Destiny in Cinders

Chapter 124: Burn It All to Ash

The map in Nian Qin’s terminal marked a few locations, namely, the black market’s drop point, a cemetery, a wet market, a grocery store and a special mark shaped like a red heart. It couldn’t be anything other than her home.

An Jing pondered upon the notion, noticing that he hadn’t thought of home for a long time. He was born with the Spark and already felt detached from his childhood home since he had considered his true home to be the one from his past life. But growing up and spending all that time with his parents filled him with happy and melancholic memories. He grew to see his village as his true home.

However, the snow calamity caused his entire village to be buried in endless snow, turning his whole family into a refugee. He knew that he would never be able to go back to that place barring some kind of miracle.

It didn’t matter at the end of the day if the actual place was gone. As long as his mother was there, it would be An Jing’s home. That was what he used to think, but due to a fateful twist, he was forced to leave his mother. Later on, he wondered if Direlife Manor could be his new home. He was willing to acknowledge the instructors and fellow disciples there as his new family, even though all the instincts from his past life warned that this was all a ruse by the demonic cult. He was willing to see through all that.

All humans needed some kind of moral support, a place they could be tethered to and be themselves. Yet, he was awakened from the nightmare in the most cruel fashion. Perhaps the reason he hated the demonic cult with such passion was due to how dashed his hopes had become. ”I really wouldn’t have liked losing sleep at a home where I could be eaten at any moment...”

He sighed with a forlorn expression, knowing that he no longer had a proper home. Even if he found his mother, it would be difficult for him to return to those halcyon days. Fortunately, it wasn’t something that he missed. After witnessing how terrible the world was, he no longer desired that kind of peace. Instead... What I want is to burn it all to ash!

There were many checkpoints on the streets of Deepnight City, not to mention the fully equipped soldiers on patrol that stopped every suspicious individual. Someone had tried to bribe them to pass, only to be beaten up and brought to a nearby car for questioning. Even innocents who were allowed to pass after a check were scrutinized by drones until they returned to their registered homes.

An Jing kept close to the shadows and made sure to avoid the crowded streets. From time to time, he used the underground waterways. Other times, he entered buildings to leave from the different exits. Yvelbane’s barrier was effective enough to prevent the Qi Refinement soldiers from detecting him.

When he passed by a ghetto area, An Jing saw a massive steel automaton that was more than twenty meters tall. It seemed broad yet angular, giving off powerful ripples that signalled that it was about as strong as Foundation Building cultivators. A shoulder-mounted high-caliber gun rotated around as it scanned the streets for targets to shoot.

An Jing didn’t know what it was scanning for. Perhaps it was just looking for the poor who snuck into Deepnight City without a proper pass or gang members in hiding. Whichever the case, they would struggle to survive the night.

An Jing noticed that many trucks came from the entrances and exits of that zone, shipping piles of corpses inside for identity verification. There were people from all walks of life, young, old, and even whole families. With the world this unstable, the family unit would be unstable as well. As long as the wider world was in chaos, the home would never see peace.

Eventually, rain began to fall. The corpses that laid the streets were corroded by lethal-qi-infused acid rain. If nobody picked them up, there would be nothing but skeletons by the time the rain stopped the next day.

Some annoyed people in the alleys activated focus talismans and plastered them on their foreheads. When their mind calmed down, they tidied up their clothes before stepping out of their apartments with smiles on their faces.

In a different corner of the city, cultivators dressed in gang clothing took all sorts of odd pills and broke into a bout of foolish laughter. Some displayed sudden rage while others seemed euphoric. There were those who twitched among trash piles with lewd expressions on their faces. What kind of hallucinations were they seeing?

When a loud rumble rocked the entire city, An Jing looked up and saw a massive fortress of an airship take off into the sky, parting the clouds. That caused the rain to stop for a moment, but the clouds soon reformed and rained even harder. Through the transient cloudless sky, An Jing saw no moon, only countless tiny stars that moved rapidly all over the place. The starscape seemed wrong. Fiend qi infested the world. Soldiers continued to patrol the streets. Giant metallic automata shot at the masses.

”Why doesn’t that Goldcore venerated take action himself to find the True Talisman?”

”He simply isn’t able to. There are only three venerateds in this city who have been confirmed to have achieved immortal merit, two of whom don’t really get along.”

”I see. It’s no wonder Luofu’s so enraged. The conflict between the megacorps is an open secret at this point.”

An Jing wasn’t surprised to hear those chatters. Had the sage been able to take action, there was no way he would’ve been able to leave with the True Talisman. In fact, it seemed like Sage Gold Pill was implicitly allowing the True Talisman to be lost from the look of it. Heh, who knows? This city is truly dark like the deep night like its name.

An Jing sneakily crept closer to his destination. He stood at one side of a street between cramped residential buildings and could see the tallest building in Deepnight City, a rainbow sky pillar of majesty and radiance, the Luofu Immortal Altar. He stared at it for a moment before sinking back into the shadows. One day, he would stand even taller than that building and sentence them to death just like how they had sentenced countless others to their deaths.

He made his way to the Majesty Ocean Sector, going to 12th Street at the south part of the city. Then, he went to Sandalwood Apartments for room 601 on the 59th floor. The massive old building was covered in graffiti and advert stickers. Unauthorized projection advertisements shone seductively pink on both walls, promising ultimate pleasure from a custom-made virtual dao mate, soft, fleshy bodies of ultimate temptation.

An Jing found the door locked shut. He rang the bell, only for a camera at the door to light up and turn toward the youth in the gas mask.

”Who are you?” asked someone with a young, gentle voice with a hint of caution.

”Your mother asked me to pass on a message.” He paused, considering what to say next, before making up his mind. ”She was sent on a long business trip far away by the company. You shouldn’t expect her back any time soon.”

”Is that so...” The young voice was quiet for a moment. ”I understand.”

To An Jing’s surprise, the door opened. ”Thank you for coming all the way to inform me of the death of my mother.”

A slender youth that looked around twelve clad in a white shirt appeared. He had gentle eyes and glossy black hair. However, there was a hint of sharpness in his blue eyes that implied a much deeper ocean beneath which allowed him to see through illusions.

Is that a bloodline ocular technique like Nian Qin’s? An Jing didn’t feel awkward at all that his lie was seen through. All he did was shake his head.

The youth bowed politely to him and said, ”If you don’t mind, please come in for some tea. Can you tell me anything that I’m allowed to know about my mother’s circumstances?”

”Celestial spirit roots! They’re even spirit roots of celestial water!” Yvelbane exclaimed when it saw the youth through An Jing’s eyes. ”Ocean Dawn Eyes and spirit roots of celestial water... He’s naturally gifted as an external talisman user!”