Destiny in Cinders

Metalhand set aside his suspicions as Huo Qing finished up his training and went back indoors to rest. He checked the accounts and noticed that everything seemed in place. It wasn't that different from how he would record things. In fact, they seemed even cleaner.

This kid is smart indeed. He picked this up so quickly. It's no wonder Gunner kept having a use for him. Metalhand noticed that there were even extra earnings. I don't even need to wonder. It must be the badlander kid again.

Typically, recycling houses had contacts in the badlands. People there typically didn't need anything too high quality, so refurbished used goods from recycling houses were just right for the job. If not for Metalhand's caution in trying to avoid contact with the Justice Restoration Army and playing his role properly as an infiltrator, he would've gone to a few familiar badlander tribes to work with them. Since he had decided he would enter the city himself, however, he felt that it was about time to let Huo Qing, someone completely unaffiliated with the infiltration operation, take over the recycling house.

"You did well," he said, patting on the nearby chair and motioning for Huo Qing to sit. "You've more or less mastered collaborating with others, running the business, reselling used goods and harvesting valuable scrap artifacts. I was going to give you another scolding for suddenly going out to buy property with someone else. You're the main party in that transaction, after all, so if something goes wrong, you'll be in trouble. But you're old enough to have your own way to see things now, so you should decide how you want to live your life. I won't interfere with that matter."

"An... An Xuan and the others helped me out a lot!" Huo Qing had learned An Jing's real name long ago, but his official name on his city pass was still "An Xuan." Fortunately, Huo Qing didn't misspeak. "Apart from that, he taught me a beginner's formation technique of his cult. It's really impressive!"

As he spoke, Huo Qing activated the formation he set up himself. A wave of spirit qi washed over them as they basked in a soft, blue-purple glow.

"What?!" Metalhand was a formationist himself and even then he felt embarrassed that a newbie's formation was able to trap him. That was far too careless of him! Wait, this shouldn't even be theoretically possible! My Hundred Vine Spiritbind Formation is already active around here! How did Huo Qing manage to deploy his?!

"Look, Uncle!" Huo Qing excitedly pointed at the formation on the ground while Metalhand was growing more anxious. "This is the special qi-collection formation that I got to learn recently! Even though it isn't particularly efficient, it has a nesting capability that allows it to be deployed within other formations to provide them with extra spirit energy. It can be layered nine times at most, and I only need three layers to make it as effective as typical qi-collection formations!"

Huo Qing was completely oblivious to Metalhand's shock as he continued to tell him about the qi-collection formation that he learned from the Soul Domination Mantra. His explanation droned on for a good while before he noticed the anger rising on his uncle's face.

"Darn it! Next time, don't deploy your own formations and activate them inside other people's formations without permission!" Metalhand gave his head a knock. "If I weren't your uncle I'd go straight and behead you for this!"

The strike wasn't that hard. Huo Qing groaned in pain and nodded obediently, realizing that this was a rather risky move to pull. Soon, he recovered and spoke in his usual jolly tone, "Uncle, don't you think this qi-collection formation is impressive?"

"It is indeed." Metalhand was a proper formationist, not just a casual dabbler. He studied the formation a bit longer and said, "You've learned quite a bit. You seem quite familiar with it already."

"The warehouse was really useful!" Huo Qing said, completely relaxed. "There isn't enough space here at the disposal facility with suitable terrain, so I can't really deploy my formations. But there's a lot of space at the warehouse. I'm able to practice more than ten times each day and learn by comparison and trial-and-error! An Xuan also gave me some really useful manuals about formations. I've always had the feeling that the teaching material that the school provided was incomplete. It's no wonder I had a hard time getting the hang of it."

You don't say. You'd be lucky if you learned one or two useful things from something that's publicly available like that. If I hadn't given you pointers myself, you wouldn't have been able to learn anything on your own! Metalhand kept those thoughts to himself and praised Huo Qing. "You seem to have quite a bit of talent for this. You might be able to qualify for a first-rate academy or even a dao academy."

Even though Metalhand meant it as an off-hand remark, he reconsidered it right after the words left his mouth. Perhaps it isn't that far-fetched after all. Huo Qing seems to possess more potential than I thought. His martial techniques look on point and he managed to achieve quite a bit by self-studying formations. He even learned a special formation from a badlander cult... Does this nephew of mine have some untapped potential that I didn't recognize before? Hmm, I'll shelve that thought for now.

Metalhand changed his mind about his future plans. He had planned to hand Huo Qing the recycling house to go back to the Justice Restoration Army to fight for his cause. He wanted to get a new identity and fake his death so that his fourth brother's son would inherit what he had and wouldn't be wrapped up in what he was planning to do.

Metalhand gave Huo Qing a perplexed look. Maybe he really has the potential to become someone that towers over many others... He'd be able to rise to the top of Deepnight City. But if he doesn't have proper backing from a clan or company, there's no way he'd be able to climb that ladder no matter how much potential he has.

"Hehe... Uncle?" Huo Qing was glad to hear Metalhand's praise, but he felt unnerved by the silence that followed. "Is my formation causing problems for the Hundred Vine Spiritbind Formation? Should I remove it?"

He didn't think it would cause any problems, but he wouldn't insist on it if Metalhand didn't like it.

"Why remove it?" Metalhand snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the qi-collection formation. It didn't look that far out of the ordinary. There were thousands of variations of qi-collection formations in Skysource that used different principles to achieve the same effect. What was truly rare were formationists who could properly deploy them. Being able to deploy a qi-collection formation was enough for one to make a good living.

Huo Qing wasn't a naive student. Though he had his weaknesses, he had always been an independent person. Being a former gang member, he had experienced trial by fire and wasn't afraid of combat either. Maybe he could be trusted with more important assignments.

Metalhand exhaled deeply and said, "I got some insider knowledge that some time next year, one of the four dao academies, the Grand Illumination Academy, has a subschool that will be recruiting students. They're looking for promising formationists too. I have some... connections... in the city that might be able to recommend you to them as a student auditor so you can sit in for the lectures."

This spot was set up to get another member of the Justice Restoration Army to infiltrate the city. But in consideration of your parents' sacrifice, and the fact that Big Sister and I will be supporting you, we should be able to get you that spot.