Destiny in Cinders

By the time Huo Qing parked his car at the warehouse, An Jing was evaluating the growth of his cultivation. He was already done with assessing his loot; the previous battles had left him with quite a huge haul, but he believed that the thing he gained most from the close brush with death was his improved cultivation and ability.

Due to the many techniques he had, he split them into three categories. The first category was for the martial path of Void Embrace. It included the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Heaven’s Child Art and Temporal Grasp, the Brightmirror Sect’s Brightmirror Heart and Jin Yanhua’s Trueblitz Pentaphase Infusion.

During the critical juncture, he had used Heaven’s Child Art to slow down the passage of time, and it had lived up to his expectations during the heat of combat. He was only able to execute elixir incubation and Heavenly Fiend Dissolution due to the perfect internal perception that Heaven’s Child Art offered him, coupled with his accelerated thoughts from using Temporal Grasp. In that state, using Ailment Swordfinger to heal his injuries also consumed considerably less energy.

The second category was for techniques of the immortal path. The main one was Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal, which An Jing had used to manifest nine seals to obtain the Firm White Attestation ability. In actuality, he had only really gone through the process of forming eight seals. His ninth seal was only manifested because he had already awakened Temporal Grasp. The moment the arcane seals in his body encompassed the soul wonder, the chain reaction triggered to manifest the ninth seal fully.

This was one instance of a beneficial interaction between the martial and immortal cultivation paths. While it took time to build both of them up, one could make incredibly wide strides when it finally came time to harvest.

Firm White Attestation was an ability that homogenized the insides and outsides, his body and soul. In that state, he was impervious to various poisons and resistant to mental attacks. As long as An Jing wasn’t killed, he possessed the power to resist in some measure even after sustaining a debilitating injury. Attacks on his soul would be transferred to his physical body to some extent. In other words, as long as his body wasn’t completely wiped out, his mind would still function even after his soul was heavily damaged. It formed the basis for the many future abilities of Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal. But when An Jing used it in tandem with techniques from the martial path, it made him an incredibly resilient bullet sponge.

The third category of techniques were his lifearc abilities. The original ability of Pyrestar Warden was Qiform Arsenal, which had evolved into Embodied Arsenal. Following his progress with Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal, he gained insight into the nature of his celestial arc, spurring Evenstar Eclipse to awaken its corresponding ability, Smelting Arms Forging Soul. As its name suggested, it allowed An Jing to attack weapons or artifacts directly. Upon breaking them, the ability would absorb their essence and store it away to be used later.

Being abilities derived from the Seven Ruins Tribulation celestial arc, Qiform Arsenal and Smelting Arms Forging Soul also interacted with each other. The latter could be used to strengthen the qi armament formed by the former, gradually honing its essence. Qiform Arsenal also enhanced the damage that Smelting Arms Forging Soul could deal on other weapons and artifacts.

The culmination of the two abilities working in tandem was none other than Culling, a weapon that Yvelbane called a lifebound spirit relic. Even though it looked no different from a strengthened qi armament, it was far more complicated than that.

When An Jing first created it, he had a feeling that Culling was still incomplete. The complete form of this divine armament was not something that those two abilities alone could produce. Qiform Arsenal and Smelting Arms Forging Soul were nothing more than the basic requirements that had to be met for Culling to even take physical form. There were still many deeper insights and applications that An Jing wasn’t aware of. He simply hadn’t unlocked the necessary abilities for them.

It was quite likely that the complete form of Culling could only be made once An Jing assembled at least five out of seven abilities from the Seven Ruinous Luminaries, which coincided with his growth, which was why Yvelbane called it a lifebound spirit relic. In its current form, it was more than capable of killing people, taking their vigor and executing any technique that An Jing used without breaking, making it one of his trump cards.

Likely due to a hint given by heavenly will, An Jing had a strong feeling that Culling would only be complete after five lifearc abilities were awakened, specifically, those that corresponded to the five phases. There was an odd sympathetic relation between that and Trueblitz Pentaphase Infusion as well as the grand pentaphase destruction sword intent from the divine sword’s shard. Once he truly mastered all of that and used them in tandem, he could probably push Culling to a completely unimaginable level.

The three segments of my power form a cycle of mutual reinforcement. Whichever segment I make progress in, I can use it to push the other two segments to catch up. Even by focusing on only one segment, the other two segments won’t really fall behind.

He continued to regulate himself using the qi-collection formation in the seclusion room. Since he figured out the reason for the immortal path being abandoned in Void Embrace, he felt like he was committing a crime with every breath he took. He couldn’t stop exploiting the natural resources of Skysource to speed up his cultivation. It was as if his celestial arc was urging him to steal more of Skysource’s spirit qi and bring it back to Void Embrace.

As he regulated his body, he mapped out the objectives he wanted to achieve. The first and most urgent one was to find his mother and make sure she was safe. The second could be achieved largely in parallel to the first, and it was the search for Yvelbane’s fragment at Brokeblade Mountain. The third was to find a chance to return to the Brightmirror Sect, but it was still quite far off and would have to be deferred to after the first two had been achieved.

When he finished getting his priorities straight, he heard the warehouse’s door open and rose to greet the hurried Huo Qing.

”An Jing! You... don’t look hurt at all. Huh? Is someone else hurt?” Huo Qing’s first instinct wasn’t to think that An Jing was messing with him. Instead, he figured it would be like last time when An Jing’s fellow cultists were hurt.

”No, it’s just me.” An Jing stretched his hand out, which Huo Qing grasped hesitantly.

The fellow immortal cultivator who had also embarked upon the martial path of Void Embrace was stunned. ”Your body is horribly battered! Olden Heavenly Father above... Take this medicine right away!”

As he said so, he immediately took out a vital talisman and a light-green-colored syringe, putting away the four vacuum-packed, emerald-colored pastries.

”Thanks a lot.” An Jing didn’t hold back. While a vital talisman was expensive, it contained nothing short of pure vitality. Nian Quan’s mother, Nian Qin, had used it to extend her life for a whole fifteen minutes during her final moments. It was one of the most effective healing talismans in Skysource, priced at three hundred merits each, ten times the cost of a recovery talisman.

He pasted the talisman at the back of his neck and felt a refreshing infusion of vitality into his spine, which spread throughout the rest of his limbs and bones. The fractures he had haphazardly patched up with the vigor stored in Culling were given a proper mend. An Jing was back to ninety percent of his full health within moments!

”Don’t relax just yet!” Huo Qing said with a strict tone. He held out the syringe and said, ”Even though the vital talisman provides lots of pure vitality, it overstimulates your body’s natural recovery capabilities. Using too many in a short time can strain your internal organs. I can tell that you’ve already used some kind of technique to patch up your injuries earlier, so your body’s already sustained quite a burden. To alleviate that, have some viridian spirit gelatin. It’s made from the refined evergreen-wood resin extract. It can help nourish your internal organs and can also be applied topically to quickly form an external barrier to patch up any open wounds.”

”Umm...” An Jing could tell that this was yet another expensive medical item just like the vital talisman. But before he could refuse it, Huo Qing had already broken the seal of the syringe and installed the needle onto it. Sighing, he helplessly said, ”Alright, let me do it myself. I doubt you’d be able to push the needle through my skin.”

An Jing injected the medication into his body in a practiced manner as Huo Qing watched. It was quite the effective item indeed. He had a feeling that he would be completely restored the next time he woke up. The medication boosted his regenerative capabilities greatly while it lasted.

As for the greenwood pastries, they were normal nutritional supplements that were nowhere near as expensive as what he used earlier. He took a piece and forced the rest to Huo Qing. ”I think you’ve been overworking yourself with the Imperial Sky Art! You need these more than I do!”

The warehouse was silent after they split the pastries and munched away at them.