Destiny in Cinders

At the edge of the village, the vilespawn fiend with the head of a deer and a humanoid body lay fast asleep. It curled into a fetal position in a mass of flesh and twisted rubble, looming like a giant egg. The cavernous maw on its torso, once a dark abyss, was scorched by flames that stripped away its eeriness. Embedded in the blaze was a broken gold knuckle, barely visible as it relentlessly seared the heavenly fiend's body.

A strange black liquid, reminiscent of what Instructor Li had vomited in his dying moments, came oozing from all corners of the village, seeming to possess a life of its own. It gradually snuffed out the flames around the giant maw and attempted to corrode the knuckle.

A faint chorus of wretched howls and screams bled from the black liquid. Hundreds of mournful ghosts and vengeful spirits wandered helplessly through the ooze, trapped forever as fuel for the heavenly fiend to douse the flames. Despite its critical injuries, the vilespawn fiend was regenerating itself with qi essence harvested from living souls.

Resting in a quiet state of self-healing, the vilespawn fiend suddenly stirred. It sensed a sharp killing intent from afar, alongside a barely audible, mosquito-like hum.

Without warning, the cores of the two self-destruct drones shattered, causing a blinding flare to erupt, coalescing into twin beams of red-gold lightning capable of piercing the armored hides of feral beasts. Their sudden explosion caught the vilespawn fiend entirely off guard, casting a rosy, dawn-like radiance over the ruined village that lay suffocated in black mist.

"Ksshhyaaaaaaa!"

The vilespawn fiend's agonizing scream echoed through the mountains. In contrast to the apocalyptic wasteland of Skysource, where terrifying beasts stalked outside every safe zone, Void Embrace's greatest threat was humanity itself. Though teeming with feral beasts and fey, people were more wary of each other. Developing specialized artifacts or weapons against threats of the wild was the last thing on their minds when simply avoiding them was an option, making weapons like these self-destruct drones, with their massive firepower, quite the brutal surprise to the creatures of Void Embrace.

Enraged and disoriented, the vilespawn fiend rose from its nest. It had already lost one of its deer antlers to a powerful cultist, and the self-destruct drones just severed the other. Viscous black blood poured down its mutilated body.

A charred crater was visibile near its left ribs, exposing its pulsing organs which were covered in faint, dark-blue seal script. Instantly, its already depleted vigor plummeted by nearly half.

Though the black liquid and mournful spirits continuously mended its flesh, harvesting all creatures across a village and the neighboring mountains could scarcely repair half the damage. Even after suffering such a devastating blow, the vilespawn fiend had yet to locate its attacker, who maintained a certain distance, safely chipping away at its health from afar.

Just as the thought crossed its mind, a dull thud echoed through the air. The fiend's head violently jerked to the right, as if struck by a flawless right hook. Then, a heavy deluge of frost and snow rained down, mixed with frozen chunks of flesh and blood, drawing another furious roar from the vilespawn fiend.

The most effective martial technique was to not put oneself in the position of having to use it in the first place; enter the long-range snipe!

Perched halfway up the distant mountain, An Jing calmly slotted specialized rounds into his Iceburst Beta. Though he didn't use it on Xu Changjing as initially planned, this rifle was perfect for wearing down the vilespawn fiend.

Before impact, these bullets triggered a burst of frost that slowed the target. An Jing pulled the trigger in rapid succession, methodically slowing the heavenly fiend down. Once it got sluggish enough, he deployed the OverSight sword case and targeted its vitals.

A crackling sound resembling thunder erupted as the Fengdu Guard's spirit-qi crucible recharged, providing the OverSight with a supply of spirit qi far exceeding anything that the one from Ninelands could ever produce. With the added enhancement of An Jing's Evenstar lethal qi, a pale flying sword shot forth, enveloped in azure lightning as a rolling volley of thunderous roars followed.

In the distance, the vilespawn fiend fought to raise its arm, slowly fending off the storm of Iceburst rounds. But the moment it finally located An Jing, a searing pain erupted in its chest. Glancing downward, it was shocked to find that a flying sword had bored clean through its chest and part of its spine with a terrifying force that defied all expectations.

With its spine shattered, its legs gave out, causing it to crumble to its knees. The vilespawn fiend roared in absolute fury, powerless to maintain its humanoid form. Driven by raw instinct and sheer necessity, the creature that had devoured countless lives let out a guttural growl and slowly warped into a massive deer riddled with wounds, resolving to crush its opponent with its beast form.

"The heavenly fiend is a shapeshifter, able to assume countless forms to counter any enemy or crisis." Yvelbane quick warning. "Its humanoid form possesses the sharpest mind, but its beast form wields the most brute force. Brace yourself—here it comes!"

Just as Yvelbane predicted, the vilespawn fiend convulsed, then broke into a silent, deadly charge toward An Jing. Towering four stories high, the colossal creature galloped with earth-shattering force. Even with after the frost bullets and severe injuries slowed it down, it was still far too fast for An Jing to outrun.

It took the fiend only ten breaths to cover thousands of meters of distance. Though the distance felt wide, there was no real chance of escape. Yet An Jing stayed planted where he was, utterly fearless.

With the fiend less than two hundred meters away, another blur of motion flashed diagonally, striking its right foreleg. A blinding luminance cut through the fiend's sluggish thoughts as the last self-destruct drone exploded. The shockwave broke its charge, and its foul blood and wailing cries erupted outward.

"Watch out for fiend blood!"

Right as the sword soul hissed its warning, An Jing's expression shifted drastically, his hands tightening around the jade box. "Wait, what?!"

Having interrupted the vilespawn fiend's momentum, his original plan was to close the gap and deliver a lethal strike with the mysticsky lightning talisman. But as the fiend qi fluctuated, he realized that the blood spatter from the detonated drone posed an entirely new threat.

Right on cue, the pitch-black fiend blood transformed rapidly, coalescing into grotesque blobs of meat minions with massive mouths and jagged teeth. Propelled by the blast, they rained down around An Jing, jaws snapping menacingly as they yearned to tear him apart! Worse yet, as the vilespawn fiend bore down on him, its agonizing screams warped into fiendnoise that washed over An Jing, rattling his mind and body.

Individually, these meat minions were weaker than martialists; any ordinary person could easily kill one with a stick. Nevertheless, their overwhelming number and ferocity paired with fiendnoise threatened to bury An Jing like a tide of ants devouring an elephant. However, he wasn't the same person he was three days ago.

"Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal, fortify! Jade armor pendant, activate!"