A Chaotic World

Chapter 366: The Mysterious Inscription Master

Lu Tianzi converted one of the rooms in Sky Snow Manor into an inscription room. Its entry was prohibited to everyone except for he and Nanlan Qianxue, though Nanlan Qianxue rarely did so anyway.

Within the inscription room, Lu Tianzi fell into deep thought as he tried to comprehend the art of inscriptions from the jade slips that he had obtained from Licong.

Just as he had expected, the level of information in these jade slips far exceeded what Lu Tianzi had gotten from the Silvercloud Hall.

Of course, it was mainly because the information that Lu Tianzi had gotten from Silvercloud Hall was only at the second level, and was on the art of artificing as a whole. On the contrary, the information provided by Licong was focused solely on the art of inscriptions.

This new information was rich and concise, extremely beneficial to Lu Tianzi who had not come into contact with the art of inscriptions ever since he came to the central regions.

It opened his eyes to various possibilities that he had never imagined, widening his originally narrow thinking.

From time to time, Lu Tianzi would practise with actual inscription materials to consolidate his learnings.

That included when he handled the inscription requests from Old Juan's Equipment Shop.

Since those were inscriptions that he was already familiar with, Lu Tianzi did not have any issue drawing them from the start.

The only difference now was that he would try to incorporate his new understandings when drawing these inscriptions, trying to improve his skills little by little in that manner.

Just like that, Lu Tianzi's understanding of the art of inscriptions soared at an unprecedented rate.

At the same time, Lu Tianzi did not neglect his cultivation.

In fact, he still spent the majority of his time consolidating his gains from the trip to Mount Asui.

The art of inscriptions might be a useful skill, but individual combat strength was still the only way one could ensure their survival in this harsh world.

Lu Tianzis harvest from this trip had been enormous, and he needed a lot of time to properly organise them one by one.

The most obvious gain would be the increase in his cultivation level from the Second Cycle Origin Core realm to the Third Cycle Origin Core realm. He would need time to slowly consolidate his cultivation if he wanted to lay a stable foundation for his future advancements.

On top of that, Lu Tianzi had not only gained the crude use of Battle Intent, but he had also managed to steal the unknown old master's heaven defying sabre technique.

Back then, the old master in the cave had borne a tunnel straight through Mount Asui with a single sabre strike.

The Battle Intent incorporated within the strike added to the strength of the attack, but it was not everything that the sabre strike was about.

Even by itself, the sabre strike was full of intricacies and profoundness, far beyond any sabre technique that Lu Tianzi had ever seen.

These were things that Lu Tianzi required time to slowly comprehend and familiarise with, perhaps even more than the time he needed to consolidate his cultivation.

Lu Tianzi naturally understood as well that he needed a lot more time to accomplish all that, which contributed to his decision to purchase a residence in Sacred Cliff City.

Since he was going to stay for long, he might as well stay comfortably.

In the long run, purchasing a residence would even be cheaper than putting up at an inn, especially one that was as expensive as the Fortune Queen Inn.

With all that he needed to do, Lu Tianzi did not take a single step out of the Sky Snow Manor over the next few weeks.

If there was anything he needed from outside, he would inform Housekeeper Changyu, who in turn delegated the work to the three maids.

From time to time, Old Juan would send Ah San over, either to deliver equipment that needed inscriptions, or to receive those that were already completed.

However, Lu Tianzi would always speak to Ah San in private. So even though Housekeeper Changyu started to get used to seeing Ah San around, he never knew what Ah San was here for.

He initially assumed that Ah San was a close friend of Lu Tianzi, but after hearing Ah San introduce himself as being from Old Juan's Equipment Shop, Housekeeper Changyu could not curb his curiosity and went to ask around a little.

When he realised that Ah San was working at an equipment shop, Housekeeper Changyu got his hopes up. But when he probed further and understood that Ah San was merely a disciple at the shop, he could not help but feel slightly disappointed.

Housekeeper Changyu might not know much about Lu Tianzi, but he felt that if Lu Tianzi was someone with an important status, the owner of the shop should be the one visiting instead of a mere disciple.

The fact that only the disciple was visiting meant that either Lu Tianzi was an insignificant character in the shop owner's eyes, or that the disciple was only visiting on a personal basis.

Little did he know that Lu Tianzi had explicitly told Old Juan not to visit. Otherwise, Lu Tianzi would feel obliged to entertain him, thereby reducing the amount of time he had left for other matters.

Old Juan did not feel offended as he adhered to Lu Tianzi's request without a word.

After all, Old Juan was almost even more eager than Lu Tianzi about the latter improving his skills in the art of inscriptions.

The better Lu Tianzi became, the better it would be for Old Juan, for that would mean that he was right about Lu Tianzi all along.

Old Juan was looking forward to the day that his investment in Lu Tianzi would pay off!

In stark contrast to the Lu Tianzi who never took a single step out of Sky Snow Manor, Nanlan Qianxue left the residence on a daily basis.

The moment she started learning the art of talisman making from Fairy Pingxi, Nanlan Qianxue fell in love with it.

Just like Fairy Pingxi had said, there were endless possibilities to talisman making.

Almost anything could be made into a talisman, and each talisman could be hiding any ability.

This unpredictability could catch an opponent completely off guard, turning the tide in a fight that might have been lost otherwise.

However, Nanlan Qianxue had only just started, and was far from being able to produce talismans of high quality.

Currently, she was only allowed to learn sculpting.

Just like how formations relied on the positioning of their formation nodes, the physical construct of each talisman had a huge effect on the energy released.

Due to the small size of a talisman, delicate hands were needed in order to accurately and precisely sculpt the surface of a talisman.

Therefore, sculpting practice was the first thing that every talisman master had to go through.

Each day, Nanlan Qianxue would carve countless wooden blocks, sculpting them according to what Fairy Pingxi instructed.

Even a single millimetre could result in drastic differences, and Fairy Pingxi would slowly guide Nanlan Qianxue in how to deduce the ideal shape of a talisman.

Just like that, a month passed rather uneventfully.

During this period of time, Old Juan Equipment Shop had begun receiving greater attention from the other influences in Sacred Cliff City.

The equipment shops in Sacred Cliff City were classified into four main tiers low, medium, high, and supreme.

This classification was made according to the equipment sold in the shops, and provided buyers with a general idea of where to go according to their purchasing power and needs.

Old Juan Equipment Shop had always been considered a mid-tier equipment shop, but all of a sudden, the quality of its equipment had risen rapidly over the past month.

This created an unseen pressure on its mid-tier competitors, and even many high-tier shop owners started to show concern.

If Old Juan Equipment Shop continued to improve at this rate, it would end up drawing away their customers and affecting their revenue.

That was not acceptable!

Since Sacred Cliff City was under the Burning Titan Overlord's jurisdiction, nobody dared to create trouble for others without reason.

However, that did not stop the various concerned parties from investigating the reason behind the rise of Old Juan Equipment Shop. It did not take long for them to relate this matter to the improvement in quality of the inscriptions placed on the shop's wares.

"They are liaising with a new inscription master? And he never steps out of his residence?"

"Sky Snow Manor? Where's that? I've never heard of it!"

"The Sacred Lotus Treasury is involved? Something must be up!"

"It was bought by a teenage couple? What nonsense! They must be acting for someone else! Go find out more before reporting back to me!"

"Their housekeeper was asking around about Ah San of Old Juan Equipment Shop? Their relationship must not be very close then. There is still a chance for us to intervene!"

As the various influences tried to gather more information regarding the matter, rumours started to spread about a mysterious inscription master living in Sky Snow Manor, hiding in the shadows behind the young Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue.

In fact, even Housekeeper Changyu and the three maids started to feel confused as word got to their ears.

Could this mysterious inscription master be staying in the room that Lu Tianzi had strictly prohibited them from entering?

On this day, Lu Tianzi entered the inscription room once again, just as he had done everyday for the past few weeks.

He did not know about his servants' thoughts, and neither did he care.

Instead, he was especially focused as he carefully laid out the inscription materials that he would need.

Today, he was intending to challenge one of the higher level inscriptions, one that not just any inscription master would be able to draw.

If it were the Lu Tianzi of a few weeks ago, there was no way he would be able to succeed.

But things were different now.

Lu Tianzi patiently regulated his breathing, making sure that he was at peak condition before finally starting.

Weng-!

With a light tap of his feet, the energy gathering formation on the floor buzzed into life, creating a dim emblem of light.

Directed by Lu Tianzi's Origin Force, inscription materials started flying around the room like a tornado, their contents quickly being consumed as Lu Tianzi began to draw inscription runes in the air.

His two hands moved separately, each becoming a blur due to the sheer speed at which they moved.

Inscription runes appeared in the air at a terrifying speed, to the point where the number of inscription runes almost filled up the space in the room.

Lu Tianzi was driving his two true origin cores to the limit, almost as though he was in the middle of an intense battle.

Origin Force churned within the inscription room, interweaving with World Origin Energy in the surroundings as it sought to stabilise the thousands of inscription runes.

Sweat trickled down Lu Tianzi's forehead as he felt the obvious mental and physical strain.

It was not easy at all by any measure, but Lu Tianzi was confident that he would succeed.

To him, this was only the first step.

If he could not even accomplish this much, then he might as well not have pursued the art of inscriptions and concentrated on his cultivation instead!

The final inscription rune fell into place, and a completed inscription array floated in the air before him.

Now, all that was left was to physically place this inscription array onto an equipment.

With a flick of his wrist, a black halberd appeared in his hands.

This black halberd was personally forged by Old Juan with great care, a treasure weapon that had been tempered through the elements so as to fortify its material strength.

Upon hearing that Lu Tianzi was intending to challenge himself with a high level inscription, Old Juan immediately passed this halberd to Lu Tianzi without hesitation, saying that a high level inscription deserved a high level equipment as its base.

Otherwise, it would be too much of a waste!

This was just practice, so Lu Tianzi was more than happy to accept the black halberd from Old Juan instead of using his own equipment.

Under Lu Tianzi's direction, the inscription array slowly reduced in size as it floated over the black halberd, before finally landing onto the shaft.

With a flash of light, the inscription array dissipated, leaving behind only its inscription symbol on the weapon.

Only then did Lu Tianzi let out a deep breath of relief.

It was finally complete.

Along with the completion of this Glorious Soul Inscription, Lu Tianzi had now proven that he was more than capable of joining the ranks of top tier inscription masters within Sacred Cliff City!