Destiny in Cinders

"The dragonjade is pulling in Madam Huai's soul and lifearc!" An Jing was stunned to see it unfold with his own eyes, but he snapped out of it quickly enough. "To think that it had such a function!"

Madam Huai also snapped out of her shock. "I see. So this was where I was meant to be all along."

She remained conscious even after being pulled into the dragonjade. However, her voice got softer and more hollow. "This place seems rather special... It feels a little like the inside of terrestrial veins... I'm falling asleep..."

Madam Huai's soul slumbered at the depths of the dragonjade, leaving behind two stunned youths.

"What... what in the world happened?" You Ruhui had no idea what was going on at all. The dragonjade was merely the central pivot of terrestrial veins as far as she was concerned. It granted her lots of authority, allowing her to borrow and use all sorts of terrestrial-vein abilities.

However, those were the functions that she had managed to figure out on her own. King Jing hadn't told her much about its true capabilities. At most, she had some of Ming Guangchen's theories to supplement her understanding and had no idea about its true purpose.

"So, it can do this too..." She touched the dragonjade and felt the warmth coming from it with a troubled look on her face. "Then again, there were lifearc bearers among the people around me that died since I started fleeing. Lots of other martialists and esotericists also died. So, why?"

An Jing fell into deep thought. This didn't seem to be an accident. One of the dragonjade's functions was probably storing the soul of a dead person within. He had seen Madam Huai's soul and lifearc enter the Cosmic Heart completely. She retained her mind and managed to communicate too. If the dragonjade functioned like a place for the dead, like the netherworld, it implied that Grand Chen's influence was able to stretch to the afterlife as well. It was fitting for a powerful heavenly sect.

"What in the world is the Cosmic Heart's function?" Then, An Jing recalled something and snapped the girl out of it. "Don't blank out, Ruhui! Think! Could this be the backup your father left you? Can you sense if there are other souls inside it apart from Madam Huai's?"

You Ruhui froze when she contemplated the possibility. She immediately closed her eyes and sensed what was within the dragonjade, but there was nothing else.

"Oh well..." You Ruhui opened her eyes with measured disappointment. "Father was attacked without warning. It didn't seem like he had a backup plan. At the very least, if it exists, it wouldn't be the dragonjade. Father perished in battle by the time I got quite far away. When Mother touched the dragonjade, nothing happened either."

"Is that so?" An Jing furrowed his brow. He wanted to figure out why nobody else, not even King Jing's wife, triggered the dragonjade but Madam Huai did. This wasn't something he could just theorize blindly about unless he was powerful enough to be able to analyze the Cosmic Heart itself.

"Huo Qing." Yvelbane reminded him about his friend.

"Oh wait, I have changed these people's fates completely. Their paths had once led to dead ends, but I managed to create completely new paths for them out of nowhere!" That would definitely explain it. Whether King Jing and his wife had truly been traitors, everything they had belonged to the dragonjade Grand Chen possessed. Even if their souls scattered upon their deaths, the fragments would return to Grand Chen rather than You Ruhui's tiny dragonjade shard.

As for why it didn't react to the others who had died along her escape, those people's fates were tied to Grand Chen as well, from their births to their deaths, so it made sense that their souls prioritized returning to Grand Chen's side of things.

Madam Huai's fate used to belong to Grand Chen, but it had been completely cut off. Even her karmic ties to the Heavenly Demon Cult were severed. This way, she could return to whoever was the closest to her.

An Jing believed that there were many other people in Void Embrace who had broken free of the chains that bound them and changed their fates. But when they died, the laws of the universe would direct them to the Cosmic Heart nearest to them, so it didn't really make a difference at the end of the day. You Ruhui just so happened to have the dragonjade near Madam Huai right as she died, creating this odd outcome.

So, changing Madam Huai's fate and giving her more time was the correct thing to do! At the end of the day, these were nothing but An Jing's guesses. He couldn't actually test it out by killing Huo Qing, someone whose fate was changed by him, to see if he would enter the dragonjade. At the very least, he still had some kind of explanation for why it worked for Madam Huai but not others.

"Ruhui..." An Jing told her about his theory.

After some thought, she nodded and accepted it. "It really does seem to be the case. Come to think of it, I've never paid attention to what happens when people die in Grand Chen."

The common understanding was that a dead soul was transported to the netherworld after death. But in consideration of the fact that Grand Chen probably had jurisdiction over the domain of death within its borders, An Jing's theory made more sense.

Madam Huai probably needed some time before she could wake up again. An Jing had experienced something like this in the case of Yvelbane before.

This arrangement ended up being quite the helpful coincidence. You Ruhui had incredible talent but really limited experience dealing with others, so she could definitely use the wit and wisdom that Madam Huai had accrued over her long life.

Madam Huai's arm still held the shard of the broken knuckles tightly, the memento of Shu Zheng. It let out a warm glow, a sign that it had become a lifevessel. This was something the madam had left for An Jing and You Ruhui.

While this lifevessel's effects were unknown, it could only be used by bearers of a fitting lifearc. Otherwise, the user would suffer blowback. As An Jing bore the Seven Ruins arc, he was able to use lifevessels associated with the seven luminaries or lifestars. However, Qi Soul Lending wasn't a lifearc associated with them. On the other hand, You Ruhui had the dragonjade with Madam Huai's soul and lifearc, so she could use the lifevessel as usual.

An Jing didn't really mind the fact that he couldn't use it. He already benefited greatly from being able to ask You Ruhui to cast her ability on him even from a distance, so most of the things she gained would benefit him too.

"This is a delightful surprise indeed, both for Madam Huai and for us," An Jing said, looking at the body calmly. "However, we still have to conduct a burial ceremony for her to commemorate her passing."

"Don't worry," You Ruhui said, clear eyed. "The madam has formed close connections with many people. Lots of people will definitely help out for the funeral."

"I wasn't worried about that," An Jing said, shaking his head. While funerals were rather hard on common people, An Jing wasn't tight with his money at all. It wasn't a big deal for him to host a large funeral. Not to mention, he already made some preparations some time ago. "I'm more concerned about the demonic cult. Madam Huai was one of them, so her death will no doubt draw some eyes to us. Wait..."

An Jing finally reacted and looked oddly toward the western mountains. Wasn't something that drew even more attention from the members of the demonic cult in Dustdawn happening right now?

He turned around and said, "Nope, we don't have to worry about the demonic cult for now. We should conduct the madam's funeral while they're too occupied to do anything about it!"

Lord Inspector of the West, I hope you're still holding on! he thought sardonically.