Destiny in Cinders

"What a killjoy."

The martialists were completely fearless and sat down in the seats of Blessed Virtue Garden as if they were waiting for someone.

"How dare these martialists act so arrogantly?!" Boss Cheng simply couldn't understand what this group was up to. "This is Keensight! Aren't they afraid of the consequences?!"

The boss's nephew resigned himself to helplessness. "Well, it's not like this is the divine capital. That's just how martialists from outside Grand Chen are like! If Guardian Shu was still around, there's no way that they'd dare to misbehave like this. Alas..."

A stone came flying without warning and knocked the young man out, knocking him out there and then.

"No! A'Zhong!" Boss Cheng turned to his nephew with a look of shock. The stone cracked his skull and caused him to bleed. Even though he was still alive, he was completely unconscious.

"Tsk, he's still kicking, huh?" The scar-eyed martialist in gray within Blessed Virtue Garden pulled his finger back with a dissatisfied look. "Do you think a nobody like you gets to gossip about us without consequences?! Know your place, weakling! That's the problem with Grand Chen. These weak normies don't fear martialists at all!"

"Hahaha! You people from the Seated Mirage Sect are so pathetic! You act like such hotshots even though you're a bunch of softies. You're not even real martialists!" said a martialist in blue before he broke out in wild laughter. "You couldn't even kill a normie in one hit! Who's the weakling here?"

The bald leader of the blue-clad martialists laughed so hard that he couldn't hold back his tears. "Thousand Mirage Finger? More like Thousand Worms Finger! I bet that my member down there can flick faster and harder than your pathetic fingers! Hahahaha!"

Even normal people wouldn't take that kind of mockery lying down, let alone hot-headed martialists of the Seated Mirage Sect! The scar-eyed martialist was so angry that his veins popped visibly on his face. "Curse you all from the Poolsea Sect! I bet you don't even get mad anymore after being called dogs behind your back so often. Look at you all, wagging your tails obediently like little puppers!"

The bald martialist didn't take it to heart in the slightest. Instead, he turned to his fellow sect members and said, "Hey, do you hear that? I think I hear a dog barking."

The gray-clad martialists and blue-clad martialists were from the Seated Mirage Sect and Poolsea Sect respectively, two out of five of the Dustdawn Sects. The North Chen Empire itself was a heavenly sect, so the supreme authority in the sect was the country's laws. Outside of Grand Chen, however, might very often made right. Minor countries were sometimes completely dominated by sects rather than the other way round.

The martialists of these two sects ranged from the Tide Aura Stage to the Fortification Realm. All of them had lifearcs and could fight ten times their number on a typical battlefield. As a group, they could crush enemy formations entirely. They often made easy work out of dangerous beasts in the wilderness too. They were so powerful that typical non-martialists weren't able to deal with them in any capacity.

Usually, people of their level of power in other sects weren't just respected. When normal people ran into them in public, they showered them with praise and reverence. These martialists grew so spoiled and arrogant that they often beat up and killed people who dared talk back to them. This simply was how things were outside of Grand Chen.

"Looks like we have to kill you bastards from Floodfloat Mountain before we find that Brightmirror brat." The scar-eyed leader of the Seated Mirage Sect calmed his rage in a flash and raised his hand, motioning for his men to rise up. They drew their weapons and glared menacingly at the Poolsea Sect's martialists. "The top brass may have ordered us to work together to hunt our target down, but I can't stand pathetic pieces of shit like your lot and those from the Brightmirror Sect!"

"Those are bold words. Since when did the Seated Mirage Sect deserve to be treated as our equals?" The bald martialist also had his group of blue-clad martialists arm themselves.

The two sides faced off against each other and instantly filled Blessed Virtue Garden with an intense air of danger. Menacing qi emanated visibly from the edges and points of their weapons. The ants that crawled meekly in the corners of the building were sent flying by the disturbance in the air. Some of them died outright from the explosive inner force that swept forth from the martialists!

Humans weren't immune to the effects of such concentrated power either. The people near the surrounding area rushed out of their abodes, crying in fright. They felt their heartbeats quicken as their bodies scrambled to leave the dangerous area, running on pure instinct and adrenaline.

Most martialists in Void Embrace often killed over the slightest disagreement, jumping straight to combat at the most minute of offenses. They pursued debaucherous pleasure and succumbed easily to their impulses without reservation.

The Seated Mirage Sect and Poolsea Sect had begrudged each other for a long time. It was a powder keg that was waiting for the chance to go off. Their fateful meeting provided that very spark to set off this pent-up blood feud.

Right before both sides jumped each other, however, the shut door of Blessed Virtue Garden was sent flying by a thunderous kick. The door was slammed so hard that it tore from the hinges, smashing into the hall and leaving a trail of sharp, hot metal qi in its wake.

Both groups turned to look at the entrance and saw a delicate youth standing there emotionlessly. His long hair was tied up in a ponytail, swaying in the wind. With a ripple of his sleeves, a pair of purple-gold maces appeared in his hands.

An Jing scanned the hall and courtyard, spotting death and destruction. The waitress that had brought him his food and the martialist guard who had chatted with him were on the ground, dead. The helpless expressions on their faces suggested that they didn't even know how they died.

This was the kind of power that Constable Wang had once feared. Martialists had the power to slaughter everyone on the street within a few minutes if they felt like it, and he was right.

An Jing's eyes narrowed as killing intent filled his heart. These martialists were completely unlike those of Grand Chen that held themselves to a standard of decorum. They treated lives like they were worth nothing and killed as they pleased. This was yet another common source of evil in Grand Chen, the absolutely banal kind. However, something really uncommon was about to take place.

"Who the fuck is this brat?!" One of the martialists of the Poolsea Sect casually took out a throwing knife and flung it listlessly toward An Jing. The knife cut through the air with a thunderous boom, having been thrown with a technique of the external school, Thousand Cascading Waves. The martialist's mastery over this technique was quite advanced. A casual throw from him was enough to kill a person.

However, the blade was deflected when it came into contact with the youth's clothes that were infused with Evenstar lethal qi. The tip of the knife fractured and crumbled away, causing the leaders of both sects to turn away from each other toward An Jing with a look of shock. "The Fortification Realm?! At that age?!"

There's no way...

"Hey, who are you, brat?" The answer to his own question was on the tip of his tongue. The leader of the Seated Mirage Sect's martialists seemed absolutely elated. "Don't tell me that you're Jing Xuan..."

"It's him alright!" The blue-clad leader from the Poolsea Sect took out a scroll with a portrait of An Jing joyfully. "This is Jing Xuan! There's no mistake!"

The rest of the martialists were trembling with excitement. "Hah! Looks like he delivered himself to us and saved us quite a bit of effort!"

An Jing didn't bother to listen to them talk. Even the fact that they had actively come for "Jing Xuan" didn't bother him in the slightest. "Sigh... You are a bunch of dead men talking."

With that, his eyes pulsed with a flash of gold light. An Jing took a step ahead, the ground cracking and giving way as he kicked off it and sent his mace crashing down toward the head of the scar-eyed martialist who was closest to him.

"What is this power?!" The scar-eyed martialist was no pushover. He had been resting his right hand on the hilt of his blade for some time and immediately motioned to draw it in an attempt to fend off the rapid, blazing attack from An Jing, only to realize halfway through his blade draw that he had made a miscalculation. An Jing was much faster than he had expected! He shot ahead like lightning at a speed that was more than double that of the average Fortification martialist.

Ah, fuck! Right as the scar-eyed martialist raised his blood-patterned blade, the violet-gold long mace had already fallen. Despite being a blunt weapon, it was covered in a surprisingly sharp coating of metal lethal qi, allowing it to tear apart the blood-pattern steel blade like it was paper, smashing it completely.

The loud clang of shattering steel was quickly followed by the snapping of bone and squelching of flesh as the mace went straight through the martialist from top to bottom, parting his ribcage by his spine, bisecting him completely!