Destiny in Cinders

Chapter 388: Who’s the Real Killer?

”My subordinates are at a manor to the south. I didn’t ask them to come with me,” Bai Qinghan honestly said. ”I’m worried that you’ll kill them all. Even though I don’t think they’d mind it, they are still part of the foundations I rely on. I don’t want to expend them so wastefully.”

”Just have them come here to help out,” An Jing said. ”I’m not someone who kills anyone on sight. What we need more now is stability. With more manpower, we’d be able to stabilize the city faster and save even more people.”

”Oh?” Bai Qinghan seemed taken aback. ”I thought that you got even more bloodthirsty after what you experienced in Keensight. I didn’t expect that reaction from you.”

An Jing shook his head softly. ”Like you said, your subordinates come from Profound Yin Peak. They’ve been awaiting the arrival of their fate the whole time at Heavenly Will Mountain and didn’t commit any atrocities, so I have no reason to kill them.”

He turned back to look at the city of Riverside that looked much bleaker and more dilapidated than before and sighed. ”At the end of the day, while Bejeweled’s snowfield bandits are rather contemptible, they only killed at most tens to a hundred people. Even the bandits of my old home couldn’t have harmed more than a thousand people. In Grand Chen, however, even a casual change in administrative policy can affect the lives of a hundred times that number of people.”

He looked at the distant part of the city that had been reduced to rubble. It was where the administration’s offices used to stand. In a sardonic tone, he said, ”And yet, I look bloodthirsty to you? Do you think I’ve killed more than five hundred people in all my life? What about the officials back at my old home that didn’t inform us about the incoming snow calamity despite knowing about it the whole time in the name of protecting so-called peace? That sole decision has easily resulted in the preventable deaths of tens of thousands of people across hundreds of villages.

”Then, the army of the empire suddenly decided to retreat from the northern frontier without warning, allowing Greenjade Pass and the city of Cloudmidst to be taken by the northern barbarians, displacing an even larger number of people. The deaths that resulted from these incidents easily numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Lastly, the standing troops of the various prefectures also set up checkpoints at their borders to prevent refugees from passing through. Try guessing how it all ended.”

Bai Qinghan didn’t say a word. There was no need for her to guess; she had experienced the exact consequences herself.

Knowing that much, An Jing calmly said, ”It’s all gone. It’s not just nine out of ten people that perished in the northern frontier. Instead, the entire population is gone, either managing to migrate south, getting taken captive by the Irondawn Tribes, or simply dying in their homes. This kind of loss of life isn’t something that bandits or barbarians are capable of even if they kill nonstop with wild abandon. The Irondawn Tribes didn’t even need to break a sweat to conquer vast numbers of walled towns and settlements with the population of the northern frontier simply gone. They dug up the villages and cities buried underneath the snow as a result of Grand Chen’s neglect, exploiting all the precious resources there and enriching their tribes rapidly. That’s what real killing looks like, and we should know this better than anyone.”

”I understand, Senior Disciple.” She looked pensively at the muddy puddle on the ground. ”Only systemic evil is capable of wiping out life on this scale. There’s no way that a single person, no matter how wild or mad, would be able to cause nearly as much suffering as the system itself is capable of.”

”That’s right. On the flip side, systemic order is the only way we can get things done on this scale. Grand Chen has abandoned Riverside, leaving it void of order. So, I will be the one to take it over and restore a semblance of it. However, I don’t have any subordinates of my own. While the folks of Hanlang Wayguard Logistics are reliable, they number far too few. Qinghan, call your subordinates here, even the cultists. All I care about is that they help me rebuild the order I desire and help save more people than I alone am capable of. I will not kill them as long as they listen to my orders and don’t oppress the commonfolk.”

”Got it.” She nodded and immediately went off to summon her subordinates.

”One moment,” An Jing said, suddenly recalling something. ”You’re not at the Fortification Realm yet, right?”

She nodded. ”My Silent Moon Illumination is a lifearc wonder, separate from the five wonders I should manifest in my body. I haven’t properly stepped into the Fortification Realm yet.”

”That’s perfect.” He had just been thinking that it was a shame that his own experience couldn’t help You Ruhui break through because her advancement happened so suddenly from the transfer of dragon qi. He didn’t want Bai Qinghan to miss out on exploiting his experience, so he made sure to tell it to her before she made her attempt. ”If you’re talented enough and manage to develop your soul, you don’t have to follow the common schema of manifesting bodily wonders first and your soul wonder last. By starting with the soul wonder, it will be tempered each time you manifest a successive bodily wonder. Your body itself will also become tougher when you have a powerful soul to anchor it down. At the end of the day, both your body and soul will benefit from doing things this way.”

He pulled open his outer robes and exposed the Netherscale armor he wore within. ”Come to think of it, there was some kind of malicious noise in the background when I was fighting the fiend followers earlier, constantly muttering and whispering. Apart from being able to resist fiend qi thanks to the unique properties of this armor, my soul was also strong enough to isolate me from the negative mental influence of that noise. I was so focused on killing all of them that I didn’t even notice something trying to influence my mind at that point. I probably have my strong soul to thank for that.”

Nonono there’s no way! Bai Qinghan thought. This isn’t something you can explain just by having a strong soul and will! If you can resist heavenly fiends just by having a strong will, there’s no way that so many powerful cultivators with forged dao hearts still crumbled before the fiends! Senior Disciple seems to have trouble explaining this though... Perhaps he isn’t susceptible to the corruptive influences of heavenly fiends after all... As expected of Senior Disciple An Jing.

An Jing, still oblivious to Bai Qinghan’s inflated image of him, continued giving advice. ”The only shortcoming of this method is that few people are truly talented enough when it comes to the soul to make use of it. Naturally, I meet the conditions, and I believe that you could give it a try too, given that you awakened your ability at the same time you awakened your lifearc.”

”I will do as you say, Senior Disciple.” Bai Qinghan bowed to him formally, giving him the false impression that he was still a member of the cult.

What in the world is with these people? Little Bai is one thing, but if another random person from the cult bows to me like that again, I’ll start wondering if I’ve properly betrayed them at all!

Bai Qinghan and Xu Tai left to summon their subordinates. They would probably arrive rather quickly, considering the travel speed of martialists. Before help arrived, An Jing wanted to make an inventory of his spoils. He had truly obtained quite a large haul from Mo Li and the leader of the fiend followers. After that, he would go check on his mother.

But right as he turned around and saw the carcass of the serpent that had been on the brink of transforming into a wyrm, he was reminded of something even more urgent. That’s right, I have to deal with storing and sealing dragon qi. Time to talk to Ruhui.

But before he even made the connection, the imperial blood droplet in his sea of consciousness trembled with You Ruhui’s excited voice. ”An Jing! An Jing! Good news!”

”Good news? What kind?”

The reply she gave sounded too much like a fateful decree to be a coincidence. ”When Ancestral Dragon Hall saw that I managed to manifest True Martial Spine, they gave me all the tomes they have related to the True Dragon Spine wonder! Do you need them? I can transfer all the information to you right now!”