Destiny in Cinders

The tale was a simple one, but it summarized the many events that explained why Madam Huai was allowed to live there. An Jing nodded understandingly. If not for the benefactor, she wouldn’t have been allowed to use the terrestrial veins to extend her lifespan when she was much younger. Not to mention, she did have a lifearc with a unique value. The fact that it worked well with the terrestrial veins meant that it was worth nurturing.

Madam Huai continued, ”As for those people, they appeared more than a month ago and kept lingering around my teahouse. I thought they were in some sort of trouble and asked them if I could help. They said they wanted to buy my shop and asked me to move out.”

That’s also when I took in the child. She shook her head and found it rather laughable. ”I already told them that I don’t own the teahouse. The city’s authorities only let me run it. But they didn’t believe me and even started to coerce me into the sale. Eventually, Little Wang came to chase them away.”

”Little Wang” was none other than Constable Wang, the one that An Jing had encountered. He seemed to be at the Tide Aura Stage, making him one of the few competent people in Keensight that could deal with troublemakers with ease.

Madam Huai nodded gently and said, ”Little Wang was a bit too cautious when he tried to take you in. He was just worried for my sake. I truly apologize on his behalf. It’s very nice of you to have gone easy on him.”

”It doesn’t bother me. He was only doing his duty,” An Jing said. It started around a month ago... Isn’t that when I escaped Direlife Manor? The cultist forces in Keensight weakened because they sent people to hunt me down. Since they’ve infiltrated much of Keensight’s administration to the highest levels, that also means that Keensight’s forces weakened in general. Does that mean that the people who are trying to take over the terrestrial-vein node are enemies of the demonic cult?

An Jing couldn’t be certain about this line of speculation. He looked at Madam Huai, who was waiting for him to speak. ”I am not actually a Dustdawner. I hail from an established clan, but we were forced by the snow calamity to flee as refugees. I had to disguise myself as a Dustdawner to shake off those who are trying to hunt me down.

”However, the people who wish both of us harm seem to have some kind of agreement with the larger factions of Dustdawn. My appearance under the guise of a Dustdawner ruffled their feathers and put them on alert, which is why they tried to capture me to learn who sent me.

”Basically, they decided to probe me because my disguise was too good. At this point, it doesn’t matter whether I’m from Dustdawn or not. Since they acted against me with ill intent, I will pay them back for it. Speaking of which, Madam Huai, how could you tell?”

”Qi,” she said as she gave An Jing a complex look. ”My lifearc allows me to see the qi of souls. Dustdawner souls carry a hint of chilling winds and the northern mountains, but yours feels more like the martial will of the northern plains. However, there’s also the hint of a city dweller and the deep scent of books. With one look, I could tell that you’re a child of a great northern clan. It seems that my careless words from when I first saw you almost ruined your cover story.”

”I see...” An Jing didn’t really mind it. It was fine as long as others couldn’t tell. ”Yvelbane, what’s this thing about soul qi? Is there a way to mask that as well?”

”There aren’t many people who can observe soul qi directly. Masking it is hard for most people, but not for you,” Yvelbane spoke reassuringly. ”The qi or breath of your soul is nothing more than the distillation of your past experiences. You’re someone born with the Spark, are you not? Just use your past life to mask it. Meditate on your past life’s memories with Sword of Tranquility and have the old lady take another look at you.”

”Then it really doesn’t sound difficult.” Since he dreamed of his previous life, he had regained even more of his past memories. He closed his eyes and meditated on the sword, recalling the many fragmented memories of his past life, gradually channeling the being of the veteran warrior who had fought in many large battles. His eyes shone slightly gold when he opened them once more. ”Madam Huai, take another look.”

”Very well.” Madam Huai was quite curious about it too. Her eyes glowed for a moment as a faint wheel of light flashed behind her head. After a few seconds, she exclaimed, ”You’re a completely different person! I can’t discern your origins at all, yet I can feel an ocean’s depth behind it. I can feel through the countless waves an unparalleled sharpness! You seem even more dangerous than before!”

An Jing was relieved to hear that. ”Thank you for the help, Madam Huai. I am in your debt.”

Even though he wasn’t sure of the kind of path he would take in the future, he instinctively knew that he would come to have many enemies. He wasn’t just going up against individual crooks or the demonic cult. He had resolved himself to excise the corruption from the human realm.

All that meant that he would have countless enemies, many of whom possessed powerful abilities or wonders. If he could defeat them, he would fight them. If they were more than he could handle, he would explore other means to bridge that gap, and before he was prepared, he had to hide himself well so that they couldn’t wipe him out before he was ready to take them on.

That was the main reason he was so focused on learning techniques to disguise himself, especially one that transformed his spirit qi. Thanks to Madam Huai for putting him on alert, he discovered and patched up another blind spot he had been unaware of, so he was incredibly grateful.

”That was no trouble at all. I’m glad it was of help,” Madam Huai said without making a big deal of it. She had witnessed many things that transpired from a simple word of warning and was glad she played a helpful part.

They shared information with each other and soon got a rough picture of the situation. There was a group that managed to infiltrate Keensight when its forces were weakened and started to take control of terrestrial veins.

Before they put their plan into action, they contacted the tribes of Dustdawn to ensure that they didn’t take any action at Keensight that would disrupt their plans. An Jing didn’t know why they had to do that in the first place, but upon recalling his old home and the northern barbarians, he could somewhat understand. The snow calamity’s influence grew by the day, applying more and more pressure to the people of Dustdawn. The areas near the sects fared decently well as they had powerful guardians, but the tribes that resided near Grand Chen faced a dilemma.

Were they to ask the sects for protection or side with Grand Chen? Ideally, they should maintain neutrality and move south. Even if they wanted to side with Grand Chen, they might not receive a favorable answer. In fact, they might be prevented from migrating southward.

With Grand Chen potentially standing in their way, the tribes didn’t want to risk starting a war like the northern tribes had. So, they hoped that Grand Chen would be too occupied by other troubles to prevent them from moving south. All they needed was some kind of chaos as a pretext to move. Then, they could gradually take over the lands they moved to and naturally assimilate into Grand Chen when everything settled down, making it fait accompli.

”The snow calamity will fully set in in some tens of days,” An Jing muttered. ”I’m sure the mandated official of the city will activate the terrestrial-vein formation to stave off the frost. But if malicious parties take over the terrestrial veins and tamper with them, the cityfolk will suffer greatly, but that’s not even the worst thing. The foundations of Keensight itself might be heavily destabilized! That would render the city defenseless against the snow calamity’s effects, which would further result in countless deaths. This would cause absolute chaos at the northwestern border!”

It would be exactly like what happened in his hometown at the northern border. He gripped his fists tight at the thought of that. Though angry, he still held some doubts about that mysterious faction’s intentions. ”But why? Are they just trying to cause suffering with that chaos for no greater cause? Even the demonic cult does not cause harm for no reason!”

As far as An Jing was aware, the demonic cult wouldn’t create chaos for its own sake. It went against their core principle of following the will of heaven. The most they would do in any situation was to give an already-developing situation a push to get things going. Not to mention, Keensight was a city of Grand Chen that they had infiltrated. Even if they needed more disaster children to recruit, they could go elsewhere for them rather than destabilizing their home territory to create more of them.

Could they be trying to make more blood pills? The demonic cult’s blood pills required a specific ritual lifevessel and an apothecary like the manor lord to brew. It wasn’t like the ones of subpar quality An Jing found in Keensight. There simply wasn’t a point in brewing pills like that as they were nothing more than qi-nourishment pills that helped recover a bit of vigor. It simply wasn’t worth causing such a huge commotion by sourcing ingredients from a city like Keensight. Their operations would be much smoother if they carried it out in some rural village or town instead.

Having no leads at all, he decided not to speculate. He still lacked a crucial clue that could tie it all together, and he had precisely the means to obtain such a clue. Since Madam Huai wouldn’t be able to open the teahouse due to the brewing chaos, An Jing decided to stay there. He would be able to store his luggage there and protect Madam Huai and the terrestrial-vein node.

Once he finished his preparations, he excused himself by saying he wanted to cultivate and closed the door to his private room. He could remotely control his drone from there while also giving Madam Huai and her mysterious guest some privacy to get ready for what was to come. Neither side fully trusted each other yet, so there was no rush in revealing anything lest it made things more awkward than they needed to be.

Soon, night fell. A tiny lotus drone rose into the air and entered Honor Pavilion’s compound.