Destiny in Cinders

"Cough, cough!"

The manor lord spat out a mouthful of blood, the veins at his temples throbbing nonstop. He ground his teeth and slammed his fingers against the pressure points on his chest to stem the flow, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. The powerful beating of his heart forced blood and bits of internal organs to gush from the wound. The Fortification Realm martialist's body was so resilient that the bullet failed to pierce all the way through and emerge from his back. Instead, it spun and fragmented inside of him, inflicting greater internal damage.

"So this is it... Felled by a mere flying sword?!"

The manor lord sank to his knees as the toxic, dark-green lethal qi swirled back toward him, pouring into his gaping wound in a desperate, final attempt to mend his broken body. Watching the manor lord's rapidly fading breath, the tension that had gripped An Jing finally began to ease.

If An Jing had pulled his guns from the start, the manor lord's reflexes would have allowed him to anticipate the trajectory instantly. Then it would have been impossible to take aim, let alone land a shot.

Although firearms didn't exist in Void Embrace, powerful handheld crossbows and concealed weapons were common. An opponent might not recognize a gun for what it was, but if they suspected something, any cautious martialist could easily dodge the shot. An Jing could only succeed by striking at the exact moment his opponent grew complacent and believed the victory was at hand.

Bai Qinghan stopped short. She had intended to get closer, but now she simply stared, transfixed by the guns in An Jing's hands. In his final moments, the pale old man lifted his head, his blood-streaked, blurry eyes staring at the weapon as well.

"What's this... a flying-sword case?!"

Seeing that both the sword soul and the manor lord had mistaken the guns for a flying-sword ability, An Jing couldn't help but wonder if a sword case that mimicked a firearm existed in this world. But there was no time for distractions. He knew all too well that the manor lord was still capable of a counterattack.

An Jing made no move to approach the old man. He simply raised his hand and pulled the trigger again without hesitation.

Ten more shots thundered through the air. The manor lord's pupils shrank to pinpricks as he roared, forcing his broken body to dodge. He evaded nine of the rounds, but his injuries caught up with him on the tenth. Blood erupted as the bullet slammed into his shoulder, and he crumpled to the side.

An Jing's heart tightened in warning. He committed this lesson to memory—a Fortification Realm martialist on the verge of death was still capable of one last explosive burst of power.

The manor lord was truly at his end. Summoning the last of his strength, he looked up at An Jing. There was a mix of longing, fury, relief, and hatred in his eyes.

Perhaps his mind flashed back to the day he found his friend's corpse, or maybe he was simply weighing An Jing's future fate. He might have wanted to offer a dying man's advice, or lamented that An Jing had taken the very path he himself never had.

But he could say nothing more, and in truth, he was entitled to nothing more. Just as he looked up, the head of this vile, nameless wretch slumped to the side as life finally left his body. At this moment, the noise across the canyon and white sands was deafening, yet it felt like silence was absolute.

After being defeated by the instructors and lecturers, the terrorfiend dissolved back into fiend qi. But the demonic cult had no time to rest. More Crimsonguard soldiers had swept in from the rear, dragging them into another battle.

The children who chose to stay followed their instructors deep into the mountains. While the demonic cult had an escape plan, An Jing's sudden defiance and the ambush by the Crimsonguard caught them completely off guard, so only a handful were able to flee.

Direlife Manor in the distance was an inferno as the battle reached its bloody climax. Streams of intersecting sword qi and flaming lethal qi collided in a frantic blur. The sound of battle and war cries resounded throughout the manor and canyon.

Only An Jing and Bai Qinghan were left at the white sands, a heavy silence pressing down on them. While An Jing only managed to kill the manor lord after blocking Bai Qinghan, she could have intervened at any moment to help the manor lord suppress him instead. Yet she chose not to. Even now, she neither retreated nor advanced, observing him with the same silent intensity she had during their very first spar.

"Qinghan... Ugh!" Guns in hand, An Jing moved to break the silence, but a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him. "I've been... poisoned?!"

As the world spun around him, An Jing grit his teeth and stumbled back a step, hit by an overwhelming dizzy spell. He suddenly recalled the moment when the manor lord's toxic, dark-green lethal qi had enveloped him.

Damn it! I completely forgot that the old man is actually the vice apothecary!

The world flipped before his eyes. All he could see was the endless stretch of white sand and the steady rush of the river. Slumped on the ground, An Jing detected a subtle medicinal scent masked by the toxic lethal qi. It was a blend of venomous insects and deadly herbs, a specialty of the vice apothecary.

Had An Jing not drawn his secret weapons and instead prolonged the fight, he would have been easily captured, not at the hands of his opponent but through the effects of the poison. Just as his consciousness began to slip away, a pair of white cloth shoes entered his blurring field of vision.

She slowly approached him. Then his body was set straight. A pair of hands pressed into his back, channeling a cool spirit qi that surged through the celestial pillar pressure point, up and down his spine, and cycled through his heavenly nodes. The poison was gradually dispelled, pulling An Jing's vision from the darkness back into the light.

This sensation was the polar opposite of An Jing's own aura. While his aura felt like surging molten iron, this icy qi felt like a bowl of cold spring water on a blistering summer day—pure, refreshing, and crisp.

"Why?" His voice was weak as he murmured, struggling to make sense of it all. "Don't you want me to go with you?"

"What's the point of taking you with me if your heart isn't in it?" Channeling the power of the Profound Yin Arc, the girl helped An Jing circulate his aura and purge the poison.

"If Direlife Manor can't stop you, then Heavenly Will Mountain won't be able to stop you either. Leave if you want, Senior Brother."

Once she confirmed An Jing had recovered, Bai Qinghan pulled her hands away.

"You killed the manor lord yourself. I was never your match to begin with, so it's only natural that I failed to take you back. And you're right. I shouldn't have chosen between two man-eating dragons, but my hatred for Grand Chen is just too deep. Senior Brother, I hate them more than anything..." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

I'll make those arrogant bastards pay.

The world went quiet. The only sounds left were the rushing currents and resolute footsteps that grew more and more distant.

"Thank you." An Jing breathed out a whisper, and the footsteps stopped short.

"Actually, I should be thanking you. You taught me to read, taught me to fight, and spared my life. We ate together, trained together... and you never once thought of eating me. For all of that, thank you. Thank you for believing in me and treating me as a real friend."

By the time An Jing opened his eyes again, Bai Qinghan had already vanished from the white sands.

"I'm sorry. Please tell Yeqi and the others I'm sorry too."

He seemed to hear her parting words.

The sounds of battle continued unabated, and it was unlikely to end before dark. When the poison was finally expelled from his body, he stood and quickly retrieved a few items from the manor lord's corpse. Whatever these items were, he wasn't in the mood to identify them, so he quickly gathered them up.

"Well done, An Jing!"

Just then, he heard Yvelbane's excited voice.

"You protected most of the children and kept the cultists from interrupting me! I've completely suppressed the heavenly fiend's remnant. You can proceed to the central altar and recover my second shard."

"Sure, I'll go right away." He found himself less excited than he had imagined, and Yvelbane noticed this as well.

"What's wrong? Your mind feels turbulent. You seem more determined than before, yet I sense a shadow of doubt creeping in. But don't worry. The mind, much like a rusted sword, must be tempered and sharpened. If you're willing, tell me, what is it that's weighing on your spirit?"

"Hmm..." An Jing sat with his thoughts for a moment and asked, "Yvelbane, what would you do if you were back in your own time and realized the world was fundamentally broken?"

"Kill." Without a second thought, the sword soul answered with certainty.

"If this world is broken, then it must be fixed. But remember, there are always those who find the world perfectly to their liking, those who have built their thrones and fortunes upon its very flaws. A 'better' world is beyond their comprehension, so when words become futile, let your sword do the talking and let it silence them. Kill—it's the only way."

The sword radiated a murderous aura. It was brought into this world for that reason alone; that was its destiny.

"So that's how it is?" An Jing was silent for a moment before a look of pure relief washed over him as he finally smiled.

"As I thought, it's..."

The spark, my moral compass, my nature, and my gifts... I see it now. It all makes sense. All the elements that led me to these choices, every single thread has finally woven into one.

"This... is my destiny."

With that, he turned and strode into the depths of Direlife Canyon. His eyes burned with a resolve more absolute than ever before. Behind him, the crimson halo and totems spread outward, crystallizing into crimson stars. The radiance of his lifearc cast the youth's shadow in seven directions, each silhouette as razor-sharp as a sword.

It shall be exactly as I will it.