A Chaotic World

Chapter 93: Trial of the Heart

After the Inner Sect members entered the Grand Mirror, it was no longer possible for Lu Tianzi to see what was happening.

This caused him to be sorely disappointed.

With that, his plan of observing others' process of clearing the Nine Suns Trial had come to an end even before it began.

Now, all that was left to do was to wait for his turn.

Lu Tianzi sat down in meditation, trying to keep himself at his peak condition.

Most did the same, while some sect members took this opportunity to chat with others. After all, it was rare to have everyone gathered together at a single place.

About thirty minutes later, the surface of the Grand Mirror shimmered, and the first person finally stepped out of it.

He looked fine on the surface, but the Slaughter Essence in his inner world was in complete disarray.

If not for his perfectly fine clothes, Lu Tianzi would have thought that this person had just gone through a life or death battle!

"Good job passing the trial. Now go rest and adjust your condition," Elder Wanglei instructed.

"Yes, Elder Wanglei," he answered meekly.

After which, he hurriedly stepped away from the Grand Mirror, silently sitting down in meditation as he tried to recover from the disarray in his inner world.

After him, one by one the other Inner Sect members started to exit the Grand Mirror.

Some of them wore looks of disappointment, while others appeared to be relatively glad.

However, all of them bore the same traits as the first person who exited. All of their inner worlds were in a state of disarray, as though they had just overexerted themselves.

Thus, the first thing everyone did was to sit down in meditation as they tried to recover.

An hour after they entered, the last person finally stepped out from the Grand Mirror.

"Who does Sect Master Nanhui think will be the top ranker this year?" City Lord Nanlan asked casually.

"Hahaha! Of course everyone has a chance!" the Sect Master laughed. "But if I have to guess, then I would say that Nanhuang Jiansheng, Nancheng Shu, and your daughter Nanlan Qianxue have the best chances of clinching the top rank."

"Indeed, your thoughts are the same as mine," City Lord Nanlan nodded with a smile.

Even though he was not from the Nine Suns Sect, the three sect members that the Sect Master just mentioned were all famous in Bluenight City.

Nanhuang Jiansheng and Nancheng Shu were each about ten years older than Nanlan Qianxue, and thus possessed a higher cultivation level. The two of them had always been regarded as the twin leaders of the Inner Sect members.

As for Nanlan Qianxue, despite her youth, it was her talent that was her most fearsome trait.

"In any case, these are all speculations. We won't know the final results until the very end," the Sect Master laughed.

Right now, they could only estimate the rankings by looking at each sect member's expression when they exited the Grand Mirror World.

If they wanted to know the final results, there was no other way but to wait till everyone had completed the Nine Suns Trial. Only then would the results be revealed by the Grand Mirror itself.

Even the Sect Master had no way around this.

Now, it was finally the Outer Sect members' turn to undergo their trial.

"Outer Sect members step up!" Elder Wanglei shouted.

Lu Tianzi's eyes snapped open.

"You can do it!" Nanlan Qianxue's voice sounded out in his head.

Lu Tianzi was surprised by the sudden encouragement. He turned towards Nanlan Qianxue, only to see her smiling towards him. Lu Tianzi responded with a smile of his own before heading up to the Grand Mirror.

One by one, the Outer Sect members stepped into the Grand Mirror. Before long, it was finally Lu Tianzi's turn to do so as well.

He hesitantly stretched out his hand, and it went straight through the surface of the mirror.

The surface of the mirror looked like water as it rippled in contact with his hand, but Lu Tianzi did not feel any form of resistance. This feeling was different from that of touching a liquid surface. Instead, it felt as though the mirror was simply not there at all.

But seeing that his hand had already successfully passed through the surface of the mirror, Lu Tianzi let out a sigh of relief and stepped right through.

16!

The number showed at the top of the Grand Mirror drew the attention of everyone present.

As a result of his cultivation, Lu Tianzi's muscles had become more toned and his facial features had become more mature, so it was easy to be mistaken for someone older. Back then in Ivory Rock City, Gong Shengjie had believed him to be older than he actually was as well.

But now that his actual age was finally revealed, everyone could not help but be shocked at the revelation!

Having been specially inducted into the sect, and becoming the youngest inscription master in the history of Bluenight City, Lu Tianzi was already quite the celebrity among the members of the Nine Suns Sect.

Even then, everyone had thought that he was at least in his late teens, probably reaching twenty years old soon.

Who knew that he would only be sixteen years old?

The Outer Sect comprised of people of ages that ranged from early teens to late thirties. Thus, Lu Tianzi was not the youngest among the Outer Sect members.

But the difference was that those younger than him could only be considered as having just barely started on the path of cultivation!

Just his Peak Essence Building realm cultivation level alone was already considered exceptional for someone his age, and he was an inscription master on top of that?

Just what was up with this ridiculous level of talent?

City Lord Nanlan asked in surprise, "Is that the Nanlu Tianzi whom I have been hearing so much about recently? But is there a reason why such an exceptional kid is only an Outer Sect member?"

The Sect Master frowned as he turned to look at Elder Diansheng beside him.

Despite him being the Sect Master, he had never come into contact with Lu Tianzi before. On top of that, he rarely cared about the happenings in the city. Thus, he naturally did not know of Lu Tianzi's situation.

With thousands of sect members, it was simply impossible for him to waste his time keeping track of every single one of them. Those he had greater interest in were only the more outstanding ones within the Inner Sect.

Catching the hint, Elder Diansheng answered quickly, "This Nanlu Tianzi has only just joined the Nine Suns Sect earlier this year. That is the reason why we have not been able to assess if he is suitable to join the Inner Sect. However, if he does well in the Nine Suns Trial, we are indeed considering inducting him into the Inner Sect."

City Lord Nanlan nodded in understanding.

Each sect member naturally had to be assessed on an individual basis before being let into the Inner Sect. After all, the sect would be allocating far more resources to each Inner Sect member as compared to Outer Sect members.

In order to make sure that these resources were not squandered, the Nine Suns Sect had to be quite stringent about the matter.

At this moment, Lu Tianzi had already entered the the Grand Mirror. But the world within the Grand Mirror was something completely out of his expectations.

Behind him, the surface of the Grand Mirror had completely disappeared without a trace, as though it had never been there in the first place.

Lu Tianzi found that he was no longer at the Grand Mirror Courtyard either.

Without Lu Tianzi even realising it, he was already kneeling on the ground. His body felt weak and his strength was depleted.

Looking at his body, Lu Tianzi saw a deep wound in his chest, blood spurting out with each beat of his heart.

Suddenly, the pain from the wound assaulted him all at once, almost causing his consciousness to completely fade away!

It was only by sheer willpower that he managed to barely hold onto his consciousness.

At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded out from before him.

"As a Holy Guardian, Lu Tianzi betrayed the city's trust in him. He colluded with the demons, taking instructions from them to sow discord among the citizens of Ivory Rock City and the city's leadership. On top of that, he even assaulted the Lord of Ivory Rock City with unknown means granted by the demons, creating chaos within the City Lord Manor. In fact, the reason that our city received the first attack in history was because of him as well! With all that he has done, I declare Lu Tianzi guilty of treason against humanity, and hereby sentence him to death!"

Hearing this, Lu Tianzi immediately had a faint sense of what just happened.

The man who was speaking before him was none other than Rui Xucheng, the Head of the Officials District back in Ivory Rock City. Back then, those were the exact words that he had spoken to Lu Tianzi after striking him down with the Formation of Heaven's Blade.

Lu Tianzi had been brought back in time, to the time when he was almost killed in the main square of Ivory Rock City!

With his feeble body, Lu Tianzi swept his perception around him.

Indeed, everything was as he remembered.

Not far from him, he could see that Hu Yuanbo was still in his weakened state, and the four District Heads were all staring at him in disdain.

Lu Tianzi could still vaguely recall that he had just entered the Grand Mirror for the Nine Suns Trial, but everything around him seemed just as real as that memory of his.

Was this an illusion, or was his memory of living in Bluenight City the illusion?

Could it be that he had imagined everything all along, thinking that he had survived the ordeal when nothing like that had actually occurred?

In fact, his memory of Bluenight City was rapidly getting hazy, and he was starting to find it difficult to recall any details of his life there.

What Lu Tianzi did not realise was that the moment he stepped through the surface of the Grand Mirror, the Trial of the Heart had already begun.

As part of the Nine Suns Trial, the Trial of the Heart was able to confuse the senses, temporarily making an individual lose track of himself.

It had caused Lu Tianzi's memories to become hazy and distorted, resulting in him believing that he was truly still in Ivory Rock City!

At this moment, Instructor Nie stepped out from the crowds as he made his way towards Lu Tianzi.

"What is it?" Rui Xucheng questioned.

Instructor Nie ignored the question and continued walking, finally stopping right in front of Lu Tianzi. After taking a deep breath, Instructor Nie proceeded to spit on him.

"No wonder your strength has improved by such a huge degree in such a short time, it was because you have been colluding with the demons! So this is the true reason why you had been unwilling to share your experiences from after you became a Holy Guardian!" Instructor Nie bellowed in rage. "To think that you actually pretended to be clueless about the demon attack on the city, acting as a good guy and playing both sides. What a good hypocritical student I have!"

Lu Tianzi was once again reminded of the exact words that Instructor Nie had spouted on that day. But this time, instead of causing his mind to blank out, Lu Tianzi's mind was completely calm.

He did not feel rage, nor did he feel indignance.

All he felt was a calm indifference as he watched the figure before him, thinking about how pathetic this man truly was.

"If I am not wrong, in the chaos back then, you have escaped with Sir Hu, Hu Shenwei. Where is he now? Did you collude with your demon comrades to kill him off just like what you were about to do to City Lord Hu? How ruthless you are!" Instructor Nie continued.

Hearing this, Hu Yuanbo let out a few weak coughs in agitation.

"Yes, I killed him," Lu Tianzi suppressed his pain and answered coldly, causing the crowds to gasp in shock.

"Finally admitting it, aren't you?" Instructor Nie sneered.

"I could either do that, or allow him to kill me instead. But even so, who are you to judge me? Others might doubt me, but if not for me saving you from the demons, you won't even be standing here right now! Yet here you are spouting all these crap? In the end, you are nothing but a hypocrite! A person like you has no right to admonish me!" Lu Tianzi continued.

"You!" Instructor Nie pointed at him in rage. "How dare you act this arrogantly even at this stage?"

At this moment, a voice sounded out from another direction.

"So you are actually Lu Tianzi!" Uncle Ye approached along with Ye Xiangyuan.

"I should have known your character from how you introduced yourself!" Uncle Ye pointed at Lu Tianzi in rage. "What do you mean by dropping out of the martial academy to become a worker so as to earn your keep? You have just been using our family as a refuge from your crimes! From the very start, you have been nothing but a liar!"

"To think that you are such a person, we must be blind to have let you into our house!" Ye Xiangyuan stepped out from behind her father and stomped over towards Lu Tianzi.

Ye Xiangyuan raised her hand in the air, and brought it down hard towards Lu Tianzi's face!

Seeing this, Lu Tianzi's eyes narrowed.

Previously, his mind had been clouded by confusion from being berated by Uncle Ye, and that had allowed Ye Xiangyuan to slap him squarely in the face.

But not this time.

He was no longer the Lu Tianzi of the past.

Ye Xiangyuan's hand was brought down to slap Lu Tianzi, but it never connected.

As a mere non martial artist, her movements were not considered fast by any measure.

Even though he was feeling weak and in pain, Lu Tianzi still easily avoided her slap with a simple sway of his body.

"Without me trying my best to save him, your father would have already died to the demons. Yet instead of showing gratitude, you move to attack me? Frankly, you are nothing but a fanatical follower of Hu Yuanbo, blindly listening to the words of his lackeys without using your brain to think through it at all. What right do you have to be standing here and telling me off?" Lu Tianzi's voice was soft, but firm.

Hearing those words, Ye Xiangyuan was rendered speechless for a moment.

And at that very moment, Lu Tianzi moved.

Driving the Spiritual and Slaughter Essence within his body, Lu Tianzi sent all of his remaining energy into the broken sword in his right hand.

"This guy!"

"You still have the strength to fight back?"

"No, he is targeting City Lord Hu!"

"Stop him!"

The four District Heads called out in shock.

And then just like Lu Tianzi had remembered, Ye Xiangyuan threw herself before him, coming between him and Hu Yuanbo. Once again, she had moved before anyone else did, allowing her to get into position even before the martial artists were able to.

But this time, Lu Tianzi did not hesitate.

With a flick of his hand, Lu Tianzi sent the broken sword straight towards Hu Yuanbo. In doing so, Lu Tianzi directly blasted open Ye Xiangyuan's frail body!

At that moment, everything turned into grey smoke.

Ye Xiangyuan, Uncle Ye, Instructor Nie, Hu Yuanbo, the four District Heads, and even the entire main square.

None of them remained.

As the smoke cleared, Lu Tianzi found himself in a tranquil forest, sitting by a flowing stream.

His wound had recovered, and his cultivation level had returned.

A splash of water from behind him caused him to turn around in surprise, and what he saw caused his eyes to grow wide.

Right there before him, was a girl of unmatched beauty bathing in the clear water of the flowing stream.

Noticing that Lu Tianzi was looking towards her, the girl actually smiled and walked out of the stream, heading straight towards him.

Lu Tianzi froze up, not knowing how to react. He knew this girl, and she was none other than Nanlan Qianxue!

Why was she here?!

At this very moment, she had already stepped out from the stream, and there was no longer anything at all that hid her perfect body from his eyes.

Nanlan Qianxue smiled at him as she reached out to gently carress his face, her sweet and playful voice sounding out in his head.

"Do you want me?"