Destiny in Cinders

"Haha, if you asked anyone else about this, they probably wouldn't know either," Jin Yanhua said, pulling An Jing into her embrace with her beautiful, slender arms.

She took another swig right before You Ruhui protested. Gleefully, the dragon lady said, "However, Ancestral Dragon Hall is the oldest faction in Void Embrace, one that has hailed from the times of celestial immortals in the distant past. Back then, every single ruler of the Heavenly Court had the Exalted of Heaven and Earth lifearc!"

Celestial arcs were nothing but things of legend to most people, even those in normal sects. Some didn't even believe that they existed. Old sects with ancient legacies, however, knew that celestial arcs were real and tangible things that could be striven for!

"I see. So this is the main reason for the expansion of sects even though they are completely self-sufficient in their own territories." An Jing was starting to understand that celestial arcs weren't just typical lifearcs. Their existence alone heralded epochal upheavals. It was an implicit decree by the Heavenly Dao on all life in Void Embrace.

The Natural-Born Master arc was the one that appeared most commonly relative to the rest. Its bearers would forge a completely new way to cultivate, gradually increasing the variety of paths one could take. Lord Under Heaven symbolized order and development and it could even reach the heights of Exalted of Heaven and Earth. As for Seven Ruins...

Jin Yanhua was still speaking as An Jing pondered on. "Seven Ruins Tribulation, as its name suggests, is a celestial arc that appears when the world is starting to stagnate and decay, falling into another dark era. It heralds death and destruction of the current order and everything within it so that a new era may rise from the ashes.

"If we do not include the era starting from Great Immortal Void Embrace's creation of the world, the golden age and the grand fiend calamity that ended it all, Void Embrace has experienced five great epochs. At the end of every single one, heavenly sects and dynasties fall. New daos arise while old daos perish. There are also always multiple lifearc bearers for Seven Ruins Tribulation."

"Multiple? Within a single era?" An Jing noticed the important point.

Jin Yanhua nodded. "Just because one bears a celestial arc doesn't mean that one will fulfill its destiny. The upper and heavenly sects aren't playing around. The powerful empyreans of the Soaring Realm can even twist the hand of the Heavenly Dao, to say nothing else about celestial arcs. However, the Seven Ruins Arc doesn't stop even after losing its bearer. A new one will be born to bear it.

"After Seven Ruins Tribulation, no, I should say before it, there's another called Vita Ex Nihilo, 'life out of nothing.'" Jin Yanhua's expression turned stern as she sat straight at the mention of this celestial arc. "Typically, bearers of this arc aren't human. Rather, they are the progenitors of a completely new humanoid race altogether. According to Ancestral Dragon Hall's records, the progenitor of the dragon race, the Ultimate Divine Celestial Dragon, was the bearer of this celestial arc. The dragon race of Void Embrace began with him. It's said that there are other kinds of dragons in worlds outside of this one, but they have a different source than us. They are of a completely different kind altogether. That wraps up the four lifearcs with five names!"

While Jin Yanhua joked around and exaggerated things when she talked about other sects, she was absolutely serious when she talked about her own and dragonkind.

Vita Ex Nihilo, Natural-Born Master, Lord Under Heaven, Exalted of Heaven and Earth, Seven Ruins Tribulation... Four lifearcs with five names... An Jing recalled the matching principle of the four epochs, Beginning, Formation, Abiding and Destruction, and the five tribulations contained throughout.

Jin Yanhua proceeded to explain the most crucial part. "According to my father, the frequency of tribulations across the ten continents of Void Embrace is a sign that a great struggle is upon us. Divine arcs won't be the only things that appear, celestial arcs will too! Other things aside, it's incredibly likely that the bearer of the Seven Ruins Arc will appear on the Northblack Sacrifice Continent, heralding a great tribulation that will cause heavenly sects to fall!"

Aaaah don't say all that in front of my face! Even though An Jing managed to maintain his calm exterior, he was at the brink of losing it. "What's the deal with this dragon lady? She brought up this topic out of nowhere, talking about celestial arcs and even dropping the name of Seven Ruins! Did my master tell her something?"

Even though An Jing knew that Ming Guangchen had figured something out, An Jing had only awakened two lifestars. Even if the Olden Heavenly Father descended to evaluate him, He would absolutely insist that An Jing didn't bear a celestial arc.

"I think all she wants to see from you is an admiring look," Yvelbane said, seeing through An Jing's blindspot. "The dragon lady looks like the kind of person that enjoys adoration. The talent you displayed frustrated her a bit too much to the point that she couldn't show off at all. She's nice enough to not give you trouble over it, but she's probably still trying to win you over by sharing her deep knowledge."

"Is there a need for that? Sheesh, I got really scared for a second there." An Jing did trust the sword soul's explanation. He did feel like Yvelbane and Jin Yanhua were similar in many ways, hence why it was able to analyze her in such great detail. "I'm already deeply impressed by her for how she generously taught me her arcanum. What did I do to deserve a generous big sister like that? She's a heaven-sent fortune indeed."

"Scaring you is kind of the point," Yvelbane said. "Either way, if you want to know about anything, just act a little daft and try to fish for answers from her by talking about some tangential topics. Then, give her an innocent look of adoration. She'll tell you anything if you do that!"

Since Yvelbane went out of its way to teach him that, An Jing put it into practice right away and tried to look impressed and thankful. "Oh, that's interesting! Why is it called Seven Ruins, then?"

Jin Yanhua continued her excited explanation as expected. "The Seven Ruins Arc represents the collapse of the present. It only appears during times of stability and order. In other words, it won't appear in places where chaos reigns free. On the flip side, lifearcs that unite to establish order appear in those places.

"The only two relatively stable continents are the Central Balance Dao Continent and the Northblack Sacrifice Continent. Since the Seven Ruins Arc's appearance is preceded by omens of chaos, and the Northblack Sacrifice Continent has been seeing more trouble as of late than the central continent, it's a safe bet to say that the bearer of the Seven Ruins Arc has manifested here.

"Recently, the Hanhai Mistide Chi suddenly returned to the Celestial Ocean. Ancestral Dragon Hall is somewhat acquainted with the chi[1] and sent people to check on them. They didn't explain much about anything else, but they complained that Grand Chen's internal conflicts are getting overboard and inappropriate! It's clear that Grand Chen is in quite a bit of trouble!"

An Jing actually obtained an important nugget of information. When he heard about the Hanhai Mistide Chi, he knew that it referred to the chi whose sudden departure resulted in the Hanhai Fiend Calamity that the officials of Grand Chen mentioned. Perhaps, the chi had left precisely because they sensed the incoming calamity. To think that nobody from Grand Chen bothered to investigate where the chi went. None of them even imagined that they would just move away like that.

It turned out that the chi returned to the Celestial Ocean. Ancestral Dragon Hall, true to their nature as a faction for all things dragon related, did in fact have a connection with the chi.

"Coupled with the fact that Guangyun... Sigh, even a patriot like Guangyun died without warning. There's no way Grand Chen is still in a decent state after all that." Jin Yanhua seemed rather down at the mention of the incident; she did appear rather calm earlier when she talked to You Ruhui, but the alcohol helped unearth some of her grief. "Why do you humans always leave me so quickly?"

To dragons, who were only considered fully grown after two thousand years, humans simply died too quickly. Even humans who became sages at most got to live up to a thousand years.

An Jing didn't really know how to continue the conversation. He lowered his head to think of his next move and left his master and his friend to their devices. However, he felt weightless when the massive tail wrapped around his waist, pulling him toward Jin Yanhua.

She looked intensely at An Jing, eyes widened. She put her face so close that their noses almost touched. The pine and bamboo fragrance from her was long gone. Instead, An Jing smelled a hint of burning rock and metal as well as alcohol from her breath. There was even a trace of bloody lethal qi, reflecting Jin Yanhua's true nature.

"Divine arc," the dragon lady said, still glaring. "You are the first natural divine-arc bearer I've seen in two millennia. Back before Guangyun became King Jing, he told me that he wanted to change the world. After expending all that effort, he finally obtained a divine artifact that really could do what he wanted. Yet, even someone like him didn't bear a divine arc, not even until his untimely death.

"I know better than anyone how difficult Guang's path has been. He wants to illuminate everything and support his sect. The number of heavenly fiends and feys he's slain far exceeds that of someone like me, a conqueror-general of East Ocean, and yet, even he doesn't bear a divine arc.

"As for me, you've already heard it. I was simply born into good circumstances. However, I have grand ambitions too and have fought to expand and stabilize the territory of my sect and faction. What about you?"

The purple-crimson eyes seemed filled with perplexity. "I can see that your talent is unparalleled. I admit that you have the comprehension akin to that of a divine being. But what about your ambitions? What kind of ambitions do you have that live up to the lifearc you bear?"

1. Reminder that chi is a dragonlike creature from Chinese mythology. First mentioned in Chapter 30. ☜