They had spent nearly a month on the road, yet this was the fastest and safest possible route. They had not met any other hostile Wasteland Scavengers, and the spiritual beast population was minimal and easily avoided unless Ju needed to kill them for meat.

At this moment, Ju realized that the map Old Kai had given him was much more valuable than he had imagined.

Ender Town was an inhabited area that had been developed for 30 years. It had over a thousand inhabitants and one of the largest concentrations of essence artists in the Wastelands. It was run by a man known simply as Pike.

To be able to run a place like Ender Town, a vast amount of strength was needed. Pike was known as someone who could trample ordinary essence artists easily, and he had a large amount of support amongst rouge Essence artists in the Wastelands.

Ender Town was a massive commercial hub and one of the few places where white pills were regularly sold. Meditation techniques, weapons, spells, and anything useful to an essence artist can be found here.

But the settlement also offered more important things.

Protection.

This was the most valuable commodity in Ender Town as long as the person was not all-powerful.

Ender Town forbade battles of any kind, whether between ordinary people or Essence artists. Because of this, many adventurers or Travellers came here to seek rest or asylum. It was just that every hotel, inn, or apartment was operated directly by Pike and his associates. Even the cheapest, smallest of rooms cost 20 gold coins a day.

By working in the mines daily for a few years, minus the daily expenses of food and water, Ju saved about a little over a thousand gold coins.

That was barely enough for him and the Moonflower to stay in Ender Town for two months.

"The most natural course of action for me is to use the tempering formula to try to advance. If I manage to do that, I will have the confidence to explore the areas marked on Old Kai's map for better resources."

Ju already had a steady goal in mind.

When the teenager finally observed the place from afar, Ju noticed that Ender Town looked less like a commercial hub and more like a campsite.

After all, from the perspective of Essence artists, even the most prosperous places in the Wastelands were like this: scavenger camps.

At this moment, such a campsite was perfectly reflected in Ju's purple right eye as he stood on a hilltop with Moonflower.

"Staring from afar, It doesn't seem as large or grand.".

Ju could see the range of Ender Town from the inner parts to the outer parts and how the structure of the houses and buildings grew increasingly simpler from the outer sections to the inner sections.

At the camp's entrance, there was an extensive line. Sounds of shouting, insults, curses, trade, and loud laughter could be heard, typical of any gathering in the Wastelands. Not far away behind Ender Town was a pitch-black Jungle.

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The place was shrouded with mist and sand storms as though it held terrifying beings within. Even with the sunlight, the sun's rays still found it hard to reach the area; from a distance, Ju could feel excluded cold intimidation.

"This Dark Jungle was one of the places marked red on Old Kai's map. It was also one of the primary sources of income for people who stayed in Ender Town, but only for those with sufficient strength. Hordes of spiritual beasts and plants lurked within. Adventuring parties regularly explore the jungle to gather materials for exchange."

Ju took a deep breath and held the little girl's hand even tighter. Perhaps she, too, felt the spiritual fluctuations of the people staying in Ender Town and the Dark Jungle, the girl said for the first time.

"I am scared."

"Don't worry. I will protect you." The young boy's voice was low yet full of determination and resolve. Yet only he knew how much confidence he really had.

Soon after, the two figures descended and went straight to the entrance of their supposedly new home.

On getting closer, Ender Town looked like the mouth of a giant beast that awaited Ju and his child. Fortunately, the entrance line was short, and most people had already dispersed.

Ju heard murmurs that an important person had arrived at the place, and everyone was eager to take a look. Because of this, none of the visitors paid close attention to a closely covered teenager and a minor child that had just entered the Town.

Even the gate guard was impatient, so he quickly took the entrance fee for Ju and the little girl.

"There are several inns depending on the amount of money you have. I see that you are quite weak. It's best not to willingly provoke just any existence, regardless of the city rules prohibiting

fighting. If you die without leaving a trace, there is nothing we can do." Powerful Essence fluctuations were emitted from the guard as he waved his hand, indicating that Ju should enter.

However, the young boy paused, brought out 20 extra gold coins, and offered the guard.

"I want to try to break through faster and grow stronger. Are there places I can go to that might help?"

A look of mockery appeared on the guard's face even though he still quickly pocketed the money.

"Since you dared ask this question, it means you must have gotten a meditation technique, most likely the tempering formula. However, the odds you would be successful with it are still very low, less than 10% if we are being blunt. There is a library where some insights on breaking through are given, though they are not cheap to access, at least 200 gold coins upward just to have a look. Still, they don't offer good chances. There are also meditation rooms that have a good concentration of the purest essence you can find in the wastelands; by staying in such an environment, any meditation technique you use, no matter how useless, would be three times as effective, but it is not something a person like you can come in contact with, a day in such rooms costs at least three thousand gold coins, and there is a quota. And there is a final way… This has the highest return of all of them; with it, your chance would increase to at least 50% at the minimum."

The guard didn't say anything again; instead, he smiled at Ju.

Underneath his disguise, Ju sighed as he brought out 20 gold coins again.

The guard let out a small chuckle as he quickly started talking again.

"There is a plant known as the blue mist flower; it has this mysterious ability to aid one in condensing a spirit source; the spirit source is the foundation of any Essence Artist. However, to form it out of nothing is difficult, so difficult that it is the most dangerous step in trying to break through. Usually, people hire a fairly powerful essence artist to aid them in forming their spiritual source. So you can try that method, although the price is not cheap. As for the flower, ingesting it would give you a fair chance to be able to form your spirit source on your own, but it is nearly impossible to find in shops and auctions; as soon as it is available, the fairly important

people in Ender Town snatch it."

Ju paused a bit to digest what the guard said. The option of hiring an Essence Artist to help him condense the spirit source was out of the question. Although Ju didn't know much about the details, he was sure that doing so would be like putting your life in another person's hands, something he could never attempt. As for that flower, Ju felt the primary supply of the resource was the Jungle behind Ender Town, but exploring a perilous place even for Essence Artists made the youth hesitate.

As if reading his mind, the guard dropped a final piece of statement.