Destiny in Cinders

An Jing continued to cultivate Heaven's Child Art deep into the night. The days of frequent meditative training helped him shorten the time it required to enter the state required by Heaven's Child Art to seven minutes and a half. It was by no means instant, but it was perfectly usable during short breaks.

However, he wanted to be able to use Heaven's Child Art in combat. In other words, he needed to shorten the required time to a single moment. Should he succeed and be able to maintain the selfless, wantless state during fights, he would be able to control the flow of spirit qi in his body to an optimal degree, allowing him to attack such that he would not suffer any blowback, thereby lengthening the time he could remain in the fight. He would suffer far fewer internal injuries and achieve a state of complete control over his body during combat. Even if he got injured from enemy attacks, he would be able to limit the extent of it and instantly mobilize spirit qi to recover. He would even be able to redirect traces of toxic qi left in his body to Ailment Swordfinger and fire it off.

Decent plan though it was, he still needed to train long and intensely before he could achieve it. That was why he entered meditation whenever he had time. It helped that using Heaven's Child Art greatly sped up the manifestation of his divine seals, so it really didn't hurt.

Lately, An Jing had managed to excise all traces of fiend qi that he had taken in from cultivating in Skysource by regulating it with Heaven's Child Art. He also recovered the internal injuries that had accumulated from his string of combat encounters. His internal organs and muscles that had suffered a bit of growth stunting from his time as a refugee of the snow calamity also recovered to perfection. That was most obvious from his much improved natural constitution, which wasn't caused by the manifestation of a new divine seal but rather the restoration of his innate qi.

Despite his maturity, An Jing was only twelve years of age and still in a period of rapid growth. Improving his constitution would pay off rapid dividends as he continued to grow, especially when paired with the boost he got from his cultivation technique.

As long as he was alive and circulating his cultivation technique, his body's internal state would continue to change. As such, Heaven's Child Art couldn't help him achieve immutable perfection. The closest he could get was achieving a state of nonstagnant equilibrium.

That didn't mean perfection was out of reach. In that instant, An Jing could sense a harmony between his body, mind and soul. The state of unity between his body and soul was akin to that of sages like Ming Guangchen. The qi essence and spirit qi within his body circulated like large and rolling tides in the ocean, forming a massive whirlpool. The whirlpool was situated at the very center of his soul.

Then, the time finally came. An Jing felt heavenly will and understood that this was the moment. The rhythmic, tidal hum of circulation qi essence sounded similar to the resonant toll of a bell. An Jing's body shuddered as he felt a gateway in his sea of consciousness open up. However, he didn't let those sensations disturb him and continued to maintain the selfless, wantless state, keeping his mind entirely clear and as honed as the sharpest blade.

His surging aura and Evenstar lethal qi flooded toward his soul. Typical martial cultivators found it difficult to refine the qi of lifearcs, but An Jing was already familiar with qi cultivation, so it went like a breeze. In almost no time at all, spirit qi far denser than that of Fortification Realm martialists flushed toward his soul. With Heaven's Child Art, An Jing carefully removed the sharpness of metal-aspect qi, turning it back into its base form and assimilated it into his whirlpool.

Meanwhile, a stream of blood and flame flowed out of his celestial arc at the deepest part of his sea of consciousness. This was lifearc essence, something that he needed to draw out for the breakthrough to the Fortification Realm. It was the purest form of Pyrestar blood lethal qi. The lethal qi from the Pyrestar and Evenstar mixed with each other in the whirlpool, forming a disc of crimson and gold.

Then, An Jing's thoughts sped up. He could feel a heavy balancing pressure on his body and soul. Typical martialists at the peak of the Tide Aura Stage might lose their breath and snap out of the mystical state granted by the celestial moment. An Jing was only able to sustain this state for a long time due Heaven's Child Art helping maintain complete clarity of thought, resulting in no imperfections in his body and soul.

Countless paths unfolded before him. Sundials, water clocks, hourglasses, gnomon, geared mechanical clocks, oil lamps, pocket watches, pendulum clocks... Countless timekeeping instruments surfaced in his mind, each one branching into many finer paths, all awaiting his choice.

An Jing knew that those paths were all manifestations of the Temporal Grasp wonder. Each path represented slight variants in the wonder's manifestation. The same applied to a wonder like Ocular Blaze, which would have different quirks based on the people that cultivated it.

Temporal Grasp's variants depended on the mechanisms of the respective timekeeping instruments. Sundials followed the position of the sun, reflecting the yang aspect. Moonphases followed the phases of the moon, representing the yin aspect. Water clocks kept time using flow rate, embodying the water aspect. Hourglasses used the flow of sand sand, or the earth aspect. Oil lamps depended on the rate of combustion, or the fire aspect. Wooden timekeeping automata represented the wood aspect. Mechanical watches represented the metal aspect.

All of them sped up thought, but what mattered more was which he picked to form his foundation for the Clearing Realm. The seed of the ability determined what kind of potential it had. There was no right or wrong choice. Choices were part of destiny, and An Jing had a strong premonition that his choice would greatly affect his future.

What kind of future did he want? He didn't rush it and continued to maintain the celestial temporal state. Before An Jing's time, there had to be some destined child from the Heavenly Demon Cult who managed to manifest Temporal Grasp. But no matter what kind of talent or destiny they had, they wouldn't be able to maintain the celestial temporal state for an extended period of time in the Fortification Realm, limited by their bodies and souls. At the end of the day, they had to pick an option that suited them the best out of the rest even if it wasn't ideal.

An Jing, however, was quite accomplished in body refinement. His soul was praised by Ming Guangchen too, who believed he was the reincarnation of some god or immortal. In the time it took others to reach their limits for Mahesvara Heaven's Child, An Jing only just began to sweat from the effort. As he continued to focus, the different yet redundant manifestations of the wonder began to fade away, distilling it into a purer form.

What was celestial time like? Was it the cycle of four seasons? Could the cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter alone encompass the whole concept of celestial time? The people of Void Embrace adopted the spherical-heaven theory where the world was a flat square and heaven above was a full sphere that expanded in all directions, infinitely. The four seasons of this infinitely vast domain encompassed far more time than the seasons of the spherical planet in An Jing's past life.[1]

An Jing, however, knew that the stars above weren't just hollow lights. There were stars beyond stars beyond stars out in the wide universe. Many more worlds far away from the one they resided on. These were astronomically large celestial objects in their own right.

Rather than using the cycle four seasons set in place by the Dao Court of yore as a temporal benchmark, he believed that true celestial time should be measured based on the fine gradations of the cycles of each respective world in the universe. The many worlds in the universe had their own respective cycles that influenced each other's, giving rise to a complex, intersecting celestial order!

It isn't enough to only grasp four seasons when I bear the lifearc of Seven Ruins and seven lifestars! After he understood what he truly wanted, the many manifestations of time in his mind faded away as a much more complicated and precise unified celestial manifestation surfaced from his sea of consciousness.

This was Temporal Grasp, Spherical-Heaven Principle. The principle manifestation included the various celestial bodies and astral mansions. Hidden among all of them were seven planets in retrograde celestial orbits, going against natural order and manifesting all sorts of omens of disaster and tribulation. Among the seven planets were a crimson star of blood and flame and a white star of brilliant radiance. The other five were still dormant. Even so, that was enough.

An Jing's eyes snapped open, flashing crimson with blood and flame and brilliant white. He had made his choice and no longer hesitated. "This is the celestial time of the universe and I shall grasp it!"

1. This is called the spherical-heaven theory (浑天说), an ancient Chinese cosmological model of the universe. Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astronomy ☜