Destiny in Cinders

Chapter 126: Nian Quan

Spirit roots aren’t things that can be changed or controlled, huh... An Jing shook his head in resignation. Even though his parents were both quite established martialists, filled with affinity for the five phases and had a complete set of five aspects, they didn’t have spirit roots that qi cultivation required. Not to mention, having five aspects that were too powerful but conflicted with one another would reduce one’s prowess to that of a normal person. It was just as much a matter of luck.

Put simply, a normal person with a set of dormant five aspects would have aspect values of twenty points each. Ignoring the conflicting or nourishing relationships between the five phases, that kind of prowess wasn’t high enough for even one among them to turn active.

Someone who had a full set of five aspects, on the other hand, and seventy points of affinity in each of those aspects, was typically a descendant of a Purple Mansion or higher cultivator. Yet, having such a balanced distribution of the five aspects created a perfect balance of nourishing and conflicting relationships in the body, which wouldn’t produce any spark that activated any of the spirit roots. It was akin to not having spirit roots at all.

Sometimes, however, a genius would be born in the ghetto who had twenty points of affinity for four aspects and fifty for just one aspect, which met the threshold of activating one of the five spirit roots. That was enough for the nourishing relationship to be strong enough and for the conflicting relationship to be weak enough as to not disrupt the aspect’s circulation. Only then would one be considered to have spirit roots.

Even so, spirit roots of this nature lacked a firm foundation and required proper nurture and resources. These candidates for cultivation needed to be extracted from the population for some proper training to reach their full talent, potentially reaching fifty to seventy-five points in affinity for their respective aspect.

That was the reason geniuses discovered among the non-elite populace often had much better performance than those from great families. The former group were talented enough to be noticed even before proper training and nurture, whereas great families already took great care to squeeze out whatever potential they could from their young.

Naturally, the common folk geniuses needed proper opportunities to hone their talent. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to compete with people from established households. Large households would occasionally recruit these folk geniuses to strengthen their own positions. They also had secret techniques that they would prioritize using on their own descendants to raise the upper limit of their potential. The reason they were secret techniques, however, was that they often cost too much and were too difficult for most people to use.

While An Jing watched Nian Quan bring out the tea he brewed, Yvelbane continued the lecture. ”Having spirit roots of celestial water means that among the five spirits in the body, the spirit of water dominates. There is a complete set of Ren and Gui heavenly stems. There’s also a perfect order of nourishing and conflicting relationships. Water nourishes wood, wood nourishes fire, fire nourishes earth, earth nourishes metal, and lastly, metal nourishes water. It’s a perfect cycle.

”Apart from that, someone has to have the right date, region and weather of birth to possess spirit roots of celestial water. They can’t even have a name that conflicts with their nature, or they’d only achieve eight or nine points out of a perfect ten. While people like that may be considered to have spirit roots of celestial water, it would be far from perfect.

”Spirit roots of celestial water can even be pushed past its limits to exceed ten points with certain fortunate encounters and be transformed into the spirit roots of immortal water in a preheaven water spirit true body.

”These particular spirit roots of celestial water grants him a pair of Ocean Dawn Eyes. They aren’t things that he inherited through his bloodline. Rather, it’s a true ocular technique passed down in his family. It became Ocean Dawn Eyes when his spirit roots got elevated. These spirit eyes can detect subtle changes in spirit qi, allowing the bearer to see through illusions and obstacles easily. They are also incredibly gifted in pillmaking and talisman creation, much more so than the average person.”

”So that’s what celestial spirit roots entail...” An Jing was quite stunned by what he heard that it took him a while to snap out of it to accept the tea. ”How fortunate he is! He has complete access to the five phases thanks to his five active spirits that nourish one another without conflict. His name, Quan, also means water spring! It’s so unfair! The heavens must have made a mistake!”

”This is exactly what we would expect of the Heavenly Dao in action. Otherwise, immortals wouldn’t take things like fate so seriously,” Yvelbane said matter-of-factly. ”As for the name, birth place, date and region, those are all things that can be determined after conception. Many people intentionally move to a corresponding place and select a fitting name for the aspect of their unborn child after they appraise its talent. This is also why spirit roots became rather widespread in my time. It’s about identifying the best conditions for the child to be born in.

”Not to mention, even bearers of spirit roots of this caliber are only a tiny bit more efficient than you are in cultivation. They gain insight into water-aspect techniques incredibly quickly. Though the benefits will become clearer with time, it’s not a gap that you can’t make up for. That is the fairness of the Heavenly Dao at play. Too much of a good thing can also be bad.”

An Jing sighed inwardly at the fact that such lucky people existed. Then again, could he really consider the youth before him lucky? He looked down at his brown tea. It was a normal brew with slightly hard water, but it wasn’t poisoned. With how his own metal spirit qi was reacting, he could tell that the water pipes were really old. Even then, this was considered a luxury for most normal households in Deepnight City.

He looked up at Nian Quan, who was sitting in front of him. His eyes were somewhat red as if he had cried not too long ago. He had long guessed that this was how his mother ended up. An Jing’s message only served as confirmation given how calm Nian Quan seemed.

”Thank you for the tea.” An Jing took a sip and turned the tea cup while he looked at Nian Quan. ”What do you wish to know?”

”I had many questions...” Nian Quan looked at the steam wafting out of his own cup. ”But when I started brewing the tea, I figured it out. I shouldn’t know these things. At least not now. If my mother’s death was an unfortunate accident, you wouldn’t have come here. She would probably...”

He shook his head and switched to a different topic. ”You, on the other hand, took a big risk to tell me about my mother’s death. I am incredibly thankful for that. Of course, I also know that you have questions for me too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have accepted my invitation. Ask away. I will tell you all that I know.”

”I do have some rather sensitive questions...” An Jing looked at his surroundings. Nian Qin and her son’s accommodations were somewhat cramped. The furniture was old and there were many books and jade tablets, all stored within baskets or emptied food packaging. The whole place oozed a simple lifestyle. ”However, I think that I no longer need to. Your mother did very well. Nobody would turn their suspicion on you.”

There was no sign of a third person living there. Like An Jing guessed, Nian Quan’s father must have passed away long ago, leaving the mother and son to fend for themselves. An Jing had wanted to ask about his mother to see if she was really an informant for the Justice Restoration Army, but one look at the simple home told him that Nian Qin had hidden everything well.

The money she made from smuggling amounted to more than seven thousand merits, in other words, more than seven hundred thousand credits. In An Jing’s past life, this kind of wealth was in the range of millions of dollars. It wasn’t enough for any great undertaking, but more than enough to change a person’s life. The fact that she hid that even from her son and didn’t spend that money meant that her secret would be well kept.

An Jing did have some other questions when it came to Nian Quan. ”You have spirit roots of celestial water. Why is your life so difficult?”

Nian Quan blinked with some surprise. ”You’re not a city dweller, right? You’re a badlander.”

An Jing’s lips twitched. How did everyone manage to guess that he wasn’t from the city? Did he look that much like a badlander bumpkin? Were chips simply that convenient? No, he wasn’t a badlander! He was just from another world!