Destiny in Cinders

The incidents involving the True Talisman, flamecrows, the underground caverns of Skysource that An Jing once found himself in as well as his purchase of the warehouse in Hilltwixt seemed to share secret ties with the underground immortal castle near Deepnight City. Whether An Jing had chosen to continue exploring the underground caverns when he first arrived or hunt the flamecrows in the badlands, he would eventually learn about the same thing, just from different angles.

Putting aside the fact that An Jing relied on things he purchased from the black market to escape the demonic cult and heavenly fiend’s pursuit, even if he had missed out on his Deepnight City baptism at the black market and didn’t get wrapped up in the True Talisman’s incident, he would’ve most likely still chosen Hilltwixt as his base of operations in Skysource due to the low property prices. He would’ve ended up buying the warehouse from Ocher Hill, a subsidiary of Shouyang Mountain that had to evacuate their agents who weren’t assigned missions because of the raid on the black market.

As for the guardian sage of Hilltwixt, he served the Shouyang Group, the source of all these troubles. As long as An Jing stayed in that town, he would be wrapped up in this incident one way or another. Even if he had chosen to stay elsewhere, the sky-piercing flashes of spirit light essentially broadcast the existence of the immortal castle, which would’ve reminded An Jing to go check on the underground caverns in the badlands.

”Is my celestial arc also triggering in Skysource?” He fell into deep thought. This possibility had occurred to him before, though he hadn’t thought about it extensively. Then again, the fact that the void artifact could be used in both worlds hinted at how similar the Heavenly Daos of both worlds were to allow such intercompatibility. ”What if Skysource has its own bearer of the Seven Ruins Tribulation lifearc? Wouldn’t my arrival here disrupt their work?”

”That assumes that one such bearer even exists,” Yvelbane said. ”While celestial arcs seem like things that can manifest in every world, that’s not necessarily the case. Typical worlds would struggle to manifest divine arcs, let alone celestial arcs. In fact, miracle arcs already approximate the level of astral destinies that descend upon worlds. In minor worlds, they might as well be celestial arcs.”

”Huh, and Void Embrace has five types of celestial arcs,” An Jing said in awe. ”Doesn’t that mean...”

”Void Embrace is not only unique, it’s incredibly powerful.” Yvelbane said it with certainty despite the many holes in its memory. ”Skysource is already rather powerful, considering that there are a few primordial deities in existence. But how could they possibly compare to the number of empyreans in Void Embrace? There’s probably more than a hundred of them there. If you ask me, it isn’t that Skysource’s Heavenly Dao isn’t capable of manifesting celestial arcs. Even if it could, I doubt that it would mind mooching off a celestial-arc bearer from a foreign world like you to prune the branches of cause and effect and get its world’s affairs in order.”

Huh... That makes a celestial-arc bearer like me rather desirable. Void Embrace relies on me to grow its total store of spirit qi by siphoning some of it off Skysource, while Skysource enjoys the benefits of having a celestial arc by mooching off mine, which Void Embrace manifested.

Though An Jing had the odd feeling of being fought over, he was reminded that this had always been his state of being. The demonic cult, Grand Chen and other factions had always been somewhat obsessed with him, so the novelty soon wore off. ”One world is filled entirely with inert fiend qi, while the other is a world ruined by fiend qi... It’s far too risky being a celestial-arc bearer in either of these worlds. If not for my talent, combat capabilities and vigilance, there’s no way I’d be able to get the True Talisman and learn about the secret pathway. I might’ve just been whisked into the immortal castle haphazardly and killed by whatever taboo formations they have there!”

”Indeed,” Yvelbane agreed. ”But if we flip that around, there’s no way you would bear a celestial arc if you weren’t that talented and vigilant either. Only someone with matching ambitions and personality like yours can come to bear it. Fate is determined by the heavens, while fortune is downstream of your own actions. To the best of my knowledge, there’s no better candidate than you to deal with the matters of both worlds.”

”True.” Feigning humility was not something he would do. An Jing was unique in that confidence was second nature to him. He had never denied that he had talent, nor did he let it get to his head. ”When we have a chance, we have to explore those underground caverns. It still seems rather risky given my power now. Maybe I can try when I have all five wonders and reach the Clearing Realm.”

He would never let haste and impatience deprive him of the chance to prepare, a lesson he had been taught often by his mother, Shen Mubai.

”Where are we heading next?” Huo Qing asked, still observing the sights in the sky. He had snapped out of his recollection of the linked defensive formations across the seventeen towns activating all at once. He turned to Hilltwixt with a sparkle in his eye. ”I think we won’t be able to go back to the warehouse for the time being. The building itself should be fine with some repairs, but the area might be cordoned off temporarily. Word of the immortal ruins will definitely spread. An Jing, we might be able to profit off this if we’re lucky. I think property prices in Hilltwixt will shoot up!”

”Won’t the folks at Deepnight City reclaim the property?” An Jing asked, surprised.

Huo Qing shook his head. ”Those at the top won’t stoop so low for pocket change like this. Also, it’s not guaranteed that we’d make it big. The prices could always plummet for all we know. But if we really do get lucky, we’d make back ten times the thousands of merits we paid to buy the warehouse!”

”Ten times!” Stunned, An Jing made a mental calculation. If he really did make that kind of profit, it would exceed the profit he had earned from interworld trading so far. However, he soon calmed down.

”Indeed. If the immortal ruins really open up to the public, the area around it would become a hub for exploration. We’d at most make tens of thousands of merits from the rise in property prices, but we can also secure a stable income stream by opening up a shop there! And even if Deepnight City really requisitions our land, we’d still profit from it somewhat from the compensation offered,” Metalhand said when An Jing and Huo Qing returned to the recycling house. ”Thank heavens that the two of you are fine, though. That’s where we really got lucky.”

An Jing also realized that he was able to tell this possible veteran member of the Justice Restoration Army some worries that he struggled to share with Huo Qing.

”What? You’re worried that this is a plot by the Shouyang Group against the Luofu Group?” Metalhand’s expression turned odd before he laughed. ”Sigh, that’s what you get when you don’t have a chip. Come. I’ll show you the latest news.”

He raised his hand and summoned a waterscreen from his couch. It turned itself on and started the broadcast. ”Breaking news! Did the ruins of a pre-calamity immortal castle really appear at Hilltwixt? More reasons for the golden crow’s sudden assault, revealed! We interviewed the miners working at Hilltwixt and they said that they’ve always been aware of the mysterious mass slumbering beneath Deepnight City. We reached out to Sage Fogmountain for comment, but he refused an interview and claimed that this was an internal matter of Deepnight City and redirected us to the official information channels. As for the word on the street...”

One clearly rehearsed and prepared news segment after another aired nonstop. All of it sounded like they had been drafted days ago before the incident. An Jing saw the names of the channels and smiled, shaking his head. ”Are they really letting people talk so freely about it? Sounds more like they planned this long ago.”

An Jing no longer needed to be so paranoid. Luofu must’ve secretly been exploring that area for many years. Shouyang Mountain had probably tried to steal Luofu’s ripe crop. Whether the True Talisman is related to this or not, I shouldn’t rush to get myself involved. Not to mention, one really needs to be cultivating at quite a high level to do anything important in Skysource. I should focus on my growth first. For starters, let’s go to the special market to buy some stuff.