Destiny in Cinders

Chapter 320: Void Embrace’s First Divine-Arc Bearer

”You little—” Before the Lord Inspector of the West could growl in rage, his head exploded once more. That didn’t stop his body from continuing to gather power for a counter, however. He swung his straightened palm down at An Jing’s crossed arms!

A dull metallic thud could be heard. An Jing stood there like a metal stake, driven into the ground by the force of the strike, his legs burrowing into the earth until it came up to his knees. There was a wide palm imprint in the area around him.

He Wuchang, who backed off and regrew his head, widened his eyes in surprise right after. An Jing had extricated himself from the ground already. There was a blood-colored palm print on his arms, but the flesh seemed otherwise unhurt, nor did his bones snap. Instead, his presence continued to grow more and more like oil above a blazing fire!

This was the ability that manifested from Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal, Calamitous Tribulation Annihilation: Firm White Attestation. The firm thinned not when honed. The purest white stained not when muddled. All nine seals were present throughout his entire body, encompassing his limbs, meridians, connective tissue, membranes, and bones. His body and soul became as one.

By using Firm White Attestation, he united his body from within and without, allowing him to disperse any force he was subjected to across every other part of his body, keeping it from reaching deep within him. His body appeared flexible when He Wuchang’s palm strike landed, yet An Jing remained firmer than a black iron pillar. The mark that the palm strike left behind was completely superficial.

That wasn’t what truly stunned He Wuchang, however. Intense, quintessential streams of Pyrestar blood and Evenstar metal lethal qi flowed within An Jing’s body, causing it to give off a bright radiance of blood and metal. Jing Xuan’s face was nowhere to be seen. The visage that He Wuchang saw before him was one that he had seen countless times on a waterscreen, one he had etched into his mind long ago!

”An Jing!” he roared when the realization set in. From the beginning, there had only been one An Jing! That explained why Ming Guangchen took an unknown Dustdawner in as a disciple at Keensight. That was why Jing Xuan was so powerful! Nobody had been able to discern his origins. It was no wonder Jing Xuan had gone out of his way to attack the vanguard spies that the inspector had sent to the city.

All those clues had been right before his eyes, yet he wouldn’t even think to connect the dots had he not seen the exposed face for himself. Who could’ve known that it had been An Jing all along, a bearer of a divine arc!

An Jing didn’t say anything in response. Instead, he had just figured out a way to help his master. The normal interpretation of Ming Guangchen’s lifearc, Unshining Sun and Moon, was that it was a harbinger of a world ravaged by evil and malice. Endless fiend qi blotted out the sun in the sky, depriving all existence of both sunlight and moonlight. However, Ming Guangchen had mastered an arcanum called Renaming Destiny that reframed his arc so that he became more radiant than the sun itself to the point that he drowned out the light of the sun, moon and stars around him!

If that’s the case, I will call out his name. I will shout out the biggest name, one big enough to draw the attention of everyone in the vicinity. That’s how I will be able to help Master out. But before that, I’ll have to deal with my own human tribulation first.

An Jing looked coldly at He Wuchang. The raindrops that continued to fall evaporated into a misty vapor as they touched his blood lethal qi, only to coalesce back into raindrops when they touched his metal lethal qi. He raised his hands and drew everything toward himself, from the vapor, raindrops, all the aura and qi essence and even the violet-gold maces that had been sent flying much earlier.

The violetshine-gold maces’ essence was extracted and absorbed by An Jing. Their drained metallic husks disintegrated in the air and fell away, yet the two purple suns shone brighter than ever, which An Jing shaped into a single double-edged weapon using Qiform Arsenal and his new ability, Smelting Arms Forging Soul.

A star of blood red and another of blazing white appeared behind An Jing, armed with his new longsword. Evenstar Eclipse’s ability had finally awakened. It embodied the many souls that were forged from smelting countless armaments, which were then gathered to form a brand-new weapon!

The sword was neither iron nor steel, nor did it have a corporeal existence. Blood lethal qi formed its spinal ridge while mystic-metal essence shaped its blade. It was the distillation of universal malevolent energies, the embodiment of destruction itself, a formless abstraction that could shatter hundreds of weapons and slay thousands of soldiers. It had absolute dominion over life and death. Its name was ”Culling.”

Here comes the final strike! Both An Jing and He Wuchang had used up all their trump cards and were covered in wounds. They didn’t doubt that this would be the final exchange, no matter who emerged victorious. He Wuchang didn’t waste any words and once more gathered his blade of blood lethal qi, while An Jing gripped Culling tight.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled as their clashing silhouettes parted the curtain of rain. The clash sent waves of roiling qi in all directions, creating a massive expanding void where rain stopped falling around the administrative bureau, which immediately contracted again with brutal elasticity, collapsing into itself.

The two figures stood there in silence for an instant before they pushed each other back. He Wuchang’s entire body leaned away as he took tens of steps backward without being able to stop before finally landing on his back, the lethal-qi blade in his hand vanishing. An Jing was sent flying and landed in a puddle, creating a huge splash.

”I won!” He Wuchang was overjoyed. He had made a desperate gambit and gave up on suppressing Ming Guangchen so that he could siphon more power into his arcane corpus in anticipation of the clash with An Jing, who got a huge boost from the divine armament. He managed to break the youth’s sword stance. Though, this came at the cost of completely destroying the structure of his arcane corpus. It wouldn’t be able to sustain its form for long.

But this was all worth it. As long as he could get his hands on An Jing, he would certainly be able to advance to the Sanctification Realm. As for Ming Guangchen, he probably wouldn’t be able to hold on for long given his haggard state even without He Wuchang’s power suppressing him. The mysterious swordsman would kill him swiftly.

”Where did An Jing get a body reinforcement technique like this? He’s far too sturdy!” He Wuchang rose gradually and was about to pick up An Jing, who should have once more reached the brink of death. Yet, he saw An Jing rise as well, longsword still in hand. Culling was still in one piece. It hadn’t snapped at all.

He Wuchang watched as An Jing coughed out blood, smiled and gathered qi around him, glowing intensely bright. How’s that even possible?! How’s he able to still muster qi after suffering all those injuries?!

An Jing, completely oblivious to He Wuchang’s doubts, pierced the air with Culling.

Ah... Ailment sword qi... The inspector felt his body suddenly lighten and relax as he looked down with realization. A massive hole through his flesh, bone and spine was visible squarely at the center of his torso. Losing more than a third of blood lethal qi was enough to completely take out the arcane corpus, even if it didn’t have any real vitals.

I’ve lost... All three adepts, one of them controlled by a sage like me, ganged up on a junior and ended up killed by him... This was his last thought before the arcane corpus of blood lethal qi vaporized into thin air.

***

Far away in the distant mountains, He Wuchang’s real body bled from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The cursed blood that came out looked like black-red liquid metal. He slumped to the altar beneath him as the power left his body. ”It’s over!”

Before he could even get mad, he felt a guttural fear rising within him. He could sense that Ming Guangchen’s power stopped falling the moment his blood-curse formation ceased to suppress him. In fact, his power seemed to bounce back rapidly!

***

Back in Keensight, An Jing struggled to remain standing. His injuries were grave, but Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal was a top-tier immortal cultivation technique in all senses of the word. As long as he still breathed, An Jing could use aura to force his body to move even if all the bones in his body were broken. Granted, his injuries were grave, but not that exaggerated.

He used the imperial blood connection to give the Keensight Bell an order. ”I need you to use psychic sense to broadcast my words. I want as many people, as far out as possible, to hear it.”

***

Back in the sky, Ming Guangchen felt the pressure on his body suddenly lighten as he engaged the mysterious swordsman in a duel to the death. It was immediately clear to him that He Wuchang’s blood-curse suppression had finally ceased.

As far as he was aware, there was no way He Wuchang wouldn’t be able to maintain the blood-curse formation, even if Ming Guangchen’s earlier beating had caused his qi essence and divine treasures to fall into dysregulation. The only way that was possible was for the divine treasures in his sea of consciousness to get damaged. Then again, the Lord Inspector of the North did say that He Wuchang would possess a body and cause trouble for An Jing. Wait, don’t tell me—

Right the next instant, Ming Guangchen heard his disciple’s amplified voice coming from the bell in Keensight. He was both perplexed and relieved to hear those words.

”I am Jing Xuan, disciple of Ming Guangchen and follower of the lord of the Brightmirror Sect’s Dawnlight Peak as well as an inheritor of the core teachings! I am also An Jing, a traitor of the Heavenly Demon Cult and the leader of those who escaped Direlife Manor!”

An Jing revealed it all without hiding a thing. His voice rang in the minds of everyone that the bell could reach. ”I am only at the Fortification Realm, yet I have slain one adept each from the Seated Mirage and Poolsea Sects as well as He Wuchang, the demonic cult’s Lord Inspector of the West. Consider this proof of my proclamation that I am none other than Void Embrace’s first divine-arc bearer of the current era!”

Everyone who had been paying attention to what unfolded in Keensight was absolutely flabbergasted, whether they were from factions of Huang Prefecture or near the northern frontier. They subconsciously turned to look in Keensight’s direction, as if they were trying to catch a glance of An Jing and Ming Guangchen. These two shone so bright that the sun and moon couldn’t even hope to compete!

As both the sun and moon dim, a veil of ignorance blankets the world! Ming Guangchen, who had thought that he was about to run completely dry, suddenly felt a wild burst of power. His might rose more and more until it far exceeded the limits of his imagination.