Chapter 254 Greater Responsibilities

After they returned from the banquet, everyone was most worried about how Nanlan Qianxue was feeling.

No matter what, City Lord Nanlan and Nanlan Qianbing were still her direct family.

Now that the Nine Suns Sect had unofficially fallen out with Bluenight Palace, Nanlan Qianxue was undoubtedly put in an awkward position.

"Don't worry, I don't really care."

Those were the words that Nanlan Qianxue had left them with. In fact, she even seemed to be in a rather good mood after the banquet. In the few days after, she had acted as per normal, as though she truly was not bothered by what happened.

Seeing this, the rest of the Nine Suns Sect members could not help but let out a sigh of relief.

They had always known that the relationship between Nanlan Qianxue and her family was not good at all.

In the past, they had thought that it was a pity since her father was someone of great influence, yet who knew that this would actually end up being a good thing for them at this juncture?

**

Even though everyone within the city was looking forward to what would happen after the banquet at Bluenight Palace, the following two weeks passed rather uneventfully.

There were no movements from Bluenight Palace despite being shamed at their own banquet, and neither did the Nine Suns Sect take any actions.

Or if they did, they had done so in such secrecy that nothing had been caught by the eyes of the public.

During these two weeks, Lu Tianzi had dedicated most of his time to refining the impurities in his liquid Slaughter Essence.

However, that was not the only thing that he had been doing.

Now that he was nearing the Origin Core realm, the Nine Suns Sect elders had been starting to expose him to more functions of the sect.

From the internal workings to the external operations, the elders took turns to bring him around, explaining to him about how the sect operated.

After all, once Lu Tianzi broke through to the Origin Core realm, he would no longer be considered a junior in the sect. And this was despite the fact that he was likely the youngest member in the entire Nine Suns Sect.

This was a world in which strength matter the most.

As one climbed the cultivation ladder, they would naturally be lifted in terms of status as well.

The moment Lu Tianzi became an Origin Core realm martial artist, he would also be considered an elder, and would thus have to take on roles of greater responsibilities.

That was something inevitable.

But despite how busy he had become at the Nine Suns Sect, Lu Tianzi still found time to frequent the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower.

The gift that he received from General Nanbai Zhaoyu was a rare material that was needed to form a specific medicinal inscription, one that could be placed upon a beast core.

Beast cores were not exactly medicine, but the concept was the same in that its contents were to be absorbed into the body as well.

Still, what Lu Tianzi received was only one of the many materials required to form this particular inscription. He still had to collect the rest of the inscription materials to truly put this gift to good use.

Therefore, he went to help out with the work at the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower in exchange for the rest of the materials.

In fact, given his wealth and influence, Lu Tianzi could have easily just purchased all the materials in one go. However, he wanted to take this opportunity to continue honing his inscription skills.

Noticing that he seemed really earnest about the inscription work, the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower assigned Yueya to be his assistant, helping him with all the menial work.

Lu Tianzi also took this opportunity to give Yueya some pointers on the art of inscriptions, as well as on her own cultivation.

In the span of a short two weeks, Lu Tianzi had already managed to collect all the inscription materials he needed, as well as researched fully on the inscription symbol.

Now, all he needed was to actually go ahead with the placement of the inscription.

On this day, Lu Tianzi stood motionlessly in his private inscription room, slowly adjusting his mental state to the optimal level. In front of him was a table filled with multiple inscription materials, jointly prepared by Yueya and himself.

Aside from that, there was also a small red pearl resting by the side.

This was none other than the high ranked beast core that Lu Tianzi had taken from Shadowfront Fortress a while ago.

Essence energy gathered upon Lu Tianzi's fingertips, forming a ball of blue light as he waved it around in the air, drawing up countless inscription runes in a matter of seconds.

With practiced familiarity, Lu Tianzi continued without batting an eyelid.

His hands moved so fast that they appeared as a blur of afterimages, but each movement was precise and calculated, honed to perfection through the innumerable simulations that he had performed in his head beforehand.

This might be the first time that Lu Tianzi was drawing up this particular inscription, but he was more than well prepared.

After all, considering how precious one of the materials was this time, Lu Tianzi could not afford to fail and waste it. Otherwise, he would be hard pressed to find any replacements for it.

No matter what, he had to succeed on his first attempt!

At the lobby of the Heaven Constellations Inscription Tower, Yueya sat behind the front counter while carrying an obvious sulk on her face.

It was now extremely early in the morning, even before the break of dawn.

Yueya had stayed up all night to help Lu Tianzi with the preparation of the inscription materials. Yet this time, unlike the previous sessions, Lu Tianzi had not allowed her to stay and watch him place the inscription after they were done with the preparations. Thus, she could not help but feel unhappy about being left out.

Of course, she understood that Lu Tianzi had already been quite generous as compared to other inscription masters, allowing her to watch him place inscriptions every other time. So she was only sulking temporarily, and was not truly feeling aggrieved.

"Welcome," Yueya greeted courteously as a young lady approached the counter. "May I know what you are here for?"

"I am looking for Inscription Master Nanlu Tianzi. Can you help me inform him?" Nanlan Qianxue asked with a smile.

"He is busy at the moment, may I know what is it regarding? Is it a request for an inscription?" Yueya replied in a businesslike manner.

"No, I am just here to meet him. It is all right if he is busy at the moment though, I will just wait around here for a while more," Nanlan Qianxue shook her head.

"You know, just waiting around here doesn't mean that you will be able to meet with him. After all, you are not the first one who came here to meet Inscription Master Nanlu Tianzi," Yueya crossed her hands smugly. "It would be best if you go home and wait after making an appointment with me, I will let you know when his schedule clears up!"

Indeed, after Lu Tianzi's return to Bluenight City, there were countless people who had wanted to meet him. Some wanted to establish good relations with him, while some were just curious. Some even wanted to challenge him to see if the rumours about his strength were true.

Regardless, it was impossible for Lu Tianzi to meet them all.

"Hahaha, is that so?" Nanlan Qianxue laughed. "Well then, please let him know that Nanlan Qianxue of the Nine Suns Sect wants to meet him."

"Eh? Nine Suns Sect?" Yueya blinked in surprise. "Are you from the Nine Suns Sect as well?"

Yueya might not be able to recognise Nanlan Qianxue, but she definitely remembered the name of the sect that Lu Tianzi was from.

"Qianxue, what are you doing here this early?" Lu Tianzi called out as he walked down the stairs. "I thought we are meeting back at the sect entrance?"

His sudden appearance caused both Nanlan Qianxue and Yueya to turn in his direction.

"I had nothing to do, so I figured that I will come and look for you here instead," Nanlan Qianxue shrugged. "This place is nearer to the Northern Gate anyway."

Seeing the casual interaction between the two of them, Yueya could not help but feel embarrassed about her earlier words.

"Sorry, I didn't know you have already arranged a meeting with him!" Yueya bowed down apologetically to Nanlan Qianxue.

"Don't worry about it, I am the one who should have said so from the start," Nanlan Qianxue waved it off nonchalantly.

"What happened?" Lu Tianzi asked in confusion.

"Nothing much," Nanlan Qianxue smiled. "Let's go. It would not look good on us if we are late."

"All right then," Lu Tianzi nodded before turning to Yueya. "I have cleaned up the room, so you don't have to do that anymore. If there is nothing else, I will be off now."

"Okay…" Yueya nodded timidly, her face still red from embarrassment. She only let out a sigh of relief after finally seeing the duo leave through the front gate.

With the streets still dark due to the early hour, Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue made their way towards the Northern Gate of Bluenight City.

"So, nervous about your first Beast Hunt?" Nanlan Qianxue teased.

"This is not my first Beast Hunt," Lu Tianzi shrugged.

"It is the first time that you are going to help run the Beast Hunt, and not merely participate in it!" Nanlan Qianxue specified.

The Nine Suns Sect was organising another Beast Hunt today, and the duo had been tasked to make sure that things ran smoothly.

This was not the first time that Nanlan Qianxue was involved in something like this. The last time she presided over a Beast Hunt, she ended up discovering Lu Tianzi and inviting him back to the Nine Suns Sect.

However, this was Lu Tianzi's first time running the Beast Hunt. In fact, that was the reason why the elders had specifically assigned the task to him, so that he could familiarise himself with it.

Of course, the task itself was fairly simple, so there should not be any problems.

"Well, how difficult can it be…" Lu Tianzi was answering confidently initially before his voice trailed off towards the end. "Something is wrong."

"Hmm?" Nanlan Qianxue frowned upon sensing the change in Lu Tianzi's tone. "What is it?"

"There are people hiding in the vicinity," Lu Tianzi said in voice conveyance. "Stay calm and don't look around. Let's continue on our way and see if they are following us."

Nanlan Qianxue did as she was told, continuing to walk on as though nothing was wrong.

"They are following us," Lu Tianzi's expression was grave. "Four… five… there are about six of them, all of them Origin Core realm martial artists. The strongest one is at the Fourth Cycle Origin Core realm."

"What?" Nanlan Qianxue almost failed to rein in her shock. "What do we do now?"

"Send a message to Elder Mingxin, I will inform Elder Diansheng. Let's drag this out as long as possible, but be prepared to run at any moment," Lu Tianzi instructed.

Even though Lu Tianzi was capable of handling Origin Core realm opponents, he had never faced against multiple opponents at the Origin Core realm level before. If these people truly had malicious intents, then Lu Tianzi was not sure if he would be able to handle them alone.

The two of them tapped on their communication rings as subtly as possible, hurriedly sending out distress messages to the two elders respectively.

However, no matter how much they tried to hide it, their actions did not go unnoticed.

"They noticed! Get them!"

The six Origin Core realm martial artists leapt out from the shadows, running towards them in a semi-circle.

It was a simple funnelling technique to prevent them from escaping to the side.

If they wanted to run, the only option they had was forward.

"Let's run!" Lu Tianzi reacted immediately.

That being said, there was no way that Nanlan Qianxue could possibly keep up with the speed of Origin Core realm martial artists.

With no other choice, Lu Tianzi could only pick Nanlan Qianxue up. Carrying her in his arms, Lu Tianzi executed his Flowing River Silent Strides to the limit, dashing forward as quickly as he could.

Faced with this scene, the Fourth Cycle Origin Core realm martial artist from within the pursuing group could not help but sneer in disdain. "That's right, run for your life. Let's just see how you escape today, you arrogant brat!"