Destiny in Cinders

”I’m only worried that I’m not fit to become your master. You’re a divine-arc bearer. Even if you go about this yourself, you’ll end up with a cultivation technique that’s much better suited for you.” Unlike An Jing, Ming Guangchen didn’t think he was that qualified to be his master. ”However, I did promise to give you pointers. My word on that still stands. How about this...”

He pondered for a moment and smiled. ”For the time being, I have to spend morning till noon constructing my altar to anchor into the void. If you have questions or doubts that you need answered, come to me in the afternoon. I will instruct you the best I can. But let me say this beforehand. Given your talent, you might have already sensed some of the fundamental questions of the martial path that I don’t even know to ask, so don’t be surprised if I don’t always have answers.”

Of course I wouldn’t. There are some questions that even the sword immortal can’t answer for me, An Jing thought. Either way, this was the ideal outcome that he wanted. He gave Ming Guangchen a disciple’s bow.

The man who had claimed to be unfit smiled and turned to Xuan Mingjing. ”You should learn from him. This is what you lack compared to him!”

Once more, she wondered why she was catching strays out of nowhere. Even so, she knew that no matter where she went, An Jing’s ability to move things along, understand others and adapt his own identity to suit the circumstances was quite useful for her to learn. But it’s not going to be that easy to pick it up...

Constructing the altar would take quite a bit of time. When he was not busy with it, Ming Guangchen helped supplement the common knowledge that An Jing lacked in the backyard.

”An Jing, you come from a clan with a martial legacy, so you should have a surface-level understanding about lifearcs. For instance, you should know the principles of how those without lifearcs can’t reach Fortification, and those with root arcs or below can’t reach Void Divine Treasures, right?” Ming Guangchen started from the very basics. He was seated on a simple farmer’s stool.

An Jing said, ”I’m not aware of the latter. Why is that the case?”

”It’s because of abilities.” Ming Guangchen didn’t think that An Jing’s lack of knowledge was weird at all. Typical martialists his age were busy establishing their fundamentals and didn’t explore broader concepts yet. After some thought, he gave an explanation that was almost identical to Yvelbane’s. ”The core objective of the martial path, no matter what cultivation technique you use, whether it be a technique, art or arcanum, is to manifest various abilities.”

An Jing compared what Yvelbane told him about the path of qi cultivation to synthesize an understanding of the martial path. Void Embrace’s martial path could be said to be derived from the same origin as the path of immortal cultivation. The goals of those two paths were the manifestation of abilities.

However, the martial path was based on lifearcs while the immortal path was based on spirit roots, which were fundamentally different. Spirit roots were the fusion of the five spirits and soul within the human body, forming a port through which a person would be able to intake spirit qi from the surrounding environment. Like its name suggested, spirit roots were just like actual tree roots that the true spirit of mankind planted into heaven and earth, anchoring them to the world. Through the roots, they would be able to absorb spirit qi to grow, leading to a more powerful soul.

Just like trees, powerful immortal cultivators were able to provide shade and stability to the area around which they took root, improving the ecosystem around them and increasing the variety of spirit qi generated there, leading to more diversity of lifeforms across the world. But if too many trees grew too closely together, it would result in a simple, monotonous environment that was vulnerable to foreign hazards that could disrupt the delicately balanced ecosystem. Should a fire break out in a dense forest, the trees would all be consumed by it. That was an analogy for the tribulations Yvelbane referred to, a massive bane to cultivators. Lifearcs, however, were different.

”Lifearcs are akin to seedlings granted by the Heavenly Dao,” Ming Guangchen said. ”The path of the martialist is to hone their body as a microcosm of heaven and earth to nurture that seedling. Only one with ambitions to change the world or at least change their own fate would receive the blessing of heaven and be granted a lifearc!”

Lifearcs were seedlings of cultivation granted by the Grand Dao of Heaven and Earth. If the spirit roots were akin to a foundation that sprouted within the body from a human’s own efforts, lifearcs were sprouted seedlings that were transplanted into the body by the Grand Dao. While they seemed similar, they were fundamentally distinct.

Spirit roots were truly random in nature. Apart from Goldcore venerateds who already had an inkling about the will of heaven, nobody would be able to discern whether one’s offspring would be able to generate good five-phase spirit roots.

Lifearcs, on the other hand, were often likened to destiny, yet much of it had to do with the will of the person itself. For instance, if An Jing hadn’t resisted the demonic cult and attempted to overthrow the will that the world had tried to enforce upon him, he would never have awakened the Seven Ruins Arc. Luck wasn’t the crucial factor, but rather, human will! Spirit roots depended on heaven’s whims, while lifearcs depended on the self. While luck influenced both of them to some degree, the fundamental logic behind how they operated was different.

”I see...” An Jing began to form an interesting train of thought. This feels a bit like the rebuilding efforts in my past life after the great disaster... A world-ending grand battle had taken place in An Jing’s previous world. Before the war, the environment was plagued with minor issues, but it was still possible to improve it by cultivating stable local ecosystems that suited their respective areas so that varied flora and fauna may develop to support a strong local populace.

After the war, however, everything was reduced to radioactive ash. No cockroaches or insects, let alone plants or animals, remained. It was no longer possible to rebuild local ecosystems. There was only one way to restore some semblance of balance. It had to be done through synthetic efforts! Using genetically modified plants to rebuild ecosystems from square one! The survivors in the world of my past life weren’t able to restore the world to the way it used to be. So, they designed a brand-new world with brand-new ecosystems from scratch!

That thought made him feel much more optimistic. I see. So lifearcs are akin to brand-new trees planted by the Heavenly Dao of Void Embrace. The old trees, spirit roots, could no longer grow and thrive. So, the Heavenly Dao went along with human will to design new trees that could be planted in them! The stronger their wills, the more they wanted to change the world, the more human agency they wished to exert, the longer the wishlist they sent to the Heavenly Dao! In response, the Heavenly Dao acknowledged those wishes and granted lifearcs that matched the degree of their ambitions, encouraging people to forge ahead!

Though some of those minor details could be mistaken, An Jing was on the right track. Locals of Void Embrace weren’t aware that their entire world was filled with high-density fiend qi that could easily cause death. While it was still a mystery why it was harmless to the locals of Void Embrace, it didn’t change the fact that using spirit roots became impossible.

To prevent cultivation from dying out, to ensure that a forest of trees that could feed back into the world continued to exist, the Heavenly Dao had to issue lifearcs, seedlings that could grow in a wasteland corrupted by fiend qi, in hopes that they would be able to bring about more worthy cultivators to once more purify the world! It also fits with how lifearcs could be used to purify the fiend qi in Void Embrace. Only those with lifearcs were able to convert fiend qi into spirit qi for use in their cultivation. There was also one crucial point...

”Lifearcs can be upgraded.” Ming Guangchen said, emphasizing the point when he noticed An Jing in deep thought. ”That is what we call answering destiny’s call. As long as you do things that are in line with your lifearc and continue to advance, even the weakest mixed arcs can gradually become root or miracle arcs!”