Destiny in Cinders

Shen Mubai was able to remain calm after learning that her son was still alive. An Jing had indeed been wrapped up in a massive incident far beyond her imagination. He sounded like a divine-arc bearer from myth. Whether that was true or not, one thing was certain: he was alive and well.

She had been quite worried when she heard about how An Jing killed three Clearing adepts, but as the story went on, she relished it more and more and couldn’t resist curling her lips into a smile, somewhat distorting her old-woman disguise. Alas, had the people around her not been secretly members of the Heavenly Divine Cult, she might’ve gotten exposed right there and then.

She didn’t set out immediately nor believe the storyteller fully. Instead, she spent a full ten days preparing for her trip. Being a descendant of a martial clan that was not so different from the An clan, Shen Mubai’s upbringing resulted in her abnormally patient and stable mentality.

She steadily collected the ingredients she needed to brew herself medicine. She also prepared many dried rations for her trip, sharpened her blade and also purchased a mantle made from animal hide that was commonly used at the northern frontier. Her getup made her look no different from a traveling merchant.

After she finished making the vigor booster, she consumed it and advanced to the River Aura Stage. Then, she finished up her laundry work and let the inn’s proprietor know that she planned to go back to her hometown to retire. Only after that did she set off toward Brokeblade Mountain.

”An Jing’s mother is quite the hardy woman,” a cultist couldn’t help but comment after witnessing all that. ”If it were me, once I learned that my precious son’s still alive and bears a divine arc, even if I was smart enough to not boast about it, I’d be in such an anxious rush to go looking for him. Yet, this lady was able to hold herself back and focus on her original plan of breaking through. She even made sure to prepare all the supplies she needed before she left at that leisurely pace!”

”That’s one tough missy, lemme tell ya!” said another cultist. ”’Tis no wonder her young lad bears a divine arc! Me mum’s so different compared to her. It wasn’t enough for her to lose our house gambling. She even lost me to a bet! Bless the divine cult for throwing me a bone or two. Without them, I’d be lucky if I were still alive begging for grub! If me mum were like her, I wouldn’t have turned out like I did, wouldn’t ya say?”

”That would’ve been the case if your mom were just a bit more literate.” Even Bai Qinghan was stunned by the steadiness and decisiveness of Shen Mubai. ”I see now why the senior disciple was so patient and good at planning. It was thanks to his good upbringing.”

Bai Qinghan couldn’t help but sigh after observing Shen Mubai through the waterscreen. She closed her eyes and recalled her own parents; nothing but horrible memories. But instead of feeling envy, she strengthened her resolve. Perhaps this is a chance to get to know An Jing even better.

***

Within a tribal camp at the northern frontier, the cold northern breeze blew a nail-sized snowflake onto a raised finger of a fur-draped man of Grand Chen origin. It swiftly melted into a droplet and fell to the ground.

Though the man had the visage of a scholar, his build suggested that he also cultivated his body. Though he wasn’t particularly powerful, it was enough to earn the brutish northern barbarians’ respect. Not to mention, their tribal chief regarded this man from the southern empire incredibly well after he had helped them through many troublesome situations.

The man from Grand Chen had thought that nothing could surprise him anymore after the tens of close brushes with death he had experienced in the past three years, which had helped him develop a mentality of steel. But when he read the letter in his hand, his entire body shook. His mouth trembled with the urge to say a name.

”Brother Qianshan, what’s up?”

The opening of the tent behind the scholarly man was pushed open. Then, an unbelievably large giant stepped out of it. Though the scholar was already quite well built even by the standards of martial practitioners, the giant northern barbarian was four heads taller than him and almost three times as broad. The massive man probably stood neck-to-neck against the fiercest bears in the wilderness.

This tribal member was a gigant from the Irondawn Tribes. It was said that lucky tribespeople would be blessed by the heavens and inherit traits from their ancestral bloodline, giving them powers such as being able to bite through and consume metal or super strength. A gigant like him was a natural-born fit to be the leader of their tribe. When he appeared, the tribesmen who were moving supplies around immediately stopped working and slapped their chests to greet him.

The gigant smiled and raised his hand to wave them off without taking his attention off the one he called his brother. ”Brother An, why the shock? I never saw you wink an eyeball when you guided me through Wolfhowl Woods and crossed the Unfreezing River.”

”I’m unable to hold back my joy. Also, I think the phrase you’re looking for is ’bat an eye,’ not ’wink an eyeball.’” An Qianshan corrected the gigant’s misphrased idiom as a matter of habit. Usually, he would go into a deeper explanation with some examples to help the unusually witty gigant understand the intricacies of Grand Chen’s culture. However, he simply couldn’t take his eyes off the words on the letter.

”Even though the frostwolves of Wolfhowl Woods are fierce, luring them away with traps and bait is trivial. The Unfreezing River is bone chilling despite what its name might suggest, but a pontoon bridge is all we need to build to cross it. This time, however, I received news about my son. It’s absolutely inconceivable, but I find myself believing every word of it. I’ve always trusted that he would go on to achieve things far beyond my wildest dreams! He’s the qilin of our An clan!”[1]

The gigant looked at the letter curiously. Having gotten quite proficient at reading, he quickly revealed a look of shock. ”What in the... I’m batting my eyes a lot...”

”That’s not how you use that idiom...” An Qianshan sighed. Having been used to teaching his son who picked up on things almost immediately, he was quite surprised by how different it felt to teach this gigant. However, he wasn’t annoyed by the gigant in the least, for the gigant called Tagulang had saved him from certain death after Grand Chen gave up on Greenjade Pass.

Unlike what many believed, the officers at Greenjade Pass left long before the northern barbarians invaded. Even though it was true that they wouldn’t have been able to stop the barbarian army of a hundred thousand, the fact that they had retreated without even putting up any resistance at all, effectively handing the area to the enemy, made the residents of Greenjade Pass feel despair and abandonment.

The strategic retreat did spare the forces on both sides from suffering unnecessary casualties. That was the reason An Qianshan and the other refugees of the snow calamity at Greenjade Pass weren’t massacred as an act of retaliation. Most of them were taken as slaves, while the skilled ones among them were recruited to work for the barbarians.

An Qianshan had thought that he would be captured and imbued with a curse art to make him the barbarians’ martial slave. Worse yet, he would simply be abandoned by the barbarians like the soldiers of Grand Chen had done to them, left to freeze and end up buried in snow like the rest of the populace.

He didn’t expect that the Tagulang would actually not enslave him after learning that he was a scholar. Instead, he was taken to a bookstore that the barbarians had taken over. He saw a pile of books and documents strewn across the floor. Though it still looked messy, he could tell that the barbarians had tried their best to tidy it up. An Qianshan’s job was to sort the books properly and make an inventory of them before they would be transported back to the tribe.

”Do you like to read?”

”Subject of Grand Chen, we of the Irondawn have martial tomes of our own. However, there’s never any harm in owning more books. The more the better.”

”Are you able to understand their content?”

”Not really, but I will force myself to memorize it all the same, just like how I must save the food I can’t finish. It might be of use one day.”

”I can teach you.”

”Teach me? Do you understand?”

”I do. I understand it all.”

”Then, perhaps I can make you my teacher.”

That was how the gigant met the scholar.

Tagulang belonged to the Tagu Tribe, which was rather average sized compared to the rest. Large tribes had more than enough martialists and shamans as well as people who were literate enough to read and understand books.

Dustdawn had its own civilization and culture as well as notions of countries and laws, but that was typically limited to larger tribes. A new tribe like the Tagu that hadn’t existed for more than three centuries simply didn’t have the kind of deep foundations to develop any kind of cultural refinement. They didn’t even have a proper spellcaster legacy.

Right as Tagulang wanted to perform a master-disciple rite to take the scholar who could easily parse such books as his master, An Qianshan politely refused the gesture, knowing his place well. Since then, Tagulang called him his brother and showed him great respect. Eventually, An Qianshan gave up on using the tribe as a stepping stone to survive and decided to give it his all to raise them to new heights.

1. Qilin is a mythical beast in Chinese mythology. It’s also used to describe an outstanding person, possibly in reference to some legends that name it as one of the nine sons of the dragon. ☜