Lu Tianzi's sword mercilessly cleaved through Nanhong Yechang in a single swing, splitting him into two just like his two subordinates before him.

After which, Lu Tianzi calmly turned to look at the motionless corpse lying on the ground.

Currently, even this arrogant Intermediate Essence Condensation realm martial artist was no longer his match!

This was how much he had grown!

Lu Tianzi had the feeling that even if his opponent was at the Advanced, or even Peak Essence Condensation realm, he would still be able to fight them to a standstill!

However, if he had to face Hu Yuanbo himself, Lu Tianzi was still lacking a little in confidence.

After all, advancing from the Essence Condensation realm to the Origin Core realm was yet another great leap in power level!

There were quite a few Essence Condensation realm martial artists in Ivory Rock City, but none of them even came close to being able to match Hu Yuanbo in battle!

In order to close this gap in fighting strength between him and Hu Yuanbo, Lu Tianzi had managed to come up with a simple answer – the Lion Hemlock.

Lu Tianzi did not dally for long, quickly collecting the belongings of the three demons.

By the time he was done, the two Essence Building realm demons who had been guarding the trail were no longer anywhere to be seen.

That was only natural too.

After personally witnessing their superiors being crushed by their opponent, they would have to be fools to continue sticking around.

Lu Tianzi did not worry too much about it.

Even though this meant that the demons in Shadowfront Fortress would be alerted to the fact that Lu Tianzi had killed Nanhong Yechang, the fact was that they would have been able to guess the fate of Nanhong Yechang after he failed to return anyway.

Lu Tianzi knew nothing about Nanhong Yechang's position as one of the six main guardians of Shadowfront Fortress. But from the way he behaved, ordering other Essence Condensation realm martial artists around with no qualms, Lu Tianzi could easily infer that the position Nanhong Yechang held was definitely not low.

Since he had killed such a person, Lu Tianzi naturally had to lay low.

After all, it would be a huge problem for Lu Tianzi if the demons of Shadowfront Fortress decided to single him out as they sought to avenge Nanhong Yechang!

Thankfully, just like how he had no idea about Nanhong Yechang's identity, the demons similarly had zero clues on who he was.

To the demons of Shadowfront Fortress, this would just be a case of a random human martial artist killing off members of their forces.

However, this also meant that Lu Tianzi would not be able to openly use the exquisite sword that had been Nanhong Yechang's main weapon. Even though it was an extremely well made weapon, it was also much better ornated than most of the other swords that Lu Tianzi had come across before.

Thus Lu Tianzi was worried that if he were to use it carelessly, it might catch the attention of any demons who were able to recognise the sword's original owner.

But as long as the Ivory Rock City in general was blamed for the matter, Lu Tianzi had no qualms about killing even more demons!

After all, humans and demons had been enemies from the start.

This had been Lu Tianzi's belief from the start.

The notion of delivering humans from this chaotic world, threatened by wild beasts and demons, had been one of the driving forces behind Lu Tianzi's initial aspiration to become a Holy Guardian.

But at this very moment, Lu Tianzi could not help but recall Xihuang Yuanfeng, as well as the help that the elderly demon had given him.

Due to that experience, Lu Tianzi's beliefs had been shaken at its core, and it was not by a small degree either.

As a demon, Xihuang Yuanfeng obviously had the ability to kill him, yet he chose to keep Lu Tianzi alive and even helped with his cultivation despite having realised that he was in fact human.

It could be argued that Xihuang Yuanfeng was desperate for help to break his seal, but did someone of his stature really have to fall to the extent of raising a martial artist who was destined to be an enemy of his race?

Experts of his level would definitely possess an extremely long lifespan.

If Xihuang Yuanfeng so wanted to, even if it took thousands of years, he would likely be able wait until the next person entered the cave.

Despite his elderly appearance, the lifeforce emanating from him was still extremely strong. There was no doubt that he still had a long way to go before the end of his life!

Unknown to Lu Tianzi, this experience had already planted a seed of doubt within him. Now, a single question flashed across his mind.

Did humans and demons really have to be enemies simply because of the difference in race?

Lu Tianzi did not have the answer to this question.

However, what he was sure of was that for anyone who sought his death, he would definitely return the favour!

As for his next target, it was going to be the Lord of Ivory Rock City, Hu Yuanbo!

After he was done sorting through the belongings of the three demons, Lu Tianzi started to make his way back towards Ivory Rock City.

---

It had been almost two weeks since the dreaded demon attack on the workers of Ivory Rock City, and the lockdown on the workers had eased up a little.

Now, some workers were allowed to exit the city walls under the accompaniment of a squad of guards sent from the Military District.

This was a variation of the previous order from City Lord Hu, ordering that no workers were supposed to leave the city whatsoever.

Such a change was brought about by the sheer harshness of the winter season.

Winter was already nearing its end.

However, too many citizens of Ivory Rock City had already fallen ill due to the cold weathers, and the city's stock of medicinal herbs were rapidly depleting. In order to replenish stock, herbalists were sent out to scour for whatever herbs they could find.

Lu Tianzi had still been racking his head over how he was supposed to re-enter the city, but this change happened to give him the perfect guise to do so.

Even though the workers were accompanied by some of the city guards, it was still impossible for the guards to stick to every single worker.

What the guards did was to limit the workers' activity region to within a certain distance from where they were stationed. Should an incident occur, the guards could at least respond much faster than if they were still within the city.

These guards were all at the Essence Building realm.

Now that Lu Tianzi had advanced to the Primary Essence Condensation realm, it was possible for him to avoid their perception and sneak in among the workers.

Since even the guards were unable to detect him, the workers were naturally clueless that Lu Tianzi had joined in from the forest.

In their eyes, Lu Tianzi was still the familiar Zhanyuan who was staying with Uncle Ye and family. Since Zhanyuan was a herbalist as well, it was no wonder that he was also chosen for the task.

In such a manner, Lu Tianzi quietly worked to find his share of herbs as well, slowly understanding the current situation from the other workers through small talk. As dusk approached, Lu Tianzi naturally followed the group back into the city, successfully achieving his goal of returning back to Ivory Rock City.

The mood within Ivory Rock City was just like how he remembered. After all, two weeks was not a very long time, and the shadow of the demon attack still loomed heavily on everyone's mind.

The Holy City of humanity's clean slate records was finally broken.

Most citizens of Ivory Rock City were yet to have fully recovered from the shock caused by such an incident.

Even after returning to the city, Lu Tianzi chose not to return to Uncle Ye's place.

Instead, he had another place in mind, and he headed directly towards the residence of Yan Caijie, sister of the Holy Guardian Yan Bingren.

Before he left the city, Lu Tianzi had once asked Gong Shengjie about where she stayed.

This Gong Shengjie was not good at many things, but his information gathering capabilities were truly excellent. That being said, it was not as though Yan Caijie's residence was a secret of any sorts.

All things considered, Gong Shengjie had been able to provide Lu Tianzi with an answer within a matter of hours.

Standing before the door, Lu Tianzi paused for a moment as he thought about how to go about doing this.

However, he was not given a long time to consider as the door suddenly swung open, revealing the familiar face that Lu Tianzi recognised from when Hu Shenwei publicly addressed the workers about the city lockdown.

"Eh?" Yan Caijie exclaimed subconsciously.

Lu Tianzi was caught by surprise, but so was Yan Caijie.

She was just about to head over to the City Lord Manor for her night shift work as always.

Who knew that she would find someone standing right outside her door the moment she stepped out?

"Are you looking for me?" Yan Caijie asked curiously.

But when Yan Caijie looked up at Lu Tianzi's face, a frown started to deepen on her face as she recognised some traces of familiarity from him.

At this moment, Lu Tianzi had once again wrapped up one of his eyes as disguise, but that did not stop Yan Caijie from finding his appearance familiar.

This frown on her face only last a short while though, quickly replaced by one of incredulity.

Her eyes widened in shock as Yan Caijie finally realised who exactly was the person standing before her at the moment!

Seeing her reaction, Lu Tianzi knew that she had probably already recognised him, and he could not help but be slightly surprised. After all, the two of them could be considered as complete strangers.

The first time that Lu Tianzi saw Yan Caijie was also the last time that he did.

At the same time, Lu Tianzi was also glad that there was no longer the need for him to identify himself.

But in actual fact, how could Yan Caijie not be able to recognise him?

Even though Lu Tianzi only had a vague impression of the siblings, the other way around could not be further away from the truth.

Since the days at the Ivory Rock Martial Academy, Yan Bingren had always been comparing himself to the unrivalled genius Lu Tianzi, up to the very day that he himself managed to be named Holy Guardian right after Lu Tianzi was.

As for Yan Caijie, she was her brother's greatest supporter all this time!

The two siblings were extremely close after their parents' death. They stayed together in the Academic District, and Yan Bingren had always shared all of his thoughts with her.

After a sufficiently long period of time, Yan Caijie naturally started to remember Lu Tianzi almost as well as her brother did. After a few chance sightings from afar, Yan Caijie managed to sear the image of Lu Tianzi's face in her mind, never forgetting even until today.

But didn't Lu Tianzi already leave Ivory Rock City in the capacity of a Holy Guardian?

What was he doing here within the city?

And why would he be looking for her?

"Are you not going to invite me in?" Lu Tianzi asked with a gentle smile.

Lu Tianzi had conveyed his voice directly to Yan Caijie's ears, startling her from the many thoughts running through her mind.

She might have spent quite a bit of time with her martial artist brother, but she was not a martial artist herself after all. Thus she was naturally unfamiliar with the skill of voice conveyance.

"Ah, y-yeah! Please enter!" Yan Caijie hurriedly stepped aside as she gestured for Lu Tianzi to enter the house.