Destiny in Cinders

”What?!” Even An Jing was taken aback by what You Ruhui just said. ”Ancestral Dragon Hall actually gave you all the tomes related to True Dragon Spine?”

”That’s right. All of it,” she said with a certain tone. ”Though I’m not sure why, they’re mine now. I’m flipping through some of them and I’ll transfer them to you later!”

An Jing didn’t think it was given to her for no reason whatsoever. Perhaps some elite member of Ancestral Dragon Hall could tell that You Ruhui managed to make a breakthrough using dragon qi and believed that she was worth investing in if she could break the imperial court’s curse of not being able to reach the Void Divine Treasures Realm after betraying the empire.

Speaking of which, relations between Grand Chen and Ancestral Dragon Hall were rather delicate. According to legend, the sacred ancestor of Grand Chen was taught the dao by the Dragon Master. Not to mention, the area near the northern frontier in Hanhai was guarded by the Hanhai Mistide chi. The various dragon races also had members that bore titles like River Dragon King or Lake Dragon King, most of whom were granted mountain-water mandates from Grand Chen and were also considered their officials to some capacity. While the recent relations between these two powers had suffered and even drove the Hanhai Mistide Chi away, that wouldn’t do much to change how deeply they were interrelated, even on matters not concerning martial study.

”The upper arch of the tortoise’s shell represents the dome of heaven, while its flat bottom shell represents the earth. Divine tortoises live for a thousand years and carry deep, expansive wisdom. The broad-framed creatures have no males and therefore pair off with snakes. That is how the snake and tortoise came together to form Xuanwu. If Grand Chen’s imperial court is really somehow related to Xuanwu, then the symbolism of dragons as the snake-headed tail of Xuanwu would make sense. However, the tortoise component in the sayings about Grand Chen’s legacy is still largely unclear,” An Jing said, sharing his thoughts with her. ”How different is True Dragon Spine from True Martial Spine? What do you think about the former?”

”I know what the ’tortoise’ here stands for. Since the tortoise’s shell’s curved top represents heaven while its flat bottom represents earth, the tortoise itself is in between these two elements and thus a stand-in for mankind.” You Ruhui had studied quite a bit about imperial blood and understood her clan’s legacy well. Not to mention, she had the tomes of Ancestral Dragon Hall to supplement her understanding. ”Mankind is the leader of all sentient life, embodying benevolence. A monarch rules with virtue and brings peace to the realm, ensuring stability like that of a tortoise. The serpentine dragons are sovereigns among beasts, embodying a primal nature. They sweep across the land under heaven and seek dominion through martial struggle, looking down on all from high above. In other words, Xuanwu represents both the paths of benevolence and domination. It is the intersection of yin and yang, a fusion of heaven and earth. It embodies the True Martial.

”If you ask me, True Dragon Spine is a bit too savage. It develops the spine into a massive dragon that flows out to countless meridians, sucking up all the myriad qi in the environment and bundling them all together. It treats the purple mansion like the Celestial Ocean and the spine like terrestrial veins. Coupling that with a true-spirit dragon bloodline, one will be able to synthesize heaven, earth and spirit to generate a unique form of fundamental primordial dragon qi. It’s a legacy that only those of the dragon race are able to use.

”True Martial Spine, on the other hand, is a wonder adapted from True Dragon Spine to make up for the incompatibilities between human and dragon bodies. It uses the Celestial Ocean and terrestrial veins as a foundation to lay a formation around a city. When the city is populated, the cycle of heaven, earth and man will take form and kickstart the generation of dragon qi. Bearers of imperial blood like us can eventually achieve the body akin to that of the True Martial Emperor by taking imperial dao dragon qi into our bodies.

”Put in simpler terms, dragons have powerful bodies that can contain the power of heaven, earth and spirit without outside help. Our sacred founding ancestor, on the other hand, is even more amazing and converted a country into a simulacrum of a massive dragon, with its many cities and terrestrial veins making up the meridian network, the stars in the vicinity to form the Celestial Ocean and the billions of subjects of the empire to stand in for the spirit component, creating a dragon of the human dao.

”The activity across the entire empire carried out by its populace is the source of dragon qi. That is why the imperial court is responsible for ensuring that its subjects live peaceful and stable lives. The more prosperous the empire, the more dragon qi ends up being generated, and the more bearers of imperial blood can improve themselves.”

You Ruhui sighed at the end of the long explanation. Clearly, the empire was showing signs of failing that grand design. But she snapped out of it quickly enough. ”As for True Dragon Spine, what I got is the real thing. I’ve compared it with True Martial Spine and identified many similar strains of thought from both of them.”

”A sword of the son of heaven and the masses... A dragon formed by the combination of the individual and the wider populace, huh?” An Jing fell into deep thought and more or less parsed through the logic of how the North Chen Empire and Ancestral Dragon Hall operated. ”While establishing a whole country is much harder, once the order starts forming, dragon qi will start pouring in without end. As a result, the imperial court will always have a steady stream of powerful elites. It’s no wonder the empire’s considered a heavenly sect while Ancestral Dragon Hall is just an upper sect.”

”That isn’t necessarily wrong, but things are different here on the central continent,” You Ruhui said in a solemn tone. ”Even though the imperial court seems much stronger than Ancestral Dragon Hall, that’s only because the Greater Ebony Cult is the only other faction on the central continent. If not for the existence of a powerful central faction like them, Ancestral Dragon Hall was more than capable of ascending to becoming a heavenly sect during the grand tribulation.

”Still, that’s a completely separate topic. An Jing, do you want to manifest True Martial Spine? It’ll definitely be of use to you since you’re able to get dragon qi! Even if you don’t choose to manifest it, I’m sure that you’ll get something out of comparing True Martial Spine and True Dragon Spine.”

”I’m in no rush to manifest it, but comparing them does sound like a good idea.” He calmed down after his initial excitement. While those were core legacies of an upper sect and a heavenly sect, it wasn’t like he had nothing else to cultivate. He did still have the Supreme Truths of Heaven Man. Though the scripture looked simple on the surface, its sparse words actually contained incredibly deep truths. It was a text that had to be carefully and repeatedly studied like the Imperial Sky and Earth Arts. Normal people could definitely make use of it, but only true geniuses could bring out its true potential.

Given An Jing’s own experience engaging with the text, it wasn’t that hard for him to figure out the first few stages of that technique. But the later parts could definitely benefit from reading other tomes in tandem and comparing their insights against each other. Not to mention, both of these techniques needed dragon qi, which An Jing could access since Riverside was his. However, his future was still incredibly uncertain. He didn’t have a dragonjade like You Ruhui, after all.

”Oh yeah, I was planning to ask you for some ideas of dealing with extra dragon qi. I have to store it away somehow, or the beast tide might get riled up again,” he said.

You Ruhui gave him a long list of ingredients. ”Once you find all thirty-six of these ingredients, you can use them to forge a dragonhoard bottle. It can be used to store many types of spirit qi for later use. This is one of the top secrets of the imperial court that they typically don’t share with anyone.”

Since leaving the empire, You Ruhui gave out the empire’s precious secrets like candy as if she had gone mad. ”Most of the ingredients are common enough. The difficult part is that you’ll need dragon qi to forge it. So, even if other sects somehow learn about this, they won’t really be able to craft it. As for how things are done in Ancestral Dragon Hall, Sister Jin told me that dragons have a wonder that achieves a similar effect called Spirithoard Scales. Dragonhoard bottles might have been based on it to begin with.”

An Jing gave the list a look and found what she said to be true. The spirit items required to craft a dragonhoard bottle were common items such as different types of spirit ores, some souljades of flawless purity and various five-colored earths, which most martialists would be able to gather given enough time. The optional high-grade materials like terrestrial-vein metals and celestial dew, on the other hand, were precious enough that even sages would be unwilling to part from them.

He didn’t really need the high-grade ones, and he had his channels in Skysource for purchasing the more common materials. Perhaps he would even find some of them among Bejeweled’s warehouses. Even so, something about the list of ingredients was incredibly familiar.

”Yvelbane, look... Don’t you think this looks rather similar?”

”Indeed.” Yvelbane’s tone was one of genuine surprise. ”It’s far too similar. It’s able to store qi and energy for later use... Aren’t dragonhoard bottles just high-grade spirit-qi crucibles?”