Destiny in Cinders

”Why did the divine armaments leave?”

”Olden Heavenly Father above! What in the world is happening?!”

”Heavens no!”

While An Jing wasn’t that shocked by the disappearing divine armaments, the same couldn’t be said for the other wayguards, all common folks of Grand Chen. They didn’t even panic to this extent when they were chased down by fiendspawns and still managed to retreat toward a fortified town in an orderly manner, yet they broke down when the divine armaments left.

It wasn’t that they didn’t have any mental fortitude whatsoever. Instead, it was more that a crucial foundation of their lives that they had taken for granted suddenly crumbled with no explanation. To them, the world itself was being overturned. Even Xu Tai couldn’t help but furrow his brow and rub his temples in deep thought.

”Stop overthinking it,” An Jing said as he made a thunderous clap, drawing all their attention to him. He gave the order to retreat once more. This time around, none of them said they wanted to stay behind. The martialists of the wayguard agency were anxious to leave the land that was no longer protected by divine armaments for the familiar city. Their sense of urgency made them move much faster than before.

”Let’s go,” An Jing said, watching as the others retreated to the south. He then turned around, took out Frostwhite Dart and asked Xu Tai to ride shotgun. ”Let’s head to Riverside.”

”Yes.” Xu Tai was quite excited to see the hoverbike. It was a deep-rooted masculine instinct to be fascinated by beasts of steel, after all. He didn’t find it weird as similar methods of transportation were common in some advanced towns. There were many smaller airships that looked really close to the hoverbike in design. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from asking, ”How much is this bad boy?”

After pondering it, An Jing shook his head and said, ”It’s not for sale.”

The two of them zipped across the snowfields before the dark-gold smoke of terrestrial-vein qi vanished in the distance. The sudden disappearance of the divine armaments hadn’t just shocked the civilians and troops of Grand Chen in the vicinity. Even the beasts around Brokeblade Mountain were startled, causing them to speed up their migration.

Even the great feys deep within the mountains were greatly disturbed. They possessed intelligence that surpassed that of a normal person and knew how much power the divine armaments possessed. It was what had kept them from encroaching upon human territory for millennia, after all. Yet, they were even more fearful than the humans when such a powerful force vanished out of nowhere. While humans feared suddenly losing something they were used to for no good reason, beasts and fey were more concerned whether this was a case of retracting claws into paws. Perhaps it was a trap to tempt them to make a move, only to strike back out of nowhere.

The sudden disruption to the normal flow of qi among the beasts also affected the environment. Dark clouds gathered once more around Brokeblade Mountain before another round of heavy snowfall. Frostwhite Dart traced a white line through the snow that piled across the land.

Eventually, An Jing got to see the beast tide for himself. It wasn’t a literal tidal wave of beasts. Instead, it was just a collection of many different groups of migrating animals. Their presence turned the surrounding environment into something akin to a safari.

Thousands of mosshorn deer leaped across the land. These gentle creatures typically didn’t live in packs, but things were different during the beast tide. They formed large herds as they traveled, leaving fine, green sprouts in their wake, rising through the cracks in the snow and ice beneath to form a path of grass.

Behind them was a large group of giant fangboars covered in a wooden hide. These were the very same dangkang An Jing had feasted on before. The bloodline of these fangboars seemed even denser than that of fangboars from Skysource. As they traversed the grass path created by the mosshorn deer, the spirit energy that they emitted caused the sprouts to grow larger and thicker, forming vines and roots that could survive the trampling of much heavier beasts.

One of the fangboars looked larger than the rest, resembling a moving building. Its fur was entirely snow white and its six fangs crisscrossed with each other. If not for its shorter snout, it would resemble the six-tusked elephants of myth. The sacred and regal creature transformed the vines underneath it into stiff wood, forming a large and sturdy path. The look of this great fey gave An Jing the impression that it was sapient. It noted that the hoverbike would intersect with their path and let out a low, thunderous growl to order its fellow descendants to not panic.

”A great fey on par with peak Clearing adepts... This is one of the mountain rulers near Brokeblade Mountain!” Xu Tai was more awed than frightened by the sight of the massive white fangboar. ”They say it barely makes an appearance once a century. I’ve heard legends about it since my childhood... Who knew that I’d get to see it with my own eyes?”

”The world is at the brink of upheaval. You even encountered a divine-arc bearer like me! A great fey is nothing in comparison,” An Jing said with a chuckle. He would’ve been worried if the feys were completely feral, but they were sentient and intelligent creatures who knew better than to crash head-first into towns or settlements.

His expression turned solemn as he said, ”What in the world happened in Brokeblade Mountain that would drive a mountain ruler away?”

Finding his mother and Yvelbane’s fragment were his main priorities. Given that Riverside was currently under threat, An Jing had to go there to check if his mother was there. If she was, then he would readjust his plans. If she wasn’t, he would proceed to recover the fragment.

Behind the massive white fangboar, An Jing saw large swathes of flying squirrels that looked somewhat like clouds. The squirrels generated electricity with the fluff on their tails which allowed them to hover and fly rapidly across the air. Beneath them were a few massive wolves that enjoyed the squirrels’ lightning bath. Blitzwolves were earth-aspect beasts that didn’t have any lightning spells of their own. However, they were able to charge up on lightning arcane power and had a symbiotic relationship with the flying squirrels, offering to guard them in exchange for the free charge.

There were a few other packs of animals, though they numbered five at most. Those ferocious beasts emanated powerful auras, ranging from mountain tigers to blackdoom ravens with wingspans stretching four zhang wide. The rulers of the mountains and forests had turned their backs to flee their homes, following the grass path and altering the terrain around them with their respective spirit energies, reinforcing the path even more, leaving a firm mark of their presence across the land.

An Jing also saw groups of humans trailing behind the beasts. There were still some people in the region who weren’t willing to move despite the threats from the corrupt diversionary squads. They had initially wanted to endure the beast tide and snow calamity with sheer willpower, but seeing the divine armaments’ departure was enough of a blow to their confidence that prompted them to leave. The chaotic movements of the beasts that happened right after the divine armaments were gone was yet another reminder that staying in rural areas was not a good idea.

Even though the cities were no longer defended by divine armaments, their terrestrial-vein formations and walls were still present, making them far more secure than towns or villages. That explained why the humans gathered from all directions behind the migrating beasts and scrambled toward the same destination. The massive city built along the river, Riverside, was already in sight.