Destiny in Cinders

King Chen recalled the battle he fought with Rising Light beyond the sky. A mirror had emerged from the boundless field of light. There was light both within and without the mirror. He looked deep in the mirror and was surprised that there was no reflective surface. Instead, there was only a frame, something that puzzled him greatly.

How can a mirror have no reflective surface? In his moment of puzzlement, he saw a green-winged butterfly gliding around gracefully through heavenly flames that could melt even mountains like they were nothing but figments of a dream. For some reason, King Chen felt that the butterfly was the same as himself.

Mirrors could only reflect objects that actually exist. Similarly, reflections were merely virtual representations of the real, photonic projections of matter, nothing but hollow, dreamlike imitations. Mirror users understood best that their essence was to pass off the false as true, the reflection as the object itself. But if they didn’t use an actual mirror, they would be able to reflect things that never existed in the first place. By using the mind as the mirror to project one’s dreams upon the world, there was no need to limit one’s reflections only to the things that actually existed.

”Rising Light has shattered his mirror to achieve carefree nonrestraint,” King Chen said, emphasizing each word of his hypothesis. ”He had given up on the principle of reflecting the world with one’s mind to send one’s will soaring into the heavens, the very dao of the Brightsky Mirror itself. Instead, he intends to sway from that path to find his own way toward the Soaring Realm!”

”My word...” King Su raised his brow in awe. An undertaking like this was impressive, even for people of their stature.

Typically, the path to achieve the Grand Dao depended heavily on the legacy that one inherited. Every sect had a founding ancestor as well as sages who failed their breakthroughs and others who died at the end of their natural lifespans. There were countless formation diagrams of the martial path left behind by all those forebears, containing hints of true cosmic intent and Grand Dao divine essence. These were legacies that members of the sect could experience, feel and gain insight into.

A proven road that many people had tread upon before was called a path for a reason, a dao. In fact, even lifearcs could be passed on to the next generation in the form of heirloom lifevessels. They could help draw out hidden potential across every generation of disciples, helping promising candidates awaken their respective lifearcs. This was the fundamental way legacies and lifearcs could be passed on from one generation to the next, much in the same vein of imperial blood and arcane mandates.

Sects needed to recruit candidates with suitable lifearcs to be able to maintain their presence and power. Large sects typically ruled over their territories and picked promising young sprouts from their layfolk subjects. This was how the many polities across the ten continents of Void Embrace formed.

For instance, the Brightmirror Sect’s territories included Voidsight Mountain and Brightmirror Mountain, and their legacies were passed down only in those areas. All of the strongest members throughout the history of the Brightmirror Sect had tried to master the shard of the Brightsky Mirror that their founding ancestor, Voidsight, had taken from the Hallowed Grand Court.

The shard was both the core of the Brightmirror Sect’s legacy as well as the path through which one could reach the Soaring Realm. Once somebody managed to fully comprehend this path, the Brightmirror Sect would rise to prominence and become a mighty upper sect with a living empyrean and a legacy that paved the way to the Soaring Realm.

Alas, filling in the blanks of one’s understanding of a Soaring Realm artifact was easier said than done. Many attempts had been made since Transcendent Borrowed Light all the way to Transcendent Rising Light. Every one of them had tried to take the fastest and most well-trodden path. However, Rising Light no longer stayed on the same path that all the others had walked.

”A mirror needs to be complete to be able to reflect the Grand Dao. However, the Brightsky Mirror’s core had already shattered long ago when the Hallowed Grand Court crumbled. As such, the Brightmirror Sect only ever had a sliver of the true path,” King Cheng said, his expression complex with hints of wariness mixed with admiration. ”Without the complete Brightsky Dao, the Brightmirror Sect would never be able to rely on a single shard to produce a Soaring Realm empyrean unless a bearer of the Natural-Born Master celestial arc joins their ranks. They might be the strongest intermediate sect, but they’ll never become an upper sect.

”But when Rising Light embarked on this new path by shattering his mirror and achieving carefree nonrestraint, one of their future members in the next thousand years might end up walking this path to its ultimate conclusion, proving the dao that Rising Light paved and reaching the Soaring Realm.”

”That doesn’t sound too bad. The path has only just begun to form. It’s still far from becoming a complete dao,” King Su said, feeling relief wash over him even as he made a mental note to keep his guard up. ”At the very least, Rising Light himself will never be able to prove the dao. That is enough for us.”

”Indeed.” King Cheng sighed deeply. ”Keeping the Grandnight Sect in check is tiring enough. We don’t need another empyrean to show up in the Brightmirror Sect. Sigh... I got hurt this time around, so the divine capital should really compensate me for this.”

***

As the sentinel kings discussed the earlier duel, those of the Brightmirror Sect gathered together.

”What is Guangchen’s current status?” asked Venerated Vast Light of Rising Sun Peak. She was one of the eight peak rulers of the Brightmirror Sect. This old lady got along well with her fellow venerateds and seemed a bit worried. ”He is the ninth among us to reach the Sanctification Realm and would’ve been able to form his own peak, the ninth peak of Voidsight Mountain. But now...”

”He’s not in that much trouble for now,” Shrouded Dust said. He had been analyzing the situation nonstop since his conversation with Grand Elder Rising Light and only just snapped out of it. Though he sighed in somewhat low spirits, he didn’t look too anxious. ”That brat used a void arcanum and ended up beyond the heavens. The grand elder said that he would redirect the light of the Brightsky Mirror’s shard to illuminate the heavens to see if it can help guide that kid back to us.”

Despite that, Shrouded Dust knew that hope was fleeting. The only silver lining was that venerateds of the Sanctification Realm had managed to achieve the concretization of the abstract and formed an independent inner cosmos, allowing them to be self-sufficient. They could survive outside the habitable world or in the deepest parts of the void, even if it meant drifting aimlessly with the unpredictable tides.

Not to mention, the powerful draw of lifearcs would ensure that Ming Guangchen and his formation world would eventually find their way back to Void Embrace. The only question was how long, since it could last thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years.

”What about An Jing?” asked a stern-looking middle-aged man with no noteworthy features. Venerated Hidden Shadow, ruler of Foredawn Peak, didn’t have especially close ties with Shrouded Dust. However, he had just lost his most precious disciple as of late. Seeing the promising young Ming Guangchen reach the Sanctification Realm only to be forced into the farthest reaches of the void due to a plot by an enemy sect filled him with rage and sorrow.

He didn’t press Shrouded Dust for making An Jing a core successor without giving them notice. In theory, this decision should’ve been put to a vote involving all the peak rulers, but An Jing’s talent and performance was so stunning that people would suspect that their brains were fried from looking directly at the sun’s reflection in the Brightsky Mirror’s shard if they didn’t take him in.

Hidden Shadow was genuinely worried about how An Jing was doing. ”The child disappeared, some say to the northern frontier. But why?”

Shrouded Dust said with an odd expression, ”Guangchen told me that this grand disciple of mine went there to look for his mother.”

At that moment, all eight peak rulers fell silent. Shrouded Dust knew that this would catch all of them off guard. Three of the eight peak rulers had hazardous lifearcs. One of them was the sole survivor of their village that had been massacred by bandits when they were only three years of age. Another became orphaned at seven after the parents died from a plague. Yet another had been abandoned at the entrance of the Brightmirror Sect after they were born. There was no clue who the parents were.

”Everyone... A divine arc brings both hazards and blessings. Without overcoming human tribulations, its bearer wouldn’t be able to make any progress,” Shrouded Dust reminded them despite the awkward atmosphere. ”If An Jing is able to deal with all the karmic consequences that come his way, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Just like how Guangchen reached the Sanctification Realm after overcoming his crisis, An Jing’s mother might still be alive.”

He paused for a moment woefully. ”The reason he sold himself to the demonic cult and escaped Direlife Manor despite knowing that it would result in many human tribulations was so that he could seek out his mother. He is filled with immense filial piety as well as the courage to fulfill it. Our sect is truly fortunate to count him among our ranks.”

”It is a blessing indeed,” Venerated Vast Light said. ”But how should the sect help him? We just signed an agreement with Grand Chen to not send anyone else into their borders.”

She humphed angrily, emanating threatening lethal qi. ”If Grand Chen really respects the agreement they signed, they should take the initiative to find An Jing’s mother, reunite them, and send the both of them back to us!”