Destiny in Cinders

During the two years he spent with the Tagu Tribe, An Qianshan taught the barbarians discipline, training methods, alcohol brewing, agriculture and herbalogy, methods of treating insect toxins, proper ways to bring out the best nutrition from ingredients and even coached chefs to brew herbal concoctions that nourished the internal organs. Dustdawn wasn’t a place that lacked resources. Instead, its people lacked the skill to exploit those resources efficiently.

Initially, the shamans and herbalists of the Tagu Tribe were quite unhappy with An Qianshan’s instructions. They had their own traditional concoctions that boasted amazing effects as well. However, An Qianshan, as if possessed by the divine spirit of knowledge, claimed to have read many martial manuals and easily grasped the core principles of their traditional medicine through observing their practice.

He went on to discard the parts of the medicinal rituals that served no actual purpose, such as the use of secretions of certain insects, which, apart from adding sweetness to their potions, had no actual effect. Then, he also threw in his own mix of herb-processing methods and improved the efficacy of their tribal potions.

Though it sounded amazing, it was actually rather commonplace in the North Han Circuit. Many merchants who obtained the ancestral recipes of Dustdawner tribes altered them and sold the concoctions as their own creations. The incursion of the northern barbarians into North Han disrupted the cultural and commercial exchanges between their two cultures, however.

An Qianshan, being a former merchant and owner of the An clan’s trade convoy, knew many such recipes and how to improve them. He had come across recipes that were similar to the secret potions of the Tagu Tribe. Though he was plagiarizing those improved recipes, giving the rightful creators credit was the last thing on his mind when they were being invaded by the barbarians. He might as well use his knowledge to his advantage to earn the Tagu Tribe’s trust instead.

In a manner of speaking, An Qianshan had been a tribal leader himself and had brought the An clan’s business to new heights. While the northern barbarians were less reasonable and refined than civilized folk, they obeyed their tribal chief without question and gave it their all. As such, Tagulang’s support went a long way. The tribespeople were much easier to work with compared to the opportunistic employees he once hired back home.

Within two short years, the Tagu Tribe was completely renewed, amassing power and influence. They made quite a reputation for themselves among the other northern barbarian tribes.

Apart from that, An Qianshan was able to guide Tagulang’s cultivation despite only being at the River Aura Stage himself. The gigant had mostly cultivated by instinct before they met and was able to reach the Tide Aura Stage. His innate, heaven-blessed power also granted him a bloodline wonder called Steel Body.

An Qianshan taught him the breathing technique from his own clan’s martial manuals, only to notice that while the gigant’s talent wasn’t even a tenth of his own son’s, it was tens of times better than his own! It took almost no time at all for Tagulang to gain basic mastery over the technique. Soon, he reached the Fortification Realm. It was only a matter of time for him to reach the Clearing Realm.

The gigant, who had become an intermediate Fortification martialist with two wonders, began to hold quite a bit of sway among the intermediate and small tribes. While one could only claim to be a large tribe if one had a Clearing Realm member, neither Tagulang nor An Qianshan had even imagined that they’d reached those heights.

Clearing Realm martialists were adepts, and as far as the layfolk who didn’t interact with people from large sects were concerned, adepts were the most powerful people they would ever encounter! That was also why word of An Jing defeating three adepts spread that quickly. Had that been a sage instead, most of the layfolk wouldn’t even understand how much stronger they were and likely wouldn’t find it all that shocking.

Strange... No matter how hard I tried to study the An clan’s martial manual, I’m not able to make any headway. Yet, other people don’t seem to have any issue. Is it a problem with me? Or our ancestors?

From time to time, An Qianshan did also think about whether what he was doing was akin to aiding an enemy and betraying his country. But when he thought about it more, he was just trying to survive. Grand Chen was the one that abandoned us first. It wasn’t like we chose to be left behind. Not to mention, if the Tagu Tribe doesn’t grow strong enough, I wouldn’t be able to make use of their influence to find my wife and child.

Through all that time, An Qianshan firmly believed that his wife and son hadn’t perished in the initial chaos that resulted from the snow calamity. But the great exodus from their lands caused him to give up on personally tracking both of them down. Given his level of power, he could achieve nothing by running around and crying out their names. He was a subject of the empire, after all, and knew that organizational teamwork far surpassed the capabilities of an individual. Without the Tagu Tribe’s channels, he wouldn’t have gotten news of his son from the merchants within Grand Chen.

”Brother An, your son, my nephew, true warrior!” Tagulang had taken the letter from An Qianshan and read it intently before returning it. ”Killing adepts while still at the Fortification Realm, huh? Even if I reach the peak of the Fortification Realm, I won’t even last a single cut against an adept.”

”Maybe the news has been exaggerated,” An Qianshan said, breathing out a deep sigh. Though he said that, he knew better than anyone how outstanding An Jing had been even as a child. He fully believed that his son would be capable of such a feat. The only issue was that the northern frontier of the current day was no longer what it used to be. It was filled with barbarians, feral beasts and sprites. An Qianshan would be devoured before he even traveled a hundred li.

”What do you plan to do?” Tagulang asked, staring intensely at him. ”Are you going back to Grand Chen to look for your son?”

”Of course not. While the northern frontier appears dangerous, the only threats we really face are military skirmishes. The real scary stuff is happening all around my son. If I’m not careful, I’d be torn to shreds all too easily.” An Qianshan knew far more about the nature of divine arcs than a backwater tribesman like Tagulang.

He closed his eyes in thought and shook his head. ”No... It’s enough that I know he’s doing well. I won’t be of much help to him or my wife. Rushing there without thought would only make me a burden for them. While I’ve never been much of a dignified father to him, I can’t allow myself to weigh him down.”

When he opened his eyes, they were no longer clouded. ”What we need to do is to focus on the plan. Brother Ta, while we still have quite a bit of supplies and wealth, the tribespeople are becoming restless. Based on my predictions, the Irondawn Tribes and Grand Chen’s forces will stand off against each other for quite a long time. It’s going to be a repeat of the northern expedition years ago.

”The tribes that are all too eager to raid and fight will end up ground to paste. Tagu is still a small tribe, even with the renown we’ve gained recently. On a battlefield such as this, we’re no different than the sunken sediment at the bottom of the Unfreezing River.

”What we should be doing is pull back and conserve. There’s no point pillaging the cities that Grand Chen has abandoned. Instead, our main objective should be to turn back. We’ll avoid Grand Chen’s vanguard and the territory of the larger tribes to gather rogue warriors from scattered tribes without anyone noticing. Even if we’re called to join the battle, we can advance at a slow pace and observe the situation as it develops. What we should focus on now is rest and recuperation.”

”Very well,” the gigant said with a confident nod. ”We’ll do as you say, Brother.”

***

While An Jing’s name didn’t spread to all corners of the world, he did become a hot topic in the northwestern and northern frontiers. Oddly, however, the martialists of Grand Chen that scoured the many cities in the northern frontier and even the wilderness didn’t detect a single trace of him. Perhaps that was to be expected for someone even the demonic cult had trouble tracking down.

Though many factions had wanted to get a head start on recruiting An Jing, they thought twice and figured that trying to force their way to interfere with a divine-arc bearer’s affairs wasn’t necessarily a good idea. If they were fated to meet, they would. If they didn’t manage to encounter him despite their best efforts, then it was simply not part of their destinies to cross paths. While some factions persisted in the search at first, most of them gave up after a month had passed.

It was around that time when An Jing, after finishing all sorts of preparations, gradually emerged from the snowscape. He wasn’t afraid of any challengers coming his way nor people spying on his every move. However, he wasn’t out there looking for trouble to jump into either.

He had spent the past month recovering his injuries and taking stock of his loot. He also went back to Skysource for an important errand: buying a void artifact at the black market.