Destiny in Cinders

The self-destruct drones and high-powered explosives produced by the subsidiary of the Shouyang Group were meant to be used against fiends and feys in the badlands or for mining in Skysource. They came in many flavors, like metal flame, yang lightning, as well as other types like water, wood, phantom and nether. Even though it would be incredibly difficult to aim these weapons directly at a Clearing adept, there wasn’t need to. All An Jing needed to do was to lure them into range!

Bo Zongshan and the ghostly figure were helpless against the sudden and unexpected explosion. They grunted as they mustered all their qi and expelled it in a desperate gambit to isolate the qi waves of flame and lightning, both aspects that hindered them greatly. As they did so, a doubt arose in both their minds. Did he use himself as bait to lure us into a trap? Did that brat kill himself in this massive explosion?

Fortunately, martialists of Void Embrace didn’t know about explosion blind spots. Right after An Jing pretended to crash into the courtyard by making use of the momentum of Heartsword’s attack, he rolled on the ground and slipped into a small building behind the void altar. Then, he crashed into the wall and leaped into the sewer behind it.

In the next instant, the explosion blasted the small building above into smithereens. Ash, shrapnel and sparks rained down from the sky. Even though blood trickled out of An Jing’s ears and nose, a martialist like him could easily heal from that kind of injury in mere moments. It was far less serious than the wound the ghostly claw had left on him.

As for the void altar, An Jing was confident that something constructed by a sage wouldn’t be so flimsy. Not to mention, the battle had already started, so thinking too much wouldn’t necessarily be helpful.

What kind of artifact is this?! A terrestrial-vein lethal-qi cannon of Grand Chen? No, they’re thunder beads of some sort. Is this Heavenly Mystery Mountain’s famed yang flame-lightning? Fu Zhengan watched the sea of flames from afar. His caution had helped him avoid the explosion, but he was stunned by the destructive power nonetheless. It must be a suicidal attack! Though it won’t kill Old Bo and the other one, he’s really risking hurting himself there!

Adepts of the Clearing Realm converted their bodies into formations that were linked with heaven and earth to be able to unleash powers like flame and lightning that far exceeded what a Fortification martialist was capable of. They could also convert the defensive projected qi around their bodies into true qi or true lethal qi, which was far stronger than typical aura. Their physical bodies were also as tough as spirit items due to constant refinement and could no longer be harmed through typical means. Not to mention, their fundamental formation diagrams that formed their internal body formation granted them so much defense that they would at most be blown back by ballistae that were mounted on city walls without being harmed.

But with enough concentration of yang flame-lightning coupled with the lightning-imbued flying sword from earlier, their defensive projected qi could be worn away until they ended up scalded. If their fundamental formation diagrams that spread throughout their bodies were scattered, they risked losing their lives too!

Fu Zhengan was just about to check whether the massive explosion that gave even Bo Zongshan and the ghostly figure trouble left an intact corpse for Jing Xuan. If possible, he would kill Bo Zongshan as well if he was injured enough before framing the Brightmirror Sect for it.

Huh?! All of a sudden, he noticed that an odd altar had appeared in the empty courtyard of the burning compound. The camouflage formation had been destroyed by the explosion, revealing the true form of the altar within. It rotated gradually and let out a silver-green glow that pushed back the yang flame-lightning.

It’s a void altar! Fu Zhengan’s eyes snapped open as the blue patterns on his body glowed. I knew it! Ming Guangchen and Jing Xuan were up to something! They actually set up a void altar within the borders of Grand Chen! Was Ming Guangchen really the one who took the princess— Before he could finish his thought, the hint of danger he felt caused him to turn to the other side of the flaming street.

Black clouds crowded densely above Keensight, heralding heavy winds and rain. What remained of the frost of the previous season had scattered into misty fog all around the city. Yet, even Fu Zhengan, who was supposed to be safe and away from the lightning bolts and flame, could feel a hint of cold, killing intent.

Someone had merely set their gaze on him, yet Fu Zhengan felt like he was being scorched by the blazing sun! He felt a wave of hot panic and even thought he was sweating—nay, he hadn’t imagined it! The gold-crimson eyes that were looking at him were causing his body’s temperature to rise!

How’s Jing Xuan still alive and unhurt?! He steadied himself on the roof of a building. Is he also at the Clearing Realm? What is this phenomenon... Wait, the Hexsun Formation?!

Martialists of the Fortification Realm were powerful, but only internally. No matter how firm their foundations, the benefits of their cultivation only fortified their foundations from within. They were like precious swords sheathed within their scabbards or moths within their cocoons. The day they would be unsheathed or emerge transformed had yet to come. Only by reaching the Clearing Realm could one use wonders to manifest grand phenomena in the outside world!

He can’t possibly be an adept too! Fu Zhengan snapped out of it immediately. This is the Brightmirror Sect’s Mirror Me ability! Did Ming Guangchen really have enough power to spare to protect his disciple?!

It was true that Ming Guangchen had intended to grant An Jing enough power to keep himself alive and buy time until the void altar finished charging up to allow him to leave the tumultuous land. However, An Jing had never wanted to sneak away without doing anything in the first place!

The ground rumbled and cracked as wild gusts of wind blew. An Jing locked onto the sole remaining unharmed adept and charged with full force! Though he didn’t start off with a fast sprint, every step doubled his speed, adding lightning and flame to his charge. He built up more and more waves of qi with the five wonders of Mirror Me!

An Jing was dressed in a fully white robe, clutching his twin maces. His sleeves burned with flames and his eyes crackled with a trace of lightning. His black, fluttering hair danced manically against the backdrop of flames behind him.

He was moving so fast that even the air itself hadn’t been pushed aside in time to avoid him. Instead, he pushed more and more of it in front of him, forming a spherical protective wave of qi in front of him!

An Jing’s charge made Fu Zhengan hallucinate to the point that he saw an odd, sixteen-wheeled vehicle tumbling faster and faster toward him with far more power than a thousand mounted cavalry troops could muster!

Laughable! Fu Zhengan was shocked by An Jing’s survival and counterattack, something he was embarrassed about. Then, he felt a hint of rage and pure killing intent. He’s nothing but a brat buffed by Mirror Me! That’s like giving a toddler a massive war hammer! I didn’t think he wouldn’t go after the injured phantom or Bo Zongshan and come for an unharmed adept like me! Fucking hell, is he looking down on me?!

Being underestimated by a young junior made him absolutely livid. His angry impulse to kill spiked like never before. He raised his fingers up, shaping them to look like a sword. The blue patterns around his body danced wildly as he fired off one stream of sword qi after another, piercing through the frosty gusts of wind!

The patterns around him weren’t tattoos; they were wounds, wounds left behind by sword intent! One who loses oneself in the grand mirage perishes! One who forgets oneself and the material world in a seated meditation of oblivion fuses with dao!

While the Seated Mirage Sect branched off from the same legacy as the Grandnight Sect, they didn’t summon and control fiendgods. Instead, they spent their days in silent seated meditation on the profundities of life and death in search of the sublime truth that allowed them to break free of the illusion of mortality.

The late brother of Heart Beckon, Soulchant Sword of the Seated Mirage Sect’s Kong clan, had used the sect’s fundamental technique to create the Heaven-Earth Grand Dream Sword Formation. It was a technique that could cause the hearts of nearby sprites to resonate, inverting life and death and generating swords to attack the enemy using energy from the surrounding environment.

Fu Zhengan was a close friend and sworn brother of the Kong brothers and had a lifearc called Manifestated Derivation, a talent which allowed him to constantly grow his capabilities through study and personal experience. While Fu Zhengan had yet to become a sage, the wounds he got from sword intent were manifestations from which he could derive experience of using sword intent, allowing him to acquire the Deepsoul Heartsword Formation as his fundamental formation diagram.

Filled with extreme rage, hate and the urge to kill, he raised his fingers in a sword gesture, causing the sound of a thousand unsheathing blades to reverberate across the street on both sides. All of a sudden, the trajectory of An Jing’s charge intersected with a forest of a thousand swords, all of which glinted menacingly under the gloomy shade of the stormclouds above. The thousand blades shot toward An Jing, each just like the earlier invisible heart sword that had threatened to slice him in half.