Destiny in Cinders

It was night time in Skysource. Soft explosions could be heard in the distant darkness, a sign of a gunfight. Arcs of light shot across the wilderness and the outskirts of the city, lighting up the sky in short flashes before disappearing into the dark clouds.

You Ruhui and Madam Hui looked around at this incomprehensible foreign world. If there was one thing they were certain of, it would be that fate had been altered irreversibly. They felt rather awkward, having both made their decisions on how to deal with the upcoming danger. Yet, An Jing took the initiative to pull them into a wholly different world.

You Ruhui dispelled her ability while Madam Huai allowed her lifearc to fizzle out. After looking around a bit more, the questions finally came.

”What do we do next, An Jing?”

”The outskirts of this world are rather dangerous, so you two should stick close to me.” An Jing wasn’t able to find any other place, so he took them to the recycling house. At this point, that place was basically his base of operations. Huo Qing didn’t mind hosting An Jing, but he would probably feel a little troubled by the two new strangers.

”I think it’s about time I rent out some property in the city. Putting aside whether I can use it as a base, at the very least, I would have a place where I can rest in private.” An Jing was no longer a stranger to Skysource and knew how difficult it was to actually buy a house in Deepnight City.

Most of its residents could only rent for the rest of their lives. Actually buying a private residence could cost one’s entire life savings. As such, quite a number of workers in the city bought houses in the safe satellite towns nearby and commuted to work daily, causing the housing prices in those towns to rise as well, which didn’t make it any easier for an unchipped badlander like him to afford one. I’ll need to reach out to some people to evaluate my options.

As An Jing’s previous departure point from Skysource wasn’t that far away, he arrived at the disposal facility with the two women not long after. Both of them could sense the faint traces of fiend qi within it and hesitated.

An Jing handed the gas mask to Madam Huai and said, ”Don’t worry. Fiend qi might be present in this place, but it’s not strong enough to erode anything.”

You Ruhui noticed that there wasn’t much lifestyle waste in the facility. Most of the trash looked like they were byproducts from some kind of manufacturing process, with mountains of derelict artifacts that were made from mystic metals! Grand Chen was capable of forging things with mystic metals too. There were many metal hills near the bottom of Forgegod Peak that were made from artifact remains. However, those hills were considered strategic resources instead of piles of trash.

This world’s artifacts must be far beyond my imagination! You Ruhui finally understood how An Jing had so many artifacts with him. She remained silent so as to not bring him any trouble.

An Jing, on the other hand, finally ascertained that any skilled person from Void Embrace could sense that something was off about the fiend qi in Skysource. Despite that, they weren’t able to sense the ubiquitous fiend qi that had corrupted the qi in Void Embrace. This was either because they had yet to awaken their spirit roots or there was something off with Void Embrace itself.

This might not be a problem with fiend qi, but rather the world itself. There’s something off about Void Embrace and it’s likely not caused by heavenly fiends. He made a mental note of those things and filed them away for later investigation. There were more important things to attend to at present.

”Huh? An Jing! You... you finished your fight?” It was midnight, but the formations lit up the recycling house. Huo Qing was still busy studying when An Jing rang the bell. He dashed out quickly and saw the group and immediately noticed the different air around them. Madam Huai and You Ruhui stood out from the rest of Skysource in a particular way.

Though Huo Qing appeared rather naive, he was someone who had been trained by his former gang. Putting aside the mysterious veiled girl who seemed even more refined than the rich folk in Deepnight City, the older lady’s clothes and demeanor suggested that she was anything but a badlander. In fact, An Jing didn’t quite fit the profile of a badlander either, though it was less obvious, perhaps because he tried to hide it.

He managed to defeat his foe and save them? Isn’t that too fast? It all happened in a day, and he looks like he’s been through a hell of a battle! Where in the world did he go off to fight? Though he had many questions, he didn’t fire them off right away and opened the living plant entrance that was powered by the formation. ”Come in. There’s warm water and food.”

The two women didn’t speak much. They merely observed An Jing and Huo Qing’s simple exchange and noticed that the languages of the two worlds were similar. In fact, they were identical apart from their accents. Still, they only thanked him and kept to themselves out of caution.

”Take a rest for now. We can talk afterwards.” An Jing settled the two down before he brought Huo Qing to the side.

”Thanks a bunch, Brother.” An Jing couldn’t help but feel grateful to Huo Qing. He had brought two people who screamed trouble to his doorstep (even if the trouble was from another world), yet Huo Qing didn’t even hesitate to offer them refuge. An Jing didn’t forget that Huo Qing gifted him with a bulletproof spirit vest earlier either.

”It’s nothing,” Huo Qing said, smiling through the worry. ”Still, if there are powerful forces in pursuit, there’s nothing we can do. This place isn’t defendable. You’ll either have to escape into Deepnight City or hide in a small town nearby.”

”Don’t worry, there won’t be pursuers,” An Jing said with a wave of his hand. The heavenly fiends and Grand Chen were eager to hunt them down, but there was no way for them to travel to Skysource. ”We’re unable to return to the badlands for now. I don’t have a residence in the safe zone or the city either. It’s rather troublesome.”

”It is indeed.” Since there were no pursuers, Huo Qing didn’t press An Jing about where he rescued those two from. Things like these were hardly uncommon among badlander tribes or even gangs.

Huo Qing had a different worry on his mind. ”Uncle is going to return soon, probably at the end of the month. I am more than willing to help you all until then, but the old man might...”

He would take some convincing, huh. An Jing didn’t want to resort to Huo Qing to solve all his problems either. Huo Qing had proven to be a loyal friend and brother, so An Jing felt like he could disclose quite a lot of things to him. ”That would be a problem indeed. However, I have a plan. I’m a badlander, so I can’t buy property. However, I have the merits to spare. What do you think about buying a house or some kind of property in your name with my money? I would be able to use it as storage for my equipment. It’d also make it more convenient to work together in the future.”

”Oh?” Huo Qing pointed at himself, somewhat surprised. ”Me? I got a new identity recently, but my account only has a few hundred merits. I doubt I can afford it.”

”Like I said, you don’t have to spend much,” An Jing emphasized, shaking his head. ”Let me take care of the merits. I just need your identity.”