Destiny in Cinders

An Jing wasn't on the run from Grand Chen like You Ruhui was. Even if had chosen to follow the Crimsonguard back then, it would have been to shake off the Heavenly Demon Cult and True Fiend Cult. Eventually, he would've snuck away from them too. Granted, being exposed came with risks, but they weren't as nearly severe as You Ruhui's. Even if Grand Chen really wanted to abduct him, they would need a sage of the Void Divine Treasures Realm to do it.

"Ah, right. Your identity isn't as sensitive as mine," she said with some relief. "Then, it's fine."

"Don't worry." An Jing already had his next move figured out. "I'll stay in Keensight for some time to smooth out some kinks left over from the dao-comprehension state. When things calm down, I'll take you and Madam Huai away from the city. After that, I'll find you a place with enough hidden terrestrial veins where you can settle down with Madam Huai for a bit. If we manage that much, you'll be free when Madam Huai passes away or when you meet the contact you were supposed to. We're able to stay in touch regardless anyway. You can come to me if nothing else works out."

"There's no need for that." Even though You Ruhui knew he meant well, she knew that she would be the one tying him down with her identity. An Jing was still in good graces with Grand Chen and only had the demonic cult as his enemies. Given how the empire was purging evil cults, An Jing would be able to go about on his own unimpeded.

"The person I'm supposed to meet is Sage Mystic Mirror, Ming Guangchen," You Ruhui said, looking outside the window. "Once things calm down, I'll leave Keensight and try to send him a secret message and wait for him to take me away. But from how it looks, he seems to have left Keensight already. As a safety precaution, there's no easy way for him to locate me either."

An Jing's curiosity was piqued. "Is this sage someone your parents personally tasked to look for you?"

"Yes. When I was escaping the palace, my father asked me to run to the northern frontier. It didn't matter whether it was Hanhai or Xishan. Someone will come to find me, he said, and it'll be someone I can trust no matter what. Father said he trusted them more than he did himself. But..."

She revealed an odd expression that showed through the veil she was wearing. "Even he wasn't sure who this person was exactly. He doesn't know who will come, but he's sure that they're his friend for sure!"

"Huh?" An Jing didn't expect things to go that way. "So your father trusted this person even though he had no idea who it is?"

"That's right. Father was really confident about it, but I don't know why. How could he trust someone like this as a friend even though he didn't know anything about them? I even asked whether it's a man or a woman, and he wasn't sure. All he said was that the one who holds his token of trust is an ally. I don't understand this at all! How does he have connections with people whose identities he wasn't even aware of?"

"Hmmm..." An Jing gave it some thought, only to find that he could somewhat sympathize with it. Wasn't this the same with his internet friends in his past life? Even though he hadn't met them before, he'd grown to know and trust them over the years. If they had worked together remotely on some project before, the sense of trust would be even stronger.

Yet, despite the trust that had been built up, none of them knew what the other person truly was like. Even if they had met offline before, it was hard to know which one of those friends would answer the call for help at a time of need. King Jing had a clique like that, but he couldn't be sure which one among the clique would come to help.

In other words, You Ruhui's father, King Jing of Grand Chen, actually left his daughter and the Cosmic Heart in the hands of a clique? It's not inconceivable... Maybe King Jing had his own secret contacts that he could tap into. An Jing pondered the matter with an odd look. He initially wondered whether King Jing was involved in a plot that betrayed Grand Chen or tried to usurp the throne for himself.

Whichever the case might be, he was no doubt a significant and powerful person at the core of the empire that ultimately ended up dead. Otherwise, You Ruhui would never have had to endure all that hardship or carried the Cosmic Heart with her. Still, was King Jing really the kind of guy who would leave a treasure of that caliber in the hands of a friend among many that he didn't even know well?

Perhaps that friend, possibly Sage Mystic Mirror, would only learn the truth of what happened once he picked You Ruhui up. The thought that people who might as well be King Jing's "online friends" knowing more than his own daughter made An Jing feel the urge to laugh, though he managed to hold himself back.

You Ruhui didn't ask about An Jing's earlier insights. All she did was stand guard stealthily just in case someone was crazy enough to try to attack him. An Jing was thankful for that, of course. King's daughter or not, Xuan Mingjing was a good person.

Eventually, daybreak arrived. Much had changed in Keensight during the three days they spent in Skysource. First, the snow calamity was winding down. Even though it still snowed, it was gradually decreasing in intensity. They had managed to weather the disaster. The temperature in Keensight was a little higher than freezing point, but outside, most of the rivers froze up from the cold, blocking the flow of the waterways in the city. Keensight's terrain wasn't flat, which meant that the water that would have flowed through the river south of the city would overflow due to parts of the river being frozen, turning that place into a marshland.

Second, Sage Mystic Mirror and Overseer Cao left the city. The two sages had many of their own tasks to attend to and couldn't stay in Keensight for the long term. After the major terrestrial-vein formation was activated the first time, it was activated four more times in the following two days. They only gave up on using the formation to search for You Ruhui once the terrestrial veins of Keensight could no longer take the strain.

Needless to say, they didn't find any trace of her while she was in Skysource. Though Overseer Cao was somewhat dissatisfied with the outcome, part of him did believe this to be a fortunate thing. Even a sage like him wouldn't get off scot-free if he got involved with the imperial bloodline, after all. If he got too deep into it, he could wind up dead.

Hence, his intention had always been to capture You Ruhui and send her straight to the divine capital or the administrative capital of the Xishan Region before washing his hands of the matter completely so as not to end up karmically entangled with the affair. If he failed to capture her, someone else would take over the task. He was a sage and if he kept his involvement small in this matter, no serious consequences would befall him.

He ended up going through with the second option. It wasn't the ideal outcome, but it was still enough to keep him out of the schemes of the imperial court. Before he left, he did a good deed out of his pleasant mood, something that was rare for him. He tapped into his personal assets and transferred a large supply of medicine to Keensight from the prefecturial administration.