Destiny in Cinders

Wow, that’s amazing. Why haven’t I ever heard that Grand Chen has a fey ministry? An Jing was quite impressed by the words of the six-fanged white boar named Climbing Snowfang. The names of these feys sound quite cultured. Maybe this refined gentlecreature is even better educated than me.

Still, it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t heard of such a ministry before. The An clan wasn’t a big faction and were on par with village chiefs at most. The highest martial achievement of their clan was the Clearing Realm, and the ancestor that reached it would not last even a second against An Jing, let alone the mountain ruler. How would a minor faction like that even know about the intricacies of the empire?

Not to mention, it did make sense for the empire to have such a ministry. There were many natural landscapes within the borders of Grand Chen where countless feys lived. There were also many folk tales about feys taking human forms and living in cities. Had Grand Chen just been a normal empire, there was no way they would be able to rule over those feys. However, they were a proper heavenly sect with jurisdiction even in the nether realm’s bureaucracies, to say nothing of mere feys in their borders.

”Then, I will get to the point too,” An Jing said. Speaking to a fey of culture made things much simpler. He pointed at the feys who had been tainted with fiend corruption and said, ”If I’m not mistaken, one or two among your mountain rulers have been touched by fiend corruption. Please look into this matter with haste. The consequences are unthinkable. Had this just been a matter of Clearing Realm feys being corrupted, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. What I’m more concerned about are fallen great feys who go on to corrupt their kin, bringing about a minor fiend calamity.”

”I understand.” Climbing Snowfang’s tone was firm. It understood the nature of fiend calamities. Typically, a powerful being, likely the patriarch or matriarch beast of a particular species, would be corrupted by fiends and spread the corruption to their tribe and other humans in the vicinity, causing them to fiendfall. After some time, they would be able to establish a fiend arcane domain, spreading the infestation deep into the surrounding land. While a corrupted mountain ruler would never be able to cause a calamity on the scale of the Hanhai Fiend Calamity, the fallout was more than capable of greatly harming the other beasts around Brokeblade Mountain.

”We already have our guesses regarding this matter,” Climbing Snowfang said, scratching lines across the snow with its hoof. ”The massive serpent that you had slain used to be one of us. It wanted to evolve into a chi and become a great fey to gain a name and be made the ruler of Thousandsnake Mountain. In fact, that one was one of the more talented descendants of the four-winged lunar snake, New Moon Shadow. What we didn’t expect was that its metamorphosis would be interrupted by the sudden snow calamity. It then succumbed to fiend corruption. We thought it was still undergoing metamorphosis in Brokeblade Mountain when in fact it agreed to work with the True Fiend Cult and ended up becoming a fiendfey. If someone like it can be corrupted, we mountain rulers won’t fare much better.”

”Huh. Seems like you all have a rough idea of what’s going on.” An Jing didn’t expect that the serpent he slew had a backstory like this. But when he thought about the core that the snake had managed to refine and use in combat, coupled with the firm foundations it had built in preparation for its growth into a great fey or even crown fey, it wasn’t odd in the slightest. ”What measures did you take against it?”

”First, we had to migrate away from areas hit by the snow calamity,” Climbing Snowfang said. Though the feys weren’t aware of the different active and inert types of fiend qi, this mountain ruler had noticed the connection between fiend qi and the snow calamity. ”Apart from that, we ensured that we migrated in groups of three mountain rulers and beasts. If one ends up fiendfalling, the other two will kill it. If two fiendfalls, the last remaining one will escape and summon other mountain rulers to kill them.”

”And if all three fiendfall, it’s a tribulation that can’t be prevented, huh?” An Jing sighed. ”At the end of the day, none of us have any real countermeasures to prevent the influence of heavenly fiends.”

Climbing Snowfang nodded. ”Indeed. Heavenly fiends take root in the heart. Great feys like us possess intelligence like you humans, so we are less corruptible. Normal fey beasts, however, only have weak sentience and haven’t developed it sufficiently, making them easy targets. Similarly, weaker corrupted feys are easy to spot much like the ’injured’ ones that you healed. Their bodies mutate and their colors fade. Corruption in great feys like us, however, is difficult to detect. Our strong minds end up becoming a powerful shield for heavenly fiends to hide behind.”

”Yvelbane, is there anything you can do about it?” An Jing asked.

”I do, but it’s not something that typical Clearing or even Treasures Realm martialists can use. If heavenly fiends are that easy to detect, we would’ve wiped them out long ago.”

Seems like there’s nothing we can do apart from preparing for combat. Feeling helpless, An Jing said, ”Don’t you hold the position as a fey steward of Grand Chen? Did the empire send any assistance?”

”They did. Based on what I know, the nearest Treasures Realm true spirit will be sent to help us.”

An Jing had a bad feeling about it. ”Don’t tell me you’re talking about...”

”Indeed.” Climbing Snowfang bowed so low in reverence that its fangs touched the snowy ground. ”It is none other than our esteemed, powerful and beautiful mountain ruler, the Brokeblade General New Moon Shadow.”

Though An Jing had his guess, he still found it quite wondrous. ”The question is: Why didn’t it travel with you all? What is it doing leaving all of you alone?”

The six-fanged white boar laughed in an incredibly rough, vulgar tone. ”And that’s the million-liang question. What in the world is the esteemed Brokeblade General up to? We would love to know the answer as well. Either way, Lord New Moon Shadow should be somewhere nearby, doing its best to suppress the fiend calamity. Unless, it has become the source of the fiend calamity itself. But if the lord ended up corrupted by fiends...”

The boar tilted its head, mimicking a humanlike gesture of nonchalance. ”Then there’s not really much we can do to figure out what’s going on.”

”Indeed.” An Jing sighed. If New Moon Shadow truly fiendfell, then they were all better off dead, or he would have to see whether the masters of the Brightmirror Sect could help. It wasn’t something he was capable of resolving, even with the scholar-martial formation discs. There was no way he could defeat a great fey ruler of the Void Divine Treasures Realm. The fact that the mountain rulers were aware of this was good news. At the very least, they weren’t unsuspecting victims of someone else’s plot.

”Thank you for helping rescue our corrupted brethren,” Climbing Snowfang said with a bow. A few sprouts appeared on its back, turning into vines that stretched to the tip of all six of its fangs, forming six completely green fruits with light-yellow patterns streaking across them. ”These longevity sprouts come from my Clearing Realm ability. The six spirit fruits contain the vitality I amassed across my cultivation sessions. Typical folks at the Fortification Realm are able to recover most of their injuries by consuming one of them. As for you, it’d probably take three or four of these to heal a heavy injury.”

Climbing Snowfang was a beast that carried the bloodline of dangkangs after all. The fruits that its ability produced smelled like delicious honey, tempting An Jing quite a bit.

However, he shook his head. ”This gift is far too precious. I didn’t do much, and it didn’t cost me much either.”

”Don’t think of this as a mere token of gratitude,” the beast said, stomping its hoof. ”Consider it a trade offer. I detected a unique hint of spirit wood that seems crucial to my cultivation path in the Clearing Realm. As embarrassing as it is to admit, this is the real reason I came to see you.”

The great fey bowed with deep sincerity. ”I believe that it’s something you possess, City Lord An. Forgive my rude imposition, but may I take a look at that spirit wood?”

An Jing froze. It wasn’t that he wasn’t willing to help the beast out. He simply had no idea what it was talking about. ”Spirit wood? Since when did I have any?”

Yvelbane reminded him, ”Your automata.”

”Oh! The automata were made from Skysource’s evergreen wood! Climbing Snowfang really does have the sensitive nose of a boar! To think that it’s able to sniff out something like that.”

”Well, it is, after all, a six-fanged boar.” Yvelbane wasn’t the least bit surprised. ”These six spirit fruits contain the vitality amassed by this boar fey. They are definitely worth quite a bit. I believe it’s a good trade.”

”Of course. Who knew that some recycled patchwork automata would bring me a business opportunity like this? Interworld trading really is the gift that keeps on giving.” An Jing didn’t give it a second thought and summoned one of the automata, opened its black-iron shell and exposed the evergreen wood within.

”Indeed! This is it!” Climbing Snowfang breathed heavily in excitement as the sprouts on its back perked up like porcupine quills. It couldn’t stop itself from dancing around wildly. ”What impressive vitality! It can even sprout! City Lord An, I won’t ask for much, just one piece! What if—”

It was about to promise more things to An Jing, but froze up when it saw him take out the piece of evergreen wood from the right arm of the automaton before handing it over.

”I love money, but I don’t like to take advantage of others. Take this with you and try it out. Come back to me if it doesn’t work.”

Though the boar was shaken, the evergreen wood that was perfected in Skysource through intense selective breeding completely drew its attention, even though it was just a mass-produced industrial material. The boar subconsciously stretched its vines out to pull the piece of evergreen wood onto its back. Just like that, the evergreen wood released a stunning amount of vitality and took root on Climbing Snowfang’s back.

”Bravo... bravo!” Climbing Snowfang hadn’t expected that the spirit item that it needed for its dao path would so easily attach onto its back. It was completely taken aback. ”Such dense vitality, pure and refined...”

An Jing proceeded to ask, ”Mountain Ruler Snowfang, you are a native of the Brokeblade Mountain Range, right? Did you sense an odd presence from the mountains before you left? Something that feels distinctly like metal-aspect qi perhaps? Or a fallen bolt of celestial lightning that caused an odd phenomenon of pooling qi.”

”An odd phenomenon?” Though it had wanted to relish in the vitality of the evergreen wood, the key to its foundations for reaching the Void Divine Treasures Realm, it couldn’t afford to ignore An Jing’s question and forced itself to stay patient and focus on answering it. ”Such odd phenomena are rather common. Brokeblade Mountain was where many battles during the ancient grand calamity took place, after all.”

”Can you tell me about the biggest one?”

”The biggest? There’s only going to be one answer, and it centers around Palespirit Cave, the residence of our Lord New Moon Shadow. White metal-aspect qi streams out of the mountain constantly, curving like dragons and straight like swords. That’s what makes the cave the most spirit-rich land in the mountains.”