Destiny in Cinders

Yvelbane focused a little more and said with certainty, ”I think it’s reacting to the snow calamity’s energy and gradually awakening!”

”The snow calamity?” An Jing was puzzled.

”An Jing, stop. Focus on feeling the spirit qi of Void Embrace!”

Though An Jing didn’t quite understand why, he did as he was told when he heard the sword soul’s serious tone, stopping to sense the environment around him. The first thing he felt was the dense and cold spirit qi of the environment, coupled with fiend qi that was two to three times higher in concentration compared to Keensight’s!

”How in the world is it so dense?!” An Jing’s eyes snapped open. He was just as shocked as Yvelbane. ”Don’t tell me that the northern frontier has always been like this...”

While An Jing was a native of Hanhai born in the northern frontier, he hadn’t begun his cultivation back then, so he wasn’t able to sense spirit or fiend qi at all. But when he suppressed his lifearc from purifying the qi around him, it was immediately apparent that the fiend qi in the northern frontier was much denser than the northwest’s! In fact, there was something else about this fiend qi...

An Jing looked ahead to the endless snowy mountains up ahead. They were in the direction of the north, the same direction from which the snow calamity had come. His eyes saw nothing but a raging storm of ivory snow, but his spirit sight revealed a dense inky blue stream of fiend qi that came blowing from the north all over the place. How in the world could there be such a terrifying amount of fiend qi like this?

”There’s so much of it that I can barely see any trace of unpolluted spirit qi!” An Jing was nothing if not flabbergasted. He was already shocked enough by the realization that Void Embrace was filled with fiend qi back at Xishan, but he had no idea that it could get much worse at the northern frontier.

”This isn’t all!” Yvelbane carefully sensed the surrounding qi and said, ”This fiend qi... is far too normal. In fact, there’s something about the fiend qi that feels distinct from Void Embrace’s own. In fact, it’s similar to the fiend qi from Skysource! It’s the one I’m much more familiar with!”

A sword insignia appeared between An Jing’s eyes, serving like an eye for the sword soul as it analyzed the situation. The fiend qi that was native to Void Embrace was akin to an inert gas, not reacting to anything else even though it existed. Only the strongest karmic interaction such as the purification process of lifearcs could convert them into qi that people could use.

The newly formed fiend qi that awakened along with the snow calamity, on the other hand, resembled a corrosive toxin. It threatened to react violently with everything in existence to create all sorts of hateful aberrations! But due to the sheer density of Void Embrace’s native inert fiend qi, the corrosive fiend qi’s reactive influence ended up rather limited. In fact, An Jing could see the process of corrosive fiend qi being converted into inert fiend qi unfolding before his very eyes.

This was the reason the fiend-qi concentration at the northern frontier was much higher than Xishan’s. The reason it didn’t affect the daily lives of most people was the conversion of the reactive, aberrant fiend qi into the inert fiend qi of Void Embrace.

Even so, that didn’t mean that the snow calamity had no influence whatsoever. Void Embrace’s native fiend qi could only suppress the corrosive fiend qi to a limited degree. As a result, the northern frontier and Dustdawn had a higher population of fiends and aberrant feys, not to mention martialists were far more likely to end up corrupted.

”It’s no wonder your fragment is gradually awakening!” An Jing closed his eyes and recalled the glowing spots he saw when he and Yvelbane first arrived in Skysource, the blinding radiance in the darkness that marked three distant locations across different worlds.

The first radiant spot marked the location of the fragment within Skysource. Another one was much dimmer, yet it began to flash intermittently as if it was desperate to signal some kind of warning but was too weak to give any significant indication. That was the very same fragment that was located at the northern frontier. It had laid dormant until the dense fiend qi that the snow calamity brought arrived.

”It is indeed rather close to us,” An Jing said, looking to the southeast as he opened his eyes. ”It’s over there. If memory serves me, that’s the direction toward Brokeblade Mountain, right?”

”The awakening of my fragment will no doubt result in odd manifestations!” Yvelbane said with a worried tone. ”For now, it’s probably not too different from the fragment we claimed from Direlife Canyon where the sword intent contained within is used to suppress fiend qi, limiting its influence to the mere generation of some metal ore with spirit properties. But if this develops, it could result in a massive manifested phenomenon akin to a lightning tribulation, which can trigger a field of reactive spirit energy nearby for the fragment to recover its power. Once that happens, even fools will realize there’s a treasure there to be claimed!”

”We have to make a trip there indeed,” An Jing said, nodding. ”Brokeblade Mountain, huh... Come to think of it, it’s quite a coincidence.”

That was the rendezvous point An Jing had told his mother before he joined the demonic cult, specifically, near the cities of Riverside or Northauspiece. If Yvelbane’s fragment was truly in the vicinity, he could claim it after he met up with his mother.

His goal became clearer and clearer. Presently, his most urgent objective was to reunite with his mother to ensure her safety. Next on the list was the reclamation of Yvelbane’s fragment. As for his longer term goal, it concerned the broken shard of the divine sword that the mysterious swordsman had used, which his master had left in his care. He was to bring it back to the Brightmirror Sect and hand it to Grand Elder Rising Light.

”So, what’s your next move?” Yvelbane asked. ”We’re quite far away from the terrestrial veins where we first landed, so Grand Chen probably won’t be able to track us down. Should we tend to the spoils?”

The sword soul sounded rather eager about it. ”Show me the shard of the divine sword that your master gave you. I’m quite an accomplished sword appraiser if I do say so myself. I’ll definitely be able to analyze any lingering sword intent within it! It’s been so many years, so I’m quite curious to see how divine armaments of this era are constructed and forged.”

”Sure thing, but not right away. First, I need to go to Skysource to recover the rest of my injuries before we look through the loot. Also, the fiend-material armor we commissioned should be ready. The black market’s reopening sale is also coming soon. With how I’m carrying more and more valuable things on my person, I won’t be able to take more without a void artifact. Most importantly...”

He cleared his throat and looked ahead at the endless snowscape before him, devoid of any landmarks. In a helpless tone, he said, ”I also need to secure some means of transport that I can carry with me at all times. Wasting qi essence to cover a distance of tens of thousands of li sounds like a fool’s errand, whether I’m injured or not.”

”Agreed.” Yvelbane suppressed its curiosity and immediately opened the pathway toward Skysource.

***

Keensight had been mostly left intact apart from the area in the vicinity of An Jing’s compound, which had been mostly torn apart from his fight against the adepts. The city had been evacuated, however; not even the insects remained. However, the absence of insects didn’t imply the absence of ethereal spirits.

A ghostly figure that looked just like the Lord Inspector of the West’s earlier disguise stepped out of the nether. However, its presence was completely distinct from that of the Lord Inspector of the West. The dignified air of the person was all too visible even through the nondescript shroud, a sign of the person’s esteemed background.

”Interesting... The Keensight Bell was actually activated...” He opened his golden eyes and scanned the entire city. ”And it wasn’t activated by the order of one bearing imperial blood. Instead, it came from the Keensight Bell’s own will... I thought that this had something to do with that niece of mine, but it appears that this was just a coincidence...”

The moment the ghostly figure appeared in the city, the Keensight Bell hummed softly as if it was greeting someone with respect. The figure nodded slightly and looked in the direction of the terrestrial veins with a smile. ”Dear child, why did you help An Jing?”

The Keensight Bell sent a short, fragmented message that caused the ghostly figure to ponder deeply. ”Oh? So he actually helped you with your breakthrough... It’s no wonder you returned the favor. Don’t worry. I won’t blame you for your fated encounter with the bearer of a divine arc. Instead, I want to reward you with a fortuitous opportunity. However, I’ll need you to lower your restrictions and let me observe you properly first.”

Once the Keensight Bell surrendered its control over the major terrestrial-vein formation, the ghostly figure closed his eyes to sense something. Then, he revealed an expression of shock.

”This is... a really powerful strand of sword intent!” The golden light coming from his eyes was so intense that it almost looked solid. ”Sword intent like this is comparable to Uncle Yueche’s Celestial Dragon Leg Severance...”

The ghostly figure wasn’t familiar with swords and could only make a rough guess. Even so, he was fully aware of how powerful the remnant sword intent was. ”Interesting. What kind of sword-wielding divine being’s arc could he be bearing? Is it the Evenstar Lord of Celestial Ivory or the White Emperor?[1] No, it can’t be. He also wields blood lethal qi. Oh well, the first divine arc to manifest has always been rather powerful.”

The ghostly figure furrowed his brow when he was almost led astray by the sword intent. ”He uses armaments of blood lethal qi and hails from a martial clan from the land encompassing the northern frontier and Dustdawn... According to reports, he’s also proficient in all sorts of armaments, not just swords...”

The ghostly figure’s eyes snapped open all of a sudden as he came up with the most reasonable answer. ”Don’t tell me... The divine arc An Jing bears falls under the overlord arc category... The divine arc of the Ninedawn Armsmaster?!”[2]

1. Evenstar Lord of Celestial Ivory is a reference to a real Daoist deity, Taibai Jinxing, who happens to be the son of the White Emperor. Both of them are associated with the colors white and the planet Venus, the evening star, hence ”Evenstar.” ☜

2. The lifearc here is a reference to a mythological being/fiendgod called Chiyou. Chiyou was often depicted with four eyes and six arms, each carrying a sharp weapon of some kind. In legend, he’s the warlord and leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎), with ”黎” meaning ”dawn” and sharing the same character as Dustdawn (尘黎), implying an association with the Dustdawn tribes or the general location of Dustdawn itself. See more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou ☜