Destiny is ashes

Chapter 24: Taixu Passage
The storage room was neither a treasure house nor an armory. There were no treasures nor any standard weapons in it.

Most of the items placed in the rows of cabinets are various strange-shaped utensils and ritual vessels, as well as various ancient musical instruments and bells and tripods.

Various artifacts are arranged neatly, and some of them have nameplates indicating when and where they were discovered.

An Jing looked at an object that looked like a spear but not a spear, and more like the fangs of some ferocious beast.

[The life weapon, Ya Ge, was excavated in the desert of Wu in the second year of Tianxing. Holding it can strengthen bones and sharpen teeth, invigorate blood and strengthen life. Corresponding to the fate of 'Tiger and Ox Running to Si' - if a person who is not destined to be born holds it, his mind will be degraded.]

An Jing looked at a small bronze bell again.

[Rust-patterned bell, a life instrument, was discovered in the vast sea of ​​Baichuan in the first year of Longshuo. Its vibration can startle the soul, awaken the mind, and summon spirits. Corresponding fate: 'Morning bell and evening drum' - taboo unknown]

……

An Jing was thoughtful. Each of the objects placed here was a so-called "life instrument", corresponding to a certain "destiny and destiny", and each had its own peculiarities.

However, only a small part of them have been discovered to have specific effects. Although most of the hidden weapons are known to have magical properties, no one knows their corresponding fate and effects.

And in the middle of the storage room, there was an empty cabinet.

[Life vessel and life-nourishing vessel, discovered in the ancient Daoxu land in the fifth year of Tianbao, it gathers essence and energy, and nourishes life with life. Corresponding to the fate of "borrowing energy to revive the soul" - if a person who is not a life-nourished person holds it, both the soul and blood will be defeated]

"Gather your energy and use your life to support your life..."

An Jing thought of the medicinal paste in the water tank, and murderous intent filled his eyes: "It seems that this is the tool to refine 'medicinal materials' into 'great medicine'."

Is the fate of those children in the dungeon to become such a "big medicine"?

As for where the life-supporting dish is...

An Jing suddenly thought of the dark golden utensils on the table of the deputy medicine envoy in the medicine cabinet.

That might be the life-sustaining dish...it turns out to be in the hands of Deputy Medicine Envoy.

He really didn't hide anything at all.

Exhaling deeply, An Jing looked deep in the eyes and continued to observe.

The life instruments in the storage room are not particularly precious, and the life-nourishing dish is the most precious one.

An Jing did not touch these things recklessly. Those taboos had obviously been tried at the cost of human lives. He just observed whether there were any props he needed here.

【Anjing】

Since entering the storage room, Jian Yin has been silent for a while, and then he continued to guide: [Left corner]

An Jing looked to the left corner, where a cold light suddenly appeared.

This is the corner of the storage room, filled with various dark objects, but now, one object is shining with divine light.

It was a broken sword.

The broken sword in the corner has an ancient shape. Except for the hilt, the sword body is almost broken from the root. It is dull and rusty all over, and looks not much better than scrap.

But An Jing was slightly stunned, because he could see that this sword... was exactly the same as the rusty sword handle in the 'Pure and Quiet Sword View' taught to him by the mysterious sword sound!
However, the rusty sword in the Qingjing Sword Temple was still intact, while the rusty sword in front of him was left with only the hilt, which was broken and rotten.

He lowered his eyes and looked at the nameplate quietly.

[The life weapon is a broken blade. It appeared in the northern border in the first year of Jingchang. Its function is unknown, its corresponding fate is unknown, and its taboos are unknown. It is speculated that it is a fate related to military killing.]

Jingchang, which is the most recent year name of the Dachen Dynasty, is the first year after the frost disaster in the northern border and also the first year that An Jing's family fled.

The broken sword is unremarkable, its effect is unclear, and its corresponding fate is also unclear. In addition, its blade is rotten, making it meaningless as a weapon, so it is preserved as the lowest-grade fate weapon.

But at this moment, it is glowing.

"Hold me."

The clear and mysterious voice - or rather, the voice of the broken sword became more real, as if it was ringing in my ears: "Contemplate the 'Pure and Quiet Sword Contemplation'."

The broken sword was covered in rust and looked extremely fragile.

He walked forward slowly, grasped the hilt of the sword, and a cold and murderous feeling went straight from his palm to his heart.

But it was not uncomfortable. Instead, An Jing felt as if he was in control of his own arm and as if he was connected by blood.

"Ok?"

Holding his breath and contemplating the rusty sword, An Jing was shocked to find that the broken sword had disappeared from his hand - and within his body, in the dark sea of ​​consciousness, a shadow of a sword was faintly emerging!
In the sea of ​​gods, the hilt of the broken sword became more solid, the rust peeled off a little, and the blade regained some of its sharpness, flashing with silver light.

"Incredible!"

With another thought, the broken sword returned to An Jing's hand. This miraculous scene was beyond his imagination - but considering that the spirit of the broken sword had previously taught him the method of meditation through the air, this was not particularly incredible.

"Your physique can actually withstand my sword evil spirit - this is the Gengjin evil spirit!"

The mysterious voice—or rather, the sword spirit was also quite surprised: "What is your physique and fate?"

But soon, “He” said indifferently: “That’s great. You won’t be corrupted by my sword evil. In the future, you can even use my sword evil to strengthen your body.”

"I wanted you to be patient, but now it's easier."

But at this moment, noisy footsteps suddenly sounded.

"Are they here? They're not coming very fast, so it shouldn't be a search... a routine inspection?"

An Jing immediately raised his head. He listened carefully to the direction and frowned. "I didn't leave any traces, but if they search the storage room, I definitely won't be able to hide."

"what do I do."

An Jing tightly grasped the broken sword in his hand and hid behind the door: "Someone is approaching now, and they will definitely check the storage room."

"After being discovered, I probably won't die, but I will definitely be under special care. I won't be able to move freely like I do now as the eldest senior brother."

"I have no other options. Maybe I can force my way through with a mask on, but I may not be able to defeat them."

"Indeed." The sword spirit said, "Although the foundations of these demon cult members are superficial, they all have inner energy and are serious warriors."

"Although you have a good foundation and are only one step away from inner breath, it is not inner breath after all." "It's okay to deal with one, you are not their opponent yet."

"Of course I know."

Although the footsteps outside had already reached the courtyard, An Jing still calmed down: "You must have been prepared a long time ago, now tell me, I will do it."

The sword spirit admired An Jing's calmness: "Hold the sword. Activate the 'Pure and Quiet Sword Contemplation'."

Hold the sword calmly, practice the 'Quiet Sword Contemplation', and visualize the rusty sword in your mind.

At this moment, the rusty sword in the divine sea faintly overlapped with the broken sword held tightly in An Jing's hand, and a ray of silver sword light faintly emerged from the broken part of the sword blade.

It vibrates, emitting a halo visible to the naked eye.

"This is?"

Even with his eyes closed, An Jing was still able to sense this. He was quite surprised, and the sword spirit said: "Sense my breath, my fragments."

An Jing recalled the cold aura he felt when he first held the sword. He used the broken sword as a reference and began to sense it.

In an instant, six other spots of light appeared in his mind. Three of them dimmed and disappeared, as if they were in an extremely distant place. One was not far away, but was also dim. The other was very close, almost overlapping with An Jing himself, but it flickered, as if it was blocked.

There is only one shining, steady light.

"Open your eyes, aim at the most stable one, and kill it."

The sword spirit said, and An Jing did not hesitate. He opened his eyes, grasped the sword, and slashed forward.

Then, he saw incredulously that the broken sword had cut a dark crack in the space before his eyes.

It seems that there is another world waiting at the other side of the deep crack.

"what on earth is it……"

Even though An Jing was extremely mentally resilient and had a stable Pure and Quiet Sword Observation, his brain froze for a moment. But he soon realized that this might be his only chance to escape safely!

"Go in."

The sword spirit whispered, "This is our only chance to break free from the cage."

Click!

At this moment, the sound of a key being inserted into the door of the storage room could be heard. Without any hesitation, An Jing stepped forward and stepped into the crack.

click!
The door to the storage room opened, and a small group of believers entered to check for traces.

"Nothing unusual." They looked around, and the leader complained, "What is the deputy medicine envoy doing? He asked us to inspect the medicine store in the middle of the night... The old man didn't really think that someone could escape from the dungeon, did he?"

"It seems like someone has moved something..." A believer looked around and muttered, and was immediately refuted by his own people: "Are you stupid? Didn't Captain Chen and his men come over to take the treasure vessel this morning?"

Soon, after confirming that there was no one inside or outside the storage room, the group of Tianyi followers closed the door and left: "Alas, you are still so suspicious in the deep mountains and old forests. I think the old medicine envoy is a little neurotic."

"Who wouldn't? Who would be happy to stay here? I really hope to be transferred back to Dachen as soon as possible..."

at the same time.

"We are about to go to another world."

The sword spirit's voice rang out in his heart, sonorous and clear: "You can't stay in the other world for too long, unless you can find my fragments and strengthen my abilities."

"And the piece of debris closest to you is in the Xuanming Valley behind Xuanming Manor. Don't worry, these demons will hold an initiation ceremony there, and you will find a chance to enter."

"Hold the hilt tightly, practice the Pure and Quiet Sword View, swing the sword in the air, and you will be able to enter the other world, or return to Huaixu - you have excellent talent, plus the skills brought by your wisdom. As long as you advance your inner breath in the other world without attracting their attention, ordinary demon cult members will not be a concern for you at all."

"I don't doubt that I can break through the inner breath, but how can I hide it from the owner of the manor?"

An Jing responded: "He is already strong internally, and has the 'divine power' of observation. My breakthrough of internal energy may not escape his eyes."

"You have learned the Pure and Quiet Sword View. Keep 'peace' and a stable mind. I can help you hide, at least under the Divine Treasure."

The sword spirit said: "But don't be careless. There are many resources and dangers in the other world that I don't know about. You can use it or be killed by it. Everything is possible."

"Your fate and mine are in our own hands."

"I understand. I will seize this opportunity." An Jing's mind was extremely clear at this moment. From the moment he took a step towards the crack, he knew that his destiny was in his own hands and in his own sword.

He stepped across the crack.

What appeared before An Jing's eyes was pitch darkness, and then gradually light appeared.

This is a deep underground ruin. A huge steel dome supports the earth and rocks and the solid stone walls around it. It is solid and silent.

Originally located deep underground, it should have been extremely dark, but there were large patches of fluorescent translucent vines that provided a faint light, allowing people to roughly see its entire appearance.

"here it is……"

An Jing looked around the huge underground ruins - the structure of the ruins was very classical, as if it was a collapsed Tiange Hall, sacred and solemn. There were a large number of extremely delicate cloud patterns and phoenix seals on the rows of collapsed metal columns. It was a very classical beauty, perfectly blending grandeur and solemnity with meticulousness and exquisiteness.

Taking a step back, trying to get a clearer look at the ruins in front of him, An Jing was suddenly startled because he stepped on something hard yet fragile. All of a sudden, his Xuan Bu was activated, and without making any sound, he crushed it completely.

Looking back, An Jing opened his eyes wide, because under the faint light of the glowing vines, he saw a... or rather, a group of corpses!

Large numbers of skeletons of people in uniform were scattered around. An Jing had just accidentally stepped on the bones of a corpse and crushed them.

"etc?!"

But what really shocked An Jing was not the skeletons, but the things in their hands.

In the hands of these corpses... there are things that An Jing was very familiar with in his previous life, but he has never seen before in this life.

——That’s a gun.

It's not a long gun or a short gun, a wooden gun or an iron gun...

——It was a firearm rifle.

(End of this chapter)