Destiny in Cinders

No matter how much he trusted Huo Qing, An Jing couldn't just disappear with You Ruhui and Madam Huai in the house behind the recycling shop. Huo Qing could never imagine that they were traveling using the Grandvoid Pathway. It wouldn't do to introduce this kind of shock into his life either. So, An Jing chose to travel to the Mortality Plains at night with the other two.

"Even though this world has been badly damaged by the heavenly fiends, something about it makes me feel unnaturally relaxed," You Ruhui said, looking back at the recycling house that disappeared into the darkness behind them. "I have never felt this relaxed, not even in the palace."

Sensing an odd look coming from An Jing, she said, "What I mean is... It feels like most of the karmic threads that bound me have been cut off. It's a sense of... freedom of sorts."

"It's the sensation of willow catkins that are allowed to float freely in the wind," Madam Huai said, offering up a fitting metaphor, prompting You Ruhui to nod eagerly. "Once they break off the branches, the catkins fly and never know where they'll end up landing at. While they're floating with the wind, they feel free and joyous. But falling buds always have to take root on the ground. No matter how long we float in this foreign world, we will have to return eventually."

"That's true. This is a wholly different world with a completely different environment, after all." An Jing could empathize with the feeling as he was a "refugee" of his world as well. He also liked the feeling of freedom that being in Skysource offered. While he had plans in Skysource, he could easily abandon everything save for Huo Qing and Nian Quan. Knowing that he was untethered and able to disappear whenever he wanted without being dragged down by karmic ties was quite a freeing sensation for someone like him who had to be on the run for a long time.

Madam Huai, on the other hand, had been bound to the terrestrial vein by her lifearc all her life. She lived on the same street for decades, only her first excursion since then to take her to a completely different world. It was no wonder she felt that melancholic about leaving.

"There's one more thing," You Ruhui said, looking up at the skyline of Deepnight City in the distance. Even a princess of Grand Chen who had seen the divine capital couldn't help but feel impressed. "While this is a ruined world with savage tribes in the badlands, I've never seen a single person who suffered from not having enough to eat. When I was escaping in Grand Chen, I've seen far too many people who have lost their homes from the snow calamity. They didn't have food or clothing either. Many turned into beasts to survive. Yet, while thugs and vagabonds of this world might not have homes and eat worse than others, they still possess artifacts. They're nowhere near dying from hunger."

Her observation was true. This cyberized world was brilliant in a different way than her feudal empire was. An Jing shook his head and said, "This only applies to what you've seen here in the safe zone. Many people in the badlands are much worse off."

She sighed and said, "Well, at least that wasn't caused by bad administration and policy."

An Jing gave it more thought and realized that while Skysource was in a far worse state, the most that people had to suffer was being treated as less than human by corporations. While the standard of living in Deepnight City and the safe zone wasn't that high, with people often getting wrapped up in gang fights and risking death on the streets, it wasn't so bad that they weren't able to feed themselves. This was indeed something Skysource fared better in than Void Embrace.

We have to look into how agriculture works in Skysource, An Jing thought. He hadn't actually seen a farm or anything of the like, yet there seemed to be a steady supply of meat and grain. Did they convert sacred grottos into farmland? That can't be. No matter how wasteful they are, they wouldn't do something like that, right?

Eventually, An Jing and gang arrived at the uninhabited forest on Mortality Plains.

"This is the spot." An Jing summoned Yvelbane's hilt and opened the Grandvoid Pathway. The three of them promptly returned to Void Embrace.

Days had passed, but the snow calamity raged on and reached its peak. They saw nothing but white snow around them and dark, gloomy horizons.

"Oh? Jing Xuan? Madam Huai? Where have you two been in the past few days?"

An Jing chose to return to the street outside Blessed Virtue Garden and knocked on their doors. The waiter was quite surprised to see them. "Two days ago when my colleagues realized that you were gone, we thought something happened to you and went searching for a good while!"

"I went to see my people for some supplies to treat Madam Huai's injuries." An Jing didn't elaborate, letting the waiter's imagination fill in the gaps. He tossed him a string of coins and said, "Since the teahouse is sealed off, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go but here."

"That's no problem at all! Please come in!" The waiter welcomed his paying guests immediately.

Manager Li arrived soon after and let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, Master Xuan, you could've told us you would be gone for a while! You too, madam. It would've been nice if you had left a message. It's been snowing so heavily these past few days and it wasn't easy going out to search for you all in this weather. Thankfully, we knew that the two of you are sensible people who wouldn't be carelessly risking your lives out there..."

The manager didn't seem to think that anything was off. With how chaotic the city was that day, all apothecaries shut their doors. If An Jing wanted to look for medicinal supplies for Madam Huai, he needed to use his personal connections. Given how she was conscious and able to talk despite her weak constitution, she had no doubt been given some kind of good medicine.

After the briefing, a few waiters helped Madam Huai into a private room. You Ruhui watched her nearby with her stealth ability active. An Jing, on the other hand, remained there and looked around. "Wow, your business is still so good despite the heavy snow!"

Blessed Virtue Garden was filled to the brim with customers. They didn't get that many customers even during festival seasons.

"Sigh... We had no choice. Aren't these your people, Master Xuan?" Manager Li motioned helplessly for An Jing to look. "A fiend calamity broke out in Dustdawn recently, causing quite a lot of rich folk to escape to Keensight. With the snow calamity approaching, the tribes that have lost quite a bit of manpower from the fiend calamity could no longer defend so many people. Since we can't just watch them die from the cold, we let a group of them into the city.

"But there's only so many places to stay in the city. The richer ones come to us for their meals. Some even booked rooms and are using this place as an inn. The rest had no choice but to stay at the huts they built along the river. I wonder how many will survive the cold."

The manager sighed from the depths of his heart. No matter how good business was, he wasn't someone who could stomach the thought of people freezing to death, Dustdawners or not. Alas, there was no stopping the heavenly fiends followed by the snow calamity.

"You guys don't seem concerned at all." An Jing looked around and noticed that seventy percent of them were indeed Dustdawners. He sighed too and said, "I really didn't think that something so huge would happen right as I chose to leave my tribe to travel. I wonder how the others back home are doing."