Destiny in Cinders

Falling asleep using the contemplation technique mended the body and mind. It was also called fetal breathing, the optimal way of resting. It allowed the subconscious to fall into a state between dreaming and not dreaming. The mind could work in tandem with the body's natural capabilities to recover what was lost using no more nutrients than what was necessary.

Using fetal breathing to sleep for four hours was enough to satisfy one's need for rest. If one was injured or hollow, one could simply use more time to make up for it.

Once he woke up, An Jing felt completely rested and wakeful. Though his muscles still stung slightly, it was solely due to there being not enough nutrients in his body to make a full recovery. Not to mention, he could definitely have slept a little longer.

"I'm feeling in good shape." His heart beat steadily as he stood up straight. "Was there anything amiss?"

"No. Nothing happened." The sword soul's mark receded back underneath An Jing's skin.

"That's good." An Jing's eyes glowed with wakefulness. He scanned his surroundings and said, "If I had been ambushed right when we arrived, I would only have half my usual strength. If they attacked when I was resting, seventy percent is the most I can push. But now, I have at least ninety percent of my full strength."

It didn't matter whether the mental fiendspawn was still there observing its prey or waiting for it to fall into a trap. At the very least, An Jing had recovered to the best state that he could. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He began to study the paths he had so far traversed and those that laid ahead of him. The former led to the outside of the ruins, while the latter led deeper into the ruins.

Both he and Yvelbane felt that going deeper inside was a bad idea. "Even the search team that was prepared to venture into the ruins ended up dead here, so going in ourselves would be suicidal."

However, he still had to scout out the location. An Jing could feel some moist, warm air coming from the path into the ruins. "Is there a hot spring in there? There also seems to be another opening deeper inside."

He shook off the notion to venture deeper. The fact that warmth and water was present within was a sign that life could exist there. The deeper he went, the more dangerous it would get. As for the path he had traversed already...

"It seems like something came through this place," An Jing said, suddenly stopping when he reached the edge of the path behind the corpses.

"How can you tell?" Yvelbane asked curiously.

An Jing looked at the corpse that he had stepped over. "When I last searched the corpses, I intentionally stacked them up. However, the bones are scattered again. There are also some tracks nearby."

He lowered his center of gravity and held the jade dagger in hand, observing the tracks. He couldn't match them with those of any living creature that he knew of. "Odd. It doesn't look like beast or hoof prints, nor do they look like boots or any humanoid creature. It seems more like the tracks left by some crawling animal that uses feelers. Perhaps there's a squid at the bottom of those springs... Something that devours brains and souls. Wait, squids don't seem right. This looks more like..."

Traces of vines and leaves. An Jing noticed some luminescent marks on the scattered bones and recalled the glowing vines in the underground cavern behind him. He had hidden himself in a ruined building and avoided the glowing vines, which was how he got six hours of rest uninterrupted.

A cold, imperceptible breeze blew past. Without hesitating, An Jing turned around and cut his palm with the jade dagger, manifesting the lethal-qi sword instantly. Then, he used the momentum to twist his body, tracing a crimson arc with the sword against the shadowy figure that suddenly appeared behind him!

He seemed to have cut something. The sound of bubbling liquid could be heard accompanied by an odd, angered shriek. Many vines suddenly appeared and whipped at An Jing.

Instead of backing off, he pressed on. Whips only did real damage if they were allowed to trace long arcs, so moving closer to them dampened the full force they could dish out. His sharp lethal-qi sword of blood cut the vines like paper, severing around five of them. Then, he thrust the sword towards the dark figure's body and gave it a powerful tug, bisecting it!

Right as An Jing was about to relax, Yvelbane snapped, "Stay alert! It's not over!"

"Right! This is just a vine!" He snapped out of it. There was no way a creature like this would die just because an appendage was cut off.

The next instant, all the luminescent vines in the cave lit up. There was a network of glowing vines all over the cave. The moment they illuminated the whole place, they also exerted a powerful pressure on the soul. It was powerful enough to instantly kill a cave full of martialists!

The severed vines wriggled and shot towards An Jing, who held his sword tight despite swaying slightly from disorientation. With a flash of bloody light, An Jing's sword cut the vine into four, six and then eight parts. He emitted sword qi from his body like he had done so during his breakthrough, leaving cuts on the ground that beat up a dust cloud.

The chopped-up vines fell to the ground with soft thuds. The glowing vines nearby also dimmed and stopped their soul attack. The cave dimmed once more, leaving nothing but An Jing's glowing sword in his vision.

"It was easier to deal with than I imagined. This creature is a hit-and-run type." He breathed a sigh of relief and felt a wave of fatigue wash over him.

Thanks to Yvelbane and his lifearc, An Jing had rather decent mental resistance. This was especially the case if he didn't let his guard down. Even the vine creature's full-power soul attack only managed to sway him slightly, not achieving much effect at all and allowing An Jing to counterattack and kill it.

After getting rid of the immediate threat, he proceeded to cut up the vines into tiny little cubes to ensure they stayed dead. Halfway through the chopping, he found something out of the ordinary: a human skull.