Destiny in Cinders

"What?!" Huo Qing's eyes widened with joy. "Is that for real? That's one of the four great dao academies!"

Even just auditing the training material of dao academies was quite a big deal.

"It's not a guarantee. Not to mention, they recruit the most accomplished students from other middle schools while we're just paying for you to go audit the class," Metalhand said. "Either way, keep working hard for the rest of the year. Even if you lucked out and got in, you'd still be expelled if you aren't able to keep up with the classes before the dao examination. This training academy still maintains a certain standard. It's already quite good if they let you listen to the lectures, though actually getting a spot as a proper student would be difficult."

"That still sounds great!" Huo Qing was overjoyed, knowing how great an opportunity this was. Even though it was just auditing, being able to see proper lecturers teach a topic was far superior than trying to study it himself. Not to mention, he could practice the knowledge he learned at the warehouse in Hilltwixt. He would get more than enough theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the coming year.

"What about practice materials?" He felt troubled when the notion occurred to him. "I'll need lots of resources to practice deploying high-tier formations."

The resources he had been using so far were spirit items that An Jing had bought him for that explicit purpose, and they were about to run out. Even if he had the money, he wouldn't even begin to know where he would procure materials like those.

"Don't worry. I have a stockpile that I built over the years." Metalhand smiled warmly at his nephew's excitement. "Whether you make it to the training academy or not, we'll get you to the Qi Refinement Realm within two years."

Huo Qing was so thankful that he began to tear up. "Uncle... You're far too nice to me..."

"Don't get too excited yet. This is only the beginning." Metalhand shook his head in resignation before his expression turned neutral again.

Be happy while you still can, but don't blame me for what comes later. If you're really lucky enough to get a spot in one of the four dao academies, you'll have to become an informant for the Justice Restoration Army. But if we don't do this, you'll never get a chance to climb the social ladder. Huo Qing, the only hope for people like us to make it big is to become pawns for the powers that be.

At that moment, the bell rang. Metalhand and Huo Qing turned to look at the entrance. The former used his prosthetic eye to zoom in while Huo Qing sensed a familiar presence.

"Hah!" Huo Qing relaxed a few breaths later and smiled. "An Xuan is here! I hope he's finished taking care of his stuff!"

"He brought quite a few things with him this time," Metalhand said, his brow furrowed as he opened the door.

"Long time no see, Boss Metalhand and Brother Huo!" An Jing showed up with a cartload of spirit items from all over Skysource. He gave his partners a bright smile and said, "I brought lots of spirit items that our tribes in the badlands produced. I'm sure there's a lot of money to be made! Uh... guys? I know making money is a good thing, but there's no need for the two of you to be that excited, right?"

Their joy was the least of their concern. Huo Qing had been worrying about not having enough materials to use for his formation practice, some of which he couldn't buy even if he had the merits for it. Yet, An Jing came with a cartload of them to their doorstep before they even began to ponder how to solve that problem.

Metalhand, on the other hand, was happy for a wholly different reason. That mysterious cultist kid finally showed up again. I didn't get a chance to observe him properly last time. Finally, I can see what he's made of!

When Metalhand was done with his observation, he almost tripped from the shock. Qi Refinement?! No, wait, how old is this badlander kid? Did he really reach the Qi Refinement Realm already?

An Jing didn't hide his power this time around. He could've continued to appear as a Tide-Aura martialist to others, but Skysource wasn't the same as Void Embrace. Given the advanced body modifications in Skysource, there were many cultivators who looked younger than their apparent age. It wasn't uncommon for young-looking people to be of the Qi Refinement Realm. Disguises like that were incredibly common.

Only a few people like Metalhand were aware of his true age. An Jing didn't mind showing his hand a little either since it wasn't a bad thing to be considered as someone with potential, which would make future collaborations smoother sailing.

"You were only at the River or Tide Essence Stage of Spirit Awakening when we first met!" Yet, Metalhand seemed to be quite taken aback by the revelation. He made a rough estimate and realized that only three months had passed since they met. Yet, An Jing was already a cultivator of the Qi Refinement Realm! Metalhand's prosthetic eye shook from the sheer shock. Olden Heavenly Father above... This is unbelievable!

Alas, there were too many extraordinary things in Skysource, so Metalhand didn't take it to heart. He turned instead to the cart of spirit items An Jing brought and felt his heartbeat quickening again.

The spirit items weren't anything particularly precious. They consisted of some spirit wood, low-purity frostjade, spirit-beast flesh preserved by the chill of the frostjade and some beast hides. They were relatively common ungraded spirit items, none of which belonging to the Qi Refinement grade. Still, a whole cartload of them was worth quite a sum!

Metalhand unlocked the formation and said, "Come in! Did you actually bring this cartload of items here safe and sound? How in the world did you do that?"

An Jing hadn't actually come to the recycling house all the way from the badlands. Otherwise, the friendly locals of Skysource would've relieved him of all that heavy cargo.

The Grandvoid Pathway was far too convenient. After Ming Guangchen and the rest departed, nobody was left to supervise An Jing. So, he used the many channels he had established in Keensight to buy low-grade spirit items.

In recent times, Dustdawners began to sell off large numbers of low-grade spirit items and artifacts to buy resources to help rebuild their homes. Most of the survivors of the fiend calamity were low-tier martialists. Since they weren't able to guard their hoard of spirit items, it was a much better idea to sell them off in Grand Chen while relations between the empire and Dustdawn were still friendly. As a result, the prices of those goods in Keensight fell heavily.

An Jing only had to spend the five hundred liang awarded by the administration of Keensight and the bounty he received for taking out the three pirate assailants from the Heavenly Demon Cult to buy a whole cartload of goods.

At the end of the day, however, he was still masquerading as a Dustdawner. So, he couldn't just buy too much of what the Dustdawners supposedly had mountains of in the first place. So, he picked out the goods that had fallen greatly in price to justify his purchases and maintain his cover. It didn't matter at the end of the day. The fact that An Jing could trade between the two worlds meant that he would only suffer smaller margins at worst.

He made sure to buy a bit more frostjade, a Grand Chen specialty. All jadestones that possessed spirit attributes were byproducts of mining souljades or spirit stones. Frostjade, for instance, was a byproduct from mining spirit stones from cold regions. In a way, they were impure spirit stones that contained water-aspect spirit qi.

These souljades were akin to the less desirable cuts of meat in Void Embrace. Only formationists or geomancers would bother buying them in bulk to use as a formation base to supplement five-aspect formations or use them to alter the elemental aspect of a fengshui arrangement.

Things were different In Skysource. An Jing recalled seeing a wood-aspect spirit stone, wood onyx, that cost twenty-seven merits per liang. It didn't sound like much, but when compared to the five liang of silver it cost to trade for one liang of wood-aspect spirit stones in Void Embrace, it was quite a bit more expensive in Skysource. The rough conversion rate of silver to merits was five liang to one merit.

In other words, An Jing could sell them for twenty-seven times the price. If he bought them in bulk, he also got enough of a discount to make the difference more than thirty times the price. It was easy money.

Nobody would suspect An Jing for buying such a large amount of frostjade either. Large slabs of frostjade were typically used to make frostjade beds that aided in training and aura regulation. Smaller pieces could also be used to calm the mind during meditative training.

"All in all, it's worth 5492 merits." Huo Qing and Metalhand finished the calculation and drew a cold breath. "How's there so much?! An Xuan, my friend, did you empty out your cult's storehouses?"

This is at least half a tribe's worth of supplies, An Jing thought after making a mental calculation. It wasn't easy for a tribe in Dustdawn to amass such a cartload of spirit items. They were using some of these things themselves, so there couldn't be that much of a stockpile.

Naturally, An Jing didn't need to pretend to be a Dustdawner in Skysource. He shook his head and said in the most natural tone in the world, "Of course not. These are the spirit items that my branch wants to trade. Boss Metalhand, I'm willing to cooperate with you on account of Huo Qing."

Though An Jing's tone was filled with pride and somewhat rude, he knew that this was the kind of time where he needed to appear strong and forceful. He was dealing with a transaction of more than five thousand merits. This amount was something that could strongly sway minds in Skysource.

However, he misunderstood Huo Qing and Metalhand fundamentally. Huo Qing would never think that way about a friend, whereas Metalhand's identity was a sensitive matter. He wouldn't let money sway his objectives in the first place.

"But all this..." Metalhand reeled from the shock and turned to An Jing. "Are you trying to get a household registration in Deepnight City? Is your cult trying to enter the city proper?"

Are they trying to send a genius to infiltrate Deepnight City like us at the Justice Restoration Army?

An Jing furrowed his brow when he sensed that Metalhand seemed to be misunderstanding something, though it didn't seem like a huge misunderstanding. Since the man already thought up an explanation that made sense, An Jing needed only to nod. "I suppose you could say that."

"With so much merit and all these materials that qualify as a service duty, you can indeed get a household registration in Deepnight City and obtain a chip," Metalhand said, even more certain that this was what An Jing's cult was planning when he noticed An Jing try to gloss things over. "It seems like you have the means and a service duty ready to go. You just lack a proper channel to get this through, right?"

"That's right." An Jing nodded. "However, it's still a bit soon for all this."

Even though chips were useful, An Jing would only use them after he could properly ascertain whether they could be used against him in any way. He sensed that Metalhand's misunderstanding was growing deeper and decided to reveal his true objective anyway. "I'm not really here for a household registration in Deepnight City. It's not something I need right away."

He walked to the cart and opened the bottom compartment, bringing out the scaly hide of the deathtame fiend and showing it to Metalhand. "Instead, I want to have a fiend-resistant artifact made."

The scale-covered hide shone like polished black stone. It looked silent and dormant after its fiend qi had been cleansed.

As Metalhand's eyes widened with shock, An Jing said, "I want to use it as a material. Boss Metalhand, I'm sure you've seen for yourself that our cult doesn't lack the means. If you have contacts who can make this happen, I'll definitely be able to afford the labor cost!"