The Ashes of Fate - Chapter 5: Life Suspending Manor

Translator – SynthSoon

(I’m the best out of everyone here?)

Lifting his eyebrows, An Jing looked around and realized it was true.

In front of the manor, there was a woodless clearing of about two hundred feet, presumably to prevent the intrusion of wild beasts and evil creatures from the mountains, but also to prevent the escape of people in the manor.

There were twenty to thirty carriages parked in the clearing, and many carriages were approaching from the mountains and forests, it seems they were from the large fleet of carriages An Jing was in.

He was the first one out of all the vehicles to come down.

(The others are still dizzy or feeling unwell, and they are all scared in a completely unfamiliar, remote and closed environment, no wonder they are feeling hesitant to get off the carriage)

Realizing this, An Jing didn’t lower his voice.

“Thank you, my lord.”

He surveyed the manor in front of him openly, responding to the one-eyed rider’s praise, “Is this where we’ll be staying?”

The manor, located in the midst of the untouched mountains, gave off an eerie feeling as it stood amidst the forests and peaks. The strangeness of being out of place wasn’t eerie, but rather intimidating in a grandiose way.

It was like looking down from a steep and dangerous cliff into the abyss below, even if there were no demons or monsters, one would still feel fear.

But when An Jing squinted slightly, he discovered the source of his sense of dread came from the plaque on the door of the manor.

{Life Suspending Manor}

The words on the plaque were bold and powerful, revealing a soul-captivating meaning that shocked his mind.

“The Lady was born on this earth, yet fate is determined by the heavens, with heaven and earth together, the life of humans is weaved …….”

An Jing could feel different messages surging from within his heart, he softly whispered to himself: “Life is built from talent, and talent is blessed by the heavens…”

“Heh, so you’re somewhat of a scholar.”

Looking at An Jing, who seemed to be attracted to the manor, the one-eyed leader was in a good mood, feeling that he had picked up a treasure.

During this Frost Scourge, they dispatched nine groups to collect the Children of Calamities who met the requirements from all over the lands.

According to the usual practice, for every child who awakened his or her Fate, their discoverers would be greatly rewarded.

However, very few children were able to awaken their Fate.

Throughout the trials, there were no more than a handful of children who were able to awaken their Fates, and he himself was also a failure when he was still a child.

It wasn’t uncommon for a team to collect twenty to thirty children who met the requirements, yet none of them were able to awaken their fates, so the entire team would receive no additional rewards other than the usual rates of silver.

But An Jing was different.

He was so gifted and intelligent that he dared to bargain with them.

He dared to sell his body to save his mother’s life, and he also dared to take the lives of his fellow vagrants to show his strength.

His body was so strong that he could resist the Requiem Incense for that long.

Now, An Jing was the first to get over the effects of the harsh journey here and the effects of the drug, breaking through his fear of this unfamiliar place, he dared to be the first to step out of the carriage, fearlessly looks directly at the word ‘life’ written by the Northern Minister himself.

This ruthlessness sprouted from his bones, the brutality stemming from his heart, and with a gifted body, the possibility of awakening his fate was far greater than the other children!

The one-eyed leader felt that after so many years of bad luck, he had finally hit the jackpot.

Not to mention, An Jing may be his superior in the future, so it was only natural to treat him better.
After a few moments, the other children started coming out of the carriages in small groups.

Most of them were cautious, looking around the area nervously and cautiously, then they looked down at their feet, not daring to move carelessly.

An Jing was calmly counting the children at the side, and before everyone was gathered and the manor’s doors opened, he got a number: (Two hundred and fifty three ……)

There were a total of two hundred and fifty-three children gathered here.

A few of the children were special, as they were ‘escorted’ off the carriage by a group of riders. They were dressed in a black uniform, and these children gave An Jing a special feeling that was different from the other ordinary children.

Their status is clearly higher than that of the riders, and even the one-eyed rider was quite respectful.

(Have they already awakened their fate?) An Jing pondered while the gate of the manor opened.

“Vice-Envoy Yao!”

The person who came out was the owner of the manor, it was an old man the others called Vice-Envoy Yao.

He stood straight, and had a pale face with a pair of cold eyes. His appearance made him seem withered and thin like a dying man. He had white hair that glowed a ghostly green light, sharing the same color with the depths of his eyes, whoever he gazed upon would feel a chill crawl up their back.

All the leaders bowed to him respectfully, and then went forward to compile the list of names and other miscellaneous matters.

After confirming the list, Vice-Envoy Yao nodded his head in satisfaction, and he lifted his eyes and scanned the children in front of him.

Suddenly, all the children’s hearts were pierced with a feeling of fear. This fear was similar to seeing some kind of colorful but poisonous creature, if they moved carelessly, this poisonous creator would pounce onto them. Everyone could feel the sweat on their backs are dared not to breathe.

But this was only an instinctive reaction, Vice-Envoy Yao didn’t intend to frighten anyone.

On the contrary, he even squeezed out a smile that had nothing to do with kindness, and nodded to all of them before waving his hand to let them enter the manor.

“Wash and clean yourselves first, then change your clothes, you can start eating after we tick off your names. After everyone has recovered their strength, I will let the people from the medicine hall give everyone another checkup …… You may recuperate for a period of time, just to make sure that you all meet the requirements, and then we’ll begin your training and the trials.”

Because An Jing was the first to dismount from the wagon, he stood at the front of the queue, second only to the five rider leaders and Vice-Envoy Yao, making him a kind of ‘leader’ in a certain sense.

Therefore, his incredibly sharp perception allowed him to hear the explanation of Vice-Envoy Yao to his subordinates about the arrangement for himself and the other children.

Bathing and changing clothes, dining and recuperating …… then comes the training and trials.

The first part was very normal, but the trials …… Surely enough, this might be a mysterious organization selecting potential members to join them?

But what exactly did it mean?

When An Jing was still thinking, Vice-Envoy Yao who was leading at the front suddenly stopped, and turned his head to look at An Jing: “Is this the best one out of this batch of children?”

An Jing was a bit unresponsive and stared blankly at the old man, but soon, he turned fearless and responded with a smile, “Good day, Elder Yao.”

“Heh.” The old man stared at An Jing and scoffed out a meaningful laugh.

In the end, Vice-Envoy Yao didn’t respond to An Jing’s greeting, but just stroked his beard and continued walking forward.

After this event, An Jing realized that there were a lot of eyes behind his back.

Those children didn’t know where they were and what they were about to encounter, so they naturally and subconsciously paid attention to An Jing, who had the ‘best qualities’.

They wanted to see who was being paid special attention by the lord of this place.

And An Jing’s appearance was indeed good, although he had become thin from trying to survive the Frost Scourge, he still had an extremely good bone structure that was able to support his body. Just by roughly looking from his back, he seemed like a young tiger, or a slim cheetah, making him worthy of being “the best”.

But not all of the eyes were benevolent or to observe – as everyone knew, if there was the best, no matter whether it was true or not, someone will always want to take over.

An Jing scanned with the corner of his eye, he noticed a number of eyes were hostile or challenging.

“Heh, there’s always someone who’s not convinced.”

Sensing the different perceptions of many eyes converging on him, An Jing lifted his eyebrows, his nature had nothing to do with humility, he was only being cautious at most, unwilling to expose himself for the sake of superficial fame.

He will hide himself before he strikes, but if he strikes, he’ll go all out.

Then again, since he had already been exposed, why not enjoy this superficial reputation? What’s more, after the training and the trials, if he got first place, there may be a lot of extra benefits.

Let’s do this.