Destiny in Cinders

An Jing forced down the surge of blood in his mouth and leveled the OverSight sword case at the vilespawn fiend. Blue-green electrical discharge sizzled and popped across the metallic rails. When the spirit qi in the crucible bottomed out mid-charge, An Jing made up for it using his own aura to power the sword case.

One look at the vilespawn fiend and he immediately recognized it as the karmic aftermath of the heavenly fiend once bound by Yvelbane's shard in Direlife Canyon. This was the ultimate hurdle of his escape. Victory meant no one would ever hunt him again, and if he failed, this was where his story ended.

With a target this huge, I'll get to test out the physical defense capabilities of a Clearing Realm creature! An Jing decisively channeled most of his aura into the sword case, and the target-acquisition system in his field of vision locked onto the heavenly fiend's head. Then, he fired!

A white beam of sword light streaked through the air, packing the full weight of concentrated spirit energy. The vilespawn fiend sensed the looming danger, its crimson, toad-like horizontal pupils snapping wide as it let out a strange shriek and lunged forward with its sharp claws.

A deafening boom followed the claw's explosive movement, churning up visible white shockwaves that rippled from its tip to the wrist. The strike had reached the scale of a thunderclap. It was trying to intercept the flying sword!

With a loud bang, the flying sword slammed into the demon's palm and exploded. The vilespawn fiend let out a guttural scream as one of its claws was blown to pieces, the sheer force of the blast hurling its body back over ten zhang.

Had it been just that flying sword, the impact would have barely grazed its palm or left a few shallow cuts. It was the lightning energy that caused the fiend to shudder. Not to mention, hidden within the small blade was something it had never expected: a devastating fiend-slaying sword intent that tore through its black scales. Dark, greasy blood began to drip from its mangled claws. That had been a boost of sword intent from Yvelbane! Its efficacy against fiends and feys was nothing short of miraculous.

Doubt and bewilderment flickered in the vilespawn fiend's eyes before it erupted in a shrill scream. It was an unnatural, grating sound that left his jaws aching and knees buckling, like metal claws dragging across glass. An Jing felt his aura churn, requiring him to immediately steady his mind to regain control.

Suspicious that An Jing's lethality stemmed from a hidden talisman or artifact, the fiend unleashed fiendnoise. It intended to expose the source of his unnatural strength by rattling his mind.

Although it guessed correctly, it had underestimated An Jing's mental fortitude. Even as the fiendnoise bored into his ears, An Jing remained mobile. There was a chance. All he needed to kill it was another more powerful strike to a vital point.

Even at full power and infused with Yvelbane's sword intent, the OverSight had only grazed his foe. Despite this, and regardless of the fiendnoise disturbing his aura, An Jing remained unshaken. He was even delighted.

In the end, it was a simple question of firepower. Drawing on the experiences from his past life, he knew that greater destructive power was simply a question of funds in a world like Skysource where everyone carried a firearm or a sword case.

While fiendnoise could destabilize his aura and threaten his control over artifacts, perhaps Skysource already had specialized countermeasures against such mental interference. Furthermore, cultivating Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal to the next level would vastly improve his resistance to this type of attack.

All in all, merely having ascertained the enemy's capabilities was enough of a win. With his goal achieved, An Jing wasted no time. Before the enraged and bewildered vilespawn fiend could pounce on him again, An Jing turned and threw himself off the cliff.

"Wretched human!" Charging at full speed, the vilespawn fiend reached the precipice only to be met with the relentless rush of the murky river below. An Jing's presence had completely and inexplicably vanished from its perception. "Diving into the river to escape..." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Staring at the weeping currents, the vilespawn fiend's eyes flickered with dread. As the old adage went, running water never turned stale, and a moving hinge never rusted. The eternal flux and fluidity of the world acted as a natural restraint to all fiends.

Even a fiend as powerful as its main body like the greater heavenly fiend of Direlife Canyon was helpless against the pseudo-formation formed by flowing waterways. Plunging recklessly into the vibrant, surging currents without protection would mean being crushed by the dormant power of the mountains and rivers.

Meanwhile, from either side of the sky, four distinct airships accelerated toward the scene at full throttle as soon as they detected the violent tremors of the battle. The demonic cult was in pursuit of An Jing, while Grand Chen was tracking the cult. They all arrived at the scene, one after the other.

All that awaited them, however, was the furious fiend's attack. With a deep, guttural growl, the vilespawn fiend's torso split open and a gaping maw appeared in the grotesque mass of jagged horns, scales, and fur. A beam of obsidian light shot out and struck one of Grand Chen's airships with the speed of a toad's tongue or a scorpion's sting.

The surroundings were swallowed by a thick veil of fiend qi. Seconds later, the black qi was sucked back into the fiend's monstrous mouth, entwined with threads of crimson vigor and green wood vitality. Now a blackened, corroded husk, the shuttle's wreckage plummeted from the sky, raining down alongside many charred skeletal remains.

Several Crimsonguard soldiers who appeared to be Fortification martialists came roaring out of the mist, their bodies shielded by a spirit radiance, though they soon stared at the creepy monster on the ground with apprehension and uncertainty.

"It's a vilespawn fiend of Liferot!" One of the soldiers cursed. "Damn it! How many innocent lives were lost for the fiend to have grown to such an extent?! Demonic cult, you deserve death for this!"

"Fuck off!" the cultists retorted. "It's clearly the work of the Counterfiend Guard! You were the ones who set the fiend loose to create chaos, and now you want to use us as your scapegoats?!"

"The vilespawn fiend wouldn't have escaped if that traitor in your cult hadn't destroyed the formation!" With their shuttle destroyed, several companions dead, and now the insult of a false accusation, the Crimsonguard soldiers were boiling with rage. "You lying sons of bitches! Today we'll vanquish the heavenly fiend along with all of you!"

"Enough! Control yourselves. The heavenly fiend is a threat to all mankind. We must contain it before the adepts arrive. We can't let it grow any stronger!" A cultist shouted over the tumult. "Imperial lapdogs, let's work together for now!"

With that said, the cultist drew his blade and lunged toward the vilespawn fiend.

"We'll spare you for now!" Astonishingly, Grand Chen's forces swallowed their fury. After dropping off several men, their airship rapidly rose into the sky. Massive crossbows were then positioned at the edge of the airship. A hail of arrows capable of breaching entire cities rained down, forcing even the heavenly fiend to scramble and dodge.

An Jing was completely oblivious to the chaotic fiend-purging battle in the northwestern mountains, already spiraling through the void toward the foreign world. Back at the waste-disposal zone in Skysource, An Jing made up his mind. He would enter Deepnight City no matter the cost. The black market was his only hope to secure the cultivation resources and firepower that he desperately needed.