Destiny in Cinders

Is this the reason spirit qi is able to gather around the natural environment? The countless types of qi in the environment get filtered until only the purest of innate qi form themselves into different spirit ores...

An average martialist at this moment would think of how to mimic the filtering capabilities of fey cores to filter their own spirit qi. Genius martialists might actually be able to achieve something like that and establish a proper arcanum that could be used to stabilize one’s foundations, though these arcana were hardly uncommon in Void Embrace. In fact, many qi-nourishment techniques were no different to how feys filtered spirit qi to form fey cores. Gaining insight into fey cores and inventing a new arcanum to do what many techniques already achieved was akin to reinventing the wheel.

However, that only applied if one only gained surface-level insights. As he scrutinized the tiny fey core, An Jing gained an even deeper understanding. Both humans and feys learn from nature. Humans imitate the laws of nature, whereas feys imitate its form. Both shape their bodies into arcane domains of heaven and earth.

Fey cores of the fey path might look like cores, but they’re more akin to tiny spirit veins that are being forged within the feys’ bodies, an exact analog of spirit veins found in nature. They aren’t born with it, but rather, the little spirit-vein networks form in their bodies from long periods of spirit-qi accumulation, settling into enduring fixtures. The path of martialists is similar. Once a Clearing adept manifests five wonders in the body, they’ll be connected to heaven and earth. Maybe it’s also derived from fey cultivation techniques... No, I might’ve gained a deeper level of insight, but this can’t be the fundamental principle of the martial and fey paths.

An Jing denied his conjectures with certainty despite having just gained a deeper understanding. He furrowed his brow tightly, eyes shining as he observed the fey core even more intensely, watching every shift of the spirit qi around it. At the same time, he mobilized his own spirit qi and blended it into the environment gradually.

Huo Qing and Metalhand, who had been talking about what happened in the past two days, couldn’t help but come over to look. Yvelbane and Little Cang also watched in shock as An Jing fully brought himself in tune with the natural environment around him. The little squirrel couldn’t help but slump to its tiny knees and raise its little paws in a worshipful salute. An Jing’s presence had already exceeded those of the mountain rulers that it had seen before, seemingly much vaster and more in tune with the true nature of heaven and earth!

What?! A second dao-comprehension state?! Yvelbane was even more shocked than Huo Qing and Metalhand. He’s comprehending dao again? Just because of the fey core? Is this feedback from his celestial arc or a working of wider fate? No, unlike before, this is his first time entering a dao-comprehension state by relying on his own talents! Not his celestial arc or anything else!

An Jing’s thoughts accelerated more and more. Countless sparks of inspiration burst forth from his mind, completely unrelated to his celestial arc or anything that wasn’t inherently his. This was pure comprehension and ingenuity on his part. ”That’s it! These simplistic fey cores are mirroring how ore formations form naturally. In that case, high-tier fey cores must be mirroring something on an even grander scale, perhaps the formation of a whole spirit mountain or a sacred grotto, hence the separation of tiers from hundreds, thousands to myriads of strands of qi!

This is also how the martial path formed. It attempts to replicate the formation of a blessed spirit mountain and even forms a mountain sect upon death! Yet, what lies beyond this? What are the more developed fey cores mimicking in nature?

He thoughts continued to race. The genesis of heaven and earth and the formation of all things... That’s it! Fey cores are mimicking the process of the creation of heaven and earth, the manifestation of all beings until they eventually converge to a singularity! In other words, the true essence of the fey path isn’t as surface-level as refining something to achieve a higher purity, the convergence of all beings nor the unifying singularity of blessed grottoes. Instead, it’s mimicking the process of the formation of all things!

Before I set sights on the flower, the flower and my mind are united in mutual silence and non-interaction. Yet, it is when I set my sights on the flower that its color appears in my mind. Nothing can be described with a form if there’s no subject to perceive it! True spirits are none other than the first forms of sentience that arose during the eve of the cosmos!

An Jing was struck by a great wave of realization. The true-spirit bloodline of feys has never been achieved by carefully selecting and refining bloodlines that they inherited from their forebears. Instead, it’s formed during the cultivation of the fey core, when one would use the core as a central pivot for the mind to achieve a state of primordial genesis within the body, creating an environment where the very first minds, the true spirits, can arise!

That also explains why the Ancestral Dragon’s lifearc is called Vita Ex Nihilo. The very first true spirit to exist had come into being from the primordial nothingness in the beginning of the cosmos; the dragon was one of the very first beings to exist, bearing the celestial arc of becoming the ancestor of all true spirits of Void Embrace. The dragon’s lifearc reflects the quality of the being most attuned to nature that gave rise to even more true spirits!

Hahaha! So what everyone calls the fey path of bloodlines is not related to their actual bloodlines at all. It was only ever a path of wisdom! As long as it’s smart and hardworking enough, even a squirrel is able to gather all types of qi and regulate them according to the natural world to recreate the primordial state at the dawn of creation to gradually change itself into a true spirit, eventually coalescing all of that into a single drop of true-spirit blood!

Naturally, there were also feys who had inherited their forebears’ true-spirit blood at birth, bringing their innate natures into alignment with heaven and earth and granting them mighty powers and abilities. But if they didn’t possess the necessary qualities to comprehend the fey path’s fundamentals, they would forever languish where they were, trapped by their bloodline and unable to make any progress.

An Jing took out Supreme Truths of Heaven Man from his void artifact. It was too bad that he hadn’t received the tomes about True Dragon Spine from You Ruhui yet, but it didn’t matter. Having Supreme Truths of Heaven Man was already enough.

This vast world is filled with many sources of inspiration, especially in nature. To think that the fey core of a little ashen-white squirrel led me to such a huge realization! An Jing’s mood was excellent and his thoughts had never been more flexible. He read through the contents of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s core teachings, comprehending the essence contained within rapidly.

The martial path of Void Embrace can be said to be an aggregate of various different paths that rely on spirit qi that isn’t fully pure, ranging from fey cultivation techniques, the formation and pillmaking techniques of the immortal path, body refinement techniques and even artifact refinement techniques. The fey path can be summarized as mimicking the form of nature to coalesce true-spirit blood. There are similarities as well as differences compared to the martial path. What the martial path tries to simulate isn’t merely the creation of heaven and earth, it also simulates their formation, operation and ultimate destruction!