Destiny in Cinders

It wasn’t uncommon to see a wandering hero cut roof beams in half with a single sword strike or archers kill fierce tigers with a single shot. There were even strongmen who could run through the market while carrying a whole cauldron filled with goods on their backs. These people were indeed strong in the conventional sense.

But in the eyes of true martialists, those were nothing but parlor tricks that were at most useful among the layfolk. Only by nurturing their aura and getting a sense for qi and its flow could people truly be considered to have taken the first step toward becoming a practitioner of the martial path. Once a martialist manifested wonders that allowed them to perform all sorts of mystical feats that were beyond what the layfolk were capable of, they would be considered a proper initiate and master along the martial path, often being hailed as leaders.

Wu Qi was one such master. Decades ago, he invested all his family’s money to get him and his brother into a martial academy for a chance to improve their standing. Months later, that brother of his was expelled from the academy for his laziness, leaving Wu Qi to strive and struggle alone for more than ten years. During his first assignment, he managed to awaken a lifearc: Mountain Windchaser. With that as a basis for cultivation, he eventually awakened the Discerning Eyes wonder that let him identify different types of qi and harvest them for his own use. Since then, he left the academy and returned to his old home at the hunting site, taking over his uncle’s position as the next leader. He hadn’t amounted to much since then.

Truly talented martialists, on the other hand, were able to use the techniques they learned from the martial academies to achieve three of the Five Vistas of Fortification, which would make them candidates for a position at one of the inner prefectural academies or even the True Martial Academy in the divine capital so that they may further develop.

Wu Qi, however, was far too underqualified for that. With the talent and funding he had, the most he would be able to achieve after lots of time and effort were a few more wonders. Upon reaching the third, he would hit a hard bottleneck, let alone awakening all five and transforming the qi essence of his body into genuine lethal and innate qi and using them to clear the meridians of his body to reach the Clearing Realm and become an adept, someone who would fetch quite a bit of cache in the entire prefecture.

Wu Qi agonized hatefully over the state of affairs. Why was he unqualified to become an adept? He had a lifearc and was blessed by heaven! He couldn’t accept his lot in life to stay at the hunting site for the rest of his life. In that moment of vulnerability, he turned to the True Fiend Cult and started to rob other settlements outside the cities to gather cultivation resources. While others thought that the True Fiend Cult had usurped the diversionary squads for their own purposes, the leader of these squads had been in the cult all along. Even then, his cultivation was stuck and didn’t budge in the slightest.

He later learned that the aspects of the wonders he had learned from the martial academy counteracted against each other, preventing him from laying them out throughout his entire body. Essentially, manifesting those wonders had cut off all possibility for later progress. In fact, he realized that this was part of a sinister plot by others to get him to ruin his cultivation! This was something that even joining the True Fiend Cult wouldn’t be able to change, no matter how many archery arts, breathing arts and blood pills he obtained. Yet, Form Abandoned, to Truth Reverted seemed capable of helping him break those shackles.

”I’ll use my flesh and blood as fuel to reinforce my marrow. The flesh and blood will be refined to their essence and infused into the marrow to stimulate regrowth and change my body from within. If this works, I can craft a brand new martial path for myself! Then again, this is a proper evil art. The moment I start, my flesh will wither and I’ll turn into an oddity with nothing but skin on bone unless I manage to get a blood marrow pill. Without it, I’ll just become a statue of immaculate bone and be used as materials for other cultivators in the cult,” Wu Qi muttered, looking at the scripture in his hand.

He had received formalized martial education before and could read and gather information. He was also able to read the official reports of the empire and react accordingly, which was how he went decades without being exposed as a fiend follower. Thanks to that, he learned about how the great clans and authorities of the empire intentionally spread martial misinformation about manifesting incompatible wonders as a means of controlling rogue martialists, preventing them from becoming adepts.

As for the scripture he had and the blood marrow pill, they were no doubt a lever of control of the True Fiend Cult. Yet, he had no choice but to serve them as long as he wanted to continue cultivating. It was quite laughable, however. Once he manifested the Filthless Marrow wonder and put in the work to serve the cult, he would be able to change his identity and settle down somewhere else. Then, he could use his Clearing Realm capabilities to build a new life for himself and become an adept of a local martial school! As for his fellow cultists, he couldn’t spare the slightest concern for whether they lived or died.

”Given how many resources I’ve amassed from the recent robberies, it wouldn’t be hard for me to use this scripture to cultivate. Filthless Marrow... I think it’s only one part of a far more powerful combination of wonders. If I am to reach the Clearing Realm, I’ll have to be careful about what other wonders I manifest...”

Right as he was about to calm his excitement and give the scripture a proper read through, his expression changed. He darted out of the little building and looked in the direction of Riverside.

The other cultist hunters didn’t know why their leader suddenly rushed to the walls of their campsite. All they could see and hear in the distance was the swirling snow of the blizzard and the rumbling of thunder. Wu Qi alone was able to see the fluctuation in qi in the distance clearly with Discerning Eyes. At first, many streams of gold-yang lightning qi surfaced around Riverside, followed by many tufts of blood lethal qi that glowed like tiny suns, approaching him at unbelievable speed!

An enemy is on the way! Wu Qi roared, ”Get me my bow!”

A massive black-scaled unicorn serpent burst out of the little building with a bow slung around it. It had been resting within the small building to avoid the cold weather outside. Coming out so suddenly caused it to melt the snow around the site with its boiling vigor.

The serpent was covered in heavy fiend qi and had eyes as deep as the abyss, as if they connected straight to the nether realm itself. However, it was still intelligent enough to respond to Wu Qi’s orders. This was one of the benefits of helping the True Fiend Cult divert the beast tide away. The cult’s true aim was to capture those beasts and conduct experiments on them.

The massive serpent showed signs of being fiendfallen, no longer having any consciousness and mostly acting on the innate instincts of a heavenly fiend. What was noteworthy was the human brain that was implanted within its head!

Like the pregnant fiendspawn that An Jing fought earlier on, the fetus would also turn into fiendspawn, albeit somewhat later. If it was possible to isolate the psychic intent and only use a physical flesh link as a control mechanism, fiendspawn could likely be controlled by the human will! There were sure to be massive military implications about an army of fiends.

At the hill behind the campsite was an underground dungeon. The merchants that passed by and the citizens of Riverside that tried to leave the area had been hunted and killed, having their corpses piled up within it to be used as bait to capture feys, eventually culminating in a fiend creature with human intelligence!

Wu Qi stood atop the head of the massive serpent and pulled the bowstring taut. Then, he used Discerning Eyes, Corbel Hands and Withered Body all at once. His body suddenly shriveled up like an old tree, emanating a green qi around him. All seven of his capital orifices stopped all signs of activity as his gaze stretched into the far distance.

Then, a flash of black came shooting out of the bow, disappearing with a quiet whoosh. The arrow flew so fast that it left a vacuum in its wake for the slightest moment as it coursed toward the bundle of bloody light coming from the distance.

Yet, nothing happened. Instead, something flashed within the bloody light so brightly that many other fiend followers at the campsite could see it clearly. They looked up and pointed at the sky, tracing that odd thing that flew across.

It was actually a flying sword! The sword case had been charging up the whole time before it fired. An Jing didn’t want to use arms from Skysource in Riverside so as to not accidentally hurt the other citizens there. However, he had no such qualms when facing off against the True Fiend Cult or other crooks like them!

The powerful flash of light plunged down toward the campsite while Wu Qi’s shot did nothing at all. The flying sword that contained lots of spirit qi from the crucible as well as traces of metal and blood lethal qi created a massive crater where it struck, sending large amounts of rock and dirt and even metal shrapnel flying all over the place, sweeping the entire campsite. The cultist hunters could barely avoid it and were instantly sent flying by the shockwave of the explosion. The shrapnel within it struck their heads, pierced their abdomens and absolutely eviscerated them. Some even had their upper bodies blown apart from their lower halves while others got turned into meat paste.

”What in the fuck is that?!” Wu Qi wasn’t the least bit grieving over the deaths of his fellow cultists. Instead, a thick, black-green smoke came billowing out from his orifices and mixed with the vigor of the huge serpent to form a defensive wall of projected qi for the incoming shrapnel. Once that was no longer a threat, the qi projection shrank and condensed until it formed a fossil-like armor of rock around him and the serpent.

Wu Qi was tens of times stronger than his usual self when he was able to telepathically work together with the fiend! The qi of the heavenly fiend spread across the site until it covered it entirely. Looking up at the incoming bloody light, Wu Qi asked, ”Who goes there?!”

Yet, there was no verbal reply, only a calm and measured bombardment that declared his intent to claim the cultists’ heads. What came next wasn’t another flying sword, but a rain of bullets!