Destiny in Cinders

There was a hint of hesitation as An Jing said all that. This was how terrifying a martialist without dependents or family truly was, especially one that could escape into a different world at any time. Everything would be fine as long as he chose to play by the rules. If he felt like breaking them, however, nothing apart from brute force would be able to stop him.

As he said earlier, he would stay in character and play it out fully. On some level, his personality was that of a good person. He didn’t wish to be forced into making choices that most thought were unsavory. Not to mention, having a stable and reputable identity made it much more convenient for him to obtain more spirit items and other resources.

He would also be able to coast on his new identity to evade capture by the demonic cult to return to Hanhai in search of his mother. One big motivation for his desire to break through to the Tide Aura Stage as soon as possible was to greatly reduce the time it needed for him to become strong enough to go looking for his family.

”Brother Cheng!” An Jing said as he rang the bell and called for the inn worker. ”I need you to book me a table at Blessed Virtue Garden just like a few days ago.”

”Very well, Young Master Xuan!” answered the worker happily as he left. An Jing was generous in his tips and the worker felt blessed to be able to carry out errands for such a nice customer.

An Jing took what he needed with him and left for Blessed Virtue Garden, which wasn’t that far from the inn. Due to his big frame and Spark, people thought that Jing Xuan (the alias he used) was a young martialist around sixteen years of age, much older than his actual age. He was still young enough to be considered a talented youth in Dustdawn, which was the perfect cover to justify how he was allowed to travel alone with so much silver.

Apart from shopping, An Jing would spend quite a bit of money feasting at large establishments like Blessed Virtue Garden or Fortune Embrace. He would order a whole table of food and digest all of them with Lifeforce Nourishment to ensure he had enough nutrition stored up.

Huo Qing’s nourishment technique was by no means average. An Jing could tell back when he was digesting the canned meat from Skysource that it could break down food into nutrients really efficiently. The fresher the ingredients, the more he could restore his innate qi and strengthen his foundations.

In Skysource, fresh food was hard to obtain unless one frequently hunted. Void Embrace, on the other hand, was filled with restaurants that served food made from fresh ingredients. Feasting heavily in Void Embrace didn’t fatten him up and weaken him either. Instead, it strengthened his mind and body the more he ate, even enhancing his build, and much of it was thanks to the impressive nourishment technique from Skysource.

As far as he was concerned, the food in Blessed Virtue Garden was better than Fortune Embrace’s. While the latter served impressive seafood and many other dishes made from delectable ingredients from the mountains, the chef’s techniques were subpar, reducing premium ingredients into mediocre dishes. Apart from freshness, nothing else from those dishes stood out.

Blessed Virtue Garden was different. It was said that the master chef used to work in the divine capital, but returned home to Keensight after his semi-retirement. Even the most common ingredients would have their full potential brought out by his culinary skill, let alone the fine ingredients that Blessed Virtue Garden supplied him with.

He was brought to a private room when he arrived. He handed some silver to the waiter, who quickly left and served him tea while he waited for the dishes. It didn’t take long before the clear sound of a bell could be heard, signalling the time for serving. Many delicious dishes were lined up before An Jing.

He started with a few mouthfuls of vegetables and went down on his Flying Dragon Mushroom Soup. ”Flying dragon” referred to an avian beast that lived deep within the mountains whose smooth, thread-like meat complemented the fresh mushroom soup greatly. All the ingredients filled him with innate qi upon being converted by the nourishment technique. That dish alone was enough to last an average person a whole day!

Next came the establishment’s signature roast chicken. Its skin was thin and crispy, covered in fragrant oils and coated in a layer of secret spices. The moment the skin broke, all sorts of delicious fumes filled the area. Though the chicken meat was a bit too oily, it was still fresh and juicy, perfect for martialists and matching the preferences of the folk of Grand Chen well.

The main draw of the roast chicken was its skin. Some richer people would only just eat the skin and ignore the meat underneath, but An Jing wasn’t that wasteful and ate everything, filling his strength reserves for his cultivation at night.

Then, he went down on his white-sugar-coated fried glutinous rice cakes, wine-marinated mountain crab as well as beef and mushroom stew. All the dishes were delicious in their own way, whetting his appetite in many distinct ways.

An Jing was certain that the cuisine in Void Embrace was far superior to that of Skysource. Even though Skysource’s land was ravaged by the heavenly fiend calamity, the same was the case with An Jing’s previous life. In time, the ravaged lands recovered, but he was no longer able to eat much due to his cancerous affliction. As such, he had never truly tasted good meat, at least not until he came to Void Embrace.

After he was done with six dishes and a soup, he ordered fried rice noodles. The texture of the local vermicelli was rather stiff and springy, but they did taste pretty good.

After the meal, he could feel innate qi spreading through his body as his digestion progressed. He even started to cultivate on the spot.

Cultivation in Void Embrace could be summed up in three modes: nourishment, refinement and combat. Nourishment referred to acquiring nutrients for the body and qi through nourishment techniques and spirit items, ensuring the body always had access to a surplus of sustenance. Refinement referred to converting nutrients to qi essence, which would then be converted to aura. Many other abilities such as Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal converted spirit qi to seals, greatly amplifying the potential power of pure spirit qi. Combat was straightforward and referred to techniques like Armorpierce Impetus. The Imperial Earth Art also had a lot of passive aspects that boosted combat.

An Jing was focused on refining the qi essence within his body, expanding the flow of aura to that of a wide river. His aura’s circulation was powerful and unstoppable. ”I haven’t cultivated for that much longer than a month and I’m already so close to the Tide Aura Stage. Not only can I break through right away, I might be able to go straight to training Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal!”

Having confirmed that fact, he called for the bill, completely satisfied. But when he took out his wallet, his face froze. The waiter was completely unsurprised at the fact that this Dustdawner youth had run out of money.

”Young Master Xuan, it’s perfectly fine! We are well aware of your purchases lately. Do not worry. We can put the bill on your tab. You may pay us back when you have the money!” the manager of Blessed Virtue Garden said when he found out. Instead of tossing An Jing out like a dine-and-dasher, he politely consoled him and initially wanted to put the meal on the house.

But after An Jing’s harsh refusal, the manager reluctantly accepted the compromise to put it on his tab so he could pay it back one day. Blessed Virtue Garden had been around for quite a long time. People like An Jing who thought they could afford to eat there only to forget they didn’t have money with them were dime and a dozen, so they had a whole protocol to handle such matters delicately.

Insisting on being paid no matter what was the most foolish course of action. For starters, no amount of shouting or wrangling could make a penniless person cough out cash. Not to mention, there was no benefit to angering a regular customer. Additionally, people who could eat so much tended to be martialists. It wouldn’t do the restaurant any good to not only fail to collect the bill, but also suffer damages from an angry and humiliated martialist.

Typically, the default response was to put the meal on the house. Most customers were not shameless people and would offer to pay the bill back anyway so as to clear up the awkwardness should they decide to visit the restaurant again. Most of them did in fact close their tabs eventually and the restaurant would also earn their goodwill and acquire a loyal and regular customer, which was worth way more than the bill of a single meal.

Good customer service was absolutely necessary for a restaurant. Returning customers meant recurring profits. Blessed Virtue Garden’s management was all too aware of that, having run a well-established eatery for quite some time. As for shameless customers who intentionally exploited this policy, the restaurant could call on the martialist association they were protected by to teach petty crooks a lesson.

An Jing’s response was a classic one. He blushed and refused the free meal, insisting on paying it back. Implicit in that, however, was whether that was even possible according to his own cover story. ”Jing Xuan” would have to return to Dustdawn in a few days. It wasn’t guaranteed that he would be allowed to return to Keensight.

”Manager Li...” An Jing furrowed his brow and asked in a hushed voice, ”Would you happen to know a reputable pawn shop in Keensight?”