All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes

30: Chapter 30 Bai Qinghan 30: Chapter 30 Bai Qinghan An Jing had long been acquainted with Bai Qinghan.

The reason was rather amusing: like many other children, Bai Qinghan had never learned to read, she was illiterate, which made it difficult for her to learn Martial Skills and comprehend the Imperial Heaven Scripture.

An Jing worried about this to no end, even going so far as to use his personal time to tutor these little illiterates privately, helping them to learn characters and Martial Skills as quickly as possible.

Bai Qinghan was one of the quickest learners among them, often singled out for praise by An Jing as a model student to be commended.

At that time, he and Bai Qinghan had formed an impression of each other, but they barely spoke, even when An Jing praised her, Bai Qinghan would just hum softly, appearing very shy.

As for their formal acquaintance, it stemmed from a sparring session.

As the Eldest Senior, An Jing occasionally acted as an assistant to the instructor, helping those who were not very adept at Battle Formation practice or the art of combat to spar, teaching their movements and striking postures.

Especially now that the sparring was nearing “real-sword practice,” where you actually had to knock down the opponent instead of just making contact as in the past, it required even more of An Jing’s oversight and guidance.

Bai Qinghan was one of them, but she was a bit more special.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to exert force or Martial Skills, rather, it was that her Martial Skills were too good and she always injured people, even coming close to killing someone.

Some Martial Skills were not to be used during sparring.

Gouging eyes, elbow strikes, groin attacks, heel stomps, hitting the temple, fierce strikes to the heart… these techniques could easily cause injury or even death if used.

But Bai Qinghan always found it hard to hold back, subconsciously using these techniques.

On the surface, she appeared to be a frail girl with delicate features, quiet and speechless, like an ordinary, shy introverted young girl—she didn’t even know how to read at first, possessing a natural and pure beauty.

But this was an illusion, a façade.

Her pitch-black eyes, usually lackluster, would burst with astonishing vitality during practice.

At that moment, Bai Qinghan was less like a human and more like some wild vicious beast, akin to a starved winter wolf or a hunting cheetah.

When that fierce, savage aura came out, even adolescents who had lived through catastrophes couldn’t react in time, all instinctively backing away—and this retreat gave Bai Qinghan an instinctual suggestion, causing her to charge even more fiercely.

Although in the end, Bai Qinghan would realize that she wasn’t in the bandit-infested homeland of hers but rather in the relatively safe Hanging Fate Manor, holding back just in time without injuring her peers too severely.

But evidently, after a few times, no one dared to spar with her anymore.

With the situation at hand, An Jing had no choice but to take up the instructor’s request and confront this clever yet dangerous individual.

Then, with three punches, An Jing knocked her down and cured her of her excessive and harmful instinct.

Bai Qinghan’s situation was simple: she had grown up in an environment where her life was constantly at risk, where any conflict meant a struggle between life and death.

As a young girl, if she did not strike fiercely, how could she survive in the Great Wilderness of Hanhai?

And her parents… might have had some issues too, causing her to forever lack a sense of security.

In short, this extreme sense of insecurity had given her a severe psychological issue, compelling her to be lethal once it came to the point where she had to fight.

That she could hold back at all already spoke volumes of Bai Qinghan’s efforts to rein herself in, but a few months’ time was ultimately not enough to change habits formed over many years.

But to An Jing, none of this was a problem.

For enemies who don’t know the specifics of Martial Skills and only go for lethal blows out of instinct, they’re actually easier to deal with.

Because it means they can only target vital points.

Expecting Bai Qinghan’s eye strike, a well-prepared An Jing raised his left hand to block, and with his right hand, he delivered a punch right under her open throat, making it difficult for her to breathe.

As Bai Qinghan retreated, she attempted a back-braced, upward kick toward An Jing’s chest, but he sidestepped and landed a punch on her right leg, forcing her to roll away to unload the force.

By the time Bai Qinghan got up again, ready to launch another attack on An Jing, he had already stepped forward and struck her jaw with a punch, knocking her out completely.

When Bai Qinghan regained consciousness, she was dazed for a while.

Just as An Jing wondered if he had knocked her senseless, she suddenly rose to her feet, apologized, and thanked him.

“I’m sorry… Thank you, Eldest Senior Brother.”

Bai Qinghan’s voice, soft and glutinous, was completely unlike her actions; she resembled a white-faced sweet dumpling with a sweet filling: “I feel as though I’ve awakened from a dream…”

“Hmm.” An Jing didn’t know what to say.

Should he say, ‘fortunately I knocked you down?’

“I’m going to apologize to the others I’ve hurt.”

Without waiting for An Jing’s reaction, Bai Qinghan lowered her head, gazed at the ground, and spoke softly, “I kept telling myself I was safe and didn’t need to be so scared… even within the Demon Sect’s manor, they wouldn’t kill indiscriminately…”

“Wait a minute?”

An Jing picked up on a key word and interrupted, lowering his voice, “Demon Sect?”

——You actually know about the Demon Sect?!

“Yes.” Bai Qinghan, instead, looked at An Jing with strange yet lucid eyes, her deep black pupils tinged with strands of pale blue luminescence: “Eldest Senior Brother, you… know about this too, don’t you?”

“To live a little longer, we all sold our lives to the Demon Sect, didn’t we?”

In the time that followed, An Jing often conversed with Bai Qinghan.

Contrary to her seemingly soft and adorable appearance, Bai Qinghan was a girl with an extraordinary perspective on various matters, knowing from the start that she had been bought by the Demon Sect, and she saw nothing wrong with that.

Bai Qinghan’s hometown had once suffered a demonic disaster.

Ten years ago, a True Chi Dragon from the Hanhai tide fog has suddenly migrated away, and the various Monstrous Evils and Demon Monsters once suppressed by it fled and wreaked havoc around Hanhai, causing countless deaths and injuries.

She was born during such chaotic times, having to fight with others, beasts, and Monstrous Evils for survival from a young age.

She never learned to hold back; once a fight broke out, it had to result in bloodshed and killing, because if not, she would be the one to die.

With her parents dead, Bai Qinghan had sold herself because no one wanted to adopt a wild girl from the Great Wilderness of Hanhai—people feared her fierceness and were afraid that this little beast would bite through their throats if they got too close.

“Compared to the Great Wilderness and Da Chen, the Demon Sect only eats people, and they eat with restraint.

Look, they haven’t eaten all of us in these few months.”

“They’re still well-fed.”

That was Bai Qinghan’s reasoning.

She had eyes that could see through people’s hearts, an innate ability of hers, and she had long seen through An Jing’s wariness toward the instructors and lecturers and his awareness of the Demon Sect’s true nature.

“No,” An Jing responded silently for a while before slowly continuing, “They are not satiated.

They are waiting.”

“A premature harvest yields no rice, killing an animal when it’s small means no game when it’s grown.

The Demon Sect is always hungry, always feasting; they’re just enduring, waiting for a lavish gluttonous banquet.”

“…I see.”

Bai Qinghan nodded slightly, her gaze falling on the tips of her shoes as she whispered, “But at least for now, they won’t eat us all.”

An Jing didn’t answer; he remembered those Medicinal Vats.

A moment later, when the reaction set in and An Jing was about to ask her not to openly talk about it, Bai Qinghan looked at him with an odd expression.

“Eldest Senior Brother, I just haven’t been to school.” She said, “I’m not stupid.”