Destiny in Cinders

An Jing smiled when he heard the sudden voice. He smiled and moved aside, turning to see a glowing arcane corpus who smiled back at him.

The glowing figure nodded at An Jing and picked up the waterscreen. "I have returned. You don't need my disciple's help to look for me."

"Oh? Brother Guangchen, it seems that you've mastered your Mirror Me ability rather well," said the Lord Inspector of the North from the other end of the waterscreen. Though she did look surprised, it wasn't completely unexpected to her. "Seems like Heart Beckon and Turbid Wave's group attack isn't much to speak of. Even with Old He's major formation helping them, our mighty Sage Mystic Mirror still has power remaining to send out his arcane corpus. Still, it doesn't change the fact that I'm not in league with them. You can trust me on this at the very least, right?"

"Lin Yongye," Ming Guangchen's arcane corpus said, shaking his head, "I will tentatively believe you when you say that you didn't make a move against me. Have things fallen through between you and He Wuchang lately? If so, tell me his trump card. His injuries have yet to recover, so he only played a supporting role during the attack on me. I've managed to shake him off for now, but I have a feeling that he's up to something really dangerous."

Lin Yongye chuckled and said, "There's no way I'd betray a fellow believer of mine. So, I will absolutely not tell you directly where He Wuchang is hiding. Because, if I did, you would be able to reach him right away! Not to mention, his divine treasure of breath is damaged, so he's only able to possess a body with blood and essence. There's no way he'd be of any threat to you specifically, so for the sake of my dear fellow believer's safety, I would never tell you anything about him."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was indirectly telling him that He Wuchang was nearby and that he was using soul possession on a Clearing adept to infiltrate Keensight to target Jing Xuan based on the way Lin Yongye emphasized her words. Ming Guangchen easily picked up on it and nodded. "Very well. I owe you a favor."

"Brother Guangchen, I don't need a favor from you. I need a promise," the Lord Inspector of the North said with a cold, harsh tone. Only then did it truly set in for An Jing that she was a proper member of the demonic cult. "Promise me that you will kill He Wuchang and Turbid Wave. As long as you promise me this, I will take action personally and even come to release you from your perilous situation with my divine armament."

"A promise to you I shall not make," Ming Guangchen said calmly. "Even if I already intend to do what you want me to promise you, and even if I know that you will not go back on your word, I will not give you mine. Lin Yongye, I am not a blade you can wield for your own purposes. And you better not do anything to my disciple."

He raised his finger and tapped on the waterscreen. The Lord Inspector of the North's eyes twitched slightly as if she wanted to say something else, but her hazy image faded away.

An Jing watched it all without saying a thing. Only after Ming Guangchen sighed and complained about his misfortunate tangle of karmic relations did he turn around and ask, "Master, are you alright?"

"I'm sorry." Ming Guangchen apologized to him gently as he did two months ago. He sighed and turned to the distant mountains with a complicated gaze. "I really should've returned by now, but I encountered too many unexpected incidents that held me up. Then again, it's not really surprising that all this happened."

It's probably because of me, the bearer of the Seven Ruins Arc thought with a guilty heart. An Jing knew that it was pointless to feel like this. "So, then, what's the deal with the current circumstances? I suddenly got targeted by Seated Mirage and Poolsea and just came back after slaughtering them all."

"My karma has caught up." Ming Guangchen's arcane corpus started to fade out. It didn't have much power left. He smiled bitterly and said, "In other words, this is downstream of the people I offended during the grand tournament of the five sects."

"That can't just be it, right?" An Jing could easily tell when other people were trying to gloss over something. "The reason they're doing something so brazen like ganging up on you must be something deeper. Did you kill their family or friends? Or did you rob them of a fortuitous encounter?"

Ming Guangchen didn't outright deny it. When asked, he smiled in resignation and said, "Even I couldn't have predicted that someone would kill themselves after losing to me. All I did was break his sword. Even if it had been a vital-origin sword, he was still young. He could've just refined another one. I've had my vital-origin mirror shattered a few times myself. It's honestly not that big of a deal. The death of Soulchant Sword, Heart Beckon's elder brother, can't be pinned on me.

"As for fortuitous encounters, who's to say that it belonged to him in the first place? Nobody said these were first-come-first-serve. These discoveries are typically grotto legacies of our forerunners. My talent happened to shine brighter than his and caught the attention of the legacy. Even though Turbid Wave eventually solved all the riddles and proved himself smarter than me, I was simply more talented where it mattered."

Whoa, so they did hold grudges against him after all. Even though An Jing's guess was right, he wasn't happy about it. The grudge from losing a loved one or a precious legacy from a fortuitous encounter to another was nothing to scoff at. The Lord Inspector of the West also had a bone to pick with Ming Guangchen for giving him a thrashing. An Jing's master had many enemies indeed.

If his guess was right, the only one who could hold back an Endmost Walker like Ming Guangchen was another Endmost Walker. An Jing asked if that was the case.

Ming Guangchen nodded in response. "While Heart Beckon and Turbid Wave have grudges against me, there's no way that they would be able to stop me from leaving given their capabilities. Instead, a problem occurred when I was returning from the southern continent. The marker of my void altar was misaligned by someone else, causing me to fall into a trap.

"Heart Beckon and Turbid Wave are not pushovers, so they managed to delay my return for a bit. The Lord Inspector of the West also used an arcanum remotely to keep me entangled. However, the one that truly has me worried is the Endmost Walker who's constantly applying pressure on me from the background by collecting all sorts of information on my abilities."

An Jing furrowed his brow. "In other words, you're saying that four different sages of your level are trying to gang up on you with every method they can think of."

Isn't Master a little too powerful? He got caught off guard by four different people, fell into their trap, and was still able to send out an arcane corpus to help me!

"They are still engaged in combat with me, and I have a feeling that there aren't just four of them," Ming Guangchen confessed. "An Jing, this is a dangerous situation. The two sects will continue to send martialists to hassle you. I'll tell you more about what I know later. If possible, I'll do my best to find the time to send you to the northern frontier."

"That's a different matter entirely," An Jing said in a deep voice, sensing that Ming Guangchen was trying to change the subject again. "Master, tell me the truth! What kind of trouble are you in?! I have a feeling that things are far more troubling than you let on! We're at the border of Xishan. Even though the Brightmirror Sect's territory is near the midwest of Dustdawn, they must have enough influence over this region! What about the sages from other sects? What about their Sanctification venerateds? Let's not forget that Grand Chen has sages and venerateds too!"

Ming Guangchen furrowed his brow deeply in frustration. "Sigh... I knew I couldn't keep anything from you."

He made a silence sigil with his hand and said, "The authorities of Grand Chen have sensed Mingjing's departure from the country's borders. They sent a representative to negotiate with the five Dustdawn Sects at Whitemountain Pass to discuss sending in their forces to search the frontier of Dustdawn. The sages of the various sects are also paying attention to that region and are in a standoff against the North Pacification Sentinel King and the Northwest Sentinel King of Grand Chen.

"The Seated Mirage and Poolsea Sects took this opportunity to force Frightabyss Mountain and my Brightmirror Sect to get involved in this brewing conflict against the representatives of Grand Chen using underhanded tactics. They worked together with a faction within the Heavenly Demon Cult to instigate conflict in Xishan, dragging the both of us into this.

"If either of us is to die, it must happen within the borders of Grand Chen! It doesn't matter who kills us as long as that condition is met! Grand Chen also lost one of their mandated officials. Nobody cares whether the Lord Inspector of the North or the demonic cult is behind it. What matters is that an official with Grand Chen's mandate has been killed.

"Not to mention, there's also the unknown Endmost Walker, some genius of a different faction that I've somehow managed to offend. They no doubt came because they had a good grasp of the predicament I'm in and wanted to have me killed while I can't get help from any regional or distant allies! Perhaps he has an even deeper plan that I've already fallen for, one with a much bigger scope that I'm yet to be able to perceive."

Ming Guangchen seemed incredibly embarrassed as he said so. "To be honest, I feel ashamed as your master. I already got you wrapped up in such a dangerous conspiracy before I managed to teach you anything significant. Even though Grand Chen and Dustdawn are still not at the brink of an all-out war, the northwest is no longer safe. No matter what, I will activate the void altar to send you back to North Han! To do that, I require time. An Jing, you have to grasp this time and make good use of it!"

An Jing drew a cold breath when he heard all that. No, Master, it's not your fault! You're wrong to blame yourself! There's no way that your lifearc can possibly cause so much trouble. It's probably my fault!

I knew it was weird that I got two peaceful months to cultivate. It's not that destiny stopped marching on... it's just been delayed! Now that it's upon me, it came all at once!