Destiny in Cinders

A powerful gale stirred the red clouds, scattering fallen leaves that shimmered like gold foil. Autumn brought a frantic pace to the mountains of the northwest unlike any other season. While wild animals scoured the brush for winter stores, hunters readied themselves for a final hunt before the snow, herb gatherers raced to harvest the season's ripened bounty, and farmers hurried to bring in the last of their crop.

Deep within the remote northern fringes of the mountains, a fearsome force now occupied the previously vacant region, desperate to uncover signs of a specific individual.

An Jing stilled his breathing and concealed himself, with Yvelbane providing an additional layer of protection. The boy perched among the branches of a towering tree, his gaze cold as he watched several cultists searching the ground where he had just been. It wasn't Grand Chen or the heavenly fiends who closed in on him first, but the Heavenly Demon Cult.

These Aura martialists of the demonic cult descended from an airship with pinpoint accuracy upon An Jing's last-known location and fanned out immediately, conducting a meticulous search of the surrounding area. If An Jing hadn't taken the time to erase his presence, these cultists would have surely found him.

An Jing decided against returning to the foreign world right away and leaving them to waste their search for this exact reason. He stayed put and patiently observed them, hoping to uncover exactly how they were tracking him.

Is it some kind of hex using the blood and hair I left behind at Direlife Manor? Or is it a tracking ability enhanced by karmic tracking that allows them to pull my location out of thin air?

An Jing leaned toward the latter. Squinting, he peered through a thick screen of pine needles at the airship hovering in the distance. There, the white-robed scribe was channeling his lifearc, directing the cultists to push the search forward.

An hour of searching the grove had turned up nothing. Under normal circumstances, even the most dogged person would have moved on to a different area by now. But the cultists showed no signs of letting up. They dug deep into the earth, utterly determined to find something, fueled by illogical persistence.

An Jing believed that the white-robbed scribe had sensed his presence through his ability. Hence, he was convinced that An Jing was merely well hidden rather than gone from the area. So he pressed on with the search in total confidence.

"Is the target actually still here? We've looked everywhere we can think of."

"We haven't checked the trees yet."

"What a joke! People aren't monkeys, and it's not like you can go around shaking every single tree."

"The higher-ups have commanded us to leave nothing untouched, not even bird eggs."

Hidden from view, An Jing eavesdropped on the cultists. Honestly, even if they kicked every trunk twice, broke every egg, and sliced every earthworm in two, they still wouldn't find a trace of him because he kept moving. He positioned himself directly behind the group, hiding in the places they had just checked.

While these cultists were certainly experts, they lacked the brilliance of a true genius. Their proficiency in Profoundstep paled in comparison to An Jing's. The subtlest sounds escaped them entirely. They would never dream that their target was so skilled or so bold that he would shadow them without a flicker of fear.

However, a tactical win didn't always mean a strategic victory.

This is bad. Despite his ability to outmaneuver his opponents, An Jing became lost in his thoughts. This game of cat and mouse isn't going anywhere. Even if I enter the foreign world to dodge these cultists, the tracking ability would pinpoint my location as soon as I step back into Void Embrace after three days.

Furthermore, they might realize that I reappeared exactly where I vanished and deduce that I possess the ability to hide in plain sight, which means next time, they'll simply stake out the place. What's more, the next wave of cultists will be even larger. They might send out Fortification Realm martialists and even Clearing Realm adepts!

An Jing was fully aware the demonic cult had only mobilized Aura martialists not because he wasn't a high-priority target, but because they had to account for Grand Chen's forces in the area. Hexsun Mystic Mirror, a sage of the Void Divine Treasures Realm, was also in the vicinity. The demonic cult simply didn't have the bandwidth to fight off the enemy while hunting him down at the same time.

It wasn't easy to mobilize a Hundred Meridians Clearing Realm adept, which meant that he had at least five or six days of breathing room, and one or two more opportunities to cross over.

An Jing was confident he could handle Fortification martialists with firearms from the foreign world. The aging manor lord had managed to block eighty percent of his bullets despite being blindsided, so an ordinary person stood no chance of taking down an average Fortification martialist with a firearm alone. It was the unique combination of his aura, lifearc abilities, and guns that allowed him to punch above his weight and take on superior opponents.

But if he were facing an adept of the Clearing Realm, An Jing reckoned that only heavy artillery could harm them. The speed of ordinary bullets and artillery wouldn't be enough against such an opponent.

He knew he had to figure out how to block their tracking ability before an adept arrived to capture him. Or, to be more precise... eliminate the tracker!

Now's not the time. As another cultist strode past him, An Jing fought the impulse to drag them to the foreign world and wring every detail about the squad from them. Acting rashly would only pull him into a quagmire. The risks were immense, the rewards were a gamble, and the potential for hidden variables was greater yet. He simply couldn't afford a single mistake.

It didn't matter if the demonic cult failed many times or lost every martialist here, but An Jing didn't have the luxury of a second chance. This was the inherent disadvantage in an individual challenging a large organization.

An Jing began to suspect that the lone cultists were there to bait him into attacking. One wrong move and half a dozen Fortification martialists or perhaps an adept might descend from the airship to gang up on him.

I can't fight back, but running just keeps the target on my back. So much for slipping into the city. The plan isn't going to work. Assessing the situation, An Jing sighed and manifested the broken sword in his hand. Guess I've got no choice but to try my luck in the foreign world first.

He swung his sword, tearing open a dark passage. Inside, silver rays of light beckoned, stretching into the infinite distance. But An Jing didn't head straight into the void just yet.

Knowing that his position was compromised and he could no longer hide, he took a deep breath and shouted, "Instructor Li and the gentleman in white! I know you're up there on the airship!"

The voice of the River Aura martialist rumbled like thunder. Just before departing, An Jing declared, "Let me be clear. I've been stubborn since I was a kid, and I can't stomach human flesh. We're just not the same kind of people. If you turn back now, I'll honor the debt I owe for the food and medicine that saved my mother's life. Should our paths cross again, I'll stay my hand. But if you persist, my blade will show no mercy! Let it not be said that you wandered unwarned!"

With that, An Jing decisively vanished into the other side of time and space.

"Hmm?" The white-robed scribe that was channeling his ability aboard the ship froze as An Jing's words reached him. "Is this... a threat?"

A laugh escaped his lips. "Honor the debt? Let it not be said that you wandered unwarned? Listen to him waxing all poetic. The brat's clearly read one too many books. Since when has our cult cared about this?"

"Haha! Yes!" Instructor Li chuckled. "If he actually managed to kill us, I'd have to applaud his talent; at least we wouldn't have been wrong about his potential!"

"But Old Li, he really is capable." Arching a brow, the white-robed scribe stared at the map in his hand. "Our little general vanished right after his speech just like he did four days ago."

The one-eyed martialist stroked his chin and leaned in close, eyeing the map in the other man's hands with growing interest. "Do you mean to say that he's not appearing on your lifevessel either?"

"Yes."

Scribe Xu was on such good terms with Instructor Li that he didn't even hesitate to hand over the map. "Look here. Our General An's name was on this spot, right on top of our own. But his name just vanished, just like when he suddenly disappeared from Direlife Canyon four days ago."

Instructor Li stared at the lifevessel in his hands. Simple ink lines etched the mountains, rivers, and terrain onto the white map. Tiny red dots and names floated on the map, marking the various cultists tracking An Jing. His name was originally among theirs, but now it was gone. Instructor Li's eyes swept the map, noting every detail.

"Yes, he's gone." He nodded and returned the map. "The last time this happened, he reappeared hundreds of li away. Without your ability and the Mountain-River Registry to pinpoint his position, he would have actually slipped away."

Scribe Xu sighed. "We were the ones who discovered him, so we're practically his first mentors. If it weren't for that connection, my ability wouldn't even work on him. An Jing is an absolute genius. I could tell the moment I saw him that he was anything but ordinary, so I put his name on the registry. In hindsight, we've clearly underestimated him."