Destiny in Cinders

An Jing’s main objective in Skysource was to buy fertilizers for spirit herbs. There should be quite a lot of types on the market, no doubt with their respective side effects. As far as An Jing’s knowledge about terrestrial veins went, he could curb the side effects as long as he used Riverside’s terrestrial veins to feed into Brokeblade Mountain’s, so he would go hard on the fertilizers.

Additionally, he needed high-quality toxic-lethal-qi-resistant coating for his drones as well as some defensive gear. Since Yvelbane’s fragment was likely in Palespirit Cave, he had to go there as soon as possible to retrieve it. Putting aside whether New Moon Shadow would return, Grand Chen or the True Fiend Cult might also make their move.

Lastly, he also needed some better drones. The ones he had used so far were cheap scout ones that cost some thirty merits each, less than the self-destruct drones, let alone the multi-featured silent units like the Hexlotus Platform. He could use them without being too sparing and wouldn’t mind losing them either. However, they were too simple to scout out risky areas like Brokeblade Mountain. If he could afford it, he wanted to spend quite a bit on a high-performance drone that could take a good beating.

As for the ingredients of the dragonhoard bottle, he trusted that Huo Qing would take care of it. It didn’t matter if he didn’t manage to find all those ingredients, however. When it came to the relatively meager spirit items the automata scavenged from Riverside’s warehouses, they were more than enough for An Jing to trade with in Skysource. He could simply trade them off for the things he actually needed.

An Jing hummed a nice tune as he contemplated what to buy next. Unsurprisingly, something went wrong. He heard a loud, thundering sound right as he arrived at Skysource. The Purple Mansion major formation of Hilltwixt, Magnefire Abyss, was at full throttle. It unleashed crimson-gold lightning bolts rapidly, appearing like a blooming flower of electricity. The bolts left trails of waning light even after they had dissipated.

High up in the sky were lots of dark clouds through which many schools of fish-like creatures swam, weaving through the lightning occasionally. Then, something fell from the sky, but An Jing couldn’t quite tell whether it was rain, vapor or mist. It covered the ground in a corrosive gray-white qi.

”Huh?!” An Jing was stunned by the sight at the other end of the Grandvoid Pathway. He stood there, mouth agape as he looked at the distant sky. More dark clouds appeared without warning, spreading rapidly through the firmament like black ink in water before a flame of gold and crimson ignited across the whole mass, turning it into an intense tricolor mix. Scorching acid rain showered down all over, setting the air and ground on fire. The entirety of Hilltwixt had turned into a sea of flames. Tiny meteorites of flame struck the corroded buildings, turning the whole town into a massive torch.

An Jing’s face flecked with firelight as he widened his eyes with disbelief. ”What in the world happened here?! Where am I, even? Is this still Hilltwixt?!”

Though taken aback, he quickly snapped out of it and withdrew his presence before heading to a higher vantage point to observe the town’s situation. It turned out to be rather straightforward—the city was under yet another fey assault. The only difference was that there were many more feys than An Jing had previously experienced!

He could almost be certain that the ”clouds” he had seen all around town were none other than large masses of flamecrows and ember ravens, formed together in a powerful formation that radiated powerful spirit and lethal qi. They had managed to breach Hilltwixt’s defenses to some extent, but hadn’t broken in entirely yet.

The formation that should’ve repelled the feys operated nonstop, yet it was unable to inflict lasting damage on the horde. The main culprit for that was the bright golden dot in the midst of the feys. It looked like a massive sun.

Magnefire Abyss fired off wave after wave of lightning bolts in an attempt to scatter the fey horde. However, the pitch-black formation of avian feys condensed even tighter before spreading out like two massive wings, at the center of which was a crimson-gold three-legged divine crow, its song as intense as the solar radiance it gave off.

That instant, the pitch-black clouds and mist that spread all over were fully illuminated. One could clearly see the rings of true yang all around the three-legged golden crow, scorching with heat that could scald even the soul. It flapped its flaming wings, causing them to intersect in front of its chest to block the Purple Mansion formation’s strike. Despite that, it had enough energy remaining to conjure up a layered arcane formation, sending ten feather-like flames of true yang toward Hilltwixt!

The strike bore a few more holes through the town’s defensive wall, causing the entire place to rumble. But it simply couldn’t be helped. They were forced to interrupt the golden crow with the formation even at the cost of retaliation, lest it gathered enough energy to unleash a charged-up attack that would crush Hilltwixt’s defenses completely. Alas, the formation that was weakened after the retaliatory strike left an opening for the divine bird to take advantage of.

The silver squirrel on An Jing’s shoulder almost fainted from the terrifying sight. An Jing raised his hand and projected some defensive qi to block the incoming heatwave, his expression dire. ”Looks like we ran into quite a bit of trouble here.”

”Indeed,” Yvelbane echoed. ”A three-legged golden crow with such a pure bloodline... Impressive. This top-tier true spirit is rare even in the Void Embrace of yore. Most of them roam the Celestial Ocean. It’s almost impossible to find any trace of them. Yet, a creature like that dared to gather minions to attack settlements.”

”So that’s the source of the recent flamecrow disturbances!” An Jing recalled that when he first came to Skysource, Metalhand had thought that he was a badlander on a quest to hunt some flamecrows for the bounty. ”So this three-legged golden crow had been planning to attack the town from all that time ago. It had sent the flamecrows from back then to test Hilltwixt’s defenses.”

Now that he thought about it, many odd occurrences had been building up. Had An Jing focused on hunting flamecrows to make some money, he might have happened upon the source of the current tribulation much sooner and warned Hilltwixt about its impending troubles. Or, he could have engaged in some supply hoarding and speculation. Since he ended up choosing interworld trading as his means of making money and even got a warehouse in Hilltwixt, there was no way for him to avoid the assault of the golden crow.

”What are we doing next?” Yvelbane asked. ”Well, I have my guess as to what you want to do, but I felt it prudent to warn you that it’s a dangerous course of action.”

”Hah, you don’t say. I have a premonition that Hilltwixt is hiding some kind of secret. Why else would the golden crow plan out a thorough assault on it?” It would be even more dangerous if An Jing chose to do nothing instead. Recently, he came to understand that the more stability he relished in, the less his actions would be able to leave any mark on the world, and the less he would be able to shape the outcomes according to his wishes.

He looked across the burning town, his eyes reflecting the flickering flames. Without hesitation, he said, ”Not to mention, my good friend is still here in this town. Prepare to enter, Yvelbane. I’d like to see what kind of precious treasure drew the golden crow all the way here.”