The rough rocking of the carelessly constructed carriage caused Lu Tianzi's head to repeatedly knock against the hard wooden floor, jolting him back to consciousness. Feeling the dull ache at the back of his neck, Lu Tianzi could not help but groan in pain. But when he opened his eyes, Lu Tianzi immediately fell silent.

Where was he?

The crude wooden flooring.. the identical wooden poles that surrounded him with equal distance between each pole..

Was he lying in a wooden cage?

Aware of the possibilities, he took care to keep his movements to a minimum while slowly peering over his back. That was when Lu Tianzi finally had a clearer picture on what was happening.

He was currently trapped in a wooden cage and being transported through the woods by a horse carriage. The two men sitting in front illuminated the way forward with a burning torch, but now this same light also served to reveal their faces to Lu Tianzi.

They were both servants of the City Lord Manor.

What was happening? Where were they bringing him?

Did City Lord Hu know about this?

Lu Tianzi's mind was swarming with countless questions at the moment, but he chose not to voice them out. Considering the current situation, what was the point of asking?

Right then, he felt the carriage slowly come to a stop. Feeling the duo turn their attention back to him, Lu Tianzi hurriedly closed his eyes to pretend he was still unconscious.

The two men then got off their seats and started working on dislodging the cage from the rest of the carriage.

"This Lu Tianzi is really a man of great talents, far better than anyone else I have seen. Who knew that even he would end up like this?" one of the man casually mentioned while working.

"It is exactly because of his talent that he ended up like this! At the rate that he is growing, he might even reach the level of the old master in the future! Why would the old master allow the continued existence of someone who could possibly threaten his place as humanity's leader? Taking a step back, even if the old master retains his position, there is no way that the young master would be able to outshine this Lu Tianzi! When the time comes, the masses might even support Lu Tianzi as the next City Lord. What then of the young master?"

"That's true. Sometimes being too excellent is a sin as well. Even if it is not through this method, the old master would probably also have gotten rid of him using some other means. Lu Tianzi ah Lu Tianzi, you can only blame yourself for being born into the wrong era!"

In the silence of the forest, each and every word of their conversation sounded loud and clear to Lu Tianzi, and his mind turned blank as he slowly digested their every word.

What were they talking about? City Lord Hu had acted against him?

All because his talent was a threat to his rule?

Impossible!

The kind and benevolent City Lord Hu would never do that!

But the current facts only served to corroborate their statements. If that were not the case, then how did things take such an abrupt turn after he was named the Holy Guardian?

At this time, the two men were finally done dislodging the wooden cage from the rest of the carriage.

"Enough talking! Hurry up and get out of here. Even though they agreed not to harm us, I still don't want to run into the demons that will be coming to collect this guy!"

"That's true. Who knows if those demons would stick to their promise? Let's go."

The subsiding sound of hooves was enough to let Lu Tianzi know that the duo had left the area, so he once again opened his eyes and sat up. But even after sitting up, he still remained in a daze, trying to fully process all the information that he had gained within such a short frame of time.

But he did not dare to delay for long. After all, there was one part of the two servants' conversation that had set him on a dangerous timer.

The demons would be coming to collect him!

After knowing that, he would be an idiot to continue staying put. He definitely had to escape before the demons' arrival!

Lu Tianzi hurriedly got up and examined the wooden cage, but what he saw only left him with a deep frown. The door to the cage was made of cold hard steel, and even the cage itself did not seem to be made of normal wood, but reinforced wood taken from Ironwood Trees.

Ironwood Trees were known for their sturdiness, able to withstand powerful impacts far beyond what normal wood could handle. Even in Ivory Rock City, Ironwood was usually only used for the main body of spears since it needed to repeatedly resist powerful impacts with every clash.

If this cage was made of normal wood, then with his current cultivation realm of Intermediate Essence Building, he would be able to escape easily. However, if it really was made of Ironwood, then he truly did not have much confidence to break the cage.

But no matter what, he had to at least give it a try!

Sinking his perception into his inner world, he was able to see a mass of Spiritual Essence particles swirling around a centre. There were countless particles, more than the grains of sand on the beach, but it was as if every single one of them was bound by an invisible force, circling around this centre in a fixed orbit.

This was an Essence Building realm martial artist's inner world.

Each martial artist's cultivation journey started with the Essence Building realm, followed by the Essence Condensation realm, and then the Origin Core realm which was the realm that City Lord Hu was currently at.

At the Essence Building realm, martial artists absorbed energy from their surroundings and purified it to form their own Spiritual Essence. Spiritual Essence was the foundation of martial artists' strength, and thus the amount of Spiritual Essence they managed to purify at this stage could also serve as a loose estimate of the martial artists' future accomplishments.

As an Intermediate Essence Building realm martial artist, Lu Tianzi's inner world naturally had a lot more Spiritual Essence particles compared to those who had just started cultivating. Drawing upon his Spiritual Essence took a mere thought, and with gritted teeth Lu Tianzi threw out his strongest punch towards one of the wooden poles.

While it looked just like a simple punch, when enhanced by his Spiritual Essence, it became an attack powerful enough to even shatter rocks!

Bang-!

The punch landed squarely, causing the wooden pole to creak loudly as it bent outwards.

However, even his strongest punch proved to be far from enough. The wooden pole only bent slightly, and immediately reverted to its original shape the moment Lu Tianzi pulled back his fist. As he thought, this cage was really made of reinforced Ironwood.

In fact, it would not have made sense otherwise.

After all, what was the point of using ordinary wood to build a cage meant to hold an Intermediate Essence Building realm martial artist?

Any rational prisoner would just escape the moment he regained consciousness!

But now Lu Tianzi was once again faced with the same problem. What else could he do? If he failed to escape in time, then what he would be facing would be the demons!

He was still wearing his original clothes, but the sword handed over to him by City Lord Hu when he was named as a Holy Guardian was already nowhere to be seen. Otherwise, as long as he had a blade as a weapon, Lu Tianzi would probably be able to break even the wooden pole made of Ironwood.

Lu Tianzi anxiously looked around the wooden cage, but how would there ever be anything of use in a wooden cage?

Apart than himself, there was literally nothing else. Out of ideas, Lu Tianzi had no choice but to turn his attention to the floor of the cage.

If the wooden poles could not be broken, then what about the floor?

With that thought, Lu Tianzi got down to all fours. Before anything else, just like the case with the wooden poles, he first needed to see if the floor was made of Ironwood.

Thud-!

Hmm? What was the sound?

As he got down to the floor, Lu Tianzi was initially surprised by a familiar sensation near his thigh, but then a wave of joy and relief immediately followed!

He immediately stood back up, and with a well-practiced swipe of his hand, retrieved the concealed knife by the side of his thigh. His captives must have missed out on this because it was well hidden beneath his clothes!

A smile broke out across his face as Lu Tianzi gazed warmly at the plain looking knife. Alas, his parents' loving insistence had really ended up saving him.

Lu Tianzi grasped the knife firmly and hacked down with all his strength, leaving a deep cut on one of the wooden poles.

It worked!

After finding a method to escape, Lu Tianzi did not hesitate and immediately got to work. With a few more strikes, he finally managed to remove two of the wooden poles and free up a space large enough for him to pass through.

"Phew!" Lu Tianzi could not help but let out a sigh of relief after escaping his cage, but his joy was doomed to be short lived as the sudden sound of clapping caused him to freeze up in apprehension.

When the two City Lord Manor's servants left, they brought with them the burning torches. Now, the forest was once again submerged in darkness, with barely any moonlight reaching in through the thick canopy overhead.

After reaching Intermediate Essence Building realm, Lu Tianzi's senses had improved to become much better than that of an ordinary person. But even then he could barely make out the figure that was steadily approaching while clapping his hands.

"Splendid! Truly splendid! To think that the sacrifice managed to escape from the cage, I must say that this is the first time it happened!" the figure laughed as he continued to applaud.

"Who are you?" Lu Tianzi readied the knife in his hand, ready to defend himself against whoever it was.

"Is it not obvious who I am?" the figure finally reached close enough for the moonlight to illuminate his figure.

Seeing who he was talking to, Lu Tianzi let out a subconscious frown.

A demon!

In their original forms, most demons looked similar to humans, and most people would not be able to identify a demon. That is, unless they chose to reveal their distinctive long tails, which was exactly what this demon did.

Just like humans could cultivate as martial artists, demons could cultivate as well. But instead of humanity's system of Spiritual Essence, demons cultivated in the system of Slaughter Essence.

Relying on that fact, martial artists were also able to differentiate demons from humans by identifying the Slaughter Essence running through their bodies.

However, Lu Tianzi was completely unable to do so right now.

This could only mean two things – either the other party had yet to start cultivating; or the other party had a cultivation level that was higher than his own, preventing Lu Tianzi's perception from seeing through him.

Lu Tianzi was not ignorant enough to believe that it was the former.

"Now then, what do you think will be happening next? Will you obediently go back into the cage, or will I knock you out to put you back in there personally?"