Destiny in Cinders

After making a killing in Skysource, An Jing was looking for things to spend it on; he had managed to recover some memories from his Spark, specifically, those about not having enough firepower. As Ming Guangchen had been delayed, he decided to spend the three thousand merits he had planned to save up. He went to the rebuilt black market and bought a large supply of thunder beads, mines and self-destruct drones.

If he were to play it safe, he could use these explosive weapons in quick succession in tandem with Temporal Grasp. If he were to play it even safer, he could set traps using these weapons to ambush the bumpkins from Void Embrace that were ignorant of the murderous tools that Skysource could produce, and that was exactly what he did.

Arcs of gold and red lightning formed spiderwebs amidst the black cloud of dust that had yet to settle. The subsequent explosions caused the cloud to spread out even more.

The drones and thunder beads produced by Shouyang Mountain were capable of harming even the vilespawn fiend, so adepts of the Clearing Realm wouldn’t get off unharmed. However, An Jing was fully aware that it was a pipe dream to expect little tricks like these to kill an adept. He watched the smoke closely, expecting retaliation.

Even though lightning and fire devastated the whole place and painted the gray canvas of the sky gold and red, he didn’t feel the least bit agitated. Then, three seemingly solid gazes peered through the smoke and light, locking onto An Jing and causing his goosebumps to rise. The flow of blood within him subconsciously slowed. Bone-deep chills coursed through his body. They were coming.

Right after that, the sound of a flowing wave could be heard, quickly followed by a turquoise blade flash that cut the cloud of smoke open like a skyward tidal wave! A burly man covered in embers and soot with traces of electricity coursing through him stepped toward the youth, clearly wounded to some degree from how it seemed on the surface. Yet, he stood as tall as a seaside cliff and as firm as a towering mountain as he cut a path through the heatwave with his blade.

”Tell us the princess’s whereabouts.” The martialist’s blue robes had mostly been blown apart by the explosion, revealing the chiseled muscles all across his body. His abdomen and arms looked as if they had been cast in steel and tempered by the waves, flowing elegantly into one another exquisitely.

Ocean Domination Blade Bo Zongshan’s voice was bright and intense just like that of rolling waves, clapping hard against An Jing’s eardrums. ”Tell me, and I will keep your corpse intact!”

An Jing looked up and smiled. Though he didn’t say a single word, the pitiful gaze that came from his eyes revealed a hint of immense disdain. With your capabilities, huh?

”What?” Bo Zongshan’s rage spiked as the power he exuded converted the flames around him into the water of a raging tide. He raised his sheathed blade high with both arms; its hilt was such a dark blue that it almost looked like the color of ink. Then, he drew the blade before all the flame and lightning around him even dissipated, instantly causing dense spirit energy to pour out of it.

A flash of azure shot outward, and the next instant, the other buildings on the street appeared as if they had been devoured by a massive beast from the deep ocean. The beast opened its maw and swam toward An Jing rapidly!

The adept of Floodfloat Mountain’s Poolsea Sect seemed to bear the weight of the Celestial Ocean. His celestial-ocean qi that was reinforced by his lifearc, Four Seas Crossing, unleashed a massive tidal wave that blurred the boundaries between sky and sea!

An Jing felt death approaching when he faced that blade strike. The danger was so familiar to him that it felt like coming home to the point that he opened his eyes wide and smiled. It was too bad that the other two adepts were too cowardly to act and had chosen to remain hidden, leaving the blade adept from the Poolsea Sect to fight alone.

Isn’t it a shame that only one person will get to experience this sword strike? An Jing raised the OverSight sword case. Its crystal had been charging up to a dangerous degree from how erratically it flashed. The blinding light fizzled unpredictably as the spirit-qi crucible looted from the Fengdu Guard dimmed completely! Nearly all the spirit qi that a grade-two spirit stone was compressed into the charged shot. An Jing even used Trueblitz Pentaphase Infusion on the sword case; he couldn’t imagine how ridiculously powerful the flying sword that it fired would be.

The instant he pulled the trigger, a high-pitched sound of shattering reverberated through the air. The ground beneath An Jing cracked from the sheer recoil; his legs dug into the crushed stone below as a blazing-white sword beam covered in lightning arced toward the surprised adept!

Bo Zongshan felt his entire body turn cold as the lightning-imbued sword beam approached. The only thought on his mind was that he wouldn’t be the only one who would die from this clash. After all, his powerful blade strike would more than likely injure An Jing heavily. Yet, that wouldn’t change the fact that he stood no chance of surviving a direct hit from that blast of pure destruction!

The blade and sword strike crossed each other, the former like a massive tidal wave and the latter like an explosive bolt of lightning. All that happened within an instant, followed by an explosion that sounded like the enraged bellowing of a dragon.

The trajectory of both their attacks deviated slightly, with the celestial-ocean blade slash sending An Jing crashing into a different building on the street behind him, collapsing the entire structure. Bo Zongshan, on the other hand, got sent flying backward as the flying sword shot upward across his shoulder and bore a circular hole through the dark clouds above.

”You two pieces of tra-a-a-ash!” he roared angrily, voice cracking from the electric shocks. ”His charged u-up arti-f-fact only has enough po-o-o-wer for one strike! Get him!”

None of the others answered him; they had already made their move. The black-armored figure came to An Jing’s side stealthily, wearing a cape that looked like it had been weaved from the shadows themselves. He wore an odd, twisted metal mask that hid his visage.

He stretched his hand out probingly toward the back of An Jing’s waist. His slender fingers were long and sharp in a completely inhuman way. It was nothing short of a demonic claw! It reached through the darkness without disturbing the air around it in the slightest, its presence completely concealed. It appeared in An Jing’s blind spot, so there should’ve been no way to dodge it.

However, An Jing’s True Spirit Eyes flashed when he sensed the killing intent. He didn’t turn back and instead flung the overloaded and overheated wreck that used to be the OverSight sword case behind him! The sword case that had seen many battles glowed bright gold as it coursed through the air before it exploded in a magnificent display of metal-qi lightning!

Explosions of lightning were the most effective against beings from the nether. The ghostly figure’s claw had already reached through the void and tore apart part of An Jing’s clothes, leaving a few bloody, bone-deep scratches. Yet, it forcefully recoiled before it could dig deep into his body to pluck out his innards.

The reason An Jing allowed the claw to strike him partly without turning back to attack it was the other sword strike that suddenly appeared in front of him. Heartsword Fu Zhengan had hidden himself among the smoke and flames. However, his unseen heart strike gave off subtle yet devastating ripples, leaving a trail of qi a hundred zhang behind it as it shot toward An Jing’s heart.

The instant An Jing tossed the sword case away, he brought both arms close to his chest. They blackened, hardened and expanded to form a metallic wall of flesh. Even so, the powerful invisible strike sent him flying from the sheer force alone! The wave of powerful qi that followed caused him to crash into the buildings of the four-walled compound.

What a tough and sturdy body! Fu Zhengan thought as he watched with his brow furrowed, still hidden in the shadows. His sword strike of the heart was said to be invisible, but it was actually a mental strike that he generated using the qi around his body. Even if it wasn’t his ultimate move, Fu Zhengan had still intended to kill with it. Who knew that someone so much weaker than him would be able to take it?

Not to mention, the sword case An Jing had used didn’t seem typical of the Brightmirror Sect at all. Instead, it resembled the spirit-gear automata that one would see from Heavenly Mystery Mountain or Eightwastes Mountain.

Something is really odd about this. Though Fu Zhengan appeared like a madman on the surface, he was actually quite the careful sort. He quietly backed away and waited for the other two adepts to strike.

At that moment, Bo Zongshan and the ghostly figure charged into the courtyard, not intent on giving ”Jing Xuan” a chance to recover. Then, as Fu Zhengan predicted, something blew up yet again! It looked as if a massive sun had appeared explosively on ground level, forcing all of them to shut their eyes. Even then, the dazzling radiance was able to pierce through their eyelids, causing them to see flashes of blood.

The instant the two adepts charged into the courtyard, An Jing activated all the explosives and self-destruct drones that he had hidden within the storehouse and residence, setting off an explosion that wrecked the entire compound and the nearby street!