Destiny in Cinders

It was just an evening like any other. Layers of clouds hovered above the mountain range, basked in the rays of gold and crimson, making them look like they were on fire, casting one final bit of illumination at the waning hours of twilight.

An Jing and the rest had finished their training for the day and were playing with marbles. It was a group of six, including Gu Yeqi, Zhang Ying, Cang Linzu, Ye Xiuyuan and Zhan Feng; these were the closest people to An Jing and they looked up to him like they were his younger siblings. Since they got along rather well, they often spent their free time playing together.

The marbles were given to An Jing as a reward for his good performance. However, he didn't play with them and instead used them to teach his friends how to improve their strength and control, honing their precision and output.

With the lines on the ground as boundaries, the five of them would use short sticks to strike their marbles in an attempt to get them to hit the others' marbles. Anyone that managed to do so would be rewarded a point. Those that hit two marbles in succession got three points. A hat-trick would get one six points, while striking four marbles earned one twelve points. Should they knock marbles out of the boundary, they would be penalized two points.

It might seem like an easy game, but the only sensible move was to try to strike two marbles at least. They first had to consider how much force to use so that the marbles would keep going after one collision, not to mention that it was simply harder to apply the right amount of force with sticks rather than their own hands. Accuracy and good judgment were paramount.

They took turns striking their marbles. The game only ended after each person got five turns. An Jing would personally coach the winner on their martial techniques while the losers would be asked to exercise and work out their other capabilities.

So far, Gu Yeqi won the most often due to her incredibly fine control. She was basically able to hit two marbles with every attempt, with the occasional lucky third strike. Cang Linzu and Ye Xiuyuan came next. Their technique were on par with Gu Yeqi's, but they were occasionally too greedy and used too much force, sending their marbles rolling out of bounds. Zhang Ying and Zhan Feng, on the other hand, often ended up last and got extra training. The former couldn't quite find the right angles to send the marble in while the latter struggled to control his vast strength.

"Yeah!" Zhang Ying cheered in triumph when he accurately grasped the amount of force to use for his turn. He hit three marbles in a row, scoring high enough to stop being the last one on the ranking. Yet, he turned around oddly and sniffed around. "Wait a second, Brother An, do you smell this? Do you all?"

"A little bit." An Jing used his thumb to flick a marble to the ground. It bounced once firmly, a testament to his refined skill and control. An Jing looked up in thought and said, "I can't quite place what smell it is, though."

"Huh?" Gu Yeqi got first place yet again and was about to get An Jing's personal instruction. She came over with a bottle of water and said, "It smells herbal..."

Gu Yeqi had grown up in an estate surrounded with herbal scents and could tell plants apart just by their smell. Closing her eyes and sniffing a few times, she confidently said, "I smell iron stem and the pollen of the ice mango flower. They have calming effects!"

"You're wrong. It's meat, lots of it!" Zhang Ying confidently asserted. "It's not just one kind of meat!"

Zhang Ying had come from a family of hunters. Before the snow calamity struck, hunting in the northern frontier was one of the most dangerous jobs. If a group of hunters emerged from the mountains, they would come back with a full haul of beast fur and flesh, not to mention the precious herbs they picked up along the way! He was incredibly familiar with scents like these. There was no way he would mistake the distinct smell that the muscles of slaughtered animals gave off.

"It's herbs!"

"No, it's meat!"

The two got into an argument soon enough. Cang Linzu and Zhan Feng fanned the flames from the side. "Fight! Fight!"

Ye Xiuyuan and An Jing merely shook their heads quietly from the sidelines.

"That's enough," An Jing said, stopping their argument. "I smell something else too."

Turning around, he looked towards the building next to the arena: the apothecary. Direlife Manor was similar to a boarding school that could easily hold a thousand people. The majority of them were refugee children and their movement was limited to a rather small part of the manor. They weren't allowed to go to the apothecary, rear halls, rear mountains, central courtyard and the natural pool areas.

There were far too many secrets in Direlife Manor, which most of the children were content to ignore. The only exception was the apothecary. Every five days, the vice apothecary would summon the children there for physical checkups, treatments and concoctions, so they were quite familiar with the place.

Yet that day, An Jing smelled a different herbal scent coming from it. It was exceedingly sweet but also mixed with an odd hint of rawness. It smelled like braised meat cooked with mustard seeds, red sugar and wine brewed with strawberry extract, capable of tempting anyone's appetite.

"It's about time for lunch." Hearing the sound of the bell, An Jing shook his head to dispel the weird notions that surfaced in his mind. He gathered the rest and led them to the canteen.

That day was much different than usual. Most of the children got a large serving of fragrant meat, so much that they probably measured five jin. Some of them were ribs and thighs, all roasted to perfection and wafting with irresistible fragrance. They looked so springy that they seemed to be capable of jumping out of the plates.

An Jing furrowed his brow, feeling an odd mix of alertness and delight, as he stared at the serving of meat. It seemed like it had come from a ferocious beast based on the odd-shaped bones, unlike any animal that he was aware of. The dense, greasy smell mixed with those of herbs, spices and juices caused his stomach to rumble violently to the point that his body shook with desire.

Though he felt a nigh-unbearable urge to wolf it down, he was still able to suppress the instinct, perhaps due to how much meat he had been given lately as the senior disciple. He swallowed the saliva that had been building up in his mouth and observed the whole canteen.

Not everyone was given the same kind of meat. Some of them were served meat from some ferocious beast like An Jing, while others were given wings of some other flying beast or offal. Some were even served insects. Other kinds of seafood like crab or fish were even served.

Differences aside, everyone enjoyed the meals they were served, indulging in it nonstop. They were so focused on devouring the meat before them that they didn't think of uttering even a single word to distract them from it. Nothing but pure greed drove their actions, a tendency that disturbed An Jing so much that he could feel chills down his spine.

"An Jing," said an elderly voice.

He turned around and noticed that the manor lord had appeared beside him.

"Do you not like it?" the old man said. His body looked so old and frail that it seemed to barely be grasping on the soul that inhabited it. Looking An Jing deep in the eyes, he whispered, "Why aren't you eating?"

The youth looked deep in those dark eyes and smiled brightly. "Manor Lord, I'm afraid of finishing it quickly and feeling like I haven't had enough."

An Jing's serving of meat seemed to be of much higher quality than the other children's. Perhaps this was special treatment given to the senior disciple. He was of a completely different league than the rest of his cohort, after all. Yet, this special treatment unnerved him somehow.

The manor lord rose and laughed. "You're afraid you won't have enough, so you turned to look at the food of the others first, huh? What a greedy child you are... But don't worry. One day, you will truly be able to eat your fill. Eat away."