Destiny in Cinders

In every single news broadcast, guests from both sides were criticized for paying interviewers and influencers to shape the narrative. Many more press conferences were called while secret gang fights were being organized. However, the conflicts didn't really affect the foundations or honor of both groups.

At least, that was how it appeared from the surface. Within Deepnight City, those corporations were on high alert and handed down harsh judgments and punishments on those who crossed them.

There were those of whom that failed to be tracked down; even the Skywatch Bureau's Cosmolight Tracing Formation was no use. Only a few major factions could disrupt the operation of a formation such as this, so the Luofu Group turned their attention to these major competitors, which in turn allowed a lone shrimp like An Jing to go about unharassed.

Yvelbane couldn't help but laugh after seeing the news. "They tried to use a cosmic-dao technique on us, haha! It's said that lineage can be traced back to Immortal Void Embrace himself, who's most adept at—"

The sword soul suddenly stopped. An Jing could tell that this was one of those identity conflicts that it experienced. Was Yvelbane the sword or the immortal that wielded it? Yvelbane spoke as if it was the immortal himself, yet it considered itself a divine sword as well. It knew that the Cosmolight Tracing Formation was useless against it, but its incomplete memory prevented it from articulating why.

Fortunately, Yvelbane wasn't one to get hung up on uncertainty. "Either way, I can open up a pathway through the void, something only possible with a deep mastery over cosmic dao. Normal tracing methods would never discover us."

"That's reassuring indeed." An Jing was relieved that Yvelbane didn't get hung up over its missing memories. He didn't think that the True Talisman was something that was so important that it merited the use of the Cosmolight Tracing Formation. Not to mention, he wasn't aware of how advanced Skysource's technology was. There was a chance that he would've been discovered for sure if not for Yvelbane.

Since he was safe, he felt relaxed enough to seek out Huo Qing and Metalhand to trade some of Void Embrace's resources with them. To his surprise, however, Metalhand wasn't at the shop, leaving Huo Qing to man the store temporarily.

"Uncle Metalhand said that he would be busy for a while. We're left to our own devices for a month. It's a good time to start studying," Huo Qing said when An Jing went there to buy some discounted drinks and canned food.

During their chat, he also learned that the people around Deepnight City were generally educated for twenty years, starting from age ten. During that time, people were allowed to join dao academies to train all the way to the late phase of Qi Refinement or even Foundation Building Realms.

Education was only free for the first six years, however. Those that didn't pass the dao exam but still wanted to continue their studies in dao academies would have to pay rather expensive fees to retake the exam. Those that passed the dao exam on the first try, on the other hand, were highly sought after and offered corporate scholarships.

As for people who enrolled after the age of sixteen, all they could aspire to become was a corporate middle manager, a decent job all things considered. However, the gap between them and the top executives was vast.

For people who hadn't reached Qi Refinement by the age of thirty (which was practically impossible since they could afford pills and medication to help them if they could afford the tuition fee), they only had access to low-paying jobs, gigs or gangs. These people were considered true failures.

Huo Qing, however, was different. He had yet to hit twenty and had decent talent and wit. There was a good chance he would reach the middle phase of Qi Refinement before the age of thirty in time to join an academy and end up being an executive in a company, which was why Metalhand allowed him to continue his studies. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

It was thanks to Huo Qing that An Jing got to learn about how the whole system worked. Unlike Metalhand, Huo Qing was far more gullible and would do anything An Jing told him to without any doubt or consideration. Metalhand was far harder to pull one over.

More importantly, An Jing sensed something suspicious about Metalhand's movements and whereabouts. Somehow, it reminded him of the unexpected malfunction of the Fengdu soldier's spirit-beam gun.

The martial cultivator of the Justice Restoration Army, Bo Yan, had even intentionally baited the soldier to chase him down instead of An Jing. Clearly, the man didn't seem to be the evil sort. Even then, it would be a stretch to think that Bo Yan had the means to cause the soldier's equipment to malfunction, which helped draw his attention away and allowed An Jing to lay the foundation for his surprise attack.

Boss Metalhand had been researching military-grade cores. Not to mention, the Justice Restoration Army and Shouyang Group seem to have quite a lot of information about the Luofu Group's activities. They must have quite the large information network within Deepnight City.

Coupled with Metalhand's abnormal curiosity about An Jing's identity as a badlander, An Jing couldn't help but form a conjecture. Could he also be one of the informants of the Shouyang Group's network? Also, was letting him research and crack the OverSight's Luofu core what led to the Fengdu soldier's equipment malfunctioning? It would truly be a grand coincidence if these things weren't related. This specific sequence of events was what allowed him to return alive!

Either way, the True Talisman that many factions pined for was safe within An Jing's sea of consciousness next to Yvelbane. All he had to do was to not reveal that he had it.

Speaking of the True Talisman, it was yet another delightful boon. It was normally dormant, not reacting against any of Yvelbane's prodding. It only came to life to cleanse mystical qi, turning it into heaven purification radiance. The talisman probably triggered when certain conditions were met, but neither An Jing nor Yvelbane had an inkling of what they were.

Yvelbane's guess was that the True Talisman might be in a fragmented state, possibly due to an earlier world calamity in Skysource. Perhaps it would only recover after absorbing enough mystical qi from defeated heavenly fiends. After all, it had absorbed quite a bit of the mystical qi during the process of converting it into heaven purification radiance.

An Jing didn't really mind it. As long as Yvelbane was around, the True Talisman wouldn't be able to harm him. Not to mention, spending resources like mystical qi was a normal part of cultivation, so An Jing wasn't too fussed about the talisman using some of it.

Either way, An Jing wouldn't be returning to Deepnight City until the incident blew over. No doubt, Nian Quan and Nian Qin would be monitored for quite a while during that time.

An Jing did have a good time out in the wilderness of Void Embrace thanks to the resources he had access to. He could easily find shelter in caves, eat his canned beef or mutton and even mix in all sorts of flour-based imitation fish, tofu and crab for a canned goods hotpot feast. Though hotpot base was extremely cheap in Skysource and tasted too strongly of spices, it was a delicacy to An Jing, who hadn't had a properly cooked meal for quite a while.

During the time he spent waiting things out, he also trained using the Pentaorgan Lifeforce Nourishment technique that Huo Qing gifted him. It wasn't a simple technique to master. As its name suggested, the technique required the circulation of vital qi of the five phases through five organs. It would consume a part of the nutrients he consumed to nourish the five organs, strengthening his innate qi and spreading it throughout his body to improve his constitution and cultivation base.

The reason Huo Qing was able to survive a gunshot despite slacking on his cultivation for many years was his mastery of the technique. In terms of a bodily foundation, Huo Qing's was comparable to martialists with the equivalent cultivation level.

An Jing had taught parts of the Imperial Sky Seethrough Nurturing Art to Huo Qing, specifically, Abyssedge Stake Aura Refining and Armorpierce Impetus. Huo Qing made decent progress with the former, probably due to how he was constantly on edge as the accountant and errand boy of a gang, but he only did average when it came to the latter. Though Huo Qing's attitude and mental state had changed, his courage still didn't quite match the optimal level required by Armorpierce Impetus.

Either way, Huo Qing had proven to be quite a decent cultivator. Those techniques would no doubt strengthen him considerably. He was so thankful that he ignored Metalhand's instruction to not give discounts, offering An Jing many good deals.

To conclude, Pentaorgan Lifeforce Nourishment was a perfect technique with which to strengthen one's body through the use of innate qi. Apart from strengthening the body and improving digestion, it also had the effect of strengthening one's sense of taste.

To increase one's appetite, one merely had to make food taste better. An Jing's experience with Pentaorgan Lifeforce Nourishment was that unlike other nourishment techniques; it improved his sense of taste moderately to the point that it allowed him to relish the fresh flavor of the ingredients much better. The effect wasn't strong enough to make salty food taste bitter or make sweet food taste overwhelming, though it did help mask some more unpleasant tastes such as excessive acidity, making everything appetizing.

An Jing also figured that the technique could improve one's digestion and allow one to control the vital qi of one's organs directly. This way, he would be able to tune his sense of taste to match whatever he was eating, making everything taste delicious.

The notion of him enjoying his hotpot like it was some refined delicacy within a cave while the cult was out there hunting for him in the crushing winter was quite laughable. The reason An Jing chose to step out of the cave today was that he believed he already made quite a bit of progress in his cultivation.