Destiny in Cinders

Metalhand's expression was incredibly serious. "This fiend material is something that came from a fiendspawn at the peak of the Qi Refinement Realm. Also..."

His prosthetic eye whirred as it zoomed in closer at the scaly hide. "It's from a juvenile fiend, at least one that hadn't matured fully yet. If it had matured properly, the fiendspawn would've become as strong as Foundation Building cultivators!"

Metalhand couldn't stop himself from lighting a cigarette and taking a deep puff. "An Xuan, are you really going to entrust me with a material of this caliber?"

"It's not like I have other contacts," An Jing said nonchalantly. "Huo Qing said you did, so I choose to trust him."

"I do indeed." Metalhand's prosthetic eye shone through the smoke he just exhaled, its light flickering with the same uncertainty he felt. "But I don't understand. Why do you trust me so much? If you bring a fiend material like this to the black market, you'd easily get close to ten thousand merits for this. I was already taken aback by the spirit materials you brought with you, but that's nothing compared to this fiend material! Not to mention, I'm just the owner of a humble recycling house. Why would you even believe Huo Qing? Did you ever consider that I might've just been boasting to him?"

An Jing's silence and snarky smile infuriated Metalhand even more. The unspoken part was that he knew more about Metalhand than he was willing to let on. Metalhand hadn't been wary about An Jing early on, so he knew that he had been a bit careless about revealing things about himself. Even though he wasn't sure if An Jing knew he was part of the Justice Restoration Army, he definitely knew that he wasn't just the owner of a recycling shop.

Even then, how's that brat so confident? Did he let his Qi Refinement breakthrough get to his head? From the very beginning, Metalhand had been assessing An Jing's power with his formation. He came to realize that while An Jing's spirit qi levels were on par with beginner Qi Refinement cultivators, his physical toughness far exceeded theirs. This alone wasn't much of a threat to a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator like Metalhand, but he posed a threat nonetheless. Metalhand probably wouldn't be able to force An Jing to stay even if he used his formation.

What was more crucial was how the talisman that he got from the Justice Restoration Army that could reveal covert operatives of the Skywatch Bureau was giving off a little bit of heat. That could either mean that An Jing had a Foundation Realm artifact or multiple Foundation Realm talismans!

What if... No, it's not possible. If a faction from the badlands actually have a Purple Mansion cultivator, they would've built a city. They wouldn't just be some minor cult! This cult has a Foundation Realm cultivator behind them. That's why they're so fearless!

Sensing all that made Metalhand even more wary. A badlands cult with a Foundation cultivator was in a completely different league compared to those without one. The difference was that the former managed to overcome the monopoly large corporations had on cultivation resources and was able to maintain a sizable presence in both the badlands and the safe zone.

Gangs in the safe zone were the result of lucky badlander cultivators that managed to make progress despite the monopoly and got recruited by a bigger faction to establish their gangs. For instance, the gang called the Spiritgrams used to be a cult in the badlands. Their leader discovered some ancient pills and writings from the time of the Dao Court and used them to reach the Foundation Building Realm. After he was recruited, he formed the Spiritgrams in the safe zone.

Large corporations were typically rather soft on smaller groups that rose to prominence despite the monopoly. It was all part of the playbook to keep them within their spheres of influence. By having positive examples like the Spiritgrams, rogue badlands factions were encouraged to side with corporations once they made it big rather than continuing to grow in the badlands to become hostile competition.

Perhaps a fifth gang will soon appear on Mortality Plains. Metalhand sighed and tossed his cigarette into the trash. "Very well. Since you helped Huo Qing, I will return the favor. As for the spirit items, our recycling house doesn't have enough money to buy thousands of merits' worth of goods from you. We can only sell them piecemeal through the net. If you can trust me, I'll take the spirit items and your fiend material to the city all at once. I'll try to sell them off while I find someone to process the fiend material."

"Very well." An Jing didn't care about the miscellaneous spirit items at all. They were only worth a thousand liang of silver at most, pocket change for the disciple of a sage like him.

Metalhand felt like he owed An Jing a little more explanation when he saw him agree so casually. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to find good places to sell the spirit items. You can get anything you want in the city. Frostjade and beast hides happen to sell rather well, though your stuff seems a bit old. They must be part of an old stockpile, huh? The folks in the city prefer newer stuff that's freshly hunted. The more undamaged, the better."

An Jing smiled. "Got it. Boss Metalhand, do make a list of what people are looking to buy while you're at it. If it's something we can provide, we'll be more than happy to oblige."

"Sure." Metalhand's eyes shone when he accessed the spirit net. "I'll talk to some people to get our netshop going. Once that's done it'll be up to you and Huo Qing to take care of the transactions. Also, there's something else I want to ask."

The burly man scrutinized An Jing and continued, "Tell me. These spirit items aren't really worth much to you, are they?"

An Jing furrowed his brow but answered calmly, "I don't want to lie to you. Let's just say that I have my own ways of getting my hands on things like these."

Metalhand stared even more before he nodded. "Alright. I'll start negotiating for the stuff. The two of you..."

He turned to Huo Qing, who didn't notice the tension in the air in the slightest. Though he was about to give him a scolding, he merely sighed. "Forget it. You lot have your own way of doing things."

An Jing watched as Metalhand disappeared into the rear building. The burly man's emotions were a complex mixture of relief, reassurance, worry and annoyance. No doubt, he was someone with quite an uncommon story. Then again, who didn't in a place like this?

"Your uncle's rather easy to talk to," An Jing said.

"Huh? Really?" Huo Qing said. He had never imagined that his foul-mouthed uncle would be complimented in that fashion. He didn't ponder it too long and said, "His conversational capabilities aside, my uncle's a really good person, or at least he's only good to people who are also good. I've seen him turn a few troublemaking gangsters into fertilizer before."

An Jing asserted, "I'm a good person indeed."

Huo Qing reaffirmed it. "But of course! That aside, the automata arrived a few days ago."

Huo Qing changed the subject and brought up the results of his efforts in the past few days. "I've managed to learn the qi-collection formation too! It's not that difficult just like you said. Once I'm able to nest three of them together, we'll be able to build that seclusion room in the warehouse!"

"Oh! Well done!" An Jing was invigorated after he heard that and gave Huo Qing a pat on the shoulder. "You learned it quite quickly! Are you a genius formationist or something?"

"Oh, far from it..." Huo Qing scratched his head shyly, not sure whether he should feel confident or troubled. "I've seen many geniuses on the spirit net who were able to master minor pentaphase formations in a single day. The minor qi-collection formation you gave me is quite a bit more complicated, so it would take people like them around three to four days.

"I, on the other hand, have a large place to test things out and the scriptures you gave me. Even then, it took me almost ten days to learn it and another ten days to properly implement it. I'm considered slow by every measure."

Huh? How long have they had the spirit net? Are there still people who believe everything they see on the net? I wonder if he'd believe it if I forwarded him some chat logs about someone learning how to do it in half a day, An Jing thought with bewilderment.