Destiny in Cinders

The spirit eye art that Nian Quan gave him was quite complete. It was a family legacy that was easy to pick up but difficult to master, which helped one develop spirit eyes that were compatible with all basic ocular techniques. That way, everyone in the family was guaranteed to at least master the basics and geniuses among them might even be able to make more headway. This was perfect for An Jing, who needed to adapt to a variety of situations in two different worlds.

Achieving basic mastery in True Spirit Eyes wasn't that difficult. It was mainly about building a foundation with spirit water to nourish the eyes until one developed a pure spirit sense that could be activated at will. One would be able to project that spirit sense from the spirit eyes to spark a reaction from all kinds of spirit items.

Hours passed as drops of refined spirit water emerged from the bottle, shining bright like gemstones even though they were still in liquid form. An Jing guided the refined dew droplets into his eyes again and again, letting them get absorbed. Tiny vortices formed within his eyeballs and assimilated An Jing's qi essence of metal and fire, gradually turning crimson and gold.

The metal-flame essence became more and more distinct, with a base of blood red and a core of golden Evenstar metal. An Jing used the spirit eye art to form a distinct meridian network. When the vortices stopped rotating once the refined spirit water crystallized into pure essence within his eyes, it marked his basic mastery of True Spirit Eyes.

However, this was not the end. To properly practice True Spirit Eyes, he had to keep his qi essence circulating. As the eyes only needed really small amounts of spirit qi, his control over it had to be incredibly fine. His meridians were still being tempered away at slow motion. While the meridians themselves weren't that affected by sped up flow of qi essence and aura, the same couldn't be said when the flow slowed down. It was similar to how it took more conscious effort to bring down one's pace than to speed up.

These basics shouldn't have been a problem for An Jing, but he had been tempering his meridians to the point that he was about to make another breakthrough with Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal. While he was focused on polishing up True Spirit Eyes, he accidentally manifested the fourth seal of Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal.

"Agh, it couldn't have been avoided." He opened his eyes, which appeared a ghastly crimson with a faint trace of golden light. These were the colors of his True Spirit Eyes, making him incredibly sensitive to qi of metal and flame and blood lethal-qi weapons. His spirit eyes were still in early stages and could transform a few more times. He could take his time working on them using spirit water of the appropriate aspects, which he could easily acquire.

The only thing that felt a bit off to him was how his own breakthroughs felt too easy. He felt that he hadn't used much energy at all to gather enough metal qi from jadeslice steel to manifest the fourth seal.

"That's because of the lingering effects of your dao-comprehension state," Yvelbane explained. "While you were in that state, your body gathered lots of spirit qi from the environment. Using Heaven's Child Art, you've enhanced the qi-essence pathways within your body, which also served to increase your qi-essence capacity quite a bit. Some of the extra qi essence was used up when you cultivated True Spirit Eyes. The rest was used to circulate Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal. Since you already reached the prerequisite for the fourth seal, it manifested easily."

Even then, An Jing felt that he wasn't far off from the fifth seal. "Are the lingering effects really that powerful?"

Yvelbane wasn't that certain. "Perhaps that also has something to do with the feedback from your celestial arc. Not to mention, clarion stilldew is a spirit item at the end of the day. Absorbing it allows you to convert its aspectless spirit qi into your own. You did manage to save everyone in Keensight on top of changing Madam Huai and You Ruhui's fates, after all. These two people are not like any other. Saving them has boosted your progress greatly."

That was the most likely explanation. By the time An Jing finished manifesting the fourth seal, it was already afternoon the next day. The snow calamity hadn't truly ended and the Keensight Bell's radiance had faded away. Even so, the city was as warm as springtime.

Typically, martialists in Grand Chen who experienced the dao-comprehension state entered seclusion for five to ten days. Yet, An Jing was able to fully digest his insights before two days had even passed, making him stand out like a sore thumb. To avoid drawing suspicion, he remained in his room to fortify his cultivation even more and did some mental calibration on himself by entering the selfless, wantless state.

He had mastered Heaven's Child Art completely thanks to the dao-comprehension state. But outside of dao comprehension, it took quite a while to enter the selfless, wantless state, needing to meditate for a full hour to do so. To be able to access it faster, he had to gradually polish his mental state. Even someone with An Jing's talent could spend seven to eight days meditating deeply about something like this.

Given how long he spent in seclusion, many people who wanted to see the Dustdawner genius with their own eyes gradually lost interest. They would've waited longer had times been typical. However, there was much to do during the snow calamity. "Jing Xuan" did mention wanting to return to Keensight to work with them, after all, so there would always be a next time. An Jing breathed a sigh of relief since he didn't want to draw any undue attention.

As for Madam Huai and You Ruhui, they were quite worn out and required rest and recuperation. Time passed quickly during those uneventful days. An Jing spent half a month in seclusion, during which he shortened the time needed to activate Heaven's Child Art to fifteen minutes and grasped a basic ocular technique of True Spirit Eyes.

"Farsight," also known as "Eaglesight," greatly expanded its user's visual range. Typically, it was only used by scouts, archers, sailors and guards. It was hugely beneficial for An Jing when paired with the OverSight and Iceburst.

He also determined where to form the fifth seal: his bones. Apart from the foundation and the soul, An Jing had already reinforced his arms, legs and meridians. That left only the seals for the bones, sinew, membrane, and flesh.

The seals, starting from the easiest, were the membrane, sinew, flesh and bones respectively. However, he wanted to hide his true power. If he started with the flesh, his body would change in ways others could easily notice. So, he went for the hardest one instead and focused on the bones.

When he finally left the seclusion room, the snow calamity came to an end. That marked the end of Keensight's tribulations. Snow stopped falling endlessly and the city's authorities used the terrestrial-vein formation to melt the frozen river, allowing it to flush the ice chunks that remained southward. Many Dustdawners who had come to avoid the snow and frost were already making their way back up north across the snow-covered plains.

"This is a great chance!" An Jing knew that this was the time and went straight to Madam Huai and You Ruhui. "If you want to leave, now's the time. I can leave Keensight without raising suspicion as a Dustdawner too."

"Let's go, then." The two of them had been prepared to leave right away and didn't hesitate.