Destiny is ashes

Chapter 35: Destroy the Hated

"……Who are you?"

An Jing, who was still immersed in the past memories, reacted quickly. He did not answer the question, but asked: "Why do you ask?"

[What do you want?] The voice continued to ask softly, ignoring An Jing's inquiry.

An Jing narrowed his eyes, and suddenly he laughed: "So that's how it is, this is the ritual?"

He teased, "Master Fuxie, is this the demon you killed? Why isn't he dead?"

[Heh, a defeated general, a remnant soul is just hiding.] The sword spirit rarely showed emotion. He sneered and then earnestly instructed An Jing: [You continue the ritual. I need to concentrate on finding the location of my fragments. I can’t help you for the time being.]

"I understand." An Jing clearly sensed at this moment that the other eight people who were spiritually connected to him were caught up in various desires.

For example, Gu Yeqi, who regarded her as a brother, wanted to return to the Northern Frontier with enough food to return to her father, find her missing mother, and have a good meal with her family. For some reason, she had her own shadow in her dream.

For example, the dwarf Qin Yunye, she trained the hardest, just to grow taller and stronger, so that in the future she could protect her parents and relatives, kill those evil people, instead of having to hide under pine needles and watch her parents being killed and eaten by robbers.

For example, Cang Lin Jue, he loves to practice martial arts, and all he wants is a quiet place to practice martial arts, with enough opponents to hone himself and improve himself. The life in Xuanming Village is what he wants most. Every day he exercises, practices, fights, eats, and sleeps. If possible, he can live like this for the rest of his life and never complain.

If possible... Cang Linzu still wants to challenge himself. He doesn't think he will win, but he wants to get his own recognition.

Seeing this, An Jing couldn't help but shake his head slightly. He had already recognized these companions of his, but perhaps in order to hide his true identity, he acted a little cold.

There were others, other familiar people.

After leading the team for more than three months, An Jing couldn't say he knew every detail of these "little friends", but at least he knew their past in detail.

All these desires, requests and hatreds now jumped into his eyes like words on paper.

As these group members gradually sank into the illusion, dark demonic energy surged into their minds, dragging them deeper.

That is the evil energy contained in the 'demon meat'.

Without the devil energy as a guide, the devil cannot bewitch them, so from the very beginning, those who are too easily affected by the devil energy will be eliminated, but this is not a "waste" because the devil energy can also make people's destiny react spontaneously, and then manifest magical characteristics, and then become the raw material of the "great medicine".

At the same time, even if one has a physique that can resist demonic energy, consuming demon flesh for such a long period of time will cause excessive accumulation of demonic energy in some people's bodies, making their minds easily taken away by the demons.

The inevitable result would be death, and even An Jing could not save him, as the death was already predetermined.

Fortunately, ever since An Jing learned the truth about the demon flesh, he has been secretly teaching his team members to practice meditation and eliminate the evil thoughts in their hearts.

Because they didn't have to practice extra with An Jing, and they could have a rare rest time for meditation, everyone practiced very seriously, so there wasn't much demonic energy in the first group, at least it wasn't a situation where they were doomed to die.

Not to mention, they are connected by ritual chains that can drag each other down and slow down the speed of their fall - everyone's mind can help others get out of some mazes that they cannot get out of themselves, this is the meaning of "teammate".

However, the role of teammates is also limited. Unless their own souls shine, otherwise, as the ceremony continues, An Jing can be sure that at least one person in his group will be completely corroded by the evil spirit.

On the contrary, he himself was clear-minded and sober, and was not affected by the ritual at all.

[What do you want?] The voice asked again, and countless illusions emerged from the darkness.

He returned to the northern border peacefully. There was no frost or barbarian army. He and his parents lived peacefully in his hometown and became a well-known businessman.

Some of them are An Jing, who has learned the family martial arts classics, has achieved great success in inner energy, and has decided to travel the world to find his own destiny. His parents are saying goodbye to him.

Some of them learned the Eight Literature and Thirteen Classics in peace and took the road to the imperial examinations, and then became scholars, juren, and jinshi, and then entered the divine capital, received the dharma scroll, met the saints, and gained immortality.

There are many, many An Jings. Their clothes, figures, ages and temperaments are all different, but they also have some similarities. They are like derivatives of infinite parallel time and space, branching out endlessly.

But An Jing's eyes remained bright and he remained unmoved.

Because he knew very well that these were not him, and were not the choices he would make. Because he was not an ordinary young man from Northern Frontier, he was a person with wisdom from another world.

What's more, he has the recognition of the sword spirit and can go to another world.

The choices he would make and the paths he would take could never be so ordinary.

[What do you hate?] The voice seemed to have noticed this and changed the question.

This time, specific figures and things emerged: cauliflower, carrots, the homeless man who tricked me into buying candied haws when I was a child, a picky eater who drooled... These shadows were very unreal, and they were all vague and erratic memories.

An Jing just frowned, then smiled with relief: "It turns out that neither I nor the horse likes to eat carrots and cauliflower."

But then, the person or thing that appeared became more real, causing An Jing's originally relaxed smile to gradually fade away and his face to become solemn.

He saw it.

The robbers set the county on fire and looted supplies.

——A bloody knife.

Exchange lives and cook the flesh and blood of the hungry.

——Gnawing white bones.

The guards who stood high above refused to allow passage.

——People kneeling.

The gentry bribed the soldiers and drove away the victims.

——That look of contempt and disgust.

And... most importantly.

Those dead children, the medicine jar in the rainy night, the dungeon, and the tragic scene in the dream.

——Those lives that died without people knowing and were forgotten, and whose faces remained confused until the very end.

Figures, blurry or clear objects, they are abstract or concrete, a simple look or a real person.

Screams, bones. Wails, flesh and blood. Swords, corpses. Eyes, oblivion.

Jackals, tigers, leopards and natural disasters are no better than a tightly closed city gate.

It is better to gradually forget about wars, slaughter, life and death.

At this moment, An Jing couldn't laugh anymore.

When it comes to destiny, he doesn't care at all, because he doesn't believe in the illusory future, but only believes in the path under his feet.

He didn't care what he wanted, because what he wanted was far better than what this darkness manifested.

But... facing these people and things he hated, those arrogant and contemptuous eyes, those realities that made him angry and sad, sad and unwilling to change, unable to change but unwilling to close his eyes...

He couldn't ignore it, didn't care.

There's no way to let go.

(End of this chapter)