Destiny in Cinders

Spirit-qi crucibles were crucial commodities in Skysource, a world filled with spirit qi that was contaminated by fiend qi. Any cultivator that wished to replenish spirit energy outside the safe zone had to resort to spirit stones, pills or spirit-qi crucibles. Spirit stones were treasures and pills weren’t that much cheaper and were only used during critical moments, making spirit-qi crucibles the only sensible choice.

They also had many other uses, such as powering artifacts or as an emergency source of extra spirit energy during combat. Apart from use in daily life, high-grade spirit-qi crucibles were also crucial for critical moments during breakthroughs. While drawing spirit qi out from spirit-qi crucibles directly risked damaging the body, those injuries were a worthy tradeoff for when additional spirit qi was absolutely required.

An Jing had completely overlooked how technologically significant of an invention they were due to how commonplace they were in Skysource. It was just like mobile phones and all sorts of other portable terminals from his past life. Since everyone had one, most people didn’t even stop to think of the kind of technical marvel they used and merely took them for granted.

This sudden realization resulted in a chain reaction of thoughts. First, spirit-qi crucibles were akin to incredibly simplified dragonhoard bottles, which required thirty-six different spirit items to make, twelve heaven items, twelve earth items and twelve spirit items respectively, matching the number of Heavenly Rectifiers. Additionally, dragon qi was also necessary for the forging. They could even circulate the qi stored within in a stable cycle, giving them the function of refining stored qi as well.

Dragonhoard bottles of higher grades required seventy-two ingredients, and even better ones required 108. They boasted vastly increased capacity and many more functions. The best among them were even capable of manifesting abilities, making them candidates of powerful divine armaments.

The main ingredient of spirit-qi crucibles, on the other hand, were spirit stones, which served as the core storage unit. Being simplified and optimized to the maximum, their only function was to store different types of spirit qi. If the spirit qi stored within wasn’t pure enough, it could even corrupt the souljade and decrease the storage capacity of the spirit-qi crucible. With enough corruption and blockages, the whole device would just fail completely.

Dragonhoard bottles, however, were the opposite. They could refine impure qi into proper spirit qi! Thanks to having dragon qi as the core and many other spirit items as support, dragonhoard bottles could implement the cycle of heaven, earth and man and even the cycle of the five phases to purify spirit qi stored within them. Higher-grade ones could even refine spirit qi into liquid, tincture form. If one had dragon qi to spare, it could even be refined by high-grade dragonhoard bottles into imperial tincture, something which could be used to grant conscious sentience. However, even Ancestral Dragon Hall or the imperial court wouldn’t have many dragonhoard bottles of that quality.

”Since dragonhoard bottles use dragon qi as cores, many of their functions require dragon qi.” The more An Jing studied it, the more certain he became. ”Spirit-qi crucibles, on the other hand, are none other than dragonhoard bottles sans the dragon qi. Their fundamental principles are identical. I’m confident that there’s an equivalent of dragon qi and dragonhoard bottles in Skysource as well. We can modify this list of ingredients to make spirit-qi crucibles of decent quality.”

”That sounds great,” Yvelbane said excitedly. ”Crafting these things is a fundamental technique. If you can produce spirit-qi crucibles at scale, you’ll make lots of money in both Void Embrace and Skysource! That’d give you many more options since you won’t have to rely on others as much.”

”It is amazing indeed. If I’m trying to build a proper faction, knowing how to manufacture spirit-qi crucibles will be incredibly useful. But now simply isn’t the time. Dragonhoard bottles, on the other hand, are far more important for now. My lifearc of the Seven Ruinous Luminaries will require me to handle many kinds of spirit and lethal qi in the future. I need an artifact like this that can allow me to convert spirit qi freely.”

He made sure to thank You Ruhui properly with so much earnestness that it made her feel shy. She hurriedly brought up all the things he had done for her before to sweep away the awkwardness. Next, An Jing asked her of her future plans.

”Initially, I planned to find a small island and slowly build my base there. I had hoped I would be able to nurture dragon qi in two or three years,” You Ruhui said. ”But that was because I was stuck at the Aura Realm. Now that I’m at the Fortification Realm, I’ve managed to save three years of time and can jump straight to developing one of the larger islands that Sister Jin owns. I’ll be able to generate even more dragon qi this way. This big headstart will snowball more and more. Overall, my progress has been sped up by more than ten times! I have you to thank for this, An Jing!”

”That sounds great.” An Jing was incredibly happy for her. While he was a good friend who gave her a surprising gift that greatly accelerated her growth, she had given him far more in return. The tomes and artifacts she provided as well as her availability to cast a boost on him when he needed one were crucial to An Jing.

After that, he told her about the benefits of manifesting a soul wonder before bodily wonders, the same thing he had told Bai Qinghan. You Ruhui said that she also had a sense that this was the case. After all, dao progenies of different sects were often selected based on their souls rather than bodies. Bodily constitution could easily be improved later on, but strong souls and minds weren’t something that could be artificially created. Instead, being talented in the soul and mind allowed one to alter one’s body bit by bit as they modified their wonders, aligning with An Jing’s intuition.

”Weird... Why didn’t this occur to me earlier if you managed to figure it out?” An Jing wondered.

”Stupid...” You Ruhui rolled her eyes. ”That’s because your talent is already terrifying compared to everyone else’s. These gains might be significant for most people, but they’re not really worth mentioning for someone like you. I’m well aware of where I stand where talent is concerned. If not for my parents’ death, I would’ve just been a normal commanderial princess with no grand ambitions. I would spend my life in leisure and luxury. I’m not built for walking the path of talented geniuses. For someone like me, it’s better to do things the normal way, taking one stable step after another. Not to mention, I also have the dragonjade to fall back on.”

”The fact that you are able to identify your own path already makes you a true genius,” An Jing said earnestly. ”Being able to pick and walk a path without deviating from it is something that most people in this world aren’t capable of doing.”

You Ruhui ended the call almost immediately, citing the exhaustion of the imperial blood droplet’s power after the long conversation. An Jing was sure that she did it because she was embarrassed, though. As expected of me. I’m the best at giving praise.

After the conversation, An Jing finished assessing his spoils and decided on what to do next. The spoils from the battles at Riverside and Brokeblade Mountain weren’t that significant. Mo Li didn’t have that many things on his person. Most of the valuables were stored within their warehouses; there were quite a few types of spirit items and materials there. He would have Xu Tai and Bai Qinghan take an inventory of them later. As for what he got from the fiend followers’ leader, it was an arcanum called Form Abandoned, to Truth Reverted.

Well, it’s only half of it, but it’s enough. When he looked through it, he noticed that Filthless Marrow was only half of a powerful wonder, amazing as it was. The other half was something that refined the flesh. Once paired together, the practitioner would be able to refine the perfect body, yet who in the world was something like this for?

When he thought about the clone that Liferot used to infiltrate the Crimsonguard without being discovered, the answer was clear. Cultivating this technique to its fruition made one’s body the perfect vessel for heavenly fiends to descend into. Still, there was no denying the usefulness of the technique in its own right. He believed he should at least learn from it.

All in all, he had access to the precious tomes of the Heavenly Demon Cult, Ancestral Dragon Hall, Grand Chen and the True Fiend Cult. Coupled with a home base at Riverside, the circumstances were perfect for him to settle down for a period of study to plan out his future cultivation path in more detail.