Destiny in Cinders

An Jing found a floor where there were no signs of homeless stragglers living there and withdrew behind a pillar to cycle his qi and recover. Having escaped the black market and found a resting spot, his tense body finally relaxed.

He could finally feel the sores across his entire body. Sensing the wounds all across his body, he let out a pained smile. "These injuries aren't light."

Aside from the numbness of his meridians and somewhat burned skin, he had also suffered many cuts that felt like they were burning. His chest had also suffered a powerful charge from the Fengdu soldier.

Though his three-layered defenses of jade armor pendant, mantle and spirit qi prevented his ribs from breaking from impact, he could still feel a dull pain whenever he breathed. It was some kind of internal injury that made him smell blood with every breath. It was only due to the adrenaline that he was able to escape the waterways that quickly. With it receding, he felt half-dead and breathed unevenly.

Yvelbane could tell that An Jing was in a rather bad state. "We have around a day left before we have to return to Void Embrace to face the vilespawn fiend. You need to be in your best form. Hmmm... I've decided. Take out the evergreen core. Use the vital qi within to heal your injuries. Don't worry about wasting it. Our priority is to ensure you're fit for what's to come."

Evergreen wood was a rare grade-two spirit plant. It typically grew in warm, tropical climates and wasn't fit for being made into weapons due to its soft but thick structure. It wasn't a good material for artifacts either. Yet, it was used heavily in many other things.

Its bark could be made into talisman paper, while its fruit was comparable to spirit grains. Its sap could also be made into healing pills or those that recovered energy and stamina. The core of the tree itself contained lots of vital qi, making it a prime ingredient for healing talismans.

Roots and branches of similar size could also be fashioned into manmade meridians and immortal skeletons to allow cripples or layfolk to engage in qi cultivation. The efficiency wasn't quite the same and it only allowed cultivation of the wood aspect, but it was better than nothing. While evergreen wood wasn't rare enough to fetch a high price, it was incredibly popular for its myriad uses.

An Jing was currently situated in a ghetto near the border of Deepnight City, specifically, on the seventh floor of an abandoned building. He sat cross legged and put both palms against his dantian. Sandwiched between his lower abdomen and palms was the evergreen core.

The green vital qi was drawn out by An Jing from the evergreen core into his own body. He cycled the energy and felt it spread to all his meridians, passing his limbs, chest, spine and then into his dantian and even his upper torso. He felt a warm, pleasant sensation as the vital qi healed his damaged meridians and body.

He had to endure a bit of pain as his nerves were being repaired. This helped accelerate the processing of nutrients from the fasting pill he consumed to increase his body's natural regeneration.

An Jing could clearly feel a numb itch well up in his lungs. The urge to cough built up within him. When he was almost done healing, he coughed violently and used his ability, Ailment Swordfinger, to channel qi and coughed out a mouthful of metal-qi-infused black blood. The surrounding air started to smell of burnt metal as the piping-hot blood melted part of the ground and made a small hole in it.

That wasn't just a result of the injuries that the soldier had dealt. The lungs were associated with the metal aspect. An Jing had just started cultivating, yet he pushed himself by channeling so much Evenstar lethal qi for attacking and defending, resulting in damage to his lungs. If he didn't deal with those hidden injuries in time, he would suffer side effects later on.

Fortunately, he didn't delay his treatment too long. After he finished coughing, he felt completely relaxed. His lungs were light and clear, which consequently let him channel spirit qi much smoother. "Thank goodness I managed to awaken Ailment Swordfinger. Who knows how long those injuries would take to treat otherwise? Abilities truly are extraordinary. It's no wonder the demonic cult was so obsessed with me when I mastered my ability right after awakening my lifearc."

Having absorbed the vital qi from the evergreen core for two full hours, he felt that most of the burns and cuts he had suffered on the surface healed up completely. His scabs fell off without leaving any scar, and his near-depleted spirit qi also gradually recovered by converting his qi essence reserves.

He opened his eyes and spat out a jet of air that shot out like a white arrow, stretching two chi in length. The color looked completely fine. "I've managed to heal all my injuries in around two hours. Even though my spirit qi has yet to fully recover, I feel better than ever before. I think I'll be able to restore all of my spirit qi by circulating my energy using jadeslice steel for a bit longer."

"Naturally," Yvelbane said. It instructed An Jing to put away the evergreen core; It had shrunk by a quarter of its former size. "Your injuries weren't deep enough to harm your bones or organs, so the healing won't take long. Evergreen cores can even sustain a dying person for a couple of hours. Using only a bit of vital qi from this Foundation Building resource is more than enough to restore you fully."

Yvelbane had other questions in mind, however. "The bodies of humans from Void Embrace seem different from that of humans from my time. An Jing, thanks to your lifearc, you have good resistance against lethal qi. But even without the influence from the Seven Ruins Arc, you still have rather good lethal-qi resistance.

"The humans of Skysource and Void Embrace should come from the same source, yet they are different in significant ways. In fact, you used thirty percent more vital qi than I expected to recover fully."

An Jing's curiosity was piqued. "Does that mean humans from Void Embrace have a stronger constitution? Is it because they have trained in martial techniques for multiple generations or did they choose that path because they were built tougher to begin with?"

"There must be some kind of synergy both ways. Void Embrace is different in meaningful ways from all other fiend-qi-corrupted worlds I've seen. There must be something special about humans from Void Embrace too. The reason you need more qi to recover might not just mean that you have better constitutions. The physical body relies more on physical nutrients, after all. Excess consumption could be a sign of a different kind of soul as well. Thankfully, the extra consumption isn't that much, so the evergreen core isn't that spent."

Something occurred to An Jing at the mention of the evergreen core. "By the way, Yvelbane, in the fight with the soldier, I recall you mentioned something about converting between evergreen and yin gloom. Why was the soldier able to use two different types of spirit qi? Didn't you say cultivators can only pick one type of spirit qi to cultivate? Even if he was relying on his spirit armor, that doesn't explain how he's able to control both types so naturally."

"That is indeed correct. People can only pick one type of spirit qi as the fundamental one that they cultivate. One might be able to influence other types of qi with a similar aspect to some degree. But there is no way for polar-opposite aspects to coexist. The Fengdu soldier, however, is different. The fundamental technique he uses is the Greenwood Flourish Wither Mantra. It is akin to converting himself into a half-alive, half-dead state. Then, he 'buried' himself into the Fengdu Armor.

"That armor is akin to a spirit coffin which gradually turns the cultivator inside it into a ghost cultivator. The bustling vitality of the Fengdu soldier was converted into north yin gloom qi. Thanks to being both half-alive and half-dead, he can use north yin gloom qi in tandem with longevity lifecycle qi.

"After all, he is the source of both those types of qi. It is not something he took in from the outside world. Within that armor, the soldier's circulation cycle forms a taiji of yin and yang that in turn facilitates the sustenance of the Greenwood Flourish Wither Mantra. To summarize, he burns his own life to give rise to gloom, gloom which causes a withering, followed by flourishing."