Destiny in Cinders

”So this is the chief wayguard that managed to lose my clan’s cargo?” The young master looked rather handsome, clad in white robes and sporting a purple-crimson ribbon in his hair. From his finely decorated air, it was clear that he was a scion from a well-known clan. He was seated on a grand, luxurious chair, having his feet massaged by two beauties. ”You have quite the reputation. A shame that your strength doesn’t live up to it.”

Even though Xu Tai was ready for this to some extent, he almost did a double take when he heard those brazen words. However, his extensive experience allowed him to immediately notice the way the youth’s legs were kept somewhat apart, a sign of constant horseriding. His skin didn’t seem particularly smooth or supple either. Though fair, it lacked the softness of skin that was sheltered from the elements. Instead, it had the dry, powdery pallor of someone exposed to the frosty winds outdoors.

Recalling the butler’s military air, Xu Tai had a few guesses as to who this could be. He wants to feign being a spoiled rich kid in silk pants, huh? I’ll play along, then.

”First of all, those goods weren’t purchased by your clan,” Xu Tai said with suppressed rage. ”The supplies are the combined goodwill of the people in the area who wish to help out their old home. Since I lost it, I will naturally make it up to them. What’s more concerning right now is the presence of fiendspawns and the True Fiend Cult!”

”Got it,” said the young master with a look of annoyance. ”It still sounds like a nonsense excuse to me, but let’s pretend I believe you. Tsk, so much for Mister Good as Gold. I thought you were a good man. Seems like your good reputation is ill deserved. Oh well. Just let me know how much money you want. Uncle Wen, reward him for what he thinks he’s worth.”

”I don’t want money. I have come on behalf of the cityfolk,” Xu Tai said. He didn’t need to fake his rage at all; it was completely genuine. He smirked and said, ”If you have the money to spare on me, you would be better off treating the cityfolk better. There’s no way that this bloodsucking business is sustainable. Are you trying to drain them till they’re dead?”

”Heh.” The youth looked at him with disapproval. ”These lowly people came flocking from who-knows-where. You don’t know how much it already cost us to protect them. We let them stay in the city away from the beast tide and snow calamity. What’s wrong with charging them for the expenses they’re incurring on us? What else would you have them do? At the end of the day, all they have to worry about is figuring out how to get the money to pay for the food they’re consuming, unlike us who have to maintain and run the city. In fact, if they left the city much earlier, they would have rendered service to the city!”

Xu Tai didn’t say another word and immediately kicked the door open to leave, stunning the two beauties by the youth’s side. The young man sent them away to rest. Once only he and the butler were left in the room, the youth said, ”Good as Gold, huh? The rumors about him were true. That’s quite a bit of patience he has there.”

The so-called ”Uncle Wen” said in a helpless tone, ”Why would you go to those lengths, Young Master? It was a risk you didn’t need to take. If you were worried that he knew about our cooperation with the True Fiend Cult, there was no need for you to put up that act to instigate him into attacking you. You only had to give the order for us to kill him out there in the hall.”

”He has to die, alright, but not within the hall. Ideally, I want him dealt with when he’s in my presence,” the young master said as he shook his head. ”The formation discs from the divine capital are still outside and we can’t risk breaking it in a fight. Even my grandfather won’t be able to bear the consequences of that, let alone either of us.

”I was trying to instigate him to see if there’s others with him. It’s already incredibly odd that a peak Fortification martialist came to question us alone. If he was working with someone, there had to be a clue. From what I could tell from his reaction, that seems to be the case. But he’s not aware of my identity nor of the one he’s working with. Perhaps he’s been sent here as cannon fodder to test us out.”

The butler nodded slightly. ”It’s true. We can’t afford to cause the general any trouble. But that man does speak some truth. If we continue to fleece the citizens, we’ll create more and more unstable factors. Isn’t it about time to get them to stop?”

Annoyed, the youth said, ”There’s no way that’s the case. Uncle Wen, you’ve been in the military for far too long and have only dealt with obedient soldiers, so you don’t understand how management is done here. It’s true that we don’t need to scrape the bottom of the barrel, but we have to offer our employees some incentive one way or another. Otherwise, they wouldn’t put any initiative into their work. Not to mention...”

The youth revealed a hateful expression as he shook his head. ”The food we sell is tainted and fertilized with manure. At least we get to clear them out in exchange of money since the rural bumpkins here don’t mind eating trash like that. I can’t stand storing those dirty rations in our warehouses. Had my grandfather not tasked me with this mission, I wouldn’t have stayed at this backwater where they don’t even know how to use terrestrial-vein qi and don’t serve rich, warm rice. I would’ve returned to the divine capital ages ago!”

They hadn’t noticed the inconspicuous voice recorder Xu Tai planted as he flipped out and left in a rage. It didn’t give off any spell ripples at all, hidden within a nearby potted plant and capturing every word of their conversation and transmitting it to the other end.

An Jing crushed the receiver when he arrived at the streets of downtown. He was so mad that he couldn’t help but laugh. ”I thought he was just pretending to be some spoiled rich brat. Turns out that he actually is one! I see we have a noble brat from the divine capital here, huh? They’re way scarier than average spoiled rich kids.”

Though, some questions remained unanswered, like which clan this young master hailed from, who that general was and what kind of mission they were tasked to complete. What could be so important that the young master from the divine capital who ostensibly wanted to stay out of trouble would risk working with the True Fiend Cult?

Those details were minor, but An Jing was never someone who stopped acting just because he didn’t have a clear picture of the situation, having quite the restless streak. You can’t bear to stay in this rural place any longer, huh? Don’t worry, you won’t be here for long. In fact, I’ll send you off on your way to the next life.

He took a deep breath and leaped away, kicking a martialist in a food carriage into a hole in the wall. Then, he cut off the reins and shooed the horses away.

An Jing set his foot firmly in the driver’s position and used Qiform Arsenal to reinforce the seat around him using Evenstar lethal qi. He conjured a white projection of light that floated beside the carriage, converting it into a makeshift armored vehicle in the form of a massive dump truck.

Then, the qi-reinforced vehicle with massively increased mass accelerated gradually to full speed across the snowy road without any man or beast pushing it, barreling straight for the building where Bejeweled Traders Guild operated! To the afterlife you all go!