A Chaotic World

In a dimly lit chamber, four young men knelt on the floor with their heads hung low. Their shirts were off, revealing the heavy beads of sweat that were trickling down their naked torsos.

If Lu Tianzi were here, he would have recognised these four young men from the grand feast that had just ended.

They were none other than the four young representatives of Bluenight Palace apart from Nanlan Qianbing.

Whoosh-!

A whip mercilessly sliced through the air, heading straight towards the unlucky one among the four.

Pa-!

The whip struck its victim squarely on the back, letting out a resounding clap!

However, the young man gritted his teeth and endured the pain, not letting out a single groan. After all, this was not the first time that he was being whipped.

Before he knew it, his endurance level had already been trained up over the years.

"What on earth are the four of you good for if you can't even accomplish such a simple thing?" City Lord Nanlan sneered as he slowly paced around them, the whip in his hands stained with traces of blood.

Whoosh-!

Pa-!

Another of the young men was struck this time.

Similarly, he was able to endure it in silence.

"Qianbing might be wilful at times, but that is exactly what you senior apprentice brothers are here for!" City Lord Nanlan reprimanded. "You idiots were right beside her! How can you just allow her to do as she wished in front of everyone? Thanks to that, our Bluenight Palace will now become a laughingstock in those people's eyes. Are you satisfied now?"

The four young men maintained their silence, not daring to retort with a single word.

"Bunch of trash!" City Lord Nanlan yelled in rage. "This is the last time that I am going to be this patient with you. You people better not disgrace me in the coming Scarlet Moon Heroes Meet! Now, get out of my sight!"

The four young men were overwhelmed with relief upon being allowed to leave, and hurriedly retreated out of the chamber.

Damn it!

City Lord Nanlan threw the whip onto the floor in frustration.

He was originally intending to use the grand feast as an opportunity to pull Lu Tianzi closer to his side. Who knew that everything would be ruined by these incapable youngsters of his Bluenight Palace?

Now, he would have to spare even more effort in order to achieve his goal!

And if all else failed, City Lord Nanlan might even have to move on to Plan B.

That might be a little extreme, but he had to do whatever was necessary in order to get rid of all possible future threats!

The City Lord had given the various influences two days to recommend their young geniuses for the Scarlet Moon Heroes Meet.

After which, the City Lord stated that he would bring along those whom he had already selected, and leave for the capital.

During these two days, the many influences within Bluenight City got busy as they sent the talented members of the younger generation to Bluenight Palace for City Lord Nanlan's personal assessment.

In contrast, the members of the Nine Suns Sect had a lot more time on their hands.

All of the top five rankers had already been directly invited, and the rest of the members obviously had not caught the City Lord's interest. Otherwise, he would have invited them along to the grand feast as well.

With only two days left before leaving Bluenight City, Lu Tianzi decided to take a break from his daily work at the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower.

Despite that, he still ended up in his private inscription room, standing behind a table full of inscription materials.

Only that this time, he was not helping anyone place an inscription.

This time, he was doing it for himself.

Right now, the equipment in his possession included the Torrential Sabre, the Sword of Ivory Rock, the Star Reaper Spear, and the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour. Of course, that was unless he wanted to include the concealed knife that he had always been keeping with him by force of habit.

Yet among all his equipment, only the Torrential Sabre possessed an inscription symbol.

As an inscription master himself, this was simply unacceptable!

Thus, Lu Tianzi decided that he would spend this time improving on the quality of his equipment. As for how to do so, he already had a plan in mind.

In the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower, not only inscription assistants received contribution points for their work. Inscription masters were able to accumulate contribution points when they worked as well.

In fact, the contribution points granted to inscription assistants were directly deducted from the inscription master whom they were serving, as an exchange for receiving their help.

Lu Tianzi did not have an assistant, and had always been handling the processing of materials by himself. However, this also meant that he did not have to pay any inscription assistants.

Over the weeks, he had earned quite a fair bit of contribution points while working as an inscription master, and this was the time to put his accumulated contribution points to good use!

With his end goal in mind, Lu Tianzi had already exchanged most of his contribution points for inscription materials.

There were three main types of inscriptions – weapon inscriptions, material inscriptions, and medicinal inscriptions.

Out of the three, even though weapon inscriptions were named as such, they actually encompassed inscriptions that worked on all sorts of equipment.

Lu Tianzi's goal this time was to give the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour the biggest boost possible.

He already had multiple offensive means, but his defensive capabilities were kind of lacking in comparison. That was the reason why he had chosen the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour as his reward in the first place.

And since he had already invested in the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour, he might as well do his best to make sure that it would be truly useful in times of need!

As a fully defensive measure, Lu Tianzi was not intending to look for an inscription that possessed an inscription skill. Instead, he focused on pure hardiness as well as energy mitigation.

The improvement in hardiness would ensure that the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour would not break apart when receiving a powerful physical strike, while the improvement in energy mitigation would reduce the damage from energy attacks.

As for the reason why he wanted to sacrifice the inclusion of an inscription skill in order to further improve on the two defensive traits, that was because Lu Tianzi did not wish to rely too heavily on the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour.

All he wanted was a last resort should all other options fail.

But if it came down to such a critical juncture, who knew if he would still possess the strength required to channel his Essence energy into the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour, or if he would be able to do it in time to activate the defensive inscription skill at all?

Thus, Lu Tianzi had looked for the weapon inscription that was most suited for increasing the hardiness and energy mitigation aspects of armours.

What he found was the Titan's Guard Inscription, an advanced level weapon inscription that fitted all the criteria that Lu Tianzi had in mind. But in exchange for its incredible defensive boost, placing the Titan's Guard Inscription required a large amount of inscription materials.

Even with all of Lu Tianzi's contribution points, he was only able to exchange for one set of inscription materials required for the Titan's Guard Inscription.

This meant that if he failed to form the Titan's Guard Inscription in a single attempt, he would have to trade in his precious low ranked beast cores if he wanted a second set of inscription materials.

These low ranked beast cores were not even sufficient to keep up with his cultivation needs, so how could he bear to use them on placing an inscription?

Thus, Lu Tianzi had taken some time to clear his mind, making sure that he was in his peak condition before attempting to place the Titan's Guard Inscription.

There was simply no room for error here!

Lu Tianzi focused hard as he activated the energy gathering formation in the inscription room. He pointed out with his fingers, and finally started drawing out the inscription runes in the air.

Having worked on inscriptions day in day out over the past month, coupled with his robust theoretical knowledge, Lu Tianzi could already be considered as quite an experienced inscription master.

The fact that he decided to start working on the Titan's Guard Inscription meant that he naturally had the confidence to complete it successfully.

As expected, in just slightly more than an hour's time, an enormous array comprising of numerous glowing inscription runes hovered in the air before him. Under his precise control, this huge inscription array slowly shrank into the size of a coin before finally falling onto the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour.

Despite how tired he was by then, Lu Tianzi still grinned in satisfaction as he looked at the newly inscribed Nine Dragons Flexible Armour.

Judging from the changes in the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour due to the Titan's Guard Inscription, it had actually advanced from a Peak Essence Condensation rank item to a half-step Origin Core rank item!

With this advancement, the Nine Dragons Flexible Armour had now officially become the highest ranked equipment that Lu Tianzi possessed!

After completing what he was here to do, Lu Tianzi did not linger in the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower, returning straight to the sect grounds.

In the eyes of martial artists, two days was an extremely short amount of time.

Lu Tianzi knew that he had no time to waste. He had to make full use of the remaining time to cultivate, as well as to improve on his mastery over his current techniques.

But as he approached his assigned accommodation in the Inner Sect Grounds, Lu Tianzi caught sight of a familiar figure waiting at the door.

"Senior apprentice brother," Lu Tianzi greeted cautiously.

"You are back," Nancheng Shu nodded solemnly in response.

"Is there a reason why senior apprenctice brother is here?" Lu Tianzi asked carefully.

Ever since the first time they met, which was right after the Nine Suns Trial had concluded, Lu Tianzi never had a good impression of Nancheng Shu. Not just that, but Lu Tianzi was aware that Nancheng Shu was similarly not fond of him.

For Nancheng Shu to suddenly wait for him outside his accommodation, something must be up!

Nancheng Shu did not answer immediately, instead drawing his sabre out from his spatial ring. This caused Lu Tianzi to immediately focus his attention in caution.

"Fight me in the Dueling Ring," Nancheng Shu finally spoke.

"What?" Lu Tianzi furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would I?"

"If you win, I will listen to one request of yours in the future," Nancheng Shu gritted his teeth and promised. "But if I win, all I ask is that you go to the Elders and tell them that you forgive Nancheng Wei."

So it was about his older brother…

By now, Lu Tianzi had already learnt that Nancheng Wei had been imprisoned by the enforcers, and was currently awaiting trial in the sect's prison.

It seemed like Nancheng Shu was here to try and help bail his older brother out of trouble.

"At this stage, even if I told the Elders that I forgive him, I doubt that it will be sufficient to change the final outcome," Lu Tianzi voiced out his honest opinions.

"Whatever the Elders decide to do from there will be left up to his own fate," Nancheng Shu answered without batting an eye.

Nancheng Shu might have a bad temper, but he was just as intelligent as he was bad tempered.

He knew just as well that plotting against a fellow sect member was taboo in any organisations, much less an established one like the Nine Suns Sect.

After all, even their lives depended on each other when undergoing certain dangerous missions.

If the trust between fellow sect members was broken, then the sect as a whole would be crippled from the inside!

In order to prevent such a thing from happening, someone like Nancheng Wei had to be made an example so as to deter others from following in his footsteps!

Thus even if Lu Tianzi, the victim in this case, no longer wished to pursue the matter, the leaders of the sect would definitely still choose to mete out punishment on a member like Nancheng Wei.

"Don't worry, I know that my cultivation level is higher than yours," Nancheng Shu admitted. "As long as I am unable to defeat you within twenty moves, I will consider it your victory! Do you dare to accept my challenge?"

Lu Tianzi smiled in response.

He might not be on good terms with this Nancheng Shu, but he could not help but admire the other party's resolve.

For this duel, Lu Tianzi had absolutely nothing to lose.

If he lost the duel, then all he had to do was to forgive Nancheng Wei, who honestly was no longer a threat to him whatsoever.

If he won the duel, then Nancheng Shu would owe him a favour, and he would be able to request Nancheng Shu to do one thing for him in the future.

On the other hand, Nancheng Shu had nothing to gain at all. The only one who would possibly stand to gain would be his older brother, Nancheng Wei.

In order to retain a glimmer of hope for his older brother, Nancheng Shu actually decided to challenge Lu Tianzi with such disadvantageous terms.

Or was it because Nancheng Shu was that damn confident of being able to defeat him?

There was only one way to find out!

In any case, Lu Tianzi was curious about his current combat strength against a genius at the Advanced Essence Condensation realm. This would serve as a good battle experience before the Scarlet Moon Heroes Meet!

"Let us head to the Dueling Ring then!" Lu Tianzi answered confidently. "But there is no need for you to admit defeat in twenty moves. I shall defeat you in a proper duel so that you will be satisfied with the outcome!"