A Chaotic World

Chapter 24: Materialisation of Spiritual Essence

When Lu Tianzi broke through to the Peak Essence Building realm, his perception naturally grew stronger as well. This granted him a greater ability to perceive the energy in the pristine pond water that was flowing all around him.

With that sudden increase in perception, Lu Tianzi was finally able to fully align the flow of Spiritual Essence particles within his body to the flow of energy within the pond water outside!

At that very moment, he felt a foreign energy starting to enter his body.

This was a familiar feeling, one that he had experienced a week ago, and also one that he had been eagerly hoping to experience once again!

This was the pristine energy from the pond water!

Lu Tianzi did not know if it was due to him successfully setting his body to the same frequency as the flow of water within the pond, but that did not matter.

All that mattered was that now the gathered energy within the lake had started to pour into his body!

Unlike the previous time when it only served as a catalyst to calm down the turmoil in his inner world, this time Lu Tianzi was determined to tap into this rare source of energy to aid in his cultivation.

But Lu Tianzi dared not carelessly drive his Spiritual Essence to receive this new source of energy. He feared that doing so might disrupt the flow within his body, ultimately breaking the link between him and the pristine energy from the pond water.

Instead, he patiently waited as the pristine energy from the pond water joined with the flow of Spiritual Essence particles in his inner world, starting to move in one unified direction as they slowly spread throughout his body.

Upon contact with his Spiritual Essence, this pristine energy was rapidly refined into forming even more particles. However, these particles actually bore a slight shade of blue.

This distinct difference puzzled Lu Tianzi.

He was only able to relax after he confirmed that he could drive the blue particles just like normal Spiritual Essence particles.

As for the blue shade, who cared what it looked like as long as it worked?

But at the same time, Lu Tianzi was guessing that this difference in colour had something to do with the source of these particles.

All energy in the world had their elemental affinity. When energy reached a certain degree of affinity, it would naturally take on traits of that particular element. And for the water element, its natural colour was blue.

As for how to effectively use this to his advantage, that was a concept that was far too profound for the current Lu Tianzi to completely comprehend. Still, he believed that if he were given more time, he would definitely be able to unravel the mysteries behind this!

Time passed quickly, and it was not long before the Essence Stone cracked into two, losing its glow forever.

Lu Tianzi frowned in response.

As his cultivation boundary rose, so did the energy he required as well as the speed at which he absorbed it. On top of that, his cultivation speed was further amplified after reaching the second level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique.

As a result, this time he only took a single night to expend an Essence Stone!

It looked like as he continued to grow stronger, the resources he needed would only increase exponentially.

Not just the Essence Stone, but even the energy within the pond was quickly expended.

It was not a deep pond in the first place, and the pristine energy gathered within had been limited. That was also why the energy was spread thin and was thus different for Lu Tianzi to tap into earlier.

After Lu Tianzi greedily absorbed this pristine energy without holding back, he quickly depleted this energy within the lake, finally returning it to its original state of a regular pond.

It would probably take hundreds or thousands of years before the pond water finally regained the ability to gather such an amount of pristine energy, but that was no longer of Lu Tianzi's concerns.

With a single kick in the water, he easily rose to the surface and climbed out of the pond.

Sinking his perception into his inner world, Lu Tianzi could sense that the Spiritual Essence particles within his inner world had taken shape into a perfect sphere, no longer leaving a single gap even as the countless Spiritual Essence particles continued to randomly swirl around.

At this moment, he knew he had already reached the very limits of the Essence Building realm.

His decision to sacrifice the precious Essence Stone and the pristine energy in the water was well worth it!

Now all that was left was the transition into the Essence Condensation realm!

Filled with energy after breaking through, Lu Tianzi was eager to test out his newfound strength. The best way to do so would be through a good fight, but that was definitely out of the question at the moment.

Thus Lu Tianzi could only settle for the best alternative.

Picking up his sword, Lu Tianzi drove the Spiritual Essence within his inner world to its limit, and slashed out towards a protruding rock with all his might.

Bang-!

It was as though an explosion had occurred as the rock blew up into tiny pieces!

Lu Tianzi was shocked by the scene before him.

His sword had easily cut into the rock, but that alone would never be able to cause such an explosive effect. Rather, it was because a thin film had enveloped the blade of the sword, resulting in a huge burst of energy upon contact with the rock.

Though it was only in a crude form, this thin film was formed from the Materialisation of Spiritual Essence, something that only Essence Condensation realm martial artists should have been capable of!

But with his foundation now incomparably strong, Lu Tianzi was actually able to achieve the same effect. This meant that his combat prowess right now had already far exceeded that of ordinary Essence Building realm martial artists!

In fact, even matching Primary Essence Condensation realm martial artists in battle might not be impossible!

Lu Tianzi smiled in satisfaction upon realising what he just managed to do.

Within a mere week or so, his strength had grown from being at the Intermediate Essence Building realm to his current level of being able to match Essence Condensation realm martial artists.

This was a rate of improvement that was unheard of in the history of Ivory Rock City, and would leave even the greatest geniuses in the dust!

After making his breakthrough, Lu Tianzi felt completely refreshed even though he had not slept much during the night.

Looking outside, he could see that the sun had yet to rise. Thus he could only settle into a corner to silently meditate, patiently waiting for morning to arrive before climbing out.

---

After a day of not seeing Zhanyuan, Uncle Ye was filled with worry as he left for the wilds at dawn.

It was extremely dangerous to stay out in the wilds overnight!

Anything could have happened to Zhanyuan in this short span of time!

But when Uncle Ye arrived at his usual spot to take a quick rest before starting on his daily herb picking, Uncle Ye's eyes perked up in surprise.

Sitting quietly by the side of the trail was Lu Tianzi, who was even holding a small rabbit in his hands!

"Ah Zhan!" Uncle Ye called out in joy as he hurried over.

"Uncle Ye! Look what I managed to catch!" Lu Tianzi's face lit up as he held up the rabbit enthusiastically.

"Hahaha! You really managed to do it!" Uncle Ye patted Lu Tianzi's shoulder in pride before giving him a good look over. "Are you all right?"

"There are a few scratches here and there but I am fine! I can even help with the herb picking today!"

Lu Tianzi smiled brightly as he replied Uncle Ye. The cold blooded killer from the night before was no longer anywhere to be seen.

"Good! That's the passionate young man I know!" Uncle Ye nodded in satisfaction. "Let's get started then!"

"Sure!" Lu Tianzi answered out loud as he got to work.

With that, Lu Tianzi returned to the life that he had been leading over the past week.

The only difference was that his rate of cultivation was relatively slower now.

Even though his understanding of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique was now at the second level, not having any Essence Stones in his possession had really impacted his rate of cultivation.

But this much was fine with him.

After the battle with Nanhong Wuze, Lu Tianzi now had a greater appreciation of herbalism as a field of study. Without the Bone Numbing Powder that he concocted, Lu Tianzi might not have been the one to come out on top in the end!

For better or for worse, Lu Tianzi's knowledge on herbalism had already exceeded Uncle Ye's.

Thus even if he stayed with Uncle Ye, Lu Tianzi could only continue to improve on his knowledge by reading Uncle Ye's huge collection of books on herbalism, developing his own ideas and thoughts about the field of study.

Apart from that, the herb picking routine was good practice for him. No matter how much theoretical knowledge he had, if he did not possess actual practical experience, Lu Tianzi would still be unable to fully apply his knowledge into practice when the need arose.

Thus, Lu Tianzi had decided to at least stay until he was able to learn all he could about the field of herbalism. Judging from how many books Uncle Ye had, it would probably take not more than a week's time.

As for what to do after that, Lu Tianzi was still considering.

But the option that he was most inclined towards was to pay the demons a visit at the Shadowfront Fortress!

Of course, he was not intending to infiltrate the fortress itself.

Even though he already possessed strength at the level of an Essence Condensation realm martial artist, he would still only be easy pickings if he were discovered by the stronger demons in the fortress.

Just General Nanbai Zhaoyu alone was at the Origin Core realm!

However, considering how the demons had been able to consistently provide Essence Stones for the trades, Lu Tianzi was guessing that there might be a source near the fortress where they could mine for these Essence Stones!

There was no such information given by the demon when Lu Tianzi asked him earlier, but Lu Tianzi would prefer not to entirely discount this possibility simply because of that.

After all, the demon might just be oblivious to the existence of such a source.

Essence Stones were far too important for him to advance his cultivation. If he were unable to obtain any, then he might have to consider stealing some from the Ivory Rock Martial Academy!

That would be an extremely dangerous thing to do.

If he got caught in the act, even if he was not killed on the spot, Lu Tianzi might still be recognised by the people at the martial academy.

Hu Yuanbo was no fool.

At that time, he would likely be able to link the dots and set out to capture Lu Tianzi!

Against the Origin Core realm Hu Yuanbo, the current Lu Tianzi would definitely be powerless to resist!

On the other hand, Essence Stones were of little to no importance to the demons, so there might even be the possibility of such a source of Essence Stones being completely unguarded!

Thus as far as possible, Lu Tianzi was hoping that he would be able to obtain Essence Stones from the demons instead.

That evening when the duo returned, Ye Xiangyuan personally grilled the rabbit into a mouth-watering delicacy as the family celebrated their guest's first successful hunt.

"Congratulations for the hunt, Ah Zhan!" Ye Xiangyuan smiled gently.

"Thank you, Sis Xiangyuan."

Lu Tianzi was a little embarrassed to have his hosts celebrate such a small matter for him, but he could only keep playing this identity of a mere non martial artist.

"Ahem! Ah Zhan," Uncle Ye coughed awkwardly. "Elder Huo had told me that he will be coming over before noon tomorrow."

Hearing that, Lu Tianzi suddenly remembered that he was supposed to meet Gong Shengjie the very next day in order to resolve the issues between them!

He had never placed much importance on this ridiculous matter, and as a result had clean forgotten about the issue after a night of adrenaline pumping action!

This Gong Shengjie!

What a waste of his time!