Destiny in Cinders

At the same time An Jing saw off Ming Guangchen and the rest, Metalhand returned with great excitement. No matter how optimistic he was, he never would've expected that his elder sister with whom he'd lost contact for ten years would actually still be alive.

Back then when he and his siblings snuck into Deepnight City, they had each infiltrated it from a different avenue and obtained quite a bit of information that was unavailable from typical Luofu channels. Eventually, they gradually legitimized their presences in the city.

Metalhand's fourth brother, Huo Qing's father, should have joined one of the Luofu Group's subsidiaries. However, he ended up killed by corporate spies from a different company. Initially, it was thought that the spy was actually a mole in the Justice Restoration Army, but it turned out to only be a case of typical corporate warfare within Deepnight City.

The fourth brother simply had bad luck. The company he was about to join would have provided him with precious intel as it was one of the core companies in the wilderness that was tasked with excavating ruins of the ancient Dao Court. Consequently, it also meant that rival companies sought to exterminate promising candidates to disrupt the company's operations.

The big sister of the group, a fixer in Deepnight City, also became missing in action after a feud between mercenaries broke out. This was yet another aspect of corporate warfare. Metalhand thought that she was dead for good, but he had never considered the possibility that she had changed her identity and lived in hiding the whole time.

She used the opportunity provided by the Luofu Group's raid on the black market and ghetto to successfully wipe out the mercenaries that feuded with her. The mercenary group was supported by a powerful backer as well, which was clear from the precious intel that their data chips contained, detailing Luofo's recent activities.

The big sister, having rid herself of those who were trying to hunt her down, could finally relax and wanted to reach out to the fourth brother, only to find out about his death. It took her a little longer to find a way to contact Metalhand.

Initially, Metalhand didn't really trust that this was really their big sister. Back then he used to have a crush on her, which was less private than he'd hope it had been. Though his feelings still remained after the years passed, they didn't stop him from thinking clearly about it.

As such, Metalhand spent the past month cautiously looking into the matter from different avenues without reaching out to the big sister directly. Only after he ascertained that she was who she claimed to be rather than a spirit-usurped puppet that some other party was using to fish a bite out of him did he reach out to meet, and it turned out pretty well. At the very least, given the methods Metalhand had at his disposal, he managed to verify her identity.

The more important thing was that their big sister still suspected him. She wondered whether Metalhand had gone native in Deepnight City after so many years had passed, abandoning the core principles of the Justice Restoration Army. Both of them tested each other for quite some time like wounded hedgehogs, constantly pricked by each other's spikes whenever they tried to go in for a hug.

Fortunately, while their ideals had indeed weakened over the years, they didn't do anything that betrayed their former organization outright. Eventually, they reestablished contact and trust with each other. Metalhand had another stable channel to conduct matters in Deepnight City, which would make things far easier for him in the future.

"Sigh... It's too bad that we can never go back to the way things were." Their third and fourth brothers were gone while their big brother was still somewhere in the badlands. The bright-eyed idealists from all the way back had become cynical middle-aged people.

With those complicated feelings weighing on him, Metalhand returned to the familiar recycling house. From a distance, he saw his nephew practicing martial techniques in the courtyard.

"Not bad. He's really working hard at cultivation." Metalhand was glad to see it. Their fourth brother had been the smartest among them and showed the most potential, which was why he was qualified for the corpo route to infiltrate Deepnight City. While his son turned out somewhat meek after growing up without proper parental attention, he had inherited their wit and mental fortitude.

Metalhand didn't disturb Huo Qing and lit a cigarette. His prosthetic eye whirred as it zoomed in on Huo Qing from afar. "His moves look almost decent. What kind of public martial technique did he download? Wait a second..."

His prosthetic eye zoomed in even more as he used a qi observation technique. Then, he furrowed his brow. "This doesn't look like a free martial technique available for public access... It seems quite impressive."

Metalhand could almost be sure that typical cultivators, even those of the Foundation Building Realm, wouldn't be able to discern the uniqueness of Huo Qing's martial technique. But as a member of the Justice Restoration Army that operated in the badlands which favored body refinement and martial cultivators more, Metalhand noticed the depth of that technique even if he couldn't quite understand its intricacies.

He could tell that the technique was rather complete from the motions, explosive potential and force application. It was something that could be considered an orthodox technique at the very least, definitely not something that one could download casually off the spirit net.

Typically, manuals that were freely downloadable only contained normal techniques as opposed to arts of arcana. While interesting and inspired folk techniques or even some more unique ones got leaked or uploaded to the spirit net from time to time, these were typically only parts of the whole. They were a disorganized collection of techniques that didn't have any systematic foundation.

Metalhand spent half an hour observing the moves, his cigarette burning out in his prosthetic hand without him realizing. He was far too focused on seeing Huo Qing practice a whole round with the Imperial Sky Art. "From the qi circulation, stances, force generation, force application and footwork, it doesn't look to be a particularly powerful technique. But to people like us, this is on the level of a family heirloom... Where did that kid learn it? Did he buy it off the net? Or is it..."

He didn't accuse Huo Qing for wasting money. If heirloom-tier techniques were something that could be bought with money, they were more than worth the cost. Metalhand did have his conjecture on how Huo Qing obtained it. He just needed to prove it.

"Uncle!" Huo Qing sensed Metalhand's presence before he even stepped into his circle of awareness as a Spirit Awakening cultivator. He turned around gladly and said, "You're finally back!"

Metalhand narrowed his eyes. Typically, he wouldn't notice something like this. But after meeting his big sister, his alertness was higher than it ever was. Coupled with the martial technique that he noticed earlier, he also noticed that Huo Qing's mental acuity and sensitivity had grown quite a bit, especially with how he noticed him approaching from outside the typical circle of awareness.

"That's some great progress. He's going to reach Qi Refining soon," Metalhand mumbled, his lips curving into a smile. "I should've taken him back long ago. Why did I think it was a good idea to let that bastard Gunner train him?"

When Metalhand got closer, he took over administrative rights of the vine formation. "Kid, you didn't waste any money, did you? Where did you learn that technique?"

Though his question was subtle, he was more than prepared to analyze Huo Qing's response. Little did he know that Huo Qing would just give it to him for free.

"It's that badlander friend of mine! He taught it to me before we went to purchase that property. I think it suits me quite well. I practice it every day and notice that I'm able to focus much more when I study my formations!"

"Huh? Oh, that badlander kid..." Metalhand was just about to check the ledger when he felt a headache welling up. What was I thinking? Why'd I even think that Huo Qing would lie to me? He's far too simple to even think about doing something like that. I really need to fix this paranoid streak of mine... as well as his loose mouth!