small city trapped in the mountains.

There was simply no way for him to find such heavenly medicine!

But Nanbai Zhaoyu did not share the same concerns.

In fact, he had already been preparing for the past thousand years for a breakthrough in his cultivation realm. He was not contented with staying at the Origin Core realm, and intended to attack the Demon Overlord realm that came after it!

After breaking through to the Origin Core realm, a martial artist would have a lifespan of around two thousand years. Spending a thousand years just to break through to the next realm meant that more than half of Nanbai Zhaoyu's life had been spent on trying to achieve this breakthrough.

Even then, it was not a given that he would be able to succeed. In fact, he only had a less than fifty percent chance, and that was provided he managed to complete his preparations!

This showed the sheer difficulty of breaking past the Origin Core realm.

But in any case, being able to at least stand a chance of breaking through meant that Nanbai Zhaoyu's talent was far above that of Hu Yuanbo!

"So what is it that you want to talk about?" Nanbai Zhaoyu remarked in an uninterested manner, even playing with his fingers while he was at it.

"Don't play the fool with me! I am sure that you know about the attack on my workers yesterday!" Hu Yuanbo raised his voice in anger.

"Oh, you are referring to that? What about it?" Nanbai Zhaoyu's tone was still the same, agitating Hu Yuanbo even further.

"We had an agreement!" Hu Yuanbo slammed a palm onto the wooden table with a loud bang, causing Nanbai Zhaoyu to finally look up from his fingers.

"Yes, we did have an agreement. But after two groups of my men failed to return with any sacrifice, even completely going missing, do you still think I will just quietly tolerate your doings?" Nanbai Zhaoyu sneered. "If you think that you can easily pull a fast one on me, Nanbai Zhaoyu, then you are gravely mistaken!"

The look in Nanbai Zhaoyu's eyes turned cold as he stared at Hu Yuanbo.

"Don't try to push the responsibility to me! My side did nothing against your guys! In fact, two of my men even went missing from the last trade. Are you sure your men did not just killed my men and leave with the sacrifice?" Hu Yuanbo rebutted in fury.

"Hahaha! What a good joke! If that is truly the case, do you think I will have the time and energy to bother killing your shitty workers? What good would that do us?" Nanbai Zhaoyu started to raise his voice as well.

"Hu Yuanbo, this is my last warning to you. Be it because of your men, or because of some wild beast, I am not going to send out my men to their deaths any longer. I don't care how you do it, but within one week, I want your men to deliver the sacrifice straight to my Shadowfront Fortress. I will be going away for two weeks to attend to some personal matters. By the time I return, I want to see the sacrifice in my cell. Otherwise, don't blame me for not holding back!"

Nanbai Zhaoyu said his piece before stomping off, leaving Hu Yuanbo dumbfounded as he remained seated alone in the hut.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Hu Yuanbo slammed his fist onto the wooden table, causing the entire table to collapse.

His eyes flashed with a glint of madness.

Damned greedy demon!

How many sacrifices do you want before you will finally be satisfied? If I accede to your request this time, then wouldn't I be at your beck and call in the future as well?

Looks like it truly is about time for you to learn that we humans are not to be looked down on!

You are leaving the fortress for two weeks, aren't you?

Then I will make sure to let your Shadowfront Fortress pay for your arrogance during these two weeks!

Let's see if you will still dare to be so arrogant after that!