Destiny in Cinders

Even though An Jing didn't know anything specific about the factions within the empire, it went without saying that the empire was by no means a monolith. Ming Guangchen didn't find the question odd at all. "Brother Guangyun didn't have any special affiliation with any faction. He was one of the Eight Sentinel Kings, whose goal is to ensure the continuation of the imperial court. Even during the years he spent adventuring with us, his main objective was always to ensure the wellbeing of the subjects of the empire. He didn't seem to prioritize his personal power at all. No doubt, part of it was due to his imperial blood which allowed him to grow stronger without any need for special resources, but it also showed how much of a true patriot he was. However..."

Ming Guangchen furrowed his brow in deep thought before he continued, "Before I entered seclusion, I vaguely recalled the Tianyou Emperor adopting a policy of reform. Brother Guangyun had always supported this elder brother of his, so if I had to guess, he might be one of the Reformists."

Adventuring? Reformists? Even though An Jing got his answer, it came with even more questions.

"My father has always remained in the palace and almost never left it..." Xuan Mingjing muttered with a troubled look. Even though she figured that her father probably went adventuring before she was born, that didn't seem right either. Before her birth, her parents had been married for many years. According to her mother, her father had never left Hanhai since he became one of the Eight Sentinel Kings. How did he even get to know a sage from the five Dustdawn Sects?

An Jing was more concerned with the part about reformation. I seem to recall that they were implementing new policies in Hanhai... Even though he hadn't been interested in politics as a child, he was far from a clueless citizen.

Hanhai was a region established after the war against the northern barbarians, so it was bound to be different from the divine capital and the historical lands of the empire. Many things were done differently in Hanhai, such as how agricultural products were taxed, the prices of grain and other goods as well as the benefits merchants got from developing unclaimed land. All those reformed policies had to be part of the reformation that had taken place there. Later on, the Hanhai Fiend Calamity went on to devastate the region. Even after the Tianyou Emperor passed away, the ones who suffered the most from it was Hanhai, which was Reformist territory...

"An Jing," Yvelbane finally said after a long period of silence as it prepared to open the Grandvoid Pathway to flee. "I mentioned earlier that this person is covered in a thick air of void power."

"Yeah. You said that he often uses the void to traverse large distances like continents," An Jing said.

"That's right. That ability of his has something to do with me," Yvelbane said so suddenly that An Jing almost failed to control his expression. "Either that, or he has something to do with the immortal who forged me and granted me the power of void."

"What?!" An Jing was absolutely stunned and filled with disbelief. "Yvelbane, do you really mean it?"

"Absolutely. But I have no way of ascertaining whether it has something to do with a fragment of mine or not. Perhaps it's something that's even more precious than my fragment. At the end of the day, I'm a sword. Somebody must've forged me and imbued arcane power into me. I must've had a creator, and that person might have something to do with Ming Guangchen."

An Jing managed to calm down quickly. First, Yvelbane's words couldn't be believed in their entirety. It wasn't that An Jing didn't trust its intentions. Instead, Yvelbane's memory was fragmented and it was more unstable than they initially expected. It couldn't even tell whether it used to be the sword itself or its human wielder. Who could say whether its power actually came from the sword and not its former wielder?

An Jing calmed himself and said, "I don't think this is something we can ask him directly. Yvelbane, can you sense the scent of any other world from him? Does he look like he's been to Skysource before?"

That was something he was far more concerned about. Yvelbane's Grandvoid Pathway ability gave An Jing many opportunities for growth and fortuitous encounters. That in itself wasn't that unthinkable. In the same vein, if other people also had a similar ability like Yvelbane, that meant that they would have access to other worlds as well. If so, was Skysource ever truly safe? Did that also mean that the deities and immortals of Skysource could come to Void Embrace too?

"Hmmm... There isn't any sign," Yvelbane said much to An Jing's relief, only to go on to say something else that made his doubts grow. "If I had to read something into it, I would say that he gives off a scent from other continents. Most likely, the Central Balance Dao Continent and maybe even the Eastsky Universe Continent."

Of the five colored and five directional continents in Void Embrace, An Jing was in the Northblack Sacrifice Continent, one of the three northern continents that represented the color black. The other northern continents were the Northeternal Desert Continent represented the direction north and the Whitepole Purity Continent represented the color white.

The three southwestern continents included the Westnether Abyss Continent, Evergreen Light Continent and the Goldimperial Whirl Continent. The three southeastern continents were the Eastsky Universe Continent, Crimsonsoul Conquest Continent and the Southsavage Flood Continent respectively.

These nine continents, grouped into three categories, formed three points of a triangle on the map. At the very center of the triangle was the Central Balance Dao Continent.

"He goes to the Central Balance Dao Continent often," Yvelbane said with certainty. "However, a sage of the Void Divine Treasures Realm wouldn't have the power to cross the Celestial Ocean. He has to be relying on some external power. That's odd... This man and the so-called comrades of King Jing must be hiding another even bigger secret!"

"What should we do next?" Xuan Mingjing asked Ming Guangchen while An Jing conversed with Yvelbane. "I'll be able to hide using the terrestrial veins when we return to Keensight, but if we don't leave Grand Chen soon, Sixth Uncle might be the next one to come looking after Overseer Cao."

She sounded worried and left some things unsaid. If someone else with imperial blood came to capture her, it would be a whole different ball game. They would definitely not fare as well as they had when there was only one sage overseer.

"We'll only stay there for a short time," Ming Guangchen said solemnly. "I have a way to transport you away that wouldn't set off the spirit veins of Grand Chen, but it requires some time to set up. In the meantime, I need you to be in a safe place. Once the altar is completely set up, I'll transport you away from here into the care of someone who might be even more trustworthy than I am. You'll be in the care of a true ally of your father. But for now..."

Ming Guangchen turned to An Jing with a serious look. "I still need this young friend of ours to help."