Destiny in Cinders

”Heed my order and get out of my way!” He Wuchang yelled. The Keensight Bell froze for a moment in hesitation when it received the order. Even though it had acknowledged An Jing to be a familiar presence, a token from a prefect had to be obeyed. The two factors balanced each other out to the point that the bell didn’t know who to help. So, it just decided to suppress both sides.

”Warning,” said a blurry voice in their minds as a wisp of intent emerged from the terrestrial veins and fell on He Wuchang and An Jing like rain. ”Martial law is to be enforced in Keensight. Usage of spells and abilities are forbidden.”

”What?!” He Wuchang was caught off guard and didn’t evade the suppression of the divine armament at all. ”I bear the ordinance token of a prefect! You should obey me! Heed my order! Fuck! Did the divine armament go mad?!”

The heavy golden light pressed down on He Wuchang’s arcane corpus, forcing him to descend to the ground. The protective light around An Jing also vanished, leaving nothing but silence where it used to be. The youth who had been regulating his aura to heal snapped his eyes open.

The administrative bureau of Keensight was shielded by the golden radiance of the terrestrial veins. This was a barrier for the protection of the major terrestrial-vein formation’s core. It didn’t just cover the immediate area, but also kept the nearby streets untouched by the destruction that resulted from An Jing and the adepts’ battle, including the sage abilities unleashed by the ability tokens.

This was the reason property prices rose the closer they were to the central bureau. Even though the barrier wouldn’t protect people, they would keep the buildings from being damaged. Nothing but pure brute force would be able to wear them down.

The youth stood up gradually and looked at the silent He Wuchang. An Jing’s face was pale from losing lots of blood, while He Wuchang’s was filled with frustration and rage from his plans constantly going wrong. ℴ

The prefect’s token had crumbled into dust and reverted into formless wisps of terrestrial-vein qi. While he had a working relationship with Grand Chen and even received an ordinance token, He Wuchang hadn’t planned to use it at all. Instead, he had wanted to preserve it using an arcanum so that he would have something to use as a bargaining chip against Chen Haoshan.

When he learned how much more impressive Jing Xuan was compared to anything Chen Haoshan could do for him, however, he didn’t hesitate to use it. Little did he know that the divine armament and the major terrestrial-vein formation would flat out reject his order. Where in the world did Jing Xuan come from? There’s no way a mere person that the divine armament acknowledges can force it to refuse a prefect’s order. It’s simply impossible! Unless...

”I see. You must be related to Princess Mingjing somehow, aren’t you?” he muttered in disbelief. ”Or did you secretly join Grand Chen’s side? Is Ming Guangchen working with Grand Chen too?”

An Jing smirked. ”Cease the needless chatter. Are you scared?”

He Wuchang’s face turned even redder with rage at a rate visible to the naked eye. Even though the arcane corpus he inhabited was blood red to begin with, it still managed to turn even redder. He didn’t say another word and took a deep breath instead. The concentration of blood in his face rose more and more before it began to boil and burn. The veins on his arms and shoulders bulged and pulsed.

Then, a trace of blood lethal qi flowed out of the capillaries of his index finger and formed into a long blade of blood. Since he couldn’t use spells or abilities, he would use nothing but the strength of his physical body and martial skill to capture the foul-mouthed brat!

”Are you deaf? Or just plain dumb? Too scared to be rendered speechless by me again, aren’t you?” An Jing doubled down on the harsh comments and laughed. ”Nah, I bet you’re just plain scared.”

”Shut up, you snot-nosed brat!” He Wuchang roared as he dashed ahead. The defensive barrier around the divine armament wouldn’t be able to stop purely physical attacks. He Wuchang’s brute strength caused the stone tiles underneath him to explode into tiny shards. His shrill, bloody figure shot ahead like a falcon zipping across the plains to hunt its prey.

As he advanced with his blade, the mirage of the Ninehead Ghost Carrier lifearc totem behind his head almost appeared corporeal. The nine-headed bird’s mirage attacked An Jing from all directions, overlaying its nine beaks together with He Wuchang’s blade to unleash nine brutal blade flashes filled with savage killing intent!

An Jing’s eyes flashed; since He Wuchang had taken the initiative to attack, he could counter it. Though there was no way the inspector could use any ability or spell, An Jing was still up against a Clearing Realm adept. Even if the blood-lethal-qi blade he used wasn’t enhanced by his soul or his wonders, it still packed far more raw power than An Jing could muster. The only way for him to respond was to redirect it skillfully!

He raised both maces and traced two semicircular arcs in the rain that looked like curtains. Even though the movement seemed plain and unimpressive, it perfectly blocked all nine flashes of He Wuchang’s blade. The clear, rhythmic sound of weapons clashing rang out in the courtyard as waves of qi sent small stones and dirt flying.

He Wuchang’s martial capabilities were nothing to scoff at. Every adept had to have fought many battles in close combat, let alone sages. His powerful attacks came crashing down like large rocks dropped from the top of mountains. Each strike looked as if it could smash through a formation of soldiers on a bloody battlefield, oozing with accursed and evil energy, threatening to sever An Jing’s limbs or severely wound him.

However, An Jing managed to receive all those attacks without breaking a sweat. His maces were extensions of his body. He redirected the blade strikes with ease and skill so perfect that it revealed no opening that He Wuchang could exploit. Despite the massive difference in brute strength, An Jing was able to muster almost enough strength from his core to redirect the strikes from the blade of blood.

He was using elixir incubation once more to gather all his power in one specific location before unleashing it all at once. A layperson who could use this technique would be able to unleash power akin to a martialist, let alone a genius like An Jing, which let him fight on almost even ground against adepts.

The reason he was able to achieve this level of skill was a combination of his past life’s martial experience, Armorpierce Impetus, Heaven’s Child Art and Temporal Grasp. When his thoughts were accelerated, he was able to optimize every micromovement of his body and application of force to redirect the strikes.

The curse energy from the blood lethal qi didn’t do much either; the twin maces made from violetshine gold were able to mitigate curses derived from blood. This was likely the reason the Lord Inspector of the North went out of her way to give them to An Jing. Even so, it was still unthinkable for a wounded Fortification martialist to be able to exchange blows in close combat against an adept.

Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to take An Jing down in a few short bouts, He Wuchang’s rage intensified even further. He gritted his teeth and caused his blood lethal qi to surge as he gave it all he had to attack An Jing’s right arm, forcing the youth to use all the strength he had to redirect it downward, leaving a huge gash on the ground.

Then, He Wuchang roared and suppressed the natural inclination of his blood-lethal-qi arcane corpus to breathe and recover from the earlier strike to force another downward slash. This prevented An Jing from redirecting the attack defensively, pinning him down in a competition of brute force!

Had An Jing been in better condition, he would’ve been able to dodge at the very last second. Yet, his right arm had only just adhered together after almost being entirely severed earlier. Not to mention, he had pushed himself past the full limit of his power to the point that his body struggled to maintain balance. It was already all he could do to hold him down and push back.

He bit down on his teeth even tighter than before, tapping into the vital-origin qi in his body and using Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal to reinforce his arms and maces, just barely blocking another three blade strikes. Then, he used Trueblitz Pentaphase Infusion to infuse the maces with Golden Blitz in one more desperate gambit, allowing him to finally break the blood-lethal-qi blade right before his maces were sent flying from the recoil.

An Jing didn’t back off in the slightest. Instead, he charged straight ahead and slipped into He Wuchang’s personal space, striking as savagely as he could with his fists, palms, elbows, forehead, knees, legs and shoulders! Every single attack was aimed at He Wuchang’s vitals, packed with the full weight of his body. The powerful bursts of qi pushed the raindrops within a ten-chi radius away, including the water on the ground, leaving it dry and empty!

He Wuchang was completely taken aback by the youth’s fearless unarmed attacks, slipping up and only managing to block the first few moves before he let a heavy elbow strike slip past his guard and slam into his temple, causing his head to explode.

Had this been An Jing’s past life, he would’ve already won. This was nothing but pure martial technique. When grasped the right moment to counter, it allowed him to take out foes that were far stronger than him. Unfortunately, the arcane corpus wasn’t an actual human being and didn’t have any real vitals. He Wuchang was still in the fight even with his head missing. In fact, the blow had snapped him out of his uncontrolled rage.

He no longer looked down on his opponent arrogantly and managed to engage his attention fully, entering a do-or-die state. When a sage locked in and adopted a completely safe approach that steadily wore the opponent down, there was no way a Fortification martialist like An Jing would be able to win, no matter how terrifying his talent.