Destiny in Cinders

Sheesh, Yvelbane, gets hyped up by the weirdest things. That's very sword-like of it, An Jing thought. Was it really an immortal from ancient times?

"Not bad. I would have gotten you to start from meditation too," Ming Guangchen said. He was quite satisfied with An Jing's efforts and You Ruhui's hard work. Once You Ruhui unwillingly went back to her room to meditate and purify her aura, it was time for Ming Guangchen to give An Jing his new lesson plan.

"How much do you know about the martial path?" He started from the most fundamental question.

An Jing gave it some thought and said, "I believe I have a decent understanding on how to go from being a normal person to the Fortification Realm. However, the wonders recorded in my clan's archives are typical ones. Their notes on the Clearing Realm are also quite a mess. I really don't know much beyond that."

"Very well. That means you won't have to unlearn anything wrong. Let's start from the Fortification Realm, then. An Jing, you should know that the Three Nourishments of Aura are meant to fill your entire body with aura to acclimate it to the various types of profound qi that come with lifearcs, right?"

"I do." This was similar to the path of immortal qi cultivation. The whole process of cultivating in the Aura Realm was to ensure that the physical body could get used to the various kinds of qi in the environment, paving the way for the next step.

The martial path differed on one thing at the start, however. There was a thread of profound qi granted by the heavens in every lifearc. That way, they would no longer have to seek it out from the surrounding environment. That was also the reason only lifearc bearers were able to break through to the Fortification Realm. It was just like how cultivators of the immortal path needed spirit roots to gather qi from the environment! Darn it. My clan's manuals only said that qi would appear once the Aura Realm reaches full mastery, making it sound like it appears out of nowhere!

Ming Guangchen wasn't aware of An Jing mentally tearing apart the manuals of his clan and continued, "After reaching the peak of the Tide Aura Stage, you need to tap into the power of your lifearc and gain insight into traits and abilities while also learning to control their respective spirit and lethal qi. After that, you need to use various methods to continue to refine that lethal qi and unify it with aura, amassing it in certain parts of the body.

"What follows is elixir incubation and mixing to manifest wonders. Different wonders have different methods of their own, but there are quite a few methods that work for multiple wonders..."

An Jing eagerly listened to the detailed explanation of manifesting wonders. As the explanation went on, he looked more and more shocked. The process of manifesting wonders sounded too similar to how he manifested seals with Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal! Granted, wonders, being traits that could be actively used, were slightly more complicated to manifest. On the other hand, he could manifest twelve abilities in total with Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal, one for every nine seals. That sounded even more complex than manifesting wonders and far stronger too!

I see! The foundation of the martial and immortal paths of cultivation are identical after all! Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal is a body refinement technique of the immortal path. People probably started working from these techniques and eventually developed them into cultivation techniques of the martial path!

There was no way An Jing wouldn't pick up on the similarities. By comparing them, he became certain that he already knew how to manifest wonders. In fact, what he knew was even more sophisticated! Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal required Evenstar lethal qi specifically to manifest seals. Manifesting typical wonders, however, only required the combination of aura and similar threads of spirit or lethal qi.

Though Ming Guangchen wasn't aware of all he had figured out, he seemed satisfied to see the look of understanding on his disciple's face. "The Aura Realm serves to build a foundation, nothing more. That's why commonfolk without lifearcs are able to cultivate within that realm too. But from Fortification onward, you need to manifest wonders that correspond to your lifearc."

An Jing nodded. Just like how cultivators picked their cultivation techniques according to their respective spirit roots, the same applied to lifearcs. Lifearcs came with their own traits and abilities, which prompted martialists to design their cultivation frameworks around their lifearcs.

"The Five Vistas of Fortification refers to the fact that the human body can only manifest five wonders assuming they don't have any unique talent or affinity." Mirrors flashed behind Ming Guangchen as he used Mirror Me to manifest his clone body as a teaching dummy.

"All five wonders must be different and encompass the whole body. Look at this arcane corpus. It is only as powerful as someone in the Fortification Realm. The five wonders are Ocular Blaze, Brightmirror Heart, Frostmercury Blood, Visceral Cycle and Sharp Psychic Intent respectively. As I didn't manifest many wonders that relate to the physical body, my physical strength and durability at the peak of the Fortification Realm are inferior to yours. I got away with it because Frostmercury Blood and Visceral Cycle already encompass the entire body."

Seeing An Jing standing where he was, unmoving, Ming Guangchen waved at him to come closer. "Come here. Let me demonstrate it to you. Do you know how hard it was to find a suitable model?"

"Oh..." An Jing was quite surprised that Ming Guangchen would go so far as to use his ability to manifest a suitable arcane corpus as a teaching aid. Thanks to having the actual thing simulated for him and a sage there to coach him, An Jing could clearly discern the various aspects of Ming Guangchen's constitution when he was at the Fortification Realm.

As the sage had said, he had focused on internal cultivation, using a fighting style that prioritized aura and spirit qi. As such, his physical body's durability and strength were only equivalent to An Jing's when he only had four or five seals. But once he began to circulate the Imperial Earth Art to strengthen his body, he was stronger.

At the end of the day, neither An Jing nor Ming Guangchen of the Fortification Realm was able to tank a shot from the OverSight sword case, unlike body-focused martialists like Lu Jin who could shake it off with only light wounds. On the other hand, An Jing could sense bountiful aura within Ming Guangchen's arcane corpus. There was also a type of yang-aspect spirit qi gathered in his eyes. The radiance could be seen leaking out from his closed eyelids. Touching it was enough to burn and blacken An Jing's hand.

"What an intense spirit radiance," An Jing said as he pulled his hand back and looked at his charred palm. "If I pulled my hand back a moment later, my flesh and bone would've been burned to ash! I used to think that even if I can't fight peak Fortification martialists, I would be able to take on mid to high tier ones. At the very least, I believed I wouldn't easily get hurt and would be able to flee if I wanted to. Yet, it seems that a proper high-tier Fortification martialist from a proper sect is easily able to critically wound me."

And all this was with Ming Guangchen's eyes closed. An Jing believed that with the eyes open, the Ocular Blaze he could unleash would be far more powerful than the vice apothecary's and even Lu Jin's. Even flying swords fired from a sword case would melt instantly from a direct blast!

How impressive. If my master is a big-city martialist, I'm only a small-town martialist compared to him! I can only take on country-bum Fortification martialists at best, so I better make a breakthrough fast!