“No. But he is widely regarded as the strongest person below the level of an Essence artist in Ender town. Do you think Essence artists in the wastelands are common? Less than three Essence artists come to Ender Town in a normal year despite its affluence.” The guard shook his head.

“Essence artists are truly rare.”

Ju then considered the mines and the various Essence artists who listened to Old Kai's orders. The organization the elderly man came from seemed much more powerful than he initially thought.

As they descended, Ju could already feel a slight increase in the intensity of Essence in the area; however, what he noticed most was the ease with which his body resonated with it.

Finally, the guard stopped and placed his hands on a large black door.

The door shook and gradually opened, and Ju was immediately taken away. The boy had never felt anything like this before. All his life, Ju had practiced with the scanty, impure essence unique to the wastelands; it was similar to labored breathing, something that must be done despite the difficulty. But right now, Ju was breathing freely.

The guard was not surprised by Ju’s reaction. Most people, including the guard himself, acted the same way after visiting these rooms for the first time.

“You have an hour… use it wisely.”

Ju said nothing as he walked into the room and sat cross-legged.

The teenager did not waste any time at all.

Ju could feel the Essence like raindrops as it slowly dripped and surrounded his body. It was very different from the Essence gathered outside.

“The room lived up to its reputation.”

Ju thought again excitedly. Although the Essence was a tad purer, he still felt pressure as he assaulted the fourth node.

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Following the instructions in the Tempering Formula, Ju imagined the Essence gathering like a lake. Slowly, he tried to gather waves. The tides were slowly rising. Ju knew he had completed a cycle when he saw the first tide. Ju willed the Essence flow to the Node on his chest.

Bang.

A light crash sounded in his mind, and sensations of pain were transmitted all over his body. Ju could still observe that the impurities were still very much present. He then tried to raise another tide, then another, and another.

“Because I had to use Dark assault during his skirmish with Aron and the Snake, I must invest more effort if I truly want to open the fourth node.”

But the boy was confident in maintaining the tides, with this level of Essence purity, and soon after, for the first time, Ju felt four separate tides. Clearly, the pain was so intense that Ju could not stop trembling; tiny streaks of blood came out of his orifices.

“I must continue.”

As his body was on the verge of collapse, however, Ju still held on, remembering the manual once again. The more numerous the tides are, the purer the essence would be, and the simpler it would be to awaken a Spirit node.

The room was the perfect opportunity that Ju couldn’t waste. Using his sheer will, the teenager bit his tongue and directed the Essence again to his chest node.

This time, the sound was much larger, and Ju could feel the resistance loosening; the fourth Spirit node was gaining a bit of light.

He continuously stimulated his fourth node.

Coupled with the intense pain. Ju kept using the tides to grind the Essence and directed it at his Spirit node; any Essence that flowed towards the node, Ju could already see that the black spots gradually reduced.

Overall, some of the impurities had gone.

“I can not go past four tides of the Tempering Formula, at least for now. A backlash is certain, so I must keep trying with this number of tides.”

Out of the 1 hour allocated to him, Ju had spent 30 minutes before an overwhelming feeling finally assaulted his senses.

This was vastly different from the first few nodes Ju opened previously; back then, he only had a vague feeling he could use more Essence when those two nodes opened. But now Essence rushed into his chest node fiercely, and a connection that was never visible before also began to form between Ju’s other nodes that he opened; much purer and more powerful Essence rapidly accumulated in Ju’s spirit nodes as a result.

“At last.A small step further.”

The teenager let out a deep breath as he basked in the feeling.

Ju didn’t take a rest, though. The breakthrough gave the boy even more momentum to keep the tides flowing. Ju turned his attention to another node in his arm.