Destiny in Cinders

Eons ago when destiny was first forged, empires formed through conquest of the realm with impressive steeds and gleaming halberds. Heavenly sects rose to prominence and maintained ordered dominion over the realm, ushering in a harmonious celestial melody to all corners of the realm.

In the present, calamities continue to brew. The splendorous glory of the past continues to get chipped away, reducing everything to withered ruins. As the sects grow restless with ambition, who is left to worry about the wellbeing of all? As the wealthy and powerful indulge in debauchery, who will tend to the common folk’s grievances?

Desperate pleas for the Heavens to spare the remains of one’s child ripple through tears of blood. The profound workings of fate stresses the world to its limits, sparking beacons that herald the quelling of chaos.

Sever the processions of fate on the heavenward path. A single sword strike shall rend all in this gloom-infested world, reducing everything to cinders!

Synopsis

First, An Jing sold himself to a demonic cult for medicine to heal his mother. Then, he found an unlikely ally: a disembodied voice coming from within a rusty sword. The demonic cult was up to something, but neither of them quite knew what.

Well, it’s not like the dynasty of Grand Chen is much better off than the Heavenly Demon Cult anyway, with all the corruption in its ranks. But the cult’s plans are far from innocent. They’re not raising and training us children of disaster for free. The fragmented memories from his past life had wiped the naivete in him clean for him to know that the demonic cult was not a charity.

Enter a world ravaged by fiends in the distant past and mountains of unending snow in the present, a world of warring nations and sects, the world of Void Embrace. With his sword-soul companion’s help, An Jing is able to slip into another world entirely: a world of qi cultivation with advanced technologies and soulless corporations that try to wipe out the competition by any means necessary.

How do I keep getting wrapped up in all this? First, there’s the demonic cult in Void Embrace and the ritual that unsealed the heavenly fiends. And just as I was peacefully shopping at a black market in Skysource, a mechanized battalion of cultivator super-soldiers crashed through the concrete above, blasting away at everything with their spirit-beam guns!

Something was truly up with An Jing’s celestial lifearc, the destiny which the Heavens had forced upon his story, one that sent sparks flying no matter where he went and what he did. Will he harness the spark and become a beacon of light for the two worlds? Or will a stray spark eventually set him and everything around him alight and leave nothing but smouldering cinders in its wake?