A Chaotic World

"Woah!" Bo'er exclaimed in awe as she took in the sights around her.

After their visit to the True Fire Tavern, Young Master Xuan brought everyone back to his residence to settle them in before anything else.

As an heir candidate of the Timeless Flame Sect, Young Master Xuan Hao's residence was no shabby lodge.

To get there, Young Master Xuan Hao had to bring them deep into the heart of Eternal Flame City, bypassing multiple layers of guards to enter the headquarters of the Timeless Flame Sect.

Within the headquarters of the Timeless Flame Sect, Young Master Xuan Hao's residence covered a large rectangular area, spanning more than a kilometre wide on each side, and surrounded by tall walls and a complex concealing formation.

The moment they stepped through the front door of the residence, they were greeted with a beautiful front yard that was lush with greeneries and flowers.

Sheltered walkways connected the multiple buildings within, with each of these buildings intricately designed and isolated with their own individual concealing formations.

It looked just like a small town by itself.

"What a residence!" Lu Tianzi praised.

Since a while ago, he had been feeling that as they continued walking ahead, the density of World Origin Energy in their surroundings slowly increased as well. As he got nearer to Young Master Xuan Hao's residence, that feeling only became stronger and stronger.

Lu Tianzi had no doubt that there was a grand energy gathering formation covering the headquarters of the Timeless Flame Sect, with Young Master Xuan Hao's residence rather near the very core of the formation.

But it was also obvious that while it was near, this residence was still not quite at the core of the formation.

"That is where I stay with my family," Young Master Xuan Hao pointed towards a three-storey high building.

"Oh?" Lu Tianzi was surprised to hear that. "Doesn't this entire residence belong to your family?"

"Well, that is also correct in a way," Young Master Xuan Hao answered with a smile. "This is actually the residence of my great grandfather, who is also the faction leader of the Timeless Flame Sect's Blue Ember faction. He and my great grandmother stay with their children in the main residential building, and that includes my grandparents. As for myself, I am staying with my mother and younger brother – my direct family."

"And his great granduncles and grandaunties are staying in other residences within the Timeless Flame Sect with their own descendants," Ruan Ling added with a shrug. "It's a big family."

"So that's it," Lu Tianzi muttered with a faint smile. "It sure sounds nice to have everyone in the family staying together..."

"Haha, did this conversation make Brother Tianzi miss your family?" Young Master Xuan Hao teased. "How long has it been since you left home?"

"Just a few years," Lu Tianzi shook his head. "But don't worry, my parents passed away when I was relatively young, so I am already used to being alone anyway."

"Oh," Young Master Xuan Hao froze, apparently not expecting this answer from Lu Tianzi.

He never thought that his casual words would end up turning the atmosphere this awkward.

"You have us now," Nanlan Qianxue gave Lu Tianzi a gentle pat on his shoulder.

Lu Tianzi turned to look at Nanlan Qianxue, and the duo smiled when their gazes met.

Nanlan Qianxue's family members might still be alive back in Bluenight City, but their relationship had soured, almost to the point of no return.

In a way, she was in a similar situation to Lu Tianzi.

"R-Right! We might not be blood related, but I will definitely have your back just like a family member would!" Young Master Xuan Hao tried to salvage the situation. "Anyway, it's not all good to have such a big family either. For instance, it creates competition for the family's resources. If not for the fact that our family have such a strong foundation, it might even be difficult to find suitable cultivation techniques for everyone!"

"Others might have a right to say that, but your family definitely doesn't!" Ruan Ling chided. "What kind of influence is the Timeless Flame Sect? I'm sure the sect's skills repository must be filled with countless cultivation techniques. Even if your family is a hundred times bigger, I'm sure there will be enough cultivation techniques there to provide for everyone!"

"Haha, you caught me there," Young Master Xuan Hao laughed before he suddenly realised something. "Right, do you guys wish to visit the skills repository? I can bring you there if you want."

Since Xuan Wen had been willing to offer material rewards to recruit Lu Tianzi, Young Master Xuan Hao wanted to offer something on his part as well.

Even though he was not as resourceful as Xuan Wen, he could at least able to do this much.

Otherwise, even if Lu Tianzi did not mind, he himself would feel bad about it.

"Is that really okay?" Lu Tianzi asked. "Aren't there secrets that are privy only to members of the Timeless Flame Sect?"

"Don't worry, we will only be visiting the skills repository of the Blue Ember faction, not the main repository of the Timeless Flame Sect," Young Master Xuan Hao said. "On top of that, I will only be showing you the general section. While there are still a lot to be seen, the secrets of the sect will not be there, so there won't be too much of an issue."

"If that's the case, I shall not stand on ceremony then!" Lu Tianzi said.

Lu Tianzi naturally understood that Young Master Xuan Hao felt pressured by Xuan Wen's generous gesture earlier and wanted to offer something as well to ease his own stifled heart.

Since this was something that Lu Tianzi was also interested in, he might as well take up Young Master Xuan Hao's offer.

This way, both of them would stand to benefit from it.

Thus after Young Master Xuan Hao showed them to their rooms and left Bo'er under the servants' care, the group immediately left towards the Blue Ember faction's skills repository.

The skills repository was in a nine-storey high pagoda, heavily protected by layers of formations and guards.

Even with Young Master Xuan Hao in the group, the two Origin Core realm guards at the entrance were still reluctant to allow everyone in. They only relented after Young Master Xuan Hao assured that he would bear full responsibility for bringing everyone in.

Lu Tianzi could not help but let out a sigh upon entering.

As expected of the Timeless Flame Sect...

The inside of the pagoda was lined with shelf after shelf of jade slips, each clearly labelled with the name and description of the technique within.

On just the first floor alone, there should be at least ten thousand jade slips, which also meant that there were more than ten thousand different techniques available.

Cultivation techniques, movement techniques, combat techniques, and auxiliary techniques, all of them were available in various forms.

What Ruan Ling said earlier was right.

With this many different techniques available, it would be almost impossible to not be able to find one that was suitable!

However, Young Master Xuan Hao completely ignored everything around them, directly bringing the group up to the second floor instead.

"The first floor is mainly catered for Essence Building realm martial artists, so the techniques there would surely not interest everyone. The second floor is mainly catered for Essence Condensation realm martial artists, so these techniques might still be of some use," Young Master Xuan Hao explained. "Feel free to look around and go through any jade slip that interests you. After we are done here, I will bring you up to the third floor."

Learning techniques of a lower cultivation realm might sound like a waste of time, but that was not always the case.

After all, some martial artists could suddenly realise that they had a shortcoming in a particular aspect. But since they had never come into contact with techniques of that nature, suddenly trying to address this shortcoming with a technique of the same cultivation level might turn out to be too difficult.

At times like this, starting from a lower level was a good option.

Starting too low, however, was just a waste of time. That was why Young Master Xuan Hao still decided to skip past the first floor.

"Thank you, Brother Xuan Hao!" Lu Tianzi clasped his fists in gratitude.

"Don't worry about it!" Young Master Xuan Hao returned the greeting. "After making you come all the way to Eternal Flame City, this is the least that I should do."

The quartet quickly split up to go through the techniques in the skills repository, though Young Master Xuan Hao decided to simply accompany Ruan Ling.

He had had access to this place since young, so he already knew what was avaliable. There was no longer anything here that would interest him.

Since that was the case, helping out Ruan Ling by giving her some of his opinions with regard to the choosing of techniques would be a better use of his time here.

Lu Tianzi walked around casually, slowly looking through the labels on the shelves.

Honestly, Lu Tianzi was not too interested in looking at techniques for Essence Condensation realm martial artists.

He understood that his Heaven Devouring Divine Art and Eternal Wraith Sword Art were far beyond even the Origin Core realm, and his Flowing River Silent Strides was at least at the very peak among movement techniques of the Essence Condensation realm.

What he was most interested in right now was learning movement techniques that could be executed while flying, but that was not something that Essence Condensation realm martial artists would come into contact with.

After all, flight was something that belonged exclusively to martial artists of the Origin Core realm and above.

Therefore, he was not hopeful at all that there would be anything here that could catch his eye.

Indeed, he was right.

No matter where he looked, the techniques available all seemed dull and useless.

This was the same even for the auxiliary techniques that had the highest chance of being of use.

Lu Tianzi glanced over at Nanlan Qianxue, and saw that she was going through some movement techniques.

That made sense.

Similar to him, Nanlan Qianxue had obtained the Hail Queen Body Refinement Technique and Shifting Blossoms Sword Art from their master Xihuang Yuanfeng, so she only lacked a proper movement technique now.

Just as he was about to give up and go over to Nanlan Qianxue, Lu Tianzi suddenly caught sight of an unexpected label on one of the shelves, causing his heart to almost skip a beat.

The words on the label read – Spiritual Essence Cultivation Techniques.

Lu Tianzi widened his eyes in disbelief.

Really...?

He slowly walked over, then read the huge label displayed prominently at the top of the shelf.

[Important note: The cultivation techniques here are meant for humans and are just for reference. Do not cultivate them under any circumstances. Please approach an elder if you have any further questions.]

Lu Tianzi turned his attention back to the jade slips on the shelf and swallowed a mouthful of saliva in anticipation.

He slowly stretched out his hand and picked up the first jade slip, sinking his perception within.

Essence Condensation realm cultivation technique – Iron Blood Martial Technique.

The next one.

Essence Condensation realm cultivation technique – Purple Light Divine Manual.

Next.

Essence Condensation realm cultivation technique – Thousand Mirage Tiger Art.

Before he knew it, Lu Tianzi had completely immersed himself into the world of Spiritual Essence cultivation techniques.

Now that he was already at the Origin Core realm, he was able to go through these Essecne Condensation realm techniques at an extremely fast pace.

Of course, that was also because he was only trying to remember the essence of these techniques, and not actually cultivating them.

The current Undulated Currents Breathing Technique only allowed Lu Tianzi to cultivate up to the First Cycle Origin Core realm, so he had been looking to improve it for quite some time now.

For that, Lu Tianzi had been researching various different Spiritual Essence cultivation techniques, trying to find a way to refine the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique and bring it to the next level.

Unfortunately, Spiritual Essence cultivation techniques were few and far between in this world dominated by demons, so it had been difficult to get his hands on many of them.

Now that he was unexpectedly able to come across some, Lu Tianzi was ecstatic!

His only regret was that all of these were only Essence Condensation realm cultivation techniques. Otherwise they would be even more helpful.

Wait a minute.

These cultivation techniques were probably all at the Essence Condensation realm only because they were at the second floor which was catered for Essence Condensation realm martial artists.

In that case, what about the third floor?

Lu Tianzi had no doubt that there would be Origin Core realm cultivation techniques there, but would there be those of the Spiritual Essence cultivation system as well?

He could not wait to find out!