Destiny in Cinders

Nian Quan’s match wouldn’t take place right away. Meanwhile, An Jing and Huo Qing returned to their warehouse in Hilltwixt. An Jing handed the sunset rainbow earth to Yvelbane so that it could take its time to transfer the true intent into it. Then, he and Huo Qing tested out Frostwhite Dart with great excitement.

”Whoa! Check this speed out!” Frostwhite Dart’s speed was about as high as conventional vehicles could reach. Its normal cruising speed was comparable to the full-speed run of a martialist. At peak velocity, it was incredibly close to the speed of sound. The four wind spell formulations in all directions helped stabilize the aerodynamics, allowing air to glide seamlessly around the vehicle rather than directly pushing against it so that it could reach peak velocity in a relatively short time.

An Jing would have a much easier time traveling with this vehicle. It sure beat running nonstop for thirty-six hours at full speed. He would easily run out of energy and be unable to face off against any threats in his way.

The two of them cheered in excitement as the wind bounced off the barrier while the bike continued to accelerate. The formation disc wasn’t just there to defend against collisions. It could also keep acid rain, frost, heatwaves and even lightning bolts out. The hoverbike could traverse any kind of terrain while the barrier formation was switched on, keeping the rider safe from the pursuit of most feys in Skysource.

In Void Embrace, that kind of travel speed was something that Clearing adepts found difficult to match without the proper footwork technique. It wasn’t that they had no chance of catching up, but as long as An Jing accelerated to full speed and continued to fire off bullets or sword qi him, even Clearing adepts wouldn’t be able to maintain that kind of speed while evading or countering those attacks. Not to mention, their counterattacks, should they hit Frostwhite Dart, would be mitigated by the barrier.

”It’s no wonder cultivators since ancient times either try to learn luminous flight or cruise on flying swords!” An Jing said as he relished the sensation of speed. ”Mobility is important indeed!”[1]

”But of course!” Huo Qing was also itching to try it out. He didn’t hold back at all and said, ”Are you done? Let me take it for a spin!” ℯℯ𝑙.

”Wait a bit. I want to go for one more round!”

The two of them rode the bike all around Hilltwixt until the town garrison warned them to stop from the annoyance they were causing. They didn’t get sick of it in the slightest.

An Jing continued to rest and recuperate in Hilltwixt. He also used that time to sort out his possessions. He needed to decide what kind of supplies or equipment to carry with him. After storing Frostwhite Dart in the void wristguard, he still had half of the twelve cubic meters of space remaining. He tossed in some canned food, water, spirit stones, mechanical equipment, artifacts and thunder beads. As for the talismans, they were light and portable enough to keep on his person.

Since he didn’t manage to spend the merits he had saved for a void artifact, he used it to replenish his supply of jadeslice steel. He had run out not too long ago, so he procured five liang of it. The nine seals of Qi Refinement required more Evenstar metal lethal qi to manifest, but not by much. Five liang of jadeslice steel would be enough for three or four more seals. Consuming the essence of the blade, Ocean Domination, could probably bring that number up to five or six.

But according to Yvelbane, he needed to prepare some lightning-aspect spirit items apart from metal-aspect ones to attain Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal’s second ability after he manifested the nine Qi Refinement seals.

”Haven’t I already bought that sunset rainbow earth?” An Jing asked, puzzled. ”Why didn’t you tell me this when we were at the black market?”

”Because the lightning-aspect spirit items there didn’t fit what we need. Those only offer containment, in other words, they’re inhibitory spirit items. What we need are lightning-aspect items that focus on manipulation. Naturally occurring spirit items have different, unique spirit properties. Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal is able to make use of all kinds, but manmade spirit items are far too pure to possess unique spirit properties. Paradoxically, that makes them unsuitable for our purposes.”

The ability that Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal would awaken after all nine Qi Refinement seals were manifested was called Shang Resonance. The Shang tone is the tone of metal, a most clear and mature tune, reflecting the hierarchical virtue shown by a respectful and dutiful subject to his sovereign. The tune was clear and correct in both melody and rhythm, stable and harmonized. In the same vein, the metal aspect of the five phases represented fear and terror, signifying restraint. That was why army retreats were typically sounded with metallic instruments. The Shang tone was mainly embodied by instruments like the bell or gong, which also represented the clashing of weapons.[2]

”The Shang tone here refers to the properties of the spirit qi created by Evenstar Ivory Divine seals: more reserved but concentrated, firm, tough and difficult for other types of spirit qi to overwhelm or mix with. Even if someone else uses the very same Evenstar lethal qi, if they haven’t manifested the Shang Resonance ability, their metal-aspect spirit qi remains incredibly susceptible to the generative and destructive influences of other aspects of the five phases. It’s easy to corrupt or disrupt and hard to disentangle.

”Once you manifest Shang Resonance, however, your spirit qi will remain independent and isolated. Even when you face fire-spirit-qi cultivators that try to exploit the fire-melts-metal destructive interaction, you won’t be overwhelmed right away. Instead, you can disentangle your spirit qi from that negative aspect interaction by ’sounding the retreat,’ so to speak, easily allowing you to draw it back while retaining most of the spirit qi, leaving you with enough to switch to other tactics. While you face cultivators of other aspects, your spirit qi will be even firmer and steadier, allowing your techniques to last longer and increasing their efficacy in the process. It also makes it more difficult for others to break your defensive techniques.”

So basically, my techniques are strengthened, they last longer, I’ll be able to use more of it, and when people use aspects that are super effective against me, they’ll do only 1.5 times the damage rather than double damage. I also won’t lose all the spirit qi from a destructive entanglement, which means I’ll consume less of it overall. An Jing understood all the implications of Yvelbane’s explanation. If Firm White Attestation represented an overall strengthening of the physical body, that would make Shang Resonance a huge boost to his spirit qi, decreasing his consumption of it relative to others and making it more stable and resistant overall.

”Let’s not forget that the Shang tone is also like the toll of the bell or the clang of clashing weapons,” Yvelbane continued, giving so many details that typical legacies or teachings wouldn’t contain. ”If you learned this from a run-of-the-mill legacy, you would be asked to hammer two different metal-aspect spirit items into each other to feel how the different types of metal-aspect spirit qi hone each other with a particular emphasis on listening to the tone.

”Lightning, on the other hand, results from the forceful interaction of yin and yang, containing the aspects of yin and yang as well as those of the five phases. The Shang tone is contained within the sound of lightning as well. When they collide, you’ll hear it even more clearly than simply using metal-aspect spirit items. That’s why, if you have a corresponding lightning-aspect spirit item to refine along with the jadeslice steel, the spirit qi that you draw from both of them will be of great help in mastering this ability.

”If you succeed, your spirit qi can also rumble like lightning, perfectly complementing your Trueblitz Pentaphase Infusion. That’s why you shouldn’t settle for anything less than using a lightning-aspect spirit item.”

An Jing nodded and said, ”Understood.”

Such deep insights probably only ever spread by word of mouth. These specific ways of pairing spirit items together weren’t something that’d be written down clearly within the manuals of a particular legacy. It was just like how the recipe of red braised pork in every household is slightly different. This recipe was a Yvelbane special, specifically used for making it easier to manifest that particular ability.

”Then, I’ll get Metalhand to help out. Lightning arts in Skysource seem rather advanced. I bet there’s a perfect spirit item that’d satisfy all our requirements.”

”That’s what I thought too,” Yvelbane said. ”Once we get the spirit item, you’ll be able to continue your cultivation.”

”Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal is amazing indeed.” An Jing estimated how much it would all cost and realized that the merits he saved from being gifted a void artifact would be spent on cultivation resources again. ”Thankfully I make merits quickly enough. Otherwise, we’d really be constantly wrung dry.”

”’From each according to his ability,’ as they say. Given how capable you are, you should do more. In fact, you’re in a much better situation than people of my time. Back then, these little tricks to optimize the cultivation of Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal hadn’t been discovered yet. We only managed to come up with it after we mastered it the hard way and tried to reverse engineer the process of how we got there. All this time, we wondered how much a young cultivator would grow if they cultivated this technique with all the tips we discovered too late for ourselves. It was too bad that those who fit the bill all opted for the more orthodox path of the White Emperor.”

Am I your pet project or something? An Jing thought with a smile. Though Yvelbane’s memories were filled with holes, it did remember quite a lot of things that were adjacent to cultivation. While it was never quite sure whether it was the sword of its wielder, it didn’t really matter. It felt like a real, living person rather than a simple, rusted sword. Perhaps it was just a sword immortal who had lost their sense of identity.

Eventually, two days passed and it was about time for An Jing to return to Void Embrace. Before he left, he passed the Imperial Earth Art to Huo Qing. Even though it was quite unlikely for him to awaken Temporal Grasp by having the complete technique from the demonic cult, any insight he gained from it would still be valuable.

”It was just as you said,” An Jing said after he explained the relationship between formation theory and the martial path of Void Embrace. ”The martial techniques I use focus on the core precept of using your own body as a formation. You can consider it an alternative paradigm of body refinement with a focus of bearing the dao with one’s own body. Huo Qing, you’re talented in body refinement and have a decent understanding of formations. Even though you aren’t a genius of the martial path or formations individually, you might have a unique talent when it comes to blending the two.”

1. Luminous flight here is my translation of 遁光, which some people render as ”escape light.” I felt that rendering wasn’t adequate since it’s possible to use it for more than escaping. ☜

2. Whew, so lots of music theory here. The Shang tone (商音) is a concept in Chinese music, mainly where the pentatonic scale is involved. It describes tunes whose home note is the note of the second scale degree on a pentatonic scale (i.e. the second note on a five-note scale). Traditionally, the five notes of the pentatonic scale are also associated with the aspects of the five phases. Here’s a resource about that philosophical association: https://spectacularvancouver.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/traditional-chinese-music-five-elements-five-tones/ For more information about music theory and scale degrees (in the western context, but the concept is transferable to some degree to the Chinese pentatonic scale) see: https://signalsmusic.studio/lessons/relative-modes-tonal-center ☜