Destiny in Cinders

"Trust me. Anyone that can learn to do something like this within a month is talented." Though An Jing was an unchipped badlander in Skysource, he was far more aware about the things that could be faked on the net than Huo Qing. "Let's go to Hilltwixt to take a look while Metalhand gets the things ready."

"Alright!" Huo Qing smiled brightly. "Uncle's finally back, so I can use his car without any reservations. But still, I think we need a car of our own."

"That's true. This car's too old and doesn't carry much."

"Darn it, if you have complaints, don't use it!" Metalhand yelled from the rear building. Hearing them complain about the quirks of his old car and talking about buying a new one as they were going to drive that very car to Hilltwixt made him explode with rage. Then again, it was just banter between two kids whose combined age wasn't even thirty, so he didn't let it get to him. This reminded Metalhand of his old days. Subconsciously, he tried to reach for a cigarette, but he thought better of it.

Thanks to Huo Qing's decent driving skill that got them through the fey attack last time, the two of them quickly arrived at Hilltwixt. The warehouse looked quite different from before.

Huo Qing activated the newly arrived earth-wood automata to do some basic repairs and give the warehouse a new paintjob. Most of the supply racks within it had been moved to a corner and piled up. The automata were also piled up together with their storage section. Two of them had been disassembled and covered up; Huo Qing had probably been trying to repair them.

The west of the warehouse was where You Ruhui had determined the location of the terrestrial-vein node. A double-nested qi-collection formation had been deployed there where two spirit-qi crucibles were charging up. Huo Qing had probably deployed it there after learning how.

"I feel like the training academy's methods for deploying formations like these result in far stabler ones." Huo Qing had told An Jing about the training academy along the way to Hilltwixt.

An Jing had seemed quite interested in the topic and became even more interested in investing in Huo Qing. "Seems like I should focus on collecting materials you'll need for formations. Don't hold back on my account. I'll need your help for deploying formation discs in the future, so consider this an investment on my part."

"I'll need to reach the high Qi Refinement Realm and gain psychic sense before I can use formation discs, though," Huo Qing said somewhat helplessly, thankful as he was. "Isn't it a bit early to talk about that? I can't possibly take advantage of your kindness. Not to mention..."

Huo Qing hesitated for a moment. "An Jing, have you ever thought of taking the dao exam?"

"Me? A badlander?" An Jing raised an eyebrow in doubt.

"You can take it as long as you have a chip. Deepnight City doesn't care about that," Huo Qing said, shaking his head. "That's why it's important for you to get service duties. After proving that you've killed fiends or feys and amassing enough wealth, you'll be able to become a citizen of Deepnight City."

"Let's revisit this later, then." An Jing made a mental note of it and filed it away. Given Yvelbane's current level of power, he wasn't able to stay in Skysource for anything long term. Three days wasn't short by any means, but it also wasn't that long. There was no way he would be able to take a break from school every three days.

Either way, the fact that Huo Qing had managed to do all that within the month An Jing was away showed how hardworking he was. He deserved all the investment he could get.

"Once I'm able to nest the qi-collection formation six times, I'll achieve the industrial standard for spirit-qi density and be able to charge up the automata normally." Huo Qing showed off his results proudly, hopeful for the future. "The automata still had some power when they arrived, so I used them to get the warehouse in order. However, recharging them is incredibly difficult. I can only use them for less than a day after ten days of charging! How troublesome."

"It's great that we can use them at all." An Jing seemed rather satisfied with the results. "Things are coming together well. It won't take long before I can start using some of the supplies I brought from home!"

"Do you want to give it a try now?" Huo Qing moved a few supply racks that he modified to look like folding screens around the qi-collection formation to make an octagonal seclusion room. "Even though it's not a proper seclusion room yet, the spirit-qi concentration should be quite decent!"

Given Huo Qing's current body refinement mastery, he didn't even break a sweat after moving those racks that were several tons in weight.

"Heh! Not bad, my friend!" An Jing knew that Huo Qing wanted to show off his progress too. He was someone who loved to try out new things, so he entered the room to get a feel for it. "I suppose I should start cultivating right now."

Huo Qing was quite proud of his work. "It's really great! I feel extra comfortable cultivating there. If not for the fact that I have to work at Uncle's, I would come here every day!"

"Once he knows how much you've been up to here, he won't have you run the shop any longer," An Jing surmised. "I'll need you to give me a demonstration of your progress later."

"Of course!"

While An Jing prepared to test out Huo Qing's qi-collection formation in Hilltwixt, something else was taking place in Ninedepths Third Middle School of Deepnight City.

"Nian Quan, cumulative evaluation: upper high. Literary evaluation: four merits or better. Pillmaking: distinction. Formations: merit. Artifact refinement: submerit. Talismans: distinction. Cohort ranking: first. Martial evaluation: first to be evaluated. Sparring opponent selection privilege granted."

"Hong Li, cumulative evaluation: upper middle. Literary evaluation: three merits..."

"Chen Qiu, cumulative evaluation: upper middle..."

The middle schools of Deepnight City separated their curriculum into the martial and literary segments. The literary segment spanned the fields of pillmaking, formations, artifact refinement and talismans. The martial segment involved cultivation and practical combat. Scoring four merits out of these six areas qualified a student for a scholarship.

The names of the top ten ranked students were displayed on a large screen. All ten of them had free combat privileges in the upcoming martial test, so they would be able to pick their opponents for the test. Even if they were weaker in practical combat, they could just pick weaker opponents to get another merit.

In other words, those in the top ten only needed three literary merits to qualify for a rather substantial scholarship that would fund their cultivation. Yet, Nian Quan had obtained four merits, which meant that he would get the scholarship whether he scored merits for the martial evaluation or not.

The black-haired, blue-eyed youth was expressionless when he saw his glowing name on the screen. He didn't feel moved by his amazing achievement at all. After all, he had always scored first place in his cohort for literary evaluations. The fact that his name was on top did elicit some chatter, but none of it sounded like shock.

"It's Nian Quan again, huh? Has he gotten anything other than a merit? Didn't he ace everything including the pop quizzes and semester finals?"

"The lowest grade he got was a submerit. It's truly amazing. How did he get only merits for the four segments? Did he really manage to learn all that?"

"I heard he has celestial spirit roots."

"The cultivation speed of someone with celestial spirit roots has nothing to do with literary evaluations, though."

"No, wait, why is someone with celestial spirit roots even attending an average school like ours?"

"I heard he's a poor orphan, so he couldn't afford better schools."

Most of the students felt a sense of disbelief and praise for Nian Quan. Even the occasional ill-willed comment was filled with nothing but envy, focusing on his family background. Then again, this was but a sign of the times.

Nian Quan didn't mind it at all. He looked down and closed his eyes to meditate. He engaged in silent cultivation even as the chatter around him continued.