Destiny in Cinders

An Jing inspected the fiendspawn’s carcass throughout his conversation with Yvelbane about fiend calamities. From time to time, he flipped through its innards and even pulled apart its ribs to inspect the heart.

There was nothing weird about this behavior. An Jing was still young, so it wasn’t surprising that he showed interest in fiendspawns. Many martialists had played around with toads or insects in their childhood as well. Against someone as powerful as An Jing, these fiendspawns didn’t fare much better than those insects or critters.

Still, the sheer focus that An Jing displayed was impressive and also somewhat unnerving at the same time. How should I continue this conversation? Xu Tai wondered.

An Jing had already come clean about his identity and desire to head to Riverside. That request was easy enough to fulfill. The goal of Xu Tai and the rest of the wayguard agency was the city in the first place. However, his fellow wayguards were fatigued and wounded, one of them rather heavily too. They weren’t able to set off immediately and would have to split up. Xu Tai, the leader, had to guide the way for An Jing, but he was worried that his fellows would run into trouble without him around. The fact that fiendspawns could appear out of nowhere to attack their convoy showed how unsafe the area around Brokeblade Mountain was.

Xu Tai had wanted to ask An Jing whether he had the time to spare to wait until his men fixed up their injuries before leaving. However, seeing the youth mutter to himself as he inspected the carcass made it hard for Xu Tai to speak up, lest he disturbed him.

While Xu Tai was still agonizing about how to broach the topic, he caught something in the corner of his eye and yelled, ”Be careful! Behind you!”

An Jing, who looked like he was fully focused on dissecting the fiendspawn, noticed that something was off the moment Xu Tai opened his mouth. He turned around and his eyes flashed, causing an icicle that was aimed straight at his head to sublimate into vapor instantly.

The invisible qi essence that shot out of his eyes struck the corpse of a fiendspawn in the distance. A shrill cry could be heard as a black shadow crawled out of the fiendspawn’s corpse, walked a few steps before collapsing on the ground, completely charred and unmoving.

”Huh? A surviving one? I thought I killed them all.” Though the icicle would’ve shattered even if it hit him, An Jing was still quite surprised that a fiendspawn had almost managed to catch him off guard. He tossed the mangled carcass away and approached the black shadow. It appeared to be a fetus of a deer. It suddenly clicked in his mind that one of the fiendspawns he had killed was a pregnant doe whose unborn fawn had also been corrupted by fiend qi. Its vital signs had been far too insignificant and masked by its mother’s presence to the point that it escaped An Jing’s notice and got the chance to attack him by surprise.

”Interesting. Yvelbane, you said before that if the mother of a fiendspawn is a normal beast, they won’t be able to use spells, right? All it should’ve been able to do was ram me with brute force, and this is an unborn fetus we’re talking about.” An Jing dissected the fiendspawn fetus with Ocean Domination and didn’t see anything noteworthy. ”Has fiend qi changed after so many years?”

Yvelbane said, ”Rather than fiend qi evolving, I think this is the work of some other party behind the scenes.”

An Jing rose and turned to Xu Tai and the rest with a smile. ”Thank you for the warning. There’s a town nearby, so let’s rest there for now. It’s been three years since I left the northern frontier, so I’m no longer familiar with what’s happening in the surroundings. I hope I can trouble all of you to brief me on the situation here.”

”You’re far too polite. We’ll be happy to do it,” Xu Tai said, breathing a sigh of relief. He gathered his men and carried the wounded to the nearby town of Stonegate. Given that it was the place that Xu Tai had wanted to retreat to and resist the fiendspawns in the first place, it was quite a well-fortified town. The outermost layer of the defenses was a fence covered in wooden spikes. Beyond it was a dug-out moat filled with sharp stakes. The dried blood that stained the stone wall on the other side as well as the remains of some feys and bandits were a testament to its usefulness.

Yet, even a fortified town like that with citizens who practiced martial techniques had no choice but to move away as a result of the snow calamity and beast tide. However, they didn’t abandon their town completely. Many of the buildings were sealed up properly, a sign that they intended to return one day.

By the time they reached Stonegate, the one who called the shots had unconsciously changed from Xu Tai to An Jing. He settled in quickly and ordered some of the men to start a fire, boil water, gather firewood, tidy up some buildings and treat the injured. He even gave a highly effective medicinal paste to the martialist who had taken an icicle to his upper thigh. Once the paste was applied, the martialist no longer felt any pain. His leg still felt a little feeble, but he was able to walk a few steps immediately. They were all stunned at how quickly he had recovered and hailed An Jing as their young hero.

Xu Tai was also cheering among them. Eventually, this man took the role of An Jing’s adjutant. Though he was ordered around quite a lot, he didn’t think there was anything odd about it. Not only did An Jing save their lives, he was also powerful enough to call the shots. His orders were reasonable and were carried out smoothly without conflict.

Throughout the process, the wayguards gradually settled into a calm state after experiencing the panic-inducing fiendspawn assault. By the time they set up a simple camp site and armed the ballistae on the walls, only forty-five minutes had passed. The anxiety that had shaken them finally lifted. An Jing was so good at taking the lead that he barely came across as a teen at all.

”Brother Xu, take a seat,” An Jing said, coming over from the warm building with a cup of boiling water and motioning for Xu Tai to sit down with him like he owned the place.

Though Xu Tai found it a little odd, he still accepted the cup of water respectfully with both hands. ”With how much people talk up divine-arc bearers compared to us normal folk, I always thought they were exaggerating. It turned out that I was shallow and ill informed all along. Young Hero Jing, you truly are like no other.”

Xu Tai saluted An Jing and thanked him for saving their lives and treating his fellow wayguard’s injuries before taking a seat. The rough-looking wayguard did know his manners. Without being prompted by An Jing, he immediately briefed him about the vicinity of Brokeblade Mountain as well as the challenges Riverside faced.

”The situation around Brokeblade Mountain is worse than I initially thought,” Xu Tai said, taking a sip of the warm water. ”This used to be where the forces of the northern barbarians set up camp. Even though the snow calamity stopped intensifying, there’s no sign of the temperature rising at all. And now, we even have fiendspawns mixed in with the beast tide. I really don’t understand why we got targeted. We were merely delivering emergency rations and medication to Riverside!”

”What about Grand Chen’s authorities?” An Jing asked.

Xu Tai shook his head. ”Once the area north of Brokeblade Mountain was deemed a warzone, the whole area fell under martial law. Many scholar-officials retreated from the frontlines while the martial-officials got transferred to the frontlines and no longer guarded the cities. In other words, there aren’t many officials of Grand Chen left in the surrounding area. It’s practically a lawless land.

”Young hero, you have come to the northern frontier to search for your mother, right? If you believe your mother has made it to Riverside, we have to set off without too much delay. Given the city’s lawless state and the food and medicine shortage, the situation doesn’t look optimistic!”