Destiny in Cinders

The rumble of the gong announced the start of the battle. Right that instant, Nian Quan drew his sword and unleashed many wave-like sword-qi-infused slashes. Sword cultivators were considered the strongest combat class because even normal spirit energy would be able to exert far more damage when paired with sword intent. Their sword qi also had some inherent power to neutralize other techniques and could be fired off rapidly. Normal cultivators would instantly be put on the back foot if unprepared.

Nian Quan’s sword qi contained a boundless intent of the empyreal river. If the enemy didn’t neutralize it properly, the subsequent streams of sword qi would be able to absorb the power of the ones fired off before that lingered in the environment.

Yan Chengju had lost the initiative against Nian Quan’s swift moves and could only rely on his bluewater talisman to conjure up a vortex to redirect the sword qi. Then, a mirage of a brown-yellow cauldron appeared, walling him off from attacks while he used his crimson scepter and whitefloat dust to shoot out spells like they were a machine gun. All sorts of low-tier spells of the metal and fire aspects like Blazing Wind, Awlless Spike, Fivemetal Toxic Wave, Watersplit Flame rained down on Nian Quan.

However, he was prepared for it. During their last match, Nian Quan had chosen to press on the attack through Yan Chenghu’s spell barrage, forcefully paving a way through with sword qi. However, he had run out of spirit energy near the end and couldn’t breach the defenses of Yan Chengju’s final cauldron artifact.

This time around, Nian Quan was even more injured and drained of spirit energy than before. He could no longer afford to go for the direct route. Instead, he used Armorpierce Impetus to gather all the spirit energy in his body, seemingly for one last desperate gambit.

Yan Chengju took note of a powerful stream of water-aspect spirit energy gathering in Nian Quan’s direction. He figured that this was likely the move that Nian Quan was counting on to break through his defenses. As Yan Chengju’s Five Directional Artifacts technique wasn’t complete, he wasn’t able to defend against strikes that were beyond any individual arcane artifact’s capability to handle. However, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to be hit by something he was already on guard against.

Yan Chengju quietly used Mirage Body. All four of his artifacts’ spirit energy turned into mist. Right after, five Yan Chengjus could be seen in the arena, rapidly zipping around! Nian Quan’s Armorpierce Impetus strike immediately pierced through all the low-tier spells to strike one of the figures, but it was only a mirage!

At the same time, Yan Chengju used a well-practiced compound spell to melt metal into a huge fireball of magma and sent it flying toward Nian Quan! It was as hot and explosive as one of the self-destruct drones An Jing had used.

Whether Yan Chengju had a worthy character or not, he did have quite a number of powerful techniques. The fact that he was able to use four different arcane artifacts containing different types of spirit qi while only having monospirit roots and even compound spells made him quite the accomplished pentaphase artifact refiner.

When Nian Quan’s body was completely submerged by the golden ball of magma that struck the ground, Huo Qing stood up in shock and yelled at the umpire for not stopping the match in time. The spell’s power was close to what a high-level Qi Refinement cultivator could muster and could easily burn down an entire building! Nian Quan wouldn’t be able to survive it even if he used sword qi to defend his body.

”Don’t panic. Nian Quan hasn’t lost yet,” An Jing calmly said as he dragged Huo Qing back to his seat.

When Huo Qing turned back to look, face still filled with doubts, he suddenly saw Nian Quan appear at a different corner of the arena, completely unscathed.

”A mirage spell!” the announcer cried with excitement. ”Contestant Nian Quan has never used a mirage spell before. This is the very first time! In fact, take a look, ladies and gents! His eyes are not normal blue eyes, they’re spirit eyes! Yan Chengju had fallen under the spell and completely missed!”

Nian Quan’s eyes shone bright and azure. While their main function wasn’t casting mirage spells, the advancement of his True Spirit Eyes did give Nian Quan access to a few rudimentary mirage spells. Even so, the power of the golden ball of magma was immense. Though he managed to evade it, he still suffered some surface burns. Streams of golden flame qi flushed toward his innards, depriving him the energy to launch a counterattack.

”You actually managed to dodge that?!” Though surprised, Yan Chengju didn’t hold back at all. He had just used a move that could kill non-body refinement cultivators if the umpire didn’t step in, but it didn’t matter. Nian Quan had already used Armorpierce Impetus and was hurt by the aftershock of the move. He already lost his ability to resist. Yan Chengju channeled some spirit energy and whipped his hand up, attempting to conjure a rock pillar to send Nian Quan flying out of the arena.

Yet, that was the moment when Nian Quan finally smiled. ”I see... So this is ailment qi... The cycle of the five phases...”

His body contained the wood lethal qi from the first injury he suffered. Later battles caused him to get hit by metal, fire and water qi too. The aftershock of the golden magma attack gave him the final piece he needed: earth qi.

With his sword raised, he made his move the moment the rock pillar struck. His face was so pale that it looked like his blood had completely drained from it, cold as frost. His body, which shouldn’t have had much spirit energy remaining, suddenly managed to force out the pent-up ailment sword qi of the five phases from his meridians, leading with a stream of empyreal mortality sword qi! The five dim-colored streams formed a spiral vortex, concentrating everything to a point as they fired off, smashing through the stone pillar and straight toward Yan Chengju’s shocked face!

”It can be used like that too?!” Even An Jing was surprised by what he saw. Though he was the one who had come up with using ailment sword qi, he seldom got hurt and hadn’t fought against a powerful spell user like Yan Chengju before, so he had never managed to amass that much ailment sword qi in his body. Nian Quan, on the other hand, had managed to unleash ailment sword qi with mutually generative aspects of the five phases despite only having water celestial spirit roots! An Jing had thought that his friend would merely use ailment sword qi to turn the tide of battle, but this was absolutely next level. Even his opponent, Yan Chengju, hadn’t managed to use a full set of the five phases!

”What?!” Yan Chengju’s expression was one of shock. He had never expected an opponent who had lost all ability to resist to be able to unleash a mighty stream of sword qi containing all five phases. He quickly activated his artifacts and erected a barrier, but the ailment sword qi was too fast and unexpected! The barrier shattered right as it was deployed, allowing the ailment sword qi through to strike Yan Chengju squarely, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood as he was sent flying out of the arena.

”He won!” Huo Qing jumped and yelled with joy.

An Jing gripped his fist tight. Even though his body’s affinity is purely aligned with celestial water, he was able to rely on it to sense the qi of other aspects in his body and infuse them into ailment sword qi. That way, he was able to borrow power from others to use a pentaphase technique despite his natural affinity!

He had indeed gained another spark of insight. Even though I don’t get hurt often now, what about the future? If I can refine my body until it’s tough enough to handle energy infusion from my friends, will I be able to fire off a combination attack at crucial moments using their energies? As expected of Nian Quan. What a genius! There’s something I can learn from everyone after all!

An Jing finally knew why many ancient masters founded sects to spread their teachings to the masses. Was it because they weren’t talented enough to pursue the path of cultivation on their own? Of course not. Few, if any, could rival their intelligence and sharp intuition. But sometimes, the paths that people like them took were too straight and they progressed along it too quickly, which made them miss certain crucial insights that could only be obtained by slow contemplation, which limited their full potential.

As such, the masters wanted to share their theories with others and use the insights that they could only have derived from their unique station in life to flesh out the masters’ own. It was just like how some people sought out countless fan theories despite having the source material, which represented the ultimate authorial authority and intent. Only when the legacies of a large sect spread far and wide and had a chance to fractalize into countless interpretations could those legacies gain proper footing, allowing the sects to persist even longer. Even if they only discussed these things with people in the sect, it was still better than cultivating in isolation.

A true founder of a new path has absolute confidence in themselves or their path. Either they were so sure that nobody would be able to walk as far as them on that path, or they were hoping that others could surpass them so that those that embark on the path later can become even stronger. Some might even welcome the fact that there are people out there who are stronger than them and even encourage them to constantly surpass their forerunners.

Trailblazers like these are doing something akin to crowdsourcing wisdom. It starts with the others in their bloodline who walk the same path, the smallest unit of family. And when a whole household is no longer enough to push this path further, sects come into being to bring even more people and talent into the fold! And the school system over here is one such way to overcome the restrictive hegemony of clans and bloodlines to rally together society as a whole to walk the same path.

An Jing looked at the student contestants and audience members. Even though the inter-school tournaments weren’t without issue, the system as a whole produced a net good. This must be how legacies evolve.