Destiny in Cinders

I see... Even helping Madam Huai to live a few days longer was enough to change the workings of fate completely, An Jing thought. In addition to that, Yvelbane’s hilt within his sea of consciousness kept knocking on the slumbering True Talisman.

”Stop! Pretending! That! You’re! Not! Sentient! Even if you aren’t, you must have some instinctive reactions, right? Refine some qi essence for me to help your owner!” Yvelbane yelled.

The True Talisman shuddered slightly. While it did lack clear signs of sentience, it possessed what could barely count as instincts, which told the talisman that it would lose quite a bit of essence if it tried to save its young owner, causing it to ”decide” to remain dormant like before.

Yet, Yvelbane, a soul being far stronger than it, had awakened it and pierced the core of the talisman with a threatening and domineering stream of sword qi, seemingly threatening to make it so that it would never be able to use any of that energy ever again if it chose not to share it at that moment. The True Talisman ”unwillingly” spat out some heaven purification radiance, which blended with the vitality that poured out of the imperial blood droplet and helped restore An Jing’s body rapidly.

That wasn’t the end of it. Yvelbane often seemed unreliable given how many holes were littered through its memories. There wasn’t anything that could be done about it. But if there was something the sword soul put its mind to, it would definitely do its best to achieve it.

”Keensight Bell!” Yvelbane’s intent spread through the terrestrial veins and reached the center of the major terrestrial-vein formation at the seat of the Keensight Bell’s soul. ”Do your job and get rid of that crook from the demonic cult!”

”Impossible...” said the massive pseudo-awareness of the Keensight Bell honestly. ”He has an ordinance token...”

”Then protect An Jing! The one with the familiar presence that helped you break through!”

”He doesn’t have an ordinance token—”

Before the Keensight Bell could finish its explanation, Yvelbane lost its patience. It didn’t care if doing so would expose any of its secrets and revealed its sword intent, causing the far inferior awareness of the Keensight Bell to shudder. ”Cut the nonsense and do as I say! You want to achieve sentience, don’t you? If you help me, I will pass you a technique you can use to develop sentience on your own!”

”Hmmm...” The Keensight Bell seemed vexed, but developing a proper sentience was aligned with its goal. The only reason it was able to ”think” with its pseudo-awareness was the major terrestrial-vein formation. If it left the formation, it would soon revert to a normal divine armament, entirely subject to its wielder’s wishes, losing all its sense of self. Before long, a golden light appeared around An Jing’s body once more.

”I guess this is the limit...” Yvelbane felt incredibly drained after pulling all those strings. At the end of the day, it was an ancient, damaged soul. It was capable of opening the Grandvoid Pathway, but it could barely muster its sword intent for offense. It had been too taxing for it to threaten the True Talisman and Keensight Bell’s soul. Even so, it was far better than falling back into another slumber that lasted countless years. Yvelbane believed that the young cultivator, An Jing, was the key to recovering its memories.

”An Jing!” it called out when it returned to An Jing’s sea of consciousness. ”Have you recovered? Now’s the time! Let’s leave through the Grandvoid Pathway!”

The boy looked at the mirror in the distant sky. Even though he wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, he could imagine an overwhelmed man breathing haggardly as he relied on his arcane mirror to force out a grand ability he hadn’t properly mastered to fend off foes that he could no longer defeat. The two of them were in such similar situations. Was this why they ended up becoming master and disciple, or did it happen in reverse?

”An Jing!” Yvelbane urged impatiently. ”We already talked about this! If you can’t defeat them, you said you’d mount a strategic retreat! At the very least, that’d buy you some time to recover. The authorities from Grand Chen will have made it here after three days. That might be the turning point we need!”

”Yvelbane,” An Jing said with a startling serenity, ”even if I escape, my master might not be able to...”

”Is this really the time to hold on to that master-disciple relationship?” Yvelbane was so agitated that it wanted to burst out laughing. ”I’m sure Ming Guangchen would want you to escape first! Perhaps he’s only staying in the fight to buy as much time as possible for you to flee!”

Yet, the boy brushed off the sentiment entirely. ”Master’s talent is inferior to mine. His fortuitous encounters are less impressive than mine too. It goes without saying that his tribulations also can’t compare to mine. If he can overcome them, so can I.”

”An Jing, you’ve already done enough!” Yvelbane could sense that He Wuchang was about to make a move. Even though he was still looking in Ming Guangchen’s direction, there was no telling when he would turn around to finish the job. ”This is the limit! Even true immortals would praise you for fighting up till this point!”

What’s the point of being praised by immortals? An Jing shook his head. ”Yvelbane, trust me. I believe I can still do so much better.”

Far in the distance, Ming Guangchen’s Mirror Me arcane corpus was at the brink of shattering. His real body fared no better. Clear, mystic rays of light and qi could be seen through the cracks of his mirror-like body, spreading sword-shaped beams in all directions. The celestial mirror that he had formed with the rain and clouds was also at the edge of collapsing.

As for Sage Turbid Wave and Sage Heart Beckon, their weak presences trembled and waned. The former’s lightning-cloud giant had been sealed in the mirror long ago, while the latter’s sword formation of environmental sprites was suppressed by the Hexsun Blacklight Eight Sights Palace ability.

Ming Guangchen had managed to push back on two peak-level sages just like him and still had power to spare to deal with the Lord Inspector of the West’s curses. He used mirror reflections to deflect them, leaving him completely untouched.

The real thing that pushed Ming Guangchen into a corner was a sword, one that had been hiding in the void, emanating five-colored mystic light. The colorful lights fused together in the hazy void, nourishing an unmistakable intent of mass destruction. The destructive intent contained all five aspects and threatened to reduce all of existence into nihilistic chaos.

That was the sword intent that had almost shattered Ming Guangchen’s arcane corpus after it neutralized his Hexsun ability, nearly sending him plummeting to the ground. He had only just barely blocked it by using his incomplete All-Heaven Myriadform Divine Mirror ability to reform the rain and clouds in the environment, but it wouldn’t last long. Once the environmental manifestation faded away, Ming Guangchen would no longer be able to keep it up.

The hidden Endmost Walker was horrifyingly powerful. Ming Guangchen wasn’t sure he could defeat them in single combat either. There was no doubt that this mysterious figure was a proud member of a heavenly sect. The fact that Ming Guangchen was ambushed in the middle of a group fight made it even tougher.

He even realized that the sword intent that this figure used matched You Ruhui’s description of the pure dragon qi that came out of the sacred edict of the imperial court. It was more than likely that this was one of the figureheads behind the internal conflict in Grand Chen that resulted in You Ruhui and Xuan Guangyun’s misfortune!

I’m outnumbered and outclassed. The void is also sealed off, so I’m unable to return to Endmost Sky. Looks like I’m really going to croak this time around. Knowing that there was no chance he would be able to turn this around, a sudden calm settled in Ming Guangchen’s mind. He was still able to spare time to turn to look at Keensight. The void altar looks fully charged. An Jing should be able to leave now, right? Wait...

His brow furrowed when he tried to sense it. The altar’s been charged for a while now. Weird... Why isn’t he leaving?