Destiny in Cinders

Jin Yanhua knew her father’s intentions without him needing to say anything.

”An added investment, huh?” She chuckled before her expression turned solemn. ”But Father, you should know that now that these tomes are in my hand, it’s up to me to choose what I do with them, not you!”

”Feel free to pass it on to anyone you want,” Jin Shiqin said, not minding it one bit. ”As the source of the countless dragons and true spirits on the martial path across the ten continents of Void Embrace, more than half of all wonders of the martial path can be traced back to our true-spirit bloodline, with the rest being wonders of the soul and qi ocean. If you wish to spread them, all beings can become dragons. Why else did you think we established Ancestral Dragon Hall for?”

While the father-daughter pair conversed, You Ruhui stabilized her True Martial Spine wonder and stepped into the Fortification Realm. Once she was done, she immediately communed with An Jing. ”An Jing, how in the world did you do it?!”

The reply came rather quickly and sounded clearer than before. ”Grand Chen withdrew their divine armaments, leaving the terrestrial veins unoccupied. Using some odd formation discs, I managed to generate unclaimed dragon qi.”

The growth of both their capabilities had intensified their connection through the imperial blood droplet. An Jing briefed her about what he learned in Riverside as well as his experiences there. You Ruhui listened to the whole thing with awe. As expected, he always takes action when something unfolds before him. I bet that’s a part of him that’ll never change.”Thanks a lot, An Jing. You’ve been a massive help for me!”

An Jing also felt You Ruhui’s breakthrough all the way from Riverside and knew that it must’ve been because of the dragon qi that was transferred over. ”It’s no big deal. I didn’t expect to get a haul like this from killing a pathetic young master. Not to mention, helping you is the same as helping myself. Also, without your ability, I wouldn’t have been able to kill the Lord Inspector of the West at Keensight anyway.”

”That’s true. As I am now, I will be able to cast my ability on you without falling over and fainting unlike last time.” You Ruhui’s power was far stronger than it used to be. Though she had been born with two wonders, they came from her imperial blood and weren’t wonders that could be applied in battle. But with her newly manifested third wonder, she was finally able to make it part of her own power. It wouldn’t take long before she could reach the intermediate phase of the Fortification Realm. By then, she would be able to cast abilities on An Jing remotely without overtaxing herself.

”Speaking of which, Ruhui, I don’t really understand how these dragon-qi formation discs work. Do you know why these martial-scholar formation discs are able to generate unclaimed dragon qi?” There was a limit to how long they could communicate through the imperial blood droplet. An Jing focused on asking the important points.

You Ruhui fell into deep thought before she said, ”Martial-scholar formation discs? I’ve seen them before, and they’re derivatives of the martial-scholar mandate from the Supreme Three Mandates. Odd, why don’t they have the seal of the True Martial Emperor? Without it, they shouldn’t be able to interface with the Celestial Ocean and terrestrial veins. But if they have the seal, the dragon qi they generate wouldn’t be unclaimed either. Let me think...”

An Jing was more than willing to wait. He opened his eyes and saw Bai Qinghan slowly approaching him.

”How is it, Senior Disciple?” She glanced at Mo Li’s corpse and noted the blood of true-spirit dragons within. Shaking her head, she stood at An Jing’s side and looked at the formation discs. ”Is this what Grand Chen was planning to use in Riverside?”

”I’m not sure,” An Jing said, relaxing his brow and smiling. ”But I have a feeling that the imperial court doesn’t have a hand in this matter. Instead, it’s the doing of those under them. Look at the formation discs. They don’t bear the imperial seal. Meanwhile, the imperial court was the one behind the divine armaments’ withdrawal. They also called back all of the court’s officials from the region, leaving this whole place empty for the traders’ guild to stretch their greedy tentacles all over the place. Someone also smuggled in these two formation discs that can replace divine armaments and refine terrestrial-vein qi.”

An Jing didn’t say anything about dragon qi. While he believed he could trust Bai Qinghan, he kept it from her because he wanted to protect her. Instead, he told him his wildest guess instead. ”Don’t you think this whole affair is a bit too outrageous?”

She scrutinized the formation discs in deep thought. ”It sounds like someone is trying to use their authority to force the traders guild to sell off their assets for cheap and pocket them for themselves.”

”Exactly. Grand Chen isn’t wrong to withdraw the divine armaments. It’s more of a defensive measure than anything. However, the terrestrial veins here are important assets. They might be abandoned for now, but the empire will definitely return to reclaim it. It would be a waste to leave them unused, though, so some other party came here to take a bite out of it while the empire looked away. If these formation discs had been allowed to be nurtured by the terrestrial veins for a few years, they might actually become something akin to divine armaments, practically growing them for free!”

Over the years, they would be able to generate quite a substantial amount of unclaimed dragon qi. Were some officials trying to secretly collect dragon qi for their own use without the imperial court’s knowledge? Even a bearer of a lifearc like An Jing’s couldn’t help but admit that this was quite a scandalous heist against Grand Chen.

Then, You Ruhui’s surprised voice rang out in his sea of consciousness. ”I get it now! Look at the formation discs...”

She was completely unaware of the people around An Jing and went on to explain how the formation discs work. The truth wasn’t far off from his guess. Typically, a mandated official would be able to control major terrestrial-vein formations to suppress others with the authority granted them by the imperial court. But at the end of the day, everything from celestial-ocean qi, terrestrial-vein qi and dragon qi belonged to the imperial court. The officials could borrow it, but it wasn’t their own power. Even if the mandated official managed to use it to grow their power, it was still part of the mandate they received from the imperial court, which would be reclaimed once their mandates were withdrawn.

That in itself wasn’t a problem. In fact, it was how things should work under the empire. Most of the mandated literati were layfolk without lifearcs, after all. They should be endlessly grateful to the imperial court that they even got the opportunity to wield such divine power in the first place, let alone claiming ownership over it for themselves. Yet, it was clear that there were some officials that didn’t quite agree with this.

Bejeweled Traders Guild was definitely backed by more than Dragon General Mo Que. In fact, there had to be other high-ranking scholar officials, given how one of the formation discs was scholar, and the other martial. They were trying to monopolize the dragon qi for their own use while Grand Chen pulled back from those terrestrial veins. As for what they were planning to do, You Ruhui wasn’t quite sure. She did have a guess, however.

”There might be a loophole that allows those officials to replace the imperial court’s dragon qi mandate within their bodies with unclaimed dragon qi. In theory, that would put them out of Grand Chen’s jurisdiction completely. They’d be independent people who can use all sorts of different spells and authorities! Even if the imperial court strips them of their mandate and authorities, they’d still have the power they amassed on their own. The imperial court would lose their grasp on them completely!”