Destiny in Cinders

Skysoar Hall was situated within Mystic Sky Palace at the divine capital. At the top of the hall was the Heaven-Earth Expanse Divination Atlas, positioned on the same level as the imperial throne and trembling slightly.

The True Martial Emperor of the current era was someone who hadn’t even reached twenty years of age. The young emperor, Xuan Mingyu, wasn’t the least bit perturbed. Looking down, he asked his martial-officials and scholar-officials in a gentle tone, ”Why has the workings of fate in the north rippled?”

Among the scholar-officials was the circuit intendant of Periphery Wastes, an area in Huang Prefecture. His talisman projection was visible at the imperial court while he was in fact at Whitemountain Pass. ”Your Imperial Majesty, a divine-arc bearer has risen in the city of Keensight in Huang Prefecture! He is from the An clan of Gufeng County, a local of North Han Circuit. This is no doubt a good omen for Grand Chen! Congratulations, Your Imperial Majesty!”

”Though you speak no falsehood, the truth isn’t that simple,” said the imperial envoy of Xishan, someone among the martial-officials. ”Your Imperial Majesty, An Jing might be a citizen of Grand Chen by birth, but he became a refugee as a result of the snow calamity and joined the Heavenly Demon Cult for a time, before ultimately betraying them.

”He cooperated with the Crimsonguard that was in the command of Hanhai’s observer, Gu Yunzhi, in the fight against the demonic cult. According to reports of the time, he vanished after the greater heavenly fiend broke through its seal. It seems clear that Sage Mystic Mirror had saved him around that time and later inducted him into the Brightmirror Sect as a core successor. I don’t believe this counts as good news.”

”Wait a moment.” The circuit intendant wasn’t that surprised by the rift between officials of the martial and scholarly persuasion in the slightest. Instead, he explained, ”Even though this divine-arc bearer has joined the Brightmirror Sect, he is still unquestionably a subject of Grand Chen. Our mighty empire is a heavenly sect that reigns over many subjects. There are also many among us officials who have backgrounds related to other sects. There is no need for such prejudice against him, is there?”

”There are only three among close to ten thousand with such backgrounds. Do they even merit a mention?”

”So long as they exist, yes. It is by no means exceptional.”

As the two sides argued, the most elite officials from either side, Grand Preceptor Hong Xieshi, bearer of the Black Nether Flowkeeper Grand Mandate, and Grand Marshal Yi Gujin, bearer of the North Pole Celestial Martial Grand Mandate, turned their gaze northward. They had long known that a new era was upon them, heralding another world tribulation. It was only a matter of time for a divine-arc bearer to show up, which was why they didn’t seem to mind. They were far more concerned with Commanderial Princess Mingjing’s whereabouts.

I thought that the odd incidents were related to Xuan Mingjing, only to find that it was the doing of a divine-arc bearer. Is this just a coincidence? Then again, Xuan Guangyun did have a good relationship with the Brightmirror Sect...

Hmmm, it seems that the Brightmirror Sect will gain another Sanctification venerated. The winds of fortune have yet to blow away from them. Perhaps, this can work out...

The officials were either in deep contemplation, arguing with each other or regarding everything with a renewed sense of curiosity. The young emperor on the throne, on the other hand, watched his officials argue with a gentle smile and not a single word.

The attention of everyone in the north of the Northblack Sacrifice Continent, including that of some empyreans from Grand Chen, was focused entirely on An Jing and Ming Guangchen. The master and disciple shone far brighter than any celestial body visible in the sky.

***

”An Jing!” Ming Guangchen laughed heartily when he heard the divine sound of the bell while the mysterious swordsman was completely shaken. He felt like he had become the center of the entire universe as the attention and gazes of all beings with tremendous karmic weight focused on himself. The dense interaction of karma was the catalyst that caused his lifearc, Unshining Sun and Moon, to respond powerfully.

A pitch-black void gradually appeared behind Ming Guangchen. Within the lonely emptiness, a boundless mirror gathered all the light from the stars, layering them upon each other in cyclic fashion until it completely outshone the sun and moon and stretched across the vast void.

I will make it look as if the sun and moon have stopped shining with the radiance from my mystic mirror! His Fateful Hour was upon him! Ming Guangchen’s power spiked in lively fashion. His lifearc operated at full power as it rapidly converted the spirit qi in the environment into something he could use, including fiend qi.

If anyone could observe fiend qi, they would be able to see a boundless amount of it between heaven and earth blend together to form a massive vortex that spiraled into Ming Guangchen’s lifearc halo as he entered his Fateful Hour.

The incredibly complex workings of karmic power blazed like a flame, incinerating every trace of fiend qi as if it was burning away chaos itself. All that fiend qi, which, by its nature, eroded all things without discrimination, was cleansed by the karmic flames and refined into mystical qi and heaven purification radiance before it entered Ming Guangchen’s body and turning into his fundamental innate qi, mystic clarity light qi. His heavy injuries recovered at a rate visible to the naked eye. It took no more than a few short breaths for him to be restored to his prime!

How in the world?! That’s not how the Midsky Sun lifearc works! Curses! What kind of lifearc does he have?! How could the reports have gotten it wrong?! The mysterious swordsman knew that bearers of the Midsky Sun lifearc wouldn’t be that deeply wrapped up in complicated karmic events and garner this kind of attention. That lifearc was only supposed to play out the story of its bearer conquering a certain region and demonstrating their authority.

He hadn’t been that scared when he heard An Jing’s proclamation. He only hesitated to show himself because he didn’t want to expose his identity to the powerful elites who were observing things remotely. Little did he know that Ming Guangchen’s real lifearc had been Unshining Sun and Moon, masked by Renaming Destiny. It could only reclaim its full potential once more if it could tug heavily at the karmic weave.

Yet, that wouldn’t have been possible without a sun and moon for Ming Guangchen to outshine, roles played by the true protagonists of these incidents, You Ruhui and An Jing. Had An Jing fled instead of remaining here with his karmic pull, Ming Guangchen wouldn’t have fulfilled his lifearc even if he somehow managed to draw the attention of countless powerful elites.

The mysterious swordsman was absolutely livid with regret. If he hadn’t chosen to leave the void, he could’ve quietly escaped. However, he had made the decision to cross into the corporeal realm to kill Ming Guangchen. There was no way the latter would let him escape back into the void once more, especially not in his nigh-invincible state.

The Fateful Hour alone wouldn’t have been able to restore Ming Guangchen to such a terrifying degree, but he knew this was the opportune moment for him to take the plunge and make a breakthrough. Finally, he had stepped into the Altar Sanctification Realm!

The rumbling of heaven and earth was centered entirely around Ming Guangchen. Once more, he used his signature ability, Hexsun Blacklight Eight Sights Palace, uniting the soul essence of heaven, the spirit and lethal qi of earth and the divine soul of his own being into one, becoming the bridge that linked heaven and earth! All three of his divine treasures fused into one and emerged from the void of his mind, harmoniously blending with heaven and earth as he reached the fifth realm of the martial path.

In the Fortification Realm, one manifested wonders to build a formation foundation. In the Hundred Meridians Clearing Realm, the formation served to link one to heaven and earth. In the Void Divine Treasures Realm, however, the internal formation derived heaven and earth within one’s own body, bypassing the void and establishing the divine treasures of essence, qi and mind. The seeds of heaven, earth and man were planted within the world simulacrum of the internal body formation, making oneself the sovereign of this microcosm. When this formation world revolved, it generated a kind of inconceivable divine power, marking the end of the mortal stretch of the martial path and the beginning of exaltation.

As for the Altar Sanctification Realm, a cultivator focused on making their internal formation world interface with the outside environment to start gaining insight into true cosmic intent so that they may eventually turn pure spirit qi, lethal qi and qi essence into their corporeal form. This process of concretizing the abstract was called sacred manifestation.

Once that happened, the Treasures Realm sage that was the sovereign of his own microcosm became as divine beings that roamed the world, possessing powers that allowed them to assert absolute dominion over a localized area, granting them a grasp on cosmic authority.

Domains such as these started off small. Once the Sanctification Realm venerated was able to manifest their internal formation world in Void Embrace in a more permanent capacity, they would be able to establish a sacred mountain and form a proper sect or cult. This was the reason one had to at least reach the Sanctification Realm to form a sect in Void Embrace.

If the sage’s insights into true cosmic intent was skewed and wasn’t acknowledged by the universe, their mind and soul would disperse during the process of sacred manifestation. While their formation world would continue to blend and concretize into the corporeal realm, it would slow to an uncontrollable crawl, potentially lasting decades. Such states resulted in a grand fallen abyss, which could be likened to a seabed crater created by a massive fallen whale, or a vast and deep basin that resulted from a plummeting asteroid.

Given how quickly it had all taken, Ming Guangchen had obviously succeeded. The emptiness within his eyes faded into pitch-black voids of slowly revolving vortices. Deep in the center of each dark void were bright crimson rays, which emanated from his entire body, making him look like an actual setting sun that still cast its illumination on a world upon which darkness encroached.

This was one of the six solar aspects that he had chosen to manifest: Setting Sun. Those who embody it gave off rays of crimson, representing injury and the absence of light and the dimming of the solar and lunar luminaries.

The fading light of Setting Sun touched Sage Heart Beckon of the Seated Mirage Sect not far away. He had already been turning pale as he watched his nemesis undergo sacred manifestation before he died on the spot.

Sage Turbid Wave, however, survived the flash of light. Puzzled and confused, he sensed the message that Ming Guangchen had left in the light: ”I will spare your life on account of the fortuitous encounter I’ve deprived you of.”

Sage Turbid Wave sighed deeply before he turned to Ming Guangchen in the distance. He bowed deeply before flying off in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, He Wuchang had long fled far away right after consuming some pills to stimulate his qi since An Jing defeated his blood-lethal-qi arcane corpus. However, a ray from Setting Sun instantly closed that distance. His body immediately displayed signs of imminent death.

The Lord Inspector of the West emitted a bloody flash, turning into a bird and flying away even faster. I can survive this! I have countless blood-lethal-qi clones. You won’t be able to kill me even if you’ve reached the Sanctification Realm!

Alas, there was no way Ming Guangchen didn’t know about this annoying foe’s petty tricks. Yet another ray of Setting Sun’s light struck the bird of blood. That disciple of mine managed to solve all my problems at once. I should help him take care of the aftermath as well.

”No... I’m not meant to die here... This wasn’t how it should have turned out...” He Wuchang’s agonized cry echoed all throughout as he faded away into nothing. His death was swift and silent.

”As for you, mysterious Endmost Walker...” Barely an instant had passed before Ming Guangchen turned to face his true foe with his hand raised to gather clouds and vapor.

All-Heaven Myriadform Divine Mirror appeared once more. This time around, it didn’t reflect any celestial light. Instead, it manifested an empty void and focused on the shadow hidden behind it. The mysterious swordsman’s expression was incredibly foul to behold.

”Why don’t you stay behind for a bit?”