Destiny in Cinders

"Oh, you were already acquainted!" The Crimsonguard soldiers' attitude toward An Jing became much friendlier when they learned of his relationship with Gu Yeqi.

From them, he learned of the situation of the battle. By the time An Jing rescued his fellow disciples from the dungeon, the Crimsonguard had already suppressed the defenders of Direlife Manor. However, they didn't want to engage the cultists to the bitter end and didn't pursue them too hard as they retreated from the manor.

Most of the defenders of the cult had escaped deeper into the mountains, abandoning the fallen or injured. Or rather, the injured had volunteered to be left behind. An Jing knew that the cult packed quite a bit of force. Though the injured troops tried to buy the rest of them more time, they weren't much of a threat.

An Jing deserved credit for slaying Instructor Han, who had been trying to use the Vitalboon Dish to make more blood-brew pills to give the defenders a final push. Had the injured cultists been given the pills, they could heal up in a short time and even possess more power than usual, which would heavily complicate the battle.

The group of cultists originally numbered twelve. They had come to check on the eastern farm plots because Instructor Han and the rest didn't return with the blood-brew pills, only to run into a unit of the Crimsonguard on the way. Five of them managed to break out of encirclement to continue toward the eastern farm plots before dying by An Jing's hand.

The rest of the Crimsonguard entered the manor and treated the injuries of the eleven survivors. As a sign of good will, they gave everyone jadedew, a sweet substance that smelled strongly of flowers. Consuming even a small mouthful of it was enough to sustain one's nutritional needs for a few days. They were given to the Crimsonguard as rations. Each child got a mouthful of it, helping them recover physically and mentally.

Even the children who had necrotic injuries were treated. The members of the Crimsonguard cut off the dying flesh before treating it with their medical supplies.

To think that these are actually good people... They're like the soldiers back home before the snow calamity. For some reason, the soldiers gradually got high on their own power and changed. An Jing stopped manifesting his lethal-qi sword at the sight, though he still had his doubts.

He had thought that the Crimsonguard was there to exterminate the demonic cult and wondered why they didn't use any heavy ordinance to do the job. He finally understood the reason. The Crimsonguard had been ordered to save as many of the disaster children as possible, so they had taken steps to prevent accidentally harming those they were trying to save.

"These people might be radiating killing intent, but they don't have much vile qi around them. They aren't good people per se, but they aren't evil either," Yvelbane said. "Speaking of which, jadedew reminds me of fasting pills. They're not as potent, but they do taste much better. Progress indeed."

The Crimsonguard also learned of An Jing's identity. He was the genius who had reached the Aura Realm at the age of twelve, awakening not just his lifearc but also an ability through the ritual. Not to mention, he had also been the one who ruined the cult's ritual, a sign of his excellent character and judgment. No matter how one tried to look at it, he was destined for greatness.

Their mission was to find Gu Yeqi. If they could retrieve her safely, they would render great merit. As such, discovering An Jing put the guards in a very good mood to the point that they didn't mind using their medical supplies or jadedew on the children.

"I know where Gu Yeqi is," An Jing said once he was sure that they wouldn't harm the disaster children. "I asked them to hide within Direlife Canyon, so you wouldn't find them in the manor."

He brought the three lucky guards to Direlife Canyon. On the way, more and more of them joined up. They heard what the guards with An Jing had to say and immediately flanked him to protect him as they headed to the canyon. It didn't take long for the children to be found and brought into the Crimsonguard's expert care.

"Me?" Gu Yeqi didn't know how to react to all this when she learned that the Crimsonguard had come for her sake. The usual happy-go-lucky girl was completely flabbergasted. "B-b-but I come from a normal household. Are you sure they don't have it wrong?"

In all her ten-odd years of life, she had lived a humble existence. They were by no means poor, but nowhere near wealthy enough to be important! Could it be a case of identical names?

Her doubts completely vanished once the Crimsonguard brought out a portrait that depicted her almost exactly as she looked. The portrait was indeed one of Gu Yeqi, albeit much younger at seven or eight years of age. She seemed incredibly cute, sitting wide eyed at the table and sorting medicinal plants. An Jing noticed a hint of fear apart from the shock and shyness as she saw the portrait. The artist had drawn her, scrutinizing her every move, yet she had never noticed the voyeur.

Once they used a jade disc to test her blood, they were even more certain that it was her. When the jade disc glowed gold after a drop of blood from her finger fell onto it, it proved that she was the progeny of the owner of the jade disc without a single doubt.

"Who could've thought..." The little girl who had played with him all that time was actually the granddaughter of the commander of Hanhai.

Cang Linzu couldn't bring himself to believe this either. He sat beside An Jing and sipped some water. "Big Brother, you're smart, right? Did you notice something back then too?"

"Nothing. Apart from being cuter than most and her talent in herbology, Yeqi has never really stood out. She didn't even manage to last through all twenty laps through the mountain."

"Hey, I wasn't able to finish it either. Who else but you was able to?"

Talking to Cang Linzu allowed An Jing to relax somewhat. Still, there were many questions in his mind.

It was proven that Gu Yeqi was indeed the granddaughter of the commander of Hanhai Highway. An Jing guessed that her father had been left at the northern frontier as a backup branch of the clan, or perhaps he was an illegitimate child of the commander.

Still, there were two problems with those theories. In the former case, why wouldn't the commander send a rescue team at the start of the snow calamity instead of allowing Gu Yeqi and her father to go through so much danger and hardship? No rescue came during the snow calamity, the wandering, and even during the sale to the demonic cult. Almost a whole year passed from winter to autumn.

If An Jing hadn't looked after Gu Yeqi, she would've been eliminated and consigned to the dungeon or made into blood brew. Though there was a chance that the spy in the cult would've helped Gu Yeqi, An Jing didn't think that was likely unless some great incident transpired back at the Gu Clan. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

As for the latter theory, it made even less sense. Was the daughter of an illegitimate son really worth sending the whole Crimsonguard to fight the demonic cult?