Destiny in Cinders

”Isn’t the environment of Brokeblade Mountain this way because of your fragment?” An Jing continued with his tone of praise. ”In a way, you were the one who gave rise to this ecology! As expected of Yvelbane!”

”As expected of me!” the sword soul cheered.

An Jing marked down the location of the ashen-white squirrel and the ore gatherers in preparation to avenge his first drone. Then, he had the second drone go deeper. The density of trees increased more and more as the many beast paths converged together like many rivers flowing to a single ocean.

Right as the drone was nearing its limit of being able to navigate through the thick trees all around it, the path suddenly opened up to a vast expanse overlooking many towering peaks. The most central area of Brokeblade Mountain made for an impressive sight, guarded jointly by the many feys that lived there. The drone’s point of view was so vast that it stretched out endlessly into the horizon.

The rivers that flowed had yet to freeze from the cold weather, streaking across the wild expanse like a network of capillaries, bringing life to every corner of the lush, green area. All sorts of spirit plants gave off luminescent glows. Fruit trees were arranged in neat rows. There were also many fey lairs on both sides of the river and the beast path, packed densely together.

An Jing snapped out of it. Feys were sapient creatures, so they wouldn’t necessarily practice the law of the jungle, favoring the strong over the weak. Instead, they had proven capable of cooperating to organize a large migration effort in the form of a beast tide, boasting discipline comparable to that of large human armies. Why wouldn’t they have their own domains and civilization?

Once a mountain tiger reached Spirit Awakening, it would be pointless to prey on tinier creatures that didn’t possess much spirit qi. It also wouldn’t hold any particular advantage over other feys of the same realm. What else could the tiger do apart from farming or finding another way to make a living? Would it really continue to resort to bloody fights and risk losing the sapience that countless others of its kind struggled to obtain?

An Jing took in the vast fields at the foot of the mountain and came to understand what it truly meant to be a mountain ruler. The many different fey lairs surrounded the fey cave atop the peak, which served as the residence of the mountain ruler and was where the spirit veins of the mountain gathered. A brilliant rainbow burst forth from the center spine of the mountain range, forming a massive crescent arch around the largest fey cave in the area: Palespirit Cave.

”Impressive. As expected of a mountain range that arose because of me! It truly is a blessed land indeed.”

Blessed lands were areas that were protected by naturally formed major formations. The natural formation was connected to the Celestial Ocean from above and the terrestrial veins below, making it incredibly dense with spirit energy and hard to burst through. They were only inferior to sacred grottoes that were completely isolated from Void Embrace by the void.

As far as Yvelbane was concerned, the fields at the foot of the mountain range were considered to be part of a blessed land. But even a place like that struggled to resist shifts in nature’s balance. The snow calamity had caused the many farms down below to wither and dry up.

The feys had long brought away spirit items that could be moved. An Jing looked at what was left and found that most of them were unripe crops or withered roots of harvested spirit plants.

The snow calamity was of no grave concern to the feys, who only needed to migrate away to avoid the disaster. The blessed land wouldn’t disappear even if it ended up frozen. Brokeblade Mountain’s forests would merely fall into hibernation and await the coming of spring once more.

Climbing Snowfang told An Jing about this place because there weren’t many things left there that he could exploit anyway. If he found ripe fruits that hadn’t been harvested, he deserved it. Little did the feys know that he desired far more than just a few paltry spirit fruits.

”It doesn’t look like the snow calamity has properly arrived here yet,” he said with a hint of joy as he looked across the beautiful fields. ”I wonder if I’ll be able to find some good fertilizer to use here. Even if they’re not the best quality, I’d still be able to make quite a bit off this. I should get myself some farming techniques from Skysource. That advanced civilization definitely has some, right?”

He made a mental note of that. Then, he noticed that his drone had reached the operational distance limit. So, he rode Frostwhite Dart deeper into the mountain range to allow the drone to continue flying ahead toward Palespirit Cave. Even then, it wasn’t able to go much farther.

While the vicinity of Palespirit Cave seemed safe, it was filled with many invisible streams of toxic lethal qi and metal lethal qi. The drone lost two of its propellers the moment it got close enough from corrosion before spinning out of control and smashing into a nearby mountain and exploding into pieces.

”To think that there’s such dense toxic lethal qi here... I’m not concerned about metal lethal qi since my lifearc and Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal can take it, but where did the toxic lethal qi come from?” An Jing wondered.

”The four-winged lunar serpent is a venomous snake to begin with,” Yvelbane said matter-of-factly. ”The serpent is likely planning to use the metal lethal qi from Brokeblade Mountain to metamorphize into a whitespirit lunar serpent and reach the Goldcore Realm... Oh, it would be the Sanctification Realm in Void Embrace, right? If that’s really the case, it shouldn’t leave Palespirit Cave at all. Yet, it’s gone. That aside, I can feel my fragment more and more since we arrived. It’s either in Palespirit Cave or the main peak of Brokeblade Mountain.”

While An Jing didn’t understand why the lunar serpent was absent, it was a good chance to enter Palespirit Cave nevertheless. ”It’d be impossible for me to endure the toxic lethal qi at my current level of power. I think Skysource has lethal-qi-resistant gear, though. Guess it’s time to go buy some new gear.”

”And drones,” Yvelbane reminded. ”They’re pretty useful, if a bit fragile. Get something of better quality. If we’re really able to enter Palespirit Cave, it would benefit your Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal cultivation greatly. The metal lethal qi there should all come from a part of me, so it’d be extremely compatible with you. As the saying goes, ’use the original broth for the original ingredients.’”

”Now you’re making me sound like a piece of meat...”

Yvelbane brushed off An Jing’s remark. ”Either way, it came from the same source. As long as I’m around, you’ll be able to cultivate much faster than the missing lunar serpent.”

An Jing needed to buy fertilizer, lethal-qi-resistant gear and new drones. First, he took a few photographs of the view of the fields with his waterscreen before he decided to make his way back to the city. ”I might end up spending lots of time here in the mountains. I have to go back to inform Qinghan and the rest about it first.”

Having scouted out the situation, he was ready to head back to Riverside. On the way back, he picked up the ore gatherers that the silver squirrel had been protecting. The furry little creature had been hiding on the branch of a nearby tree, gnawing at a metal core in its hand with a delighted expression. Its tail was hanging low in relaxed fashion, swaying in the wind. Then, a loud whirr could be heard in the air, followed by a figure flashing across the area. The next instant, the ore-gatherer plant it had been protecting was gone.

Squeaking in a panic, the squirrel dropped the piece of metal in its hand and made a mad dash toward the place where the ore gatherer once stood, only to see that all that remained were its roots and the broken stem on the surface. The plant’s main component was untouched, but the ore content it had been accumulating was gone.

The little squirrel was almost about to break out in tears. It picked up a nearby rock with its tiny hands and turned back to look at the spot where the food stores it had worked hard to amass for years once stood. How would it be able to survive the snow calamity without them?

Its worries were short lived, for at the next moment, a merciless hand came sweeping across and grabbed it by the back of its neck. The figure ignored the squirrel’s struggles and took it with him!

Since nobody seems to want this ashen-white squirrel, I might as well take it along! An Jing pinched the head of the tiny squirrel in midair and harshly barked, ”So you were the one who destroyed my drone, huh? You’re in big trouble, little thing!”

The litter critter had no idea what was going on and only knew that it had been lifted up into the sky above the forest it lived in. It listened to An Jing’s words, though a simple fey like it didn’t understand human speech. At the very least, it could sense that this human bore it no malice.

When it saw An Jing put away his second drone, it quickly understood who that flying ”fey” belonged to and immediately began to squeak pitifully with its tiny paws raised in a pleading gesture. It even raised its tail up high and laid on An Jing’s thigh with its belly exposed in a pose of complete submission.

”Not bad. You have a good attitude.” An Jing was quite satisfied with the squirrel’s sensible nature. He took out a small piece of jadeslice steel and wiggled it in front of the squirrel, instantly causing its eyes to snap wide open. ”I have something I need to do. If you succeed, I’ll give you a tiny piece. Do you understand me?”

Even though the squirrel didn’t fully understand, it nodded wildly and shook its bushy tail. An Jing couldn’t help but give it a gentle stroke. ”Not bad, you’re pretty fluffy. Even though your fur is metal, they’re drawn into fine wires that are as soft as silk...”

After a good while of stroking, he took out Yvelbane’s main body after discussing with it and let the squirrel sniff it. ”Have you felt a presence similar to this before?”

He was just trying things out and didn’t mind if it didn’t work out. Yet, this time, it did. The squirrel fell into a short daze after the sniff before immediately understanding what An Jing wanted it to do. It turned around and raised its tail up high, pointing it in the direction of the main peak of Brokeblade Mountain where Palespirit Cave was.

”No surprise there. Metal lethal qi, toxic lethal qi and all kinds of other obstacles, huh?” He pondered for a moment and smiled. ”Sounds like quite the challenge, but I won’t shy away from it. Come on, Yvelbane, and you, little fella. We’ll head back to Riverside first.”