Destiny in Cinders

An Jing left the dao-comprehension state, having gained a massive number of insights. He didn’t just comprehend the true essence of fey cultivation techniques and the martial path, he also gained insight into his fourth wonder, Heaven-Bearing Virtue and an extra wonder other than his five main ones, True Spirit Blood.

He could go on to manifest Brightmirror Heart and Heaven-Bearing Virtue. The former was easy since An Jing already had first-hand experience with it after Ming Guangchen transferred his Mirror Me arcane corpus’s power into him back at Keensight. The latter, however, required perfect timing. It wasn’t just about waiting for it to arrive. Instead, the moment would come once he had a full grasp of the subtle changes of the qi in his body by regularly activating his spine-connected meridians and nerves.

To do that, he first needed to manifest nine Qi Refinement seals for Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal. He had a feeling that once he made more progress in that immortal cultivation technique, he would have a much easier time manifesting his fourth wonder.

He also gained another clue on how to find his fifth wonder. The key was that it had to have similar qualities to cultivating a fey core, much like You Ruhui’s True Dragon Spine and dragon qi.

Now that I have a list of six wonders, will there be a seventh too? After I fulfill the four symbols and five phases, usher in a return to the prenatal state and coalesce true-spirit blood, I’ll have achieved a body of dao. Perhaps Embodied Dao is the seventh wonder.

He didn’t overthink it; at least he had a clear idea of how to cultivate when the time came. Filled with renewed ambition, he bade Huo Qing and Metalhand goodbye and left for Void Embrace with Little Cang.

Once An Jing left, Metalhand lit a cigarette and sat down in deep contemplation on the couch, the springs of which Little Cang had gnawed on earlier. ”He managed to comprehend the dao on his own... With that talent and those resources, not to mention his temperament and strength, he’s no different from disciples of peak clans, even one that possesses the legacy of a sacred grotto... But what kind of faction does he come from? Is it really just a local cult? Hell... Can it be a cult that managed to get their hands on a legacy from some ruins of the Dao Court? Surely my wild theories in these past few days can’t all be true...”

Huo Qing came over and passed a cup of tea to the metal hand while his uncle was still trying to figure out An Jing’s origins. ”What’s the point in trying to figure this out, Uncle? If he really comes from some powerful faction, there’s no way people like us would know about it. If his background isn’t that impressive, we wouldn’t be able to do much with that information even if we found it anyway.”

”Aren’t you ever the optimistic one?” Metalhand glared at his nephew with his single working eye. He took a sip of the tea and said in an annoyed tone, ”The more powerful the faction that backs him, the more trouble he risks causing. The slightest wrong move would shred us completely if we get pulled into whatever trouble is brewing.”

Being torn to shreds isn’t the worst part; letting the sacrifices of my comrades be in vain by failing my mission is.

Huo Qing was completely ignorant to Metalhand’s plight. ”Well, in a way, I’ve already died once. So what if I get torn to shreds? At the very least, I would’ve gotten to live a life nobody could’ve imagined by becoming his follower. Isn’t it a good thing if he’s talented, powerful and from a huge faction? How’s working for a faction in the badlands different from working for a corporation?”

Metalhand had no argument against that; he was a member of a major badlands faction himself, the Justice Restoration Army. He inhaled deeply and sighed before turning to look in Hilltwixt’s direction. ”I’ll be honest. The time to keep secrets from you is past.”

He patted on the couch, beckoning Huo Qing to sit. Then, in an incredibly calm tone, he said, ”Qing, I know that you’ve always had doubts about the circumstances surrounding your parents’ death. You’re smart, so you must’ve figured out that there’s no way that new hires like your parents would’ve been wrapped up in a murderous fight among corporate spies. Even if they just so happened to get caught in the crossfire, they’re Qi Refinement cultivators with defensive talismans. There’s no way they would’ve died that easily.”

Huo Qing subconsciously wanted to get off the couch right after he sat down. Like Metalhand had said, he had always had doubts about that version of events, but knew that there was no way he would be able to learn the truth with his own power, resources and connections. If Metalhand and the rest chose to feed him those lies, it would only be for his own good. Huo Qing simply wasn’t the kind of person to boldly demand the truth just because he had the right to know it. He would remember his doubts and keep silent about them, yet Metalhand was suddenly going to reveal the truth to him!

Right as Huo Qing’s emotions fluctuated between joy and shock, Metlahand’s next words delivered yet another astounding fact his way. ”Your parents and I are members of the Justice Restoration Army.”

”My parents... are part of the Justice Restoration Army?” He immediately felt a chill down his neck and spine. ”Wait, so all three of you were spies?!”

As far as citizens of Deepnight City or the general populace in Skysource were concerned, none of them could live normal lives knowing that they had such ties to the Justice Restoration Army. This was even more so the case with Huo Qing’s newfound life of peace and stability. His future was looking brighter by the day and his cultivation only grew. This was nothing short of bliss for the locals of Deepnight City, a bliss that was nothing more than a castle built upon sand now that he learned his connection to the Justice Restoration Army. If discovered, the corporations would wipe him out like the nameless corpses at the black market.

Any normal person would’ve grown to hate Metalhand and maybe even their parents for something like this. Not only have they abandoned Huo Qing in a world filled with hardship, they were threatening to drag him down into the abyss right as he found some semblance of peace. Even if that hatred eventually faded, the sense of constantly falling into a bottomless hole would remain. However, Huo Qing was not a normal person.

”Alright, they have no reason to suspect me.” He managed to calm down immediately, handling the shock like he handled the conflicts within his formation. His first reaction wasn’t to blame himself for setting up the formation wrongly. Instead, he assessed his thought process to analyze what, if anything, had gone wrong. ”I behave just like any local of Mortality Plains. While my current registration with Deepnight City is fabricated, if people look into it, they’d only learn that I used to be a member of the Noontigers gang. Instead, Uncle Metalhand, were you guys discovered? Did anything go wrong?”

”No...” Metalhand was somewhat taken aback by the calmness his nephew displayed. He could see the wisp of his brother-in-arms in the youth before him. He chuckled and exhaled a puff of smoke.

”Nothing went wrong. Instead, our mission has already come to an end... But then, in a way, it’s only just beginning. Qing, your parents were spies sent by the Justice Restoration Army tasked with infiltrating a secret excavation company of the Luofu Group. The Luofu Group relies on that subsidiary to excavate the ruins of the Dao Court. However, we haven’t seen any trace of this company’s employees outside in recent years. According to my sources, the Luofu Group has continued to funnel lots of resources into that subsidiary, yet their employees leave no trace whatsoever in the badlands. There are only two possibilities for this discrepancy. Either this company is merely a shell company for embezzlement, or...”

Metalhand turned to look in Hilltwixt’s direction. ”They’ve gotten their hands on some ruins of the Dao Court that’s completely isolated from the outside world, one that the Justice Restoration Army wasn’t able to get a single whiff of information about. Whichever the case, it is our concern. As long as we managed to infiltrate it, we’d at least have an idea where Luofu’s resources are being poured into. Ideally, we would also foil their plans and get our hands on critical equipment and facilities.”

”Are you saying...” The notion immediately occurred to Huo Qing. He gulped audibly and looked in the warehouse’s direction. ”Hilltwixt and the ancient immortal castle ruins are both related to this?”

”Yes. Your parents didn’t die because Luofu discovered their true identities. Instead, they were killed by another company. From what we know now, it probably wasn’t just a different company, but one from a different group, one that isn’t Luofu that’s also curious about the moves they made. We got caught in the conflict between those two groups and ended up crushed.

”If Luofu’s excavation had been the ruins right underneath Deepnight City the whole time, then it all falls into place. No matter how good the information network of the Justice Restoration Army, we would’ve never been able to learn anything about this. However, there’s still one huge mystery. If the ruins have been here since ancient times, they would’ve long been discovered. But if they hadn’t been here all along, when did they make their way here? How were they able to move underground?

”The only thing we can be sure about is how unique these ruins are. Maybe Luofu didn’t have a choice and wasn’t able to control it fully, causing it to be revealed to all. This lines up with the information we received about the black-market incident not too long ago. Luofu lost a precious artifact that they were transporting. Why would they transport such an important artifact all the way to Deepnight City? There are many theories, but if you ask me...”

Metalhand stubbed his cigarette and said, ”It’s definitely going to play a huge role where the immortal ruins are concerned.”