Destiny in Cinders

The moment An Jing made up his mind, the whirlpool of timekeeping mechanisms in his sea of consciousness continued to spin faster and faster until it disappeared completely, turning into a funnel that led straight to the core of his soul. Soon, the nonstop-spinning vortex gathered threads from the soul, aura, spirit qi and power from the Seven Ruins Arc within the core of his being to form a blurry illusion of the Spherical-Heaven Principle.

"It worked!" An Jing knew that he had just overcome the toughest obstacle. As spirit qi and soul power continued to flow into the manifested principle, it began to appear more and more distinct. Then, it started to circulate.

When the Spherical-Heaven Principle was fully formed, An Jing temporarily left the celestial-temporal state. In the next instant, spirit qi and aura began to circulate within his body, infusing into the principle and activating it once more. Right away, he was able to enter the celestial-temporal state with his thoughts accelerated.

The Spherical-Heaven Principle surfaced at the primordial nexus of his soul, occupying the centermost spot. Gradually, the entire sea of consciousness within the purple mansion transformed into a celestial atlas of stars.

Yvelbane's broken-sword form in the sea of consciousness also turned into a massive star that took its place above the Evenstar, orbiting according to the Spherical-Heaven Principle. The imperial blood droplet and True Talisman seemed unwilling to go with the flow at first, but they were dragged into orbit by the broken sword.

Out there in the real world, An Jing stood up and looked around him. Having the speed of his thoughts doubled made his snappy and agile body feel incredibly sluggish. It was as if he couldn't muster enough strength from his flesh. The disparity of sensation felt quite interesting to him.

The sound of wind coming from the window sounded slowed, like a note held long. An Jing turned his eyeballs to look at the candlelight at the desk ahead of him. It flickered slowly, as if it was stagnating.

"In... teres... ting..." He could hear his slowed voice as he spoke. The vibrations of his voice box felt crisp and clear to him to the point where he could pick up the inaccuracies of the accent he was trying to convey. Even if he wasn't trying to mimic a Dustdawner accent, there were faint traces of the northern-frontier accent remaining.

He laughed and raised his hand to touch his throat. The hand moved really slowly as well unless he activated the Imperial Sky and Earth Arts' explosive state. Spirit qi circulated faster within his body, removing the sluggish sensation completely. He was able to move at a "normal" speed relative to the speed of his thoughts and perception. The world was the only thing that appeared slow to him.

He walked toward the door, opened it and entered the courtyard of the four-walled compound. If anyone was watching, they would see a ghostly blur zipping around the courtyard of the compound at high speeds.

An Jing felt that his body's physical attributes hadn't really changed much. Temporal Grasp was a wonder of the soul, so it had strengthened his soul much more relative to what it did for the body. But in this state, the fine motor control he had over his entire body was massively enhanced, allowing him to fight much better despite his physical attributes not changing!

While keeping up the sped-up thoughts was fine, accelerating his body to match them was something that he couldn't maintain for long periods even with Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal. He closed his eyes and opened them again. The sound of the wind and the candlelight flickers returned to normal once the celestial-temporal state came to an end. "Ten moments. That's the full limit of how much I can push this. If I go longer than that, even if I'm able to maintain Temporal Grasp, I won't be able to control my movements to that fine of a degree. I'd just be creating openings for true experts for no gain."

While ten moments didn't seem long, even a single moment in a martial duel was enough for someone to end up dead. Ten moments were his limit at the Fortification Realm. Even body refinement martialists with bountiful aura and four bodily wonders supporting them would be able to extend that time up to a dozen moments, maybe slightly more, at most.

Without all that and only possessing Temporal Grasp, maintaining the accelerated state for a few moments was already the mark of a precious talent. Yet, An Jing was able to keep it up for ten moments. Both his talent and Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal had a huge role to play in that.

He gained a deeper understanding about something. "I should pick my wonders of the martial path from the internal school like my master. For the immortal path, I should focus on body refinement!"

"This is starting to feel a little lopsided," Yvelbane said. "Then again, you bear the Seven Ruins Arc. Overturning established conventions is what you do."

"So this is the Fortification Realm, huh..." An Jing raised his right hand and formed a firm palm with all five of his fingers. He curled up his palm slightly to manifest a crimson flame in it. The flame flickered and burned but remained bound to the surface of his palm. It gradually withdrew until it turned back into its initial spark and formed what looked like flaming blood magma.

This was pure Pyrestar lethal qi, not an ability. Before this, An Jing needed to use Qiform Arsenal to access his blood lethal qi, but he became able to use blood lethal qi as he pleased after his breakthrough. He could use it to strengthen his physical body, unleash attacks, block flying swords like Lu Jin and splash flames around like the Flame Wine Devil.

He flicked his hand and caused the Pyrestar lethal qi to shoot out like an arrow, striking a tree in the courtyard. The formless flame consumed all of the vitality in the tree in an instant. Upon closer inspection, the tree's needle-like leaves had withered completely. Though they still hung on the branches, it was clear that the tree was dead.

"Purely in terms of harming life, Pyrestar lethal qi doesn't pale in comparison to Evenstar lethal qi at all." Since his breakthrough, he felt a brand-new power bubbling up within him. His lifearc was generating spirit and lethal qi that was more suited to his aura.

Unlike Qi Refinement Realm immortal cultivators, lifearc martialists only needed to fulfill their lifearcs to harmonize their power with the aura in their bodies to generate spirit qi. As long as the lifearc was active, it could absorb spirit qi from the environment and refine it into various types of profound qi suited to them, allowing martialists to cultivate without the need to search for a suitable spirit-vein node unlike immortal cultivators. This was the fundamental foundation on which the martial path was built which allowed them to cultivate among other people and civilization, unlike immortal cultivators that had to recluse themselves in uninhabited mountains and ancient forests.

Naturally, if An Jing found a terrestrial-vein with special blood and flame properties, he would be able to cultivate much faster there. This was also the reason Grand Chen built cities at places with large, intersecting terrestrial veins. That didn't change the fact that martialists were far more flexible when it came to where they could cultivate than immortal cultivators.

An Jing was unique in that he bore a celestial arc and had awakened two lifestars. When he meditated, he raised one hand. This time around, the spirit qi he manifested wasn't the same bloodthirsty and conquest-driven blood lethal qi. Rather, it was the unfathomably sharp, cold and resolute Evenstar lethal qi. He had fire in one hand and metal in the other. He was able to control two types of lethal qi at the same time!