Yinghuo Encamped in Heart? Or Perhaps...

"Yinghuo Encamped in Heart... Yinghuo Encamped in Heart! Even among the Star Baleful Destinies, it can be called the most ominous and perilous of all!" At the thought of this possibility, Manor Lord Yao's heart skipped a beat. The ferocity of this destiny was such that an individual who encountered it died, an army that met it fell to ruin, and a nation that faced it perished. Once it emerged into the world, altars of state would topple, and the realm would plunge into turmoil! A fierce destiny bore an equally fierce bearer! If one who possessed this destiny wished to achieve great deeds, the path they walked would inevitably be paved with mountains of corpses and seas of blood—truly, a single general's triumph achieved at the cost of ten thousand withered bones! It was only right, only fitting... —He was destined to be the Godly General of Heavenly Balefulness for their Tianyi Divine Sect's future conquest of the world! *** Meanwhile. "Junior brothers and sisters, taking advantage of this moment, I want to tell you the truth." Having completely awakened his Destiny Pattern and grasped a portion of the Grand Ritual of Imperial Heaven's Baleful Stars' authority from within, An Jing seized the instant the demonic qi was dispersed and his soul was connected to all the youths in the ritual to project a message and a succession of memories to everyone. Without holding anything back, he said, "Suspended Fate Manor is not some secluded lineage inheritance, as they claim to be." "Their true identity is the 'Tianyi Demon Sect.'" "Our other junior brothers and sisters from before—they were not sent away from the manor and forced down the mountain due to insufficient aptitude. Rather, through various pretexts, they were turned into ingredients for the Demon Sect's medicine concoction." "They were 'eaten.'" An Jing's thought swept across the entire grand array, his voice echoing in the hearts of all sixty-six survivors. Yet in the first instant, not everyone could process what An Jing had just said—having only just broken free of their inner demons, they were still dazed and at a loss. For a time, the interior of the ritual was filled with a tumultuous clamor of adolescent voices. "I broke through my inner demon? No... wait, what happened?!" "Haha... Hahahaha! I survived! I succeeded! Mother! Father, did you see that?!" "Sister Liu?! Don't die, don't die! Please... don't leave me behind..." "I... I feel like I had a dream... Did we successfully pass the trial? No, what are these memories... This is, this is..." After breaking free from their inner demons, their reactions varied greatly. Some were sharper; even without An Jing's help, they likely could have broken free from their inner demons, though they would not have been able to awaken a Destiny Pattern. They immediately noticed the failed youths lying dead beside them and were struck with sheer shock. Some had been on the verge of being swallowed by their inner demons; after being saved by An Jing, the lingering fright had not yet faded, and amidst wild emotional swings, they had turned somewhat manic. Others immediately noticed the deaths of their friends and companions, plunging into overwhelming grief, their souls weeping in bitter sorrow. Yet soon, everyone heard An Jing's words and received the flood of memories transmitted by him. A pitch-black rainy night, lightning tearing through the silence. It was as though they were truly experiencing firsthand everything An Jing had gone through—sprinting through the downpour, searching the manor, bearing a heart fearful of the truth, harboring the weakness of pleading for the mercy of Azure Heaven and the Demon Sect, yet carrying the truth they already knew full well in their hearts, uncovering the stone slab with a courage born of near despair. They all saw that floating bone. They saw the person who had vanished. Then, they saw the dungeon, saw the slaughter inside, and the hanging husks and corpses. Silence. A brilliant crimson radiance illuminated the Heart Sea as An Jing's divine soul connected with everyone through the sacrificial altar. At this moment, he could sense the emotions within everyone's hearts: some surging like tempestuous waves, some consumed by sorrow, some dead and frozen as ice, while others remained quiet and detached, merely puzzled. Then came one reaction after another. "No, impossible..." Several youths who firmly believed Suspended Fate Manor was their reborn parent spoke almost incoherently: "They couldn't possibly treat us like this... The instructors and teachers treated us so well..." "How could this be, A-Zhu..." Still others saw familiar names in An Jing's memories, their emotions instantly spiraling out of control: "Impossible! A-Zhu isn't dead! We were going to meet at the foot of the mountain! Eldest Senior Brother, you're lying to me?! You're lying to me, aren't you?!" These were the ones who reacted; their hearts had not yet been thoroughly corrupted by the Demon Sect. Subjected to such intense emotional shock, seeing some of their longest-standing companions dead beside them, learning that friends they had thought had simply gone down the mountain had long since been rendered into medicinal paste... While this impact completely shattered their defenses, laying bare their panicked, unraveling composure, it also shattered the masks they had long used to conceal their inner hearts. Yet there were others who had already been rendered utterly indifferent by the Demon Sect's distortions. They felt no stirrings of emotion over anyone's death: though they had lost many companions, everyone had possessed the resolve from the start, hadn't they? When selling their lives, had they not considered this possibility? They were the victors, while those who died—even those turned into medicinal paste—were failures. —Why should victors empathize with failures? Yet An Jing had anticipated this long ago. He himself had almost been warped by the Demon Sect's methods; how could he blame these 'indifferent' youths? Not to mention, the Demon Sect truly had 'bought their lives.' Even he could not deny this. It was simply that he would resist. Just like a captured rabbit or a bought crab, it would still bite a hand or pinch a finger. Thus, An Jing spoke plainly and directly. "Open your eyes and look closely." An Jing raised the sword in his hand, pointing at the junior brothers and sisters who had failed to awaken their Destiny Patterns and perished. Wisps of dark red aura seeped from their corpses—blood qi, the pure vital blood qi of the youths, congregating in midair before being gathered by the colossal ritual array to condense into something in the distance. With the power within the sacrificial altar—most likely originating from the 'Sword Spirit'—An Jing mobilized the grand array, guiding the consciousness of all the youths along those wisps of blood qi to trace them back. Soon, in barely an instant, their vision returned to Suspended Fate Manor, arriving at the fifth floor of the Medicine Pavilion, inside Manor Lord Yao's study. They saw a dark-gold vessel. Within the vessel, those dark red vapors coalesced, ultimately condensing into plump, rounded pills radiating a bloody crimson light, pristine and translucent both inside and out. [Blood Pill Great Medicine] Inside the study, two apothecaries left behind were watching over the vessel. Seeing the pure blood qi condense into pills, far from showing excitement or greed, they seemed somewhat... Somewhat dissatisfied. "Why are there so few?" A younger apothecary frowned at the Blood Pills within the Life-Nourishing Vessel, his tone laced with mild disdain. "Did that many people survive this trial?" "Their quality was indeed better than in the past." The older apothecary looked thoughtfully toward the direction of Suspended Fate Valley. "Just now, I saw two beams of starlight connecting earth to heaven. Likely, two people have awakened an [Extraordinary Destiny]!" "You have been at Suspended Fate Manor for only a short time, so you do not know that the reason the Grand Ritual of Imperial Heaven's Baleful Stars divides the one hundred and eight people into twelve groups is because if there are too few people, a single person's heart cannot withstand the might of the Divine Sword and the Extramundane Demon; but if there are too many, they easily interfere with one another, making it impossible to define the 'self.'" "During the ritual, for every person who dies in a group, the likelihood of the others suffering an incursion of demonic qi increases by a tier, and the likelihood of comprehending one's own Destiny Pattern also increases by a tier." "However, if in a group someone's mind is exceptionally powerful, it may lead to two possible outcomes." "One is that everyone else's mind and spirit are overwhelmed and seized by him, causing them all to die and become nourishment to fulfill his own growth." At this point, the older apothecary smacked his lips, sounding somewhat regretful. "The other is that his heart is like a colossal tree, casting shade over the others and allowing them to survive together." "It seems this time, our two Extraordinary Destiny masters are of the more benevolent sort... While the superiors will bestow quite a few rewards, those will all belong to the Manor Lord, the Head Instructor, and the other lords." "For us, it's really not as practical as the Blood Pills we might have been allocated." "Indeed." The younger apothecary committed the older apothecary's words to memory, feeling much the same. "Only by pruning branches can the trunk grow sturdy. There's no need for so many ordinary people to survive—keeping twenty-some, at most forty-some, would be plenty." "As for the rest, there's no point in them living. Setting aside those mortals without a Destiny Pattern, even with an ordinary Miscellaneous Destiny, does our manor really need to expend so much effort nurturing them? When the time comes, won't they just be in an awkward position, inferior even to us apothecaries..." While there was an element of self-aggrandizement in their words, it was indeed the truth: while a Destiny Pattern was a necessary prerequisite for a martial artist to achieve Inner Strengthening, even possessing a Destiny Pattern did not mean one was suited for martial arts or capable of attaining Inner Strengthening. In particular, Miscellaneous Destinies encompassed everything under the sun—there were even bizarre Destiny Patterns like 'Washer Immortal,' 'Roast Meat Immortal,' or 'Cooked Rice Immortal' that merely aided in washing clothes, roasting meat, or cooking rice. The latter two could at least allow one to be a cook, but as for the former... was someone really supposed to go wash clothes? The apothecaries looked down on such Miscellaneous Destinies. Moreover, the rewards from above were distant and ethereal, whereas Blood Pills were tangible benefits held firmly in their own hands. The blood qi dissipated; the retracing came to an end. The corpses of the youths stripped of their blood qi swiftly began to decay, turning into skin-and-bone mummies—before long, these corpses would turn to pure white bones, just like the skeletal remains they had seen upon arriving at the white sands. An Jing looked at all the silent souls, suppressing their rage and terror, who now knew they were nothing more than meat livestock. "From here on," he said, "I will not speak; I will act." "Afterward, those of you who wish to return to Suspended Fate Manor may return; those who wish to follow me may follow me." No one dared oppose An Jing as he delivered this declaration; they obeyed instinctively. Perhaps this was also the bitter fruit of Suspended Fate Manor's own making—An Jing's overly stellar performance had allowed almost all instructors and lecturers to slack off, leaving far too many lessons and training sessions to be explained, taught, and supervised by An Jing in their stead. He had walked the mountains with them. He had eaten and drank with them. He had trained and fought alongside them. He taught martial techniques, explained scriptures, listened to their grievances, and comforted their hearts. By now, the prestige, charisma, and command over all the youths possessed by An Jing, their Eldest Senior Brother, had long surpassed that of all the lecturers and instructors. "Awaken, and form ranks!" When An Jing gave the command, there was no need for logic, nor any need for explanation. Every single person instinctively obeyed An Jing's words. In an instant, all the youths awoke from the dream of inner demons. They were somewhat dazed, somewhat entranced, somewhat at a loss. Yet they saw before them the figure who was the first to stand tall and raise his weapon. So they all stood up. So they all took up their blades and swords.