The security guard remained at the entrance of Ju's room. Deep down, he felt a tinge of envy that a weak child who had only opened three nodes was utilizing something he could never experience. The security guard could not help but wonder what Ju must have done to gain such a privilege.

“A full hour in the Meditation Room, what a waste.” The guard shook his head and closed his eyes; although the Essence concentration can never be as good as inside the rooms, it was still quite dense in this building, so it was not a bad idea to meditate occasionally.

Time slowly passed, and the entire area was silent.

The security guard opened his eyes moments after a while.

“It is already time.”

The guard thought as he got up, but his eyes narrowed when he saw the room door open. The teenager was punctual to the second.

Ju's demeanour did not seem to have significantly changed, except for his hurried breathing and the tinge of blood on his scarf.

A look of ridicule briefly passed through the guard’s eyes.

“Did he seriously have a backlash? In the essence room of all places, he must have been unable to control himself. Hardly surprising. A kid, after all.”

The man felt even more regret about the wasted opportunity, but he did not express any of these feelings on his face.

“Then let’s go; there is no need to see Master Ben again; I will take you directly outside.”

Ju was silent but nodded curtly as he followed the security guard.

As he finally exited the building and moved through the gate, Ju’s face was calm but trembling inside. The guard analysis was spot on. Ju had almost gotten a backlash!

After Ju opened the fourth node, he was eager to try to open the others; after all, Ju did not think he would ever be able to visit the Essence Rooms again. The teenager attempted to raise another tide, but it backfired. If it hadn’t been for Ju to act on time and luck was on his side, his spirit nodes would have exploded immediately.

Ju sighed.

“Meditation Techniques and Essence gathering really can not be rushed, and no matter what happens, until I become an Essence artist, I can not exceed five tides at the maximum.”

However, despite the danger, the teenager had greatly benefited from the room; not only had Ju awakened that troublesome fourth node, but he also cleared a good chunk of the impurities present in his body. The fifth node in his other leg was already flickering with light. After many trials and errors, Ju had opened nearly half of the nodes in his body.

But then his eyes turned a bit gloomy.

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“Another bottleneck would soon be here.”

Which was the sixth spirit node located in his temporal region. The fourth and fifth nodes were already hard enough, and Ju dreaded the challenge the sixth node would entail.

Nevertheless, Ju was satisfied with the overall improvement. He could not wait to return to the forest and hone his skills further. Although the rewards that Master Pike gave him were generous, Ju needed to gather more resources to help with his meditation and training.

After witnessing the horror of beings at Master Pike and the great snake level, Ju desperately sought that power even more.

“I need to become an Essence Artist as fast as possible.”

Ju’s eyes lit up as he thought of that upcoming Blue Mist Flower competition.

"I have about six months."

He knew he still did not have the qualifications to participate. Still, the teenager was somewhat positive that if he could open his sixth or seventh node, he would be able to hold his own even against foes that were close to the level of an Essence Artist.

Although there was no direct way to prove this, Ju trusted his judgement regarding battle. He had opened almost five nodes, one less than Zabel, Oberon and Aron. But if he were to battle Aron again, Ju was confident he could overwhelm him with pure strength alone without resorting to tricks.

"Right now, all that matters is for me to polish my techniques and find other opportunities to grow."

Ju soon arrived at the inn. As usual, Madam Pang was at the counter, attending to the customers with a harmless demeanour. Looking so frail and gentle, no one could ever suspect that this was an exceptionally powerful Essence Artist in disguise.

Ju did not look at her as he went upstairs. However, the old woman's eyes still followed him for a brief moment before shifting back; she did not have any change in expression.

Moon Flower was asleep when Ju came in.

"Sleeping Again."

Ju furrowed his brow while looking at her still figure on the bed; he furrowed his brow a bit; she had been like this for some time now, spending very long periods sleeping.

"Although it seems harmless, it was not usually like this." Ju thought but decided not to overthink it for now

The young boy sat across from the bed and slowly collected his thoughts. Right now, he considered exploring the outskirts of the forest on his own, but he was wary of ambushes from other groups. Also, the encounter with the Great Snake made Ju unwilling to enter the dark forest anytime soon.

After all, it was not a stretch to think that the Silver Horned Snake remembered his aura and was scouting for him. There was also Aron. After Ju killed Zabel and still took an egg from under his eyes, Aron must hate him to the bones. Although it seemed like the man had escaped fully and never returned, Ju kept his guard up.

The teenager then got up and opened one of the cabinets to take out the four spirits stones Master Pike had given him; he had decided to exchange one for gold coins, which would be used for Moon Flower upkeep and other miscellaneous activities.

The remaining spirit stones had to be used to increase his combat power. He had been in Ender Town now for little less than a month, but he had faced numerous dangerous situations, being in close contact with entities that were much more powerful than he was.

After the battle in the forest, Ju realised that tools, although extremely useful, like those of Zabel and Aron, did not matter as much as the spells and techniques one had in his arsenal.

"Master Pike used only one major Essence Technique, yet he could restrain the Great Snake, who was fundamentally at a higher level than he was. This is the major difference between man and beast. Beasts were blessed with robust essence reserves, yet humans had more clever ways to utilize Essence, making it possible for Essence Artists to overwhelm the spiritual beasts and dominate the world."

But in the end, Ju did not want to go looking for a new Essence Technique; he preferred a decent weapon with inscriptions, and he was going to find it.