Destiny in Cinders

The registration of residents and distribution of food progressed rapidly. At the current pace, the entire city would be registered by the afternoon. The food allocated on the first day consisted of the grain he had purchased from Skysource for peace of mind, packaged in plastic bags. Behind them were the emergency grain reserves, which had been cleared out in haste. Displaying them was also a way to reorganize and filter out bad grain.

Throughout the distribution, some saboteurs tried to burn and poison the food. Though An Jing had no idea where they came from, they were either from the Bejeweled Traders Guild or True Fiend Cult. These crooks ended up strung up right in front of the mountain of supplies. The worst offenders were slaughtered and left hanging to rot while the others were kept beside a row of whips. Any registered resident could queue up, pick up a whip, and give them a lashing. This wasn’t An Jing’s idea, but Xu Tai’s. According to him, this was a local custom.

An Jing noticed that the residents were swept up in a frenzy of excitement. Hurling curses and shouting insults, they unleashed all their pent-up rage through whipping. One young man, who had lost a family member to starvation due to Bejeweled’s actions, actually unlocked his hidden potential. Half-sobbing and half-roaring, he unleashed a ferocious strike on one of the Bejeweled’s martialists with such perfect harmony of mind, body, and technique that he broke through to the Aura Realm. This was the nature of the lifearc martial path. The action itself didn’t matter. As long as one channeled absolute, single-minded focus toward their goals and beliefs, one could achieve a breakthrough and advance to the next level.

There was no way An Jing would have any complaints about it, especially when it actually produced new martialists. If anything, it was time to ramp it up. After all, the bastards deserved to die. It was better to let the iron fist of the masses brutally beat their flesh and reshape their minds. And so, the young martialist chose to join the Riverside government, becoming the first local resident to serve as a squad leader under An Jing.

Sure enough, things get done a whole lot faster when martialists do as they’re told and the residents don’t cause trouble. After a hectic two days using the wayguards and cultists to restore order to the city, An Jing finally let out a sigh of relief as he took in the scene. Although deceitful tricks and petty theft were shortcuts to grow one’s wealth, peak efficiency and joint prosperity could only be achieved with order;everyone had to work together under the same set of rules. In fact, even the wicked longed for an orderly world, as their crimes only paid off when it exploited a foundation of order and virtue.

Right now, every wayguard and cultist obeyed An Jing’s command without question. With information transmitted flawlessly and orders passed down without distortion, the entire administrative machine ran like a well-oiled clock, much of it due to the compact size of his team as well as the mutual trust between An Jing and his two deputies, Xu Tai and Bai Qinghan. Furthermore, An Jing held enough prestige and used automata as highly efficient tools to convey his orders.

Peace had finally returned to Riverside. An Jing caught a faint feeling reminiscent of the feedback linked to Keensight. Yet the feeling never quite crystallized, which immediately made him wary. This feedback had now become a tool for him to observe the trajectory of his lifearc, and it was telling him one thing: Riverside’s troubles were far from over!

An Jing already had a few guesses about the hidden threats that might be waiting for him. Thus, he spent much of the past two days venturing out the city to treat ”injured” beasts from the beast tide. Sure enough, most of these fey beasts that had voluntarily left the herd to ”recover” in the outskirts of the city weren’t actually injured. They had been corrupted by fiend qi.

”It’s not too severe yet, but this is definitely the effect of the snow calamity’s fiend qi.” Examining the varying degrees of discoloration and shrinkage on the feys’ bodies, Yvelbane said with certainty, ”Purging fiend qi isn’t difficult. Both the Minor Yang Sword Art and Trueblitz Pentaphase Infusion would work, though it’s hard to say if the latter will actually heal them or simply obliterate them.”

”It makes no difference to me.” An Jing had the feys line up. Then, channeling Ocular Blaze, he circulated minor yang qi within his body through ailment sword qi and incinerated the condensed points of fiend qi on the feys. From a distance, An Jing’s eyes were ablaze as invisible sword qi warped the air and melted the surrounding snow. At first, the beasts let out an agonized roar, but they rapidly regained their vital qi and bowed deeply to him, showing a sign of deep reverence.

Any old hunter witnessing this scene would have been astonished. This was the gesture of acknowledgement from the mountain feys. Should he enter Brokeblade Mountain after advancing to the Clearing Realm, all beasts would follow his lead and the mountain range would answer his call. He was not just the city lord of Riverside, but also one of the local mountain rulers.

An Jing had no idea that simply purging the fiend qi would command such respect from the beasts. He pondered quietly as he continued to treat them. The fiend qi hidden among the feys is certainly a calamity, but with the mountain rulers suppressing it, it shouldn’t lead to a major disaster. My fear is that one of the mountain rulers has already been tainted by fiend qi without even realizing it. In time, when they’re fully consumed by fiend corruption, that great fey ruler of the Clearing Realm would wreak havoc in the area and even breach Riverside.

The mountain rulers were incredibly strong, being the toughest of their kind. By human standards, they were equivalent to elite defenders of a territory. Without a major terrestrial-vein formation, ordinary towns stood no chance against them. If such powerful beings were to fall to fiend corruption, the resulting devastation to the region would be unimaginable. At the very least, An Jing knew he couldn’t stop it on his own without risking being targeted by the Dragon General and other Grand Chen officials lurking in the shadows by using the scholar-martial formation discs to channel the power of the terrestrial veins into his own body.

If it really came to that, An Jing wouldn’t hesitate. Worst-case scenario, he would simply return to Skysource. Across the boundary between the two worlds, any hidden traps would be instantly severed, allowing him to deal with them in a safe environment. But if he could avoid the danger altogether, An Jing had no intention of playing the hero.

Just as he was trying to figure out how to communicate with the feys so they might warn their mountain rulers to inspect their bodies for fiend qi, he suddenly felt a powerful surge of vitality. An Jing looked up into the distance. Faint green halos rippled outward like waves. Visible rings of vitality emerged from the depths of the snowstorm, extending into every corner. A massive figure emerged from the swirling mist and snow. With six white fangs and emerald-green eyes, it was none other than the six-fanged white boar that carried the bloodline of dangkangs.

It raised its head and let out a long, resonant bellow. Instantly, all the feys whose corrupted flesh had been scorched by the minor yang sword qi felt a rush of energy surge through their depleted bodies. One by one, they rose to their feet and rejoined the beast tide. At the same time, An Jing felt that some of the vital qi spent on the Minor Yang Sword Art had been replenished. This vital qi was drawn directly from the universe. If they weren’t in the middle of a snow calamity, but were instead surrounded by lush greenery, the effects would have multiplied.

With such control over nature, it was no wonder this giant beast became a mountain ruler. The six-fanged white boar locked eyes with An Jing and nodded its head slowly in a gesture of gratitude. Then, it spoke in a flawless, perfectly enunciated Grand Chen court speech, sounding even more authentic than An Jing, a northerner. ”You have my deepest gratitude, City Lord An Jing. Without your help, we would’ve been utterly helpless to save these corrupted feys.”

”Huh?” An Jing was genuinely shocked. ”You can speak? And you know who I am?”

The white boar’s long cry didn’t really sound like a wild boar’s. Then again, it was a spirit beast. Dangkangs merely resembled boars, so An Jing hadn’t given the strange sound much thought. But upon reflecting on it, that cry resembled the roar of a dragon. A dangkang could never make a sound like that under any circumstance... So, it had actually learned to mimic one?!

”I’m a fey. I possess both intellect and a voice, so of course I can speak.” Not only could it speak, but it could even imitate a dragon. Its eyes were alive with the unmistakable light of intelligence. ”I, too, am a registered subject of Grand Chen. I’m Climbing Snowfang, a fey steward of Brokeblade Mountain. I’m fond of listening to storytellers, so of course I’ve heard of you.”