All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 198 - 58: Mystery Armor Guard (1/3)

Chapter 198: Chapter 58: Mystery Armor Guard (1/3)

"Do you know what you’re doing?!"

Despite being impaled on a spear and experiencing excruciating pain in his abdomen, the Mystery Armor Guard still spoke.

Using his constricted throat to utter a few words, he rebuked naturally, "I am... a Mystery Armor Guard of Da Chen! I am executing official duties, the significance of which you couldn’t possibly imagine... Release me quickly, and I might just be able to absolve you of some of your crimes!"

An Jing paid no heed to this buzzing annoyance, instead observing the strength of the man before him.

This Mystery Armor Guard possessed a level of Inner Strength that was higher than average, indeed quite formidable.

It is known that the generally seen White, Green, Red, and Brown Armored Guards average at ’Mind, Body, and Technique’ level of strength. Being at the Inner Breath realm qualifies one as a small team leader, Inner Breath like Tide allows one to become a major team leader, and Inner Strength qualifies as a thousand-man junior commander.

This is considered the ’Martial Army’.

Without any cultivation, just mere trained and practiced ordinary people’s army, like the local militia and City Guard Army, are sluggish to mobilize and find it hard to march across the vast lands of Embracing the Void. When calculating military strength, they are basically not factored into the numbers.

Therefore, when speaking of the army in a general sense, it actually refers to the ’Martial Army’.

The Martial Army consists mainly of reserve martial artists or actual martial artists. Only such an army, with the support of Art of Magic, talismans, and Formation strategies, can travel thousands of miles in a day, rushing from one province to another, crossing over mountains that stretch for thousands of miles, to carry out strategic relocations.

The Northern Barbarians’ three hundred thousand troops, in reality, are three hundred thousand Martial Army soldiers, capable of putting the Northern Border’s defending forces into a state of disarray leading to a momentary collapse.

Relative to the four-colored Armored Guards, the Mystery Armor Guards hold a more significant position, similar to that of the Brocade-clad Guards, with corresponding strength. This Mystery Armor Guard should also be just a team leader, yet he already possesses Inner Strength... This proves that behind them, the commander responsible for overseeing the Ming City area, must be a Martial Meridian Grandmaster, or even...

Anyway, this commander should be able to easily deal with the disturbances caused by the True Demon Sect. His appearance would likely cause the City Magistrate Zheng Mo to step down immediately and hand over the control of Ming City to him.

But he has not appeared.

"Interesting," An Jing murmured to himself, pensively gazing toward the distant area still aflame with battle: "Could it be that Da Chen doesn’t actually care about the lives of a city’s million inhabitants?"

"Not surprising, really."

Meanwhile, the Mystery Armor Guard hanging to the side sensed the Blood Fiend Sword that had transpired his abdomen and inwardly exclaimed, "Divine Skill!"

"This straw-cloaked martial artist actually possesses Divine Skill!"

Though having a Fate Pattern makes it possible to practice martial arts, and delving into the Fate Pattern grants various special abilities, being able to concentrate these abilities into Divine Skill is not something ordinary Fate Patterns can achieve.

Generally, only Life Holders with ’Lifebound’ or higher Fate Patterns can condense their Fate Pattern’s power into Divine Skill.

And a Miscellaneous Fate, upon obtaining Treasure Medicine or Spiritual Objects, also has a certain possibility of condensing their abilities into Divine Skill after extended periods of tempering.

Yet this straw-cloaked assailant, though his voice was unclear through his helmet, seemed to be only in his early twenties.

To comprehend Divine Skill at such an age, one must either be Lifebound with extraordinary understanding or... possess a Strange Mandate!

As the secret inspectors of Da Chen, the Mystery Armor Secret Guards are tasked not only with balancing the local martial artists, gathering intelligence, and executing Imperial Court missions but also with collecting information on Fate Pattern Pieces across the regions... If they encounter someone with potential, they have the authority to take them away for cultivation.

Considering this, the guard even began to laugh, "It seems you are unaffiliated? With such talent, yet not enrolled in a Martial Arts Academy, truly a negligence of local authorities... Well, if you kneel and admit your faults to me now, I might be able to offer you an opportunity!"

To be honest, given An Jing’s upbringing and understanding, it’s hard for him to comprehend why the Mystery Armor Guard could still utter such impudent words while being pinned against a wall,

But such people were indeed too many within the Embracing The Void realm.

"You and the True Demon Sect are really blind to the situation,"

An Jing’s face darkened, and he truly burst into an angry laugh, "It seems without making you suffer, you don’t understand what it means to speak politely."

As he said this, he stirred the Sword Spear in his hand, turning the abdomen of the Mystery Armor Guard in front of him into a mess, causing the other to howl in pain—yet even so, after the Mystery Armor Guard finished screaming, still drenched in cold sweat, he said, ’Well done!’ as if he were a pig unafraid of scalding water.

After all, he was an Inner Strength, and such an injury was not fatal to him; and as a Mystery Armor Guard who had already undergone punishment-related training, that was why he could be so stubborn.

In fact, An Jing didn’t need this Mystery Armor Guard to speak at all to guess that this person, or rather these people, were all chasing after Ruohui.

And the True Demon Sect, they probably also tacitly allowed them to be used as tools to search for Ruohui through other angles.

But did they really not care at all?

If the True Demon Sect were successful, it would blow up the entire Earth Vein of Kanming City, allowing the Frost Calamity dead to run amok, nurturing a Martial Meridan at its peak, and even a Heavenly Demon at the realm of Divine Repository!

By then, with a million dead or injured, Da Chen’s northwest border would be in chaos. Even if Dust Li’s Bai Bu were not as fierce as the Northern Barbarians, it’s highly likely they would not gather to invade Western Mountain, but according to the agreement between Dust Li’s clans and Lu Jin’s True Demon Sect, at least they would take advantage of the situation to move southward, migrating their tribes into the territory.

Would Da Chen really allow such a situation to happen deliberately?

"An Jing, it’s no use,"

Subdue Evil said at this moment: "This person has undergone strict training and doesn’t feel much pain. No matter how you torture him, he won’t be afraid."

"What if I kill him?"

"He would indeed be afraid of that, but what use is fear? He would prefer to be stubborn even in death. Just wait, let me think, there should be a way to deal with such people..."

After pondering for a moment, Subdue Evil laughed, "Got it, An Jing, activate the Tranquil Sword Manual. However, this time let your Heart Soul overflow, while refining yourself... also forcibly refine the other’s Heart Soul!"

"Oh?"

An Jing raised an eyebrow, feeling it a bit strange, but out of trust for the Subdue Evil Sword Spirit, he complied.

The Sword Light from the Tranquil Sword Manual in his heart slowly lifted the Rusty Sword, this ’Heart Sword’, in An Jing’s cultivation, had already shed much of its rust, but it was still patchy all over. Under the guidance of Subdue Evil’s original sword hilt, it was about to break through An Jing’s Purple Mansion and slash at another’s Sea of Heart.

The Heart Sword was the materialization of An Jing’s Heart and Soul power; in a sense, this was very similar to the process at the peak of the Qi Refinement when the Heart Soul wrapped around the body’s Essence Qi to break open the Purple Mansion and intersect with the Mysterious True Evil Spirits, coalescing into an Immortal Foundation.

However, even if the Heart Sword was damaged, it would only mean that An Jing’s recent one or two months of cultivation were in vain, which was not as dangerous as when forging an Immortal Foundation could potentially lead to the dispersal of one’s Soul and Spirit; it was just technically difficult.

Overall, it was at least the spell of the ’Heart Sword Slays the Soul’ at the Immortal Foundation Realm.

But Subdue Evil believed in An Jing’s talent and An Jing certainly handled it with ease.

"Heart Soul, is also ’Qi’... My Divine Skill of Coalescing Qi into Soldiers can indeed condense the Soul and Spirit into blades, just like how I control the Pathogenic Qi within my body... simple!"

With a smooth motion, An Jing’s Heart Sword leaped forth, shooting out from his eyes, piercing through the helmet’s visor, and transforming into a blood-golden bicolored Sword of Heart Soul, directly entering the eyes of the Mystery Armor Guard!

To the onlooker, it seemed as though An Jing was killing with his eyes, but in reality, it was not so.

What was really happening was that An Jing was using his own Heart Sword to refine the Mystery Armor Guard’s Heart Sword, making his state of mind all the more clear; in a sense, it was assisting in cultivation!