A Chaotic World

Initially, Young Master Xuan Hao had only intended to leave for the day. However, he had grossly underestimated the number of matters that awaited him.

He had neglected his duties for far too long.

Now that he wanted to get everything up to speed, the things he needed to do could not possibly be completed within a day or two. Because of that, he had no choice but to leave Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue alone for the time being.

But even so, Young Master Xuan Hao did not forget to first instruct his younger brother Xuan Ci to be a good host in his stead.

Xuan Ci was a charming young man at the Peak Essence Condensation realm, and stayed together with Young Master Xuan Hao and their mother Taomie Lianhe.

Just like Young Master Xuan Hao, Xuan Ci had never cared about the matters of politics within the Timeless Flame Sect.

Instead, Xuan Ci spent most of his time looking into the art of pill refinement. He rarely left the residence, preferring to stay couped up within so as to practice his pill refinement techniques.

The only few exceptions was when he was forced to do so by the elders, or when he needed to go acquire some materials for his pill refinements.

That was why when he first received Young Master Xuan Hao's instructions to take care of Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue, he had been very reluctant to say the least.

After all, this would inevitably take up some of his precious time that could be spent on his pill refinement practice.

But after a week, Xuan Ci realised that taking care of the Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue duo was actually much easier that he had imagined!

During this time, Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue were fully immersed in cultivation.

The two of them basically stayed in their rooms all day long, only meeting up on certain nights to enjoy some snacks while exchanging pointers under the moonlight.

And even when they met up at night, the two guests did not want anyone watching them, so Xuan Ci naturally did not need to be there either.

This was the best possible scenario for Xuan Ci!

After instructing the servants to keep an eye on the two and to inform him if they needed anything, Xuan Ci went back into his world of pill refinement.

***

With Lu Tianzi's help, Nanlan Qianxue's room had been sealed with a dual concealing and binding formation, preventing anyone from entering without her permission.

Even if Overlord powerhouses wanted to peer in with their perceptions, they would have to force their way through multiple layers of protection, and Nanlan Qianxue would easily discover this intrusion before it got to her.

While it would not be able to stop the Overlord in the end, it would at least give her ample time to react accordingly.

Of course, this was only an added precaution.

After all, they were now in a friendly area which was Young Master Xuan Hao's residence, so it was unlikely that anything like that would happen.

Right now, Nanlan Qianxue sat cross legged in her room, her eyes closed as she focused on comprehending the essence of her techniques.

Within her room, the temperature was significantly lower than outside.

Whenever she was fully focused on her cultivation, the aura she emitted would naturally create a layer of frost on her direct surroundings.

That was because Nanlan Qianxue was not only adept in the Law of Ice, but she also cultivated the ice-element Hail Queen Body Refinement Technique.

The combination of these two was not simple at all.

Her comprehensions into the Law of Ice will aid her understanding of the Hail Queen Body Refinement Technique, allowing her to traverse upon the path with greater ease.

At the same time, her cultivation of the Hail Queen Body Refinement Technique also gave her greater insight into the Law of Ice.

It could be said that they were not only compatible with each other, but also mutually beneficial, creating a virtuous cycle that propelled her forward in both aspects.

From this, one could see how important it was to have guidance from a wise master.

Selecting a suitable cultivation technique would make it much easier for martial artists to advance, allowing them to obtain double the benefit while exerting half the effort.

Moreover, the Hail Queen Body Refinement Technique was also an incredibly high rank cultivation technique.

Just like the Heaven Devouring Divine Art, if trained to the limits, it could bring a martial artist all the way past the Overlord realm!

With this cultivation technique in hand, Nanlan Qianxue would have nothing to worry about as she continued her chase for the martial peak!

However, she did not focus solely on her cultivation level.

Even though a martial artist's cultivation level was the primary source of his or her strength, it was not the only thing that mattered.

Without sufficient proficiency in combat and movement techniques, it was not impossible for a martial artist to lose to someone of a lower cultivation level.

This was the same in the reverse case.

When a martial artist's proficiency in combat and movement techniques reached a high enough level, he or she would be able to challenge and even defeat martial artists of higher cultivation levels!

Because of that, Nanlan Qianxue did not neglect on her practice of the Shifting Blossoms Sword Art.

But that was not all.

Nanlan Qianxue had obtained an Origin Core rank movement technique from the Blue Ember faction skills repository – Seven Steps of the Frozen Lotus.

As its name suggested, this was also an ice-element technique, which was why it drew her interest in the first place.

Besides with the Shifting Blossoms Sword Art, Nanlan Qianxue also spent some of her time practising this movement technique.

This way, she would at least be able to improve her overal combat prowess in a more holistic manner.

In the adjacent room where Lu Tianzi was staying, a similar formation to that of Nanlan Qianxue's room had been set up as well.

After returning from the skills repository, Lu Tianzi had quickly finished going through the dozens of Origin Core rank cultivation techniques in his possession, and had now progressed to a point where he was scrutinising each of them at a more in-depth level, trying to find the overarching principle that guided all these techniques.

He knew that only by finding the true essence would he be able to apply it to his Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, allowing him to theorise the framework for its next level.

But just like Nanlan Qianxue, he did not focus solely on one matter.

In fact, if the servants were to enter his room right now, they would be shocked by the scene before them.

A hundred swords were floating in the air, slowly moving around the room in a circular motion with Lu Tianzi as the centre. It looked as though Lu Tianzi was the sun while the swords were planets trapped in his grasp, orbiting around him like it was the natural order of this world.

Among these swords were the Peak Origin Core rank Cloud Splitter, the Intermediate Origin Core rank Moon Culler, as well many other swords that Lu Tianzi had robbed from the corpses of his enemies up till now.

At his current level, Lu Tianzi was still unable to instantly form a connection with any weapon that fell into his hands.

He had to slowly refine them one by one, forming a connection with them over time.

It was a tedious process, but in order to properly execute the Eternal Wraith Sword in the future, this was something that he knew he had to do.

Otherwise, it would be no different from simply moving the weapons around using Origin Force.

While Lu Tianzi's control over Origin Force was far above his peers because he practised the Eternal Wraith Sword Art, he was not satisfied with just that.

To freely control the movements of his weapons with a single thought, transforming his swords into wraiths of destruction and ravaging the area around him for all of eternity – that was the essence of the Eternal Wraith Sword.

If he wanted to achieve that, Lu Tianzi needed his control over the weapons to not only be impeccable, but also unbreakable.

Only then could he consider the Eternal Wraith Sword Art a true trump card!

Just like that, a couple of weeks passed.

On this day, an unexpected guest arrived at Young Master Xuan Hao's residence.

"What brings you all the way here today, Grandmaster Xiqin?" Xuan Ci greeted the guest at their main hall. "Unfortunately, both my mother and elder brother are not around, so I am afraid that Grandmaster Xiqin might have made a wasted trip."

He hated to do things like entertaining guests, but in the absence of his mother and elder brother, he had no other choice.

Grandmaster Xiqin was the Head Inscription Master of the Yellow Spark faction. Letting the servants greet him would not be proper.

"Don't worry, I am not here for either of them," Grandmaster Xiqin made himself comfortable in his guest chair. "I heard that Young Master Xuan Hao's friends are putting up here?"

"Elder Brother's friends?" Xuan Ci replied. "Yes, they are indeed putting up here. As the hosts, we can't possibly make them stay at an inn."

"That's good, I did not make a wasted trip then," Grandmaster Xiqin said. "Bring them here. I want to meet them."

"Eh?" Xuan Ci revealed a look of surprise. "May I know the reason why Grandmaster Xiqin is here to look for them?"

"To meet them," Grandmaster Xiqin replied curtly.

Xuan Ci could not help but frown.

He might not enjoy getting involved in the politics of the sect, but that did not mean he was clueless about reading others.

Judging from Grandmaster Xiqin's expression and tone, Xuan Ci could tell that this was not a friendly visit.

"Elder Brother's friends are currently in secluded cultivation, so that might not be too convenient. If Grandmaster Xiqin has anything to say to them, you can go ahead and tell me. I will gladly convey the message," Xuan Ci said. "That is, of course, provided Grandmaster Xiqin trusts me enough to do so."

By acting as a messenger, Xuan Ci could at least prevent any direct confrontation, as well as filter through the message to mitigate any negative consequences that could arise otherwise.

It would also give him time to inform his elder brother of the matter.

And what he said was not completely a lie either.

Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue had been cultivating all day and night, so it was not too different from a period of secluded cultivation.

Grandmaster Xiqin narrowed his eyes at Xuan Ci and smirked, "You are pretty smart."

"I don't quite understand Grandmaster Xiqin's words," Xuan Ci blinked blankly.

"No matter, I guess it is the same whether you convey the message or not," Grandmaster Xiqin said before tossing an envelope over to Xuan Ci. "Here, pass this to the one named Tianzi and tell him that he only has a week to consider."

Xuan Ci received the envelope and kept it away before asking, "I will surely pass it to him, but will Grandmaster Xiqin be so kind as to satiate this one's curiosity?"

"It is an invitation," Grandmaster Xiqin said with a grin. "I heard that the kid is pretty talented in the art of inscriptions, so I am going to give him a chance to follow me and become my student!"