Destiny in Cinders

Given Xu Tai’s strength, he probably wouldn’t have survived in a fight against those white-clad martialists. However, he would’ve been able to flee to keep himself alive, assuming he wasn’t careless enough to get hit by the slender martialist’s frost or toxin, which could spread even easier thanks to the snow calamity.

Fortunately, the five enemies he had been holding off had lost their will to fight and were easily dealt with. It didn’t take long before he rounded them up, breaking a few limbs before tossing them before An Jing for questioning.

An Jing swept the trembling martialists with his gaze and said in a placid tone, ”Where do you hail from?”

The martialists merely exchanged glances wordlessly.

”Looks like they’re from the True Fiend Cult,” An Jing said right as he beheaded one of them. ”What are your objectives?”

One of the four remaining martialists that had just been splattered with the blood of the beheaded comrade cried, ”S-someone hired us... to attack and kill every convoy heading to Riverside!”

”Lies.” An Jing cut off the head of the speaker and turned to the three who were on the brink of breaking down. ”What are you looking for?”

”I don’t know! I really don’t!” one cried desperately.

”Kill me if you want! Stop wasting words” yelled another. The third one merely hung his head low without saying a word.

”It must be something important indeed, so important that you aren’t told what it is.” An Jing nodded and beheaded the two who spoke before putting his blade away. He turned to the final silent person and said, ”Since when did those cuckoo birds take over? Is the squad in Brokeblade Mountain doing well? How did they end up controlling you?”

”It happened around two months ago,” said the older martialist in white. He looked rather pale, but he still made a pained smile. ”I’m not too sure how, but the original diversionary squad has been completely disbanded. They used some kind of toxic gu insect to control us. I don’t have much time left. Please kill me. I really don’t want to... lose control of my bowels before I die... and shred what remains of my dignity.”

”You’re no good man either, but you will live for now.” An Jing shook his head and turned to Xu Tai, motioning for him to carry the older man back. ”This is interesting. The situation at Riverside appears rather complicated.”

Xu Tai was rather stunned to see An Jing at work; he killed them one after another and judged their reactions rather than their answers until he singled out the old man that wasn’t in cahoots with the rest. How in the world did he know? When Xu Tai asked that on their way back, An Jing explained, ”It’s clear to me that they’re either a squad of martialists who were supposed to divert the migrating beasts away from the towns or a group of bandits who have disguised themselves as such. If their aim was to actually steal your supplies, they could’ve just told the truth. The fact that they tried to remain silent means that someone wants their plans to be kept quiet. Since they were able to control heavenly fiends, they had to be from the True Fiend Cult.

”So, what would the True Fiend Cult want? Just to kill every convoy that approaches Riverside? That might well be part of their assignment, but I believe that their main goal was to test out the strength of the fiendspawns. The spoils they’ll get from the attacks are secondary. Lastly...”

An Jing turned to look at Brokeblade Mountain, eyes glowing. ”That metallic kite of mine took a spin around the area and saw that your supplies are all gone. It happened quite quickly. The ones that remained would have left eventually if nobody came back and fell for their ambush. As for whether they would attack you again after you leave Stonegate, I’m not too sure about that.”

”I see...” Xu Tai could see some of the things An Jing had pointed out, but found it hard to draw the same conclusions so confidently. In a whisper, he asked, ”What about this old martialist?”

”He had no killing intent and was focused on fleeing from the beginning. It was clear that he wasn’t with the martialists of the True Fiend Cult.” An Jing was quite sensitive to the killing intent that others directed at him. ”One look and it’s clear that these martialists aren’t locals. If they want to operate in the vicinity of Brokeblade Mountain, they’ll need a guide. I noticed the archery calluses on this old man’s hands, so I figured he was a local hunter of some sort, probably a real member of the diversionary unit. The fiend followers merely assumed their identities. The only question now is whether the assignment to kill everyone in the convoys was given to the fiend followers or the diversionary squad.”

An Jing turned around and looked at the old hunter on Xu Tai’s back. ”My guess is the latter. The members of the True Fiend Cult didn’t seem that committed to carrying out the assignment at all.”

”It... it was indeed... assigned to us,” the hunter said. ”We were hired by Bejeweled, a large traders guild from the prefectural capital...”

”There’s no rush,” An Jing said after ascertaining that point. ”Let’s go back to Stonegate first. I’ll deal with the gu toxin for you. After that, take your time to tell us about it.”

Soon, they made it back to the safety of the town’s walls. The old hunter had been afflicted by a throughspine gu, a gu insect that latched onto the part of the spine behind the heart. Once agitated, it would shoot out toxic spikes that pierced the heart and spine, spreading the toxin all across the body and causing serious festering that resulted in death.

It was almost impossible to remove this gu as it was like a worm that looked a lot like flesh and blood. Once embedded into the body, typical martialists wouldn’t be able to detect it at all, let alone extract it. But An Jing was far from typical. Not only had he manifested Ocular Blaze, he also had True Spirit Eyes and immediately saw the gu. With a single blast of qi essence from his gaze, the parasite was surgically incinerated.

The old man, finally freed, knelt to him and immediately told him everything he knew. The root causes of the whole affair could be traced back to the snow calamity, which resulted in the massive migration of beasts around Brokeblade Mountain. Coupled with the invasion of the northern barbarians, the people living in the settlements near Brokeblade Mountain withdrew into larger and safer cities, Riverside being one of them.

While the beast tide wouldn’t charge into villages or cities in theory, they wouldn’t avoid them intentionally if they were already on their natural migratory route. To keep casualties low, some martialists would try to divert the beasts on different trajectories to protect key infrastructure, such as herbal farms and mines. There were many such diversionary squads, mainly comprising martialists who frequently hunted feys and beasts in the area.

”The scholar-officials and martial-officials near Brokeblade Mountain have all left. Bejeweled runs the city now and they have a good relationship with those at the prefectural capital. They have been appointed temporary custodians of the official seal,” the hunter said. ”We were hired by the traders guild to divert beasts away to reduce casualties, but we were also asked to do some dirty jobs.”

”What kind of dirty jobs? Let’s hear it.” An Jing tapped on the hilt of his blade as he spoke in a casual tone.

However, the old man didn’t dare to take him for granted and immediately volunteered whatever information he had. ”The property values of the lands and industries around Riverside have plummeted due to the snow calamity and northern barbarians. Some villagers have even moved away due to the beast tide. Bejeweled Traders Guild used this chance to buy up lots of key production facilities.

”However, there are still some villages or towns who are stubbornly holding out. Stonegate, for instance, owns a frostjade mine nearby. Its inhabitants initially refused to evacuate and intended to secure the town. So, Bejeweled hired us to divert some beasts from the tide to their town to force them to hand over the mines. If they do so, they’d be paid a sum of money and allowed to leave safely. If they don’t, we’d flatten their settlements completely with the beasts and take over all the same.”