Destiny in Cinders

Both of them smiled when they ascertained each other's identity and objectives. But Ming Guangchen's expression stiffened right after. "What a smart little cub of the demonic cult. Are you not scared that I'll kill you?"

The sage's eyes opened wide as Hexsun arcane power gathered in them. Many streams of solar lethal qi locked onto An Jing. The rays of sunlight that streaked across the landscape of frost appeared sharp as blades, cutting some holes into the youth's sleeves. However, the skin underneath was completely fine.

The sage hummed and said, "Interesting. Your body refinement technique is quite exquisite. Did you redeem it?"

"I have my extraordinary talent to thank for that," An Jing said, not flinching before the sage's powers in the slightest. He patted his torn garments and said, "Sage, if all you wanted is to joke around, you didn't have to make me take out a change of clothes. As for redeeming... What do you mean by that? To be frank, I don't know what you meant by 'Endmost Sky' earlier."

"Oh? You don't know about Endmost Sky or redemption? Wait, then how are you able to hear the words 'Endmost Sky' at all?"

This time around, An Jing felt an even heavier killing intent coming from Ming Guangchen. What was the reason for that? The killing intent from earlier was by no means fake. The sage had wanted to "kill" An Jing, which wasn't odd at all. After all, he had come from the demonic cult and got wrapped up in You Ruhui's affairs. No matter the kind of relationship the sage and King Jing shared, there was no place for a traitor of a demonic cult among his plans. However, An Jing knew that Sage Mystic Mirror wouldn't actually do anything to him, at least not until he consulted the daughter of King Jing, assuming he truly was King Jing's ally.

This time around, the sage wasn't just testing him like earlier and actually felt the urge to truly kill him for an instant, but it vanished just as quickly. He fell into deep thought and said, "Since you can remember those words, that proves that you're karmically linked to Endmost Sky somehow. Huh? Are you linked to it through me? Or is this something that will come to pass in the future?"

He shook his head. "Forget it. You'll come to understand this in the future."

"Sage, you had many opportunities to kill me if you truly wished me dead." An Jing could feel that Ming Guangchen turned much more amicable than before. Though he wondered why, he didn't mind the change in the slightest. Looking at him calmly, he said, "You did really want to kill me for a moment, but you held off. I don't suppose you'll actually kill me now."

His eyes glowed with spirit power when he used True Spirit Eyes. "This time, it's my turn to ask you questions. Why did you feel the urge to kill me?"

"It's only been a few days and you already got your hands on spirit eyes! Is it really not Endmost Sky?" Ming Guangchen looked An Jing up and down before lowering his head slightly in an apologetic manner. "Forgive me. It was just a misunderstanding. As for Endmost Sky, you don't have to worry about that now. You will come to understand it in the future.

"As for earlier, I only wanted to test your character a bit. You fared much better than I expected. I'm not trying to make excuses for myself here. You should know that out of ten traitors of the Heavenly Demon Cult, three are spies, three are assassins, and three more will eventually return to the cult. Only one out of ten truly want to leave it, and even then, that doesn't mean that they're good people. Some of them go on to commit atrocities and terrorize the populace all the same."

Ming Guangchen shook his head in resignation. "The 'deeds' that the traitors of the demonic cult rendered have made it necessary for me to be cautious. For many of those who later return to the cult, betraying it and trying to leave it are mere rites of passage. They all end up back where they started. Not to mention, your escape was so masterfully done that it felt suspicious. And you just had to run into that old lady too."

Oh? Were the traitors of the cult before me all like that? An Jing knew that Ming Guangchen was just testing him to see if he would panic. In fact, he thought that the sage was going a bit too easily on him. What really caused him to lose control of his expressions was learning about the "tradition" of the demonic cult. I had been wondering why everyone in the cult, including the vice apothecary, wasn't the least bit surprised at my betrayal. Even Madam Huai wasn't surprised to learn about my past. Are my forerunners all the same? Is this just some sick tradition of the demonic cult?

As for Endmost Sky, An Jing gathered from what Yvelbane told him that it was probably an organization that was involved with crossing the void somehow. Ming Guangchen had no reason to lie to him, so if he said An Jing would understand it in the future, there was no urgent need for him to know about it.

Right as An Jing was thinking about the cult's reaction, Ming Guangchen shook his head slightly as if he was in deep thought. "You are different, somehow. You drew my attention when you mutilated Constable Chen earlier. Back then, I felt quite unpleasant about seeing how you brutalized that man, even if he was a follower of the True Fiend Cult. It looked just like what a fiend follower would do. It felt personal, like it was an act of personal revenge.

"However, when I heard about how you killed even more fiend followers and saved the kidnapped victims, I realized that I might have been mistaken. Perhaps you weren't acting out of a personal grudge after all. That piqued my interest, so I observed you for quite some time. And now, I finally realized that you're the same guy who betrayed the demonic cult and fled from it."

Ming Guangchen looked deeply in his eyes. "An Jing, I do not doubt your character at all. From the testimony of the disaster children you rescued and what I witnessed with my own eyes, I am sure that you are not like the earlier traitors of the cult whose minds have long been twisted. I was quite curious back then how you got the kind of power to allow you to escape Direlife Manor. But now, all I want to know is what your plans are now that you've been wrapped up in the affairs of Grand Chen's imperial bloodline."

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to look for my parents," An Jing said, somewhat perplexed. "You Ruhui just managed to meet up with you. All you need to do is to follow whatever plan her father, King Jing, left behind. It'd be nice if the two of you can draw the eyes of Grand Chen, the fiend cult and the many other factions away from me to allow me to return to Hanhai as soon as possible."

Unlike You Ruhui, my parents are still alive. I must make sure they're safe before I can consider my future plans. Naturally, An Jing was not foolish enough to say all that outright, but he had already made his intentions clear enough.

Ming Guangchen watched him in silence for a moment. After some time, he shook his head and sighed in exasperation. "You really are different. The way you think is far too... normal. You're nothing more than a youth with a strong sense of justice that despises evil. That normalcy you're giving off is the very thing that makes you abnormal. You've experienced a lot from the snow calamity to your run-in with the demonic cult. Even through all that, you still value life that highly and haven't forgotten about your family and friends. It truly is a rare and precious thing. Forgive me for being direct. With a lifearc like yours, events of a lethal nature are bound to follow you around. Your parents might not fare well as a result."

"I know," An Jing said, not minding the sage's frankness. "It's Pyrestar Warden. I wouldn't be surprised if my parents are both dead. At least, I think my dad might be dead already, but my mom should still be alive. I have to find her."

An Jing said it calmly like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I promised her that I would."

This time around, it was An Jing's turn to ask questions after being grilled with so many of them. "Come to think of it, I have a feeling that a single sage of Dustdawn wasn't behind the order to destroy Direlife Manor. Sage Mystic Mirror, I would like to know who exactly tasked you to do such a thing."

Even though this wasn't something Ming Guangchen should reveal, he nodded when he recalled An Jing and Gu Yeqi's relationship. "It's the Gu clan. The Gu clan of Hanhai."