Destiny in Cinders

Huo Qing was far too cautious. An Jing and You Ruhui combined were powerful enough to completely decimate the ranks of the True Fiend Cult, not to mention suppress the tumultuous upset of terrestrial veins. A mere swarm of ember ravens and flamecrows that were barely comparable to cultivators of the Qi Refinement Realm would be slaughtered like livestock!

The gunshots were swiftly followed by sounds of the falling ember ravens. The flame that covered the flamecrows’ body made them more resilient to bullets, but the Iceburst rifles’ ice bullets worked perfectly to counter it, slowing the flamecrows down more and more.

The avian feys under attack cawed loudly and flapped their wings, sending streams of powerful gust and flame toward An Jing and the rest. He immediately took out his shield and stood in front of Huo Qing and You Ruhui. The fey attacks were nothing to scoff at. Typical cultivators needed to use artifacts to defend against them. Given An Jing’s current level of cultivation, however, he only needed to reinforce the shield with Evenstar lethal qi to block them as easily as he did crossbow bolts while You Ruhui finished casting her spell.

”Boulderfall,” she chanted from behind the shield. All of a sudden, a yellow halo appeared above the ember ravens, making their wings weigh much more than before and causing them to fall. Only fifteen of the strongest flamecrows managed to hold on.

With the obstacles out of the way, An Jing and Huo Qing emptied their bullets into the exposed feys, downing eleven flamecrows in quick succession. Only four of them managed to escape in fear.

”I didn’t think merits would be falling out of the sky like that,” An Jing said as he picked up the corpse of a flamecrow that had already begun to dim. ”Can’t complain about free money.”

***

Meanwhile, a man with a metallic prosthetic arm was on his way back to the recycling house. ”Curse his mother... All he knows to do is to hold people accountable for this and that. I have nothing to do with those cityfolk! What does Bo Yan’s death have to do with me? Since when was I supposed to answer his distress call?!”

His expression was as grim as the tone of his grumbling, which was to say, like usual. ”And I was even hunted down like a dog after hacking into Luofu’s weapons system... I had to be on the run for a whole month before daring to return, only for them to blame me for that fuckup. How does that make me unfit to partake in the operation? Do they seriously expect a Qi Refinement formationist like me to do the field work of special forces? It’s hard to get things done without connections to high places, whether it’s Deepnight City or the Justice Restoration Army...”

Metalhand had returned. As An Jing guessed, he was a spy in Deepnight City for the Justice Restoration Army. Naturally, he wasn’t the only one. Metalhand could still clearly see the faces of his senior brother, sister, Gunner and fourth brother’s faces just by closing his eyes. All five of them had infiltrated different industries and sectors of Deepnight City, bearing the same mission.

After years of going undercover, his senior brother became a corporate fugitive and fled into the badlands with a band of mercenaries, living life in solitude. His fourth brother switched from being a gang member to joining a corporation and was just about to enter the city, only to be killed by a spy of an enemy corporation.

Gunner, the third brother, lost his mind after joining the gang, having forgotten his duty as a member of the Justice Restoration Army. He embraced his position in the gang and did nothing for their common cause. He should’ve died much earlier to spare them all the shame. As for Metalhand’s senior sister, it was said she worked as a fixer in the city until she got wrapped up in a revenge plot between mercenaries. Her current status was unknown and she was designated missing in action.

According to their original plan, the five of them were supposed to secretly help each other. The senior brother was there to rally rebellious mercenaries, Metalhand was supposed to take care of supplying them, the senior sister and fourth brother were tasked to establish corporate relationships while Gunner would infiltrate the gang scene and help them out from within. This wide-cast net across the safe zone that encompassed the mercenaries, gangs, fixers and corpos ended up being rattled with holes.

Coupled with how their former infiltration leader had been transferred to a combat zone in Deepnight City, Metalhand felt like he was the best off compared to his other four siblings in arms. That didn’t make him feel any better, however, and saddled him with a heavy sense of guilt.

If not for his senior brother and sister’s support and third and fourth brothers’ protection and supply aid, Metalhand would’ve been crushed in the early days he ran his recycling house. He wouldn’t have had the chance to research formations either. That was why he couldn’t help himself and took Huo Qing under his wing, the son of his fourth brother. Metalhand saw guilt and longing in Huo Qing, but more than that, he saw his past self. He used to be just as sentimental as Huo Qing all those years ago.

”Sigh... He’s a good kind, talented and sharp witted too. It’s too bad he’s not meant to run a business...” Metalhand felt both relieved and worried. ”I wonder how much losses he racked up while running the recycling house in my stead... At the very least, he didn’t give away half of our stock for free.”

Yet, not only had the stock not vanished, there was even more than before. ”Huh?”

Metalhand immediately learned through the formation that the shop’s inventory had grown quite a bit. ”How did that kid get spirit items like these skins and bones? There’s still money according to the ledger... Don’t tell me Huo Qing actually managed to close a few large deals!”

There was a look of relief on his face. ”It seems that I’ve misjudged him! I knew that Fourth Brother and Fourth Sister couldn’t possibly have birthed a child that wasn’t as smart as them!”

Yet, he noticed something else amiss soon enough. ”Wait a second... The person in the back house isn’t Huo Qing. Wait, where did that kid disappear to?”

He put up his guard and hid near the abandoned airship wreck, prepared to flee at any moment. His first thought was that the Skywatch Bureau had discovered him. Then again, if they were behind this, Metalhand would’ve been captured the moment he stepped into the disposal facility. He wouldn’t even be given the chance to notice them. Not to mention, he found the note that Huo Qing had left him.

”He’s having friends over for a few nights? They’re going to Hilltwixt to buy property? Wait, who’s that friend of yours and where’d he get that kind of money? Wasn’t there also a warning about flamecrows? Does that kid even check the notices from the disaster bureau?”

He began to panic. When he noticed that his truck was gone and he couldn’t even drive after them, he got even angrier. ”Oh, someone’s had a change in character, huh? Since when did he grow so gutsy?!”

Huffing and puffing, Metalhand pushed the door open and hastily. ”Let’s see what kind of friends you have over!”

But before he could explode with anger to scare Huo Qing’s young friends, he was stunned to see an old woman cleaning the small house behind the recycling shop. It looked so clean like it was new.

Silence fell within the house. Madam Huai gave Metalhand a surprised look, but recognized him based on Huo Qing’s description; the prosthetic hand was all too obvious to ignore. ”Nice to meet you. Are you Boss Metalhand? I’m a pitiful soul that your nephew Huo Qing kindly took in. Call me Huai Yun. If you aren’t comfortable with having me here, I can wait outside as well.”

”Ah, I’m Metalhand... It’s fine. You are a friend of my nephew, after all. Please take a seat.” Metalhand didn’t claim to adhere to some axiom of respecting elders, but he still knew basic manners. There was nothing mean he could say to a polite, smiling woman many years his senior.

As the rage and suspicion simmered up in him, he thought, that old lady’s speech and demeanor don’t match up to that of a badlander or someone from the safe zone... If anything, she looks like one of those elderly people in the city center that doesn’t have to worry about food or shelter. Why doesn’t she have any cultivation? Ah, damn it... That Huo Qing even revealed information about me to a stranger! Why can’t he just keep his mouth shut?!