A Chaotic World

After reading through the letter in his hands, Lu Tianzi calmly placed it down on the table.

Across the table, Xuan Ci eyed him carefully without saying a word.

Seeing this, Lu Tianzi said with a smile, "Thank you for passing the message."

"If you want to, I can help pass on your reply to Grandmaster Xiqin," Xuan Ci said.

"Thank you for the offer, Brother Xuan Ci, but that will not be necessary," Lu Tianzi shook his head. "If there is nothing else, I will be returning to my room."

"Erm... Grandmaster Xiqin said that he is giving you one week to consider," Xuan Ci reminded.

"Understood," Lu Tianzi nodded before taking his leave.

Xuan Ci only sat there in a daze as he watched Lu Tianzi leave the room.

After getting permission from his elder brother, he did as Grandmaster Xiqin told him to, passing the letter to Lu Tianzi. However, Xuan Ci never expected that Lu Tianzi would not give him any sort of reply whatsoever.

Was he planning to accept the offer or not?

Xuan Ci could not help but feel stifled.

Forget it, there's no point thinking about things that he had no control over.

Rather than that, he would just inform his mother and the elders about this matter for now.

They can be the ones to worry about it instead!

After returning to his room, Lu Tianzi simply threw this matter to the back of his head.

In the first place, he knew next to nothing about this Grandmaster Xiqin!

They had only met once at the Grand Ember Hall. And even then, they exchanged no more than a few lines.

Lu Tianzi simply could not think of any reason why the other party would suddenly extend such a gesture, but that had nothing to do with him.

Why should he care about some stranger's one-sided intentions?

Moreover, there was another matter that was much more worthy of his attention right now.

After the past few weeks of intense study, Lu Tianzi's past months of research had finally borne fruit.

Just a few days ago, he had managed to complete the third level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique!

Well, rather than saying that he completed it, it was perhaps more apt to say that Lu Tianzi finally managed to figure it out. It all seemed so natural when he thought about it, as though this had always been the obvious path from the start.

When the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique was trained to perfection, it was said that a martial artist would be able to see through the flow of all things, aligning oneself to the world's currents.

By hitting the second level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, Lu Tianzi not only no longer needed to truly be breathing in order to practise the cultivation technique, but his cultivation speed also increased.

At that point, he was still unable to see through the flow of the world's currents, having to focus quite a bit to truly feel the flow of energy in his surroundings.

But now that he figured out yet another level of the technique, Lu Tianzi was finally able to feel the natural flow of the world's currents around him.

In his eyes, it was as though the world around him was an ocean, and World Origin Energy was the water within.

As for the world laws that dictated the rules of the world, they were like the currents that controlled the movement of water within the ocean.

Lu Tianzi might not fully comprehend everything there was to the ocean, but he could definitely feel its presence.

Along with his newfound understanding of the third level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, Lu Tianzi managed to become a part of the ocean itself. He completely opened up his inner world during cultivation, allowing the World Origin Energy in his surroundings to wash into his inner world.

In the mantra of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, this was akin to finally seeing through the flow of the world, aligning oneself to the world's currents.

When he was able to attach himself to the boundless world, acting as though they were the same entity, how could their currents not be aligned?

This increased his cultivation speed by leaps and bounds. But perhaps more importantly, it finally provided Lu Tianzi with a way to break through his current bottleneck and possibly advance to the next cultivation level!

Over the past months, Lu Tianzi's Spiritual Essence true origin core had been passively aiding Lu Tianzi's cultivation by constantly gathering World Origin Energy from his surroundings, refining it into pure energy.

This meant that his cultivation was essentially still progressing day by day, albeit rather slowly.

But now that he had figured out the third level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique, his speed of cultivation had increased by more than a hundredfold.

How could Lu Tianzi not be excited?

Rather than thinking about that random invitation from Grandmaster Xiqin whom he did not even konw, Lu Tianzi was definitely far more interested in finally putting to practice the third level of the Undulated Currents Breathing Technique!

And while Lu Tianzi was immersed in his newly improved cultivation technique, Young Master Xuan Hao continued to busy himself with work.

That was, until he heard a certain piece of news.

"Young Master Xuan Hao is here!"

When the servants at the servants' quarters heard that, all of them leapt to their feet in fear.

With Ruan Ling right behind him, Young Master Xuan Hao stomped into the room with a dark expression on his face. The moment he stepped in, his gaze quickly swept across the servants present before finally stopping on the bed at the end of the room.

The servants could not help but hold their breaths as Young Master Xuan Hao walked over to the bedside.

Bo'er was lying on the bed, eyes closed in a peaceful manner, as though she was enjoying her stay in dreamland.

However, Young Master Xuan Hao knew that she was not just sleeping.

Ruan Ling sat by the bed and held the little girl's hand to feel her condition. It was only after she confirmed that Bo'er was not in any danger that she let out a sigh of relief.

Bo'er had slowly grown on her over the few months they spent in Sacred Cliff City, so Ruan Ling could not help but feel concerned about her.

"How did this happen?" Young Master Xuan Hao asked coldly.

He asked that, but it was not as though he had no idea.

The only reason Young Master Xuan Hao rushed here was because he heard that Bo'er had fainted while working. Apparently, this little six year old girl had been overloaded with work, causing her to finally collapse from exhaustion.

For this to happen in less than a month's time, just how hard had they been pushing her?

She was just a six year old girl!

"This..." the servants exchanged glances, none of them daring to speak up.

"Who is the one in charge of assigning the tasks?" Young Master Xuan Hao asked.

"I-It's me, Young Master Xuan Hao..." an elderly servant answered as she stepped forward nervously.

"What's going on? How did a little girl like that collapse from being overworked?" Young Master Xuan Hao questioned. "Tell me the truth. Are you ill treating her?"

"Young Master Hao! That's a false accusation!" the servant cried out as she fell to her knees. "I am innocent! The allocation of work has been as per normal arrangements. I never expected her to suddenly collapse as well!"

"As per normal arrangements? Why don't I see anyone else fainting then?" Young Master Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes. "Show me the tasks allocated over the past few weeks!"

"It really is in accordance to normal arrangements, Young Master Xuan Hao!" the servant kowtowed in fear. "Please believe this lowly one!"

"Show me the tasks allocated!" Young Master Xuan Hao repeated.

"Why are you picking on the servants, Junior Apprentice Brother Hao?"

Young Master Xuan Hao frowned as he looked towards the entrance, where Xuan Junwei was leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed in a casual manner.

"Young Master Junwei!" the servants called out in relief.

Seeing how the servants look as though they had just seen their saviour, Young Master Xuan Hao and Ruan Ling could not help but have their own thoughts.

"Why is Senior Apprentice Brother Junwei here?" Young Master Xuan Hao asked coldly.

"I was just passing by when I heard Junior Apprentice Brother Hao's voice, so I came over to take a look. Who knew that I will actually witness such an interesting scene?" Xuan Junwei shrugged.

"Senior Apprentice Brother Junwei can stay out of this matter," Young Master Xuan Hao said before turning back to the elderly servant kneeling in front of him. "This is the third time I'm saying this, and I'm not going to repeat it again. Show me the tasks allocated over the past few weeks."

"Is this what you meant by taking your position as heir candidate seriously? By showing your dominance in front of the servants?" Xuan Junwei cut in while the elder servant remained silent.

"Are you part of this as well?" Young Master Xuan Hao could no longer hold back, and directly asked Xuan Junwei.

"Oh? Now the all-important heir candidate is targeting me?" Xuan Junwei sighed in disappointment. "I am just passing by, and now I become a criminal even though I don't even know what's going on. How unlucky!"

Young Master Xuan Hao shot another look at the rest of the servants, who all had their heads hung low and dared not match his gaze.

He then walked up to Xuan Junwei. "Senior Apprentice Brother Junwei, I respect you as my senior, but please don't overstep your boundaries. Remember that no matter what, I am the heir candidate of the Blue Ember faction, not you!"

"Hah!" Xuan Junwei scoffed. "If you continue to abuse the elders' trust in you and mistreat your subordinates, as you are doing right now, it will be for me to forget even if I wanted to!"

The two stood fare to face for a good few moments, glaring into each others' eyes.

Tension was in the air as the servants dared not mumble a word or move an inch, fearing that even the slightest disturbance would incur the wrath of either of these young masters.

At this moment, Young Master Xuan Hao suddenly received a message through his communication ring.

He glared at Xuan Junwei one last time before turning to look at Ruan Ling, "Let's go. The elders are asking for me."

Young Master Xuan Hao then swept his gaze across the servants and added, "Bring Bo'er along. Before I get to the bottom of things, I am not leaving her with this bunch!"

Faced with his implied accusations, the servants dared not say a word to retort.

Ruan Ling picked up the unconscious Bo'er and followed Young Master Xuan Hao's lead, walking straight past Xuan Junwei as they left the room.

"Please watch over the little girl carefully," Xuan Junwei called out behind them. "You blame the servants and I this time, who knows who you start blaming next? The last thing we want is you accusing the entire Timeless Flame Sect of plotting against your precious servant!"

Young Master Xuan Hao paused for a moment after hearing that, but he did not turn around to continue the argument.

He merely took in a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing on his way.

However, he swore in his head that he would definitely get to the bottom of this!

***

In the Grand Ember Hall, Xuan Qinshang and the elders were already deep in discussion by the time Young Master Xuan Hao arrived.

"Greetings, Faction Leader," Young Master Xuan Hao greeted before nodding towards his mother, who nodded in acknowledgement.

"Take a seat, Hao," Xuan Qinshang gestured towards one of the seats.

After Young Master Xuan Hao took his seat, Xuan Qinshang got straight to the point. "Hao, what do you know about Grandmaster Xiqin and your friend Tianzi?"

"The two of them should not know each other. However, I heard that Grandmaster Xiqin extended an invitation to accept Brother Tianzi as a student," Young Master Xuan Hao replied.

"Mm," Xuan Qinshang nodded. "And what is your friend's view of this matter?"

"I have been busy with other matters, so I have yet to ask him about it," Young Master Xuan Hao answered frankly.

"You should pay more attention to this matter," Xuan Qinshang advised. "And from what I understand, the one week consideration period is almost up."

"Pardon me for asking this, but is there something wrong?" Young Master Xuan Hao asked.

In his eyes, Grandmaster Xiqin extending an invitation to Lu Tianzi should be a good thing.

He did not know much about inscriptions, but Grandmaster Xiqin was the Head Inscription Master of the Yellow Spark faction after all. No one would dare say that his reputation was undeserved.

If Lu Tianzi accepted the offer, then he would be able to learn from the elder.

If Lu Tianzi decided not to, then so be it.

After all, Lu Tianzi's ability in the art of inscriptions were recognised even by the experts in Sacred Cliff City. He might not be lacking in comparison even to someone like Grandmaster Xiqin!