Destiny in Cinders

Bo Zongshan had shaken off the flames and lightning returned to the battlefield; no more time had passed than it took to snap one’s fingers five times since the explosion that sent him flying. He had been blazing fast.

The yang flame-lightning of unknown origin was quite potent. Bo Zongshan could swear that this kind of flame-lightning was no doubt part of a proper sect’s legacy. One couldn’t buy something of this caliber even from the Kingdom of Lingering Light. Without his polished skill, it would be impossible to cut the flame-lightning apart in a way that prevented them from latching onto him.

Yet, Bo Zongshan would never imagine that Fu Zhengan would end up dead within that short span of time, so quickly that he wasn’t able to use his ability token! According to the information they received, Jing Xuan should only be at the Fortification Realm. Yet, he was able to kill adepts with Ming Guangchen’s power. Was Ming Guangchen just that strong, or was Jing Xuan someone that couldn’t be evaluated with common sense? Perhaps both of those scenarios were true to an extent.

Something about this is amiss. Bo Zongshan didn’t like the bad feeling he got as he faced Jing Xuan from a distance. His mission wasn’t just to kill him, but also to obtain information about him and his master to see whether they had anything to do with Princess Mingjing. Given the presence of the void altar and Jing Xuan being much stronger than expected, Bo Zongshan already had enough things to report back without having to risk his life fighting.

”Capture him!” the ghostly figure cried agitatedly. ”Jing Xuan’s lifearc is highly atypical! We have to capture him no matter what!”

The mask that the ghostly figure wore had been chipped to the point that it revealed his crimson and savage eyes. An intense concentration of greed and twisted excitement filled them.

Where in the world did this ghost come from? Bo Zongshan furrowed his brow. Since he learned that this was a fiendgod from the nether, he already suspected that this was a malevolent spirit that the Grandnight Sect nurtured. Yet, the ghostly figure was completely unlike the bureaucratic folks from the Grandnight Sect. Well, all they do is manipulate fiendgods, not become fiendgods themselves. If that’s the case, where in the world did this creature come from?

Before Bo Zongshan finished his train of thought, the ghostly figure in black ignored the flame-lightning that still scorched his body and leaped toward Jing Xuan.

***

An Jing felt a wave of comfort spreading across his body on the other side of the battlefield. Even though his meridians burned and stung, not to mention his fractured bones and the right hand that had almost been severed completely by Fu Zhengan, he felt magnificent.

The power he had gained from Mirror Me wasn’t his at the end of the day. It wouldn’t make much of a difference for most martialists since they weren’t able to fully utilize every bit of their power effectively in the first place. Gaining more power on top of that just meant that they had more power to waste. However, martialists like An Jing who were used to controlling every bit of power they possessed would feel incredibly uncomfortable when a foreign source of power was in their bodies, even if that was only for a few moments.

An Jing had used the power of Mirror Me to execute elixir incubation. That in itself wouldn’t grant him significant power, but it could temper the fundamental essence of his life force and improve the fine control he had over his energy. That was how he borrowed the temporary power boost to reinforce his foundations.

Even more importantly, An Jing was delighted to find that after his flesh, meridians and bones were overwhelmed by the power that exceeded the capacity of his own body, the eighth seal of Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal that he planned to manifest for his flesh was showing signs of an imminent breakthrough.

The flesh was the foundation for energy and the source of power. It didn’t just refer to muscle fibers, but also the energy stores within his body. It was the protective layer beneath the skin that protected the viscera within and gave the bones the support they needed. They were also the connective tissue that bound the bone, viscera, membranes and meridian pathways together, making it absolutely indispensable.

An Jing had planned to slowly forge it using Evenstar lethal qi to strengthen it step by step. However, he realized that when he used his arcane seals to heal, the regenerative process that resulted helped his arcane seals spread much faster than usual. When he thought about it, it seemed obvious. Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal basically worked by sending arcane seals through his blood to be spread throughout his body. If the arcane seals were inscribed onto parts that already had an existing structure, he would risk harming himself.

Thinking about it another way, Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal also worked like forging a blade. A piece of red-hot metal could be folded upon itself and hammered flat, the repetition of which removing impurities and strengthening the material even more. The cycle of construction and deconstruction could be applied to An Jing’s body. What if he could inscribe stronger arcane seals within his body by getting injured and healing up from those injuries repeatedly?

Heh, I won’t actually go so far as to hurt or torture myself to cultivate. Through manipulating Evenstar lethal qi, An Jing snapped his bones back in their proper position almost magnetically before filling the cracks with arcane seals. Throughout the process, he felt a sour, tingling sensation across his body. Then, he looked up at the bladesman and the ghostly figure. Given how perilous my lifearc is, I don’t even need to harm myself. There’s more than enough people who wish me harm that can aid my cultivation!

An Jing smiled and provoked them with a beckoning gesture. ”Gentlemen... It’s two-on-one. What are you waiting for?”

He didn’t expect that his casual provocation would actually work; the ghostly figure turned into a gray-black storm as he charged at him like a madman!

What in the?! An Jing was taken aback. Has he lost it? What kind of person actually falls for that kind of provocation? Well, I guess he’s not much of a person and more of a ghost. Either way, An Jing was more worried that they wouldn’t attack him than the other way round.

As for Bo Zongshan, he no longer hesitated after seeing the ghostly figure charge in and followed with his blade drawn, not faltering in the slightest. He turned into a merciless tidal wave with a powerful roar, unleashing ten downward-slashing blade flashes. Halfway, through his attack, however, he began to regret it from the depths of his heart.

An Jing took out a stone-framed mirror right as the two adepts charged at him. The sun within the mirror revolved and shone with piercing light, blinding Bo Zongshan for a moment. He hallucinated a divine figure that wielded a mirror and patrolled the land. This was none other than the real trump card that Ming Guangchen gave An Jing: a token that contained a single blast of a Treasures Realm sage’s ability!

The bright flash caused the citizens who were evacuating from Keensight to turn around before they consciously perceived it. They had already heard the loud chain of explosions and noticed the fire and smoke coming from the compound in the distance. Then, scorching solar radiance illuminated the land without warning like light from the heavens and tides from the Celestial Ocean.

The massive suns weren’t the only things that appeared out of nowhere. There was also a vast, boundless and unstoppable blade intent that cut through the blinding light. Bo Zongshan had used his own ability token to counter An Jing’s!

That was surprisingly easy. There was no way An Jing had enough power to take on the two other adepts. He had merely been bluffing to see if he could scare one of them away. If that didn’t work, he would use his ability token to take one of them out. If that failed as well, he would at least have forced them to waste their ability token on a puny Fortification martialist like him before escaping into Skysource to recover. Then, he would return to ambush them.

What An Jing didn’t expect was that the ghostly figure would actually charge straight toward him without any thought before getting struck squarely by the powerful rays of Hexsun Blacklight on top of forcing Bo Zongshan to waste his ability token.

As the ability’s power faded away, An Jing’s gaze met Bo Zongshan’s. The adept seemed like he had decided to leave instead of playing a risky game of trump-card chicken against An Jing. However, he didn’t dare to turn his back on his young foe in the slightest, so he remained on the spot in a standoff.

Since the adept wasn’t making his move, An Jing made his and turned to flee. Bo Zongshan’s expression contorted to one of absolute shock in slow motion.