All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes

Zhang Ying was gone.

An Jing blinked, his gaze fixed on the small room, his bunkmate to the left, friend, and follower.

The hunter boy was not in his bed.

His bed was immaculately tidy, so neatly arranged that it was abnormal, with both the pillow and blanket folded so flat they resembled tofu.

An Jing knew that Zhang Ying hadn't made the bed himself because that silly lad just couldn't fold a blanket; he had been taught several times but still did it as if a dog had scrabbled over it.

"Why is Zhang Ying missing?!"

Another hour later, when Cang Linzu woke up and realized this, he couldn't help but exclaim.

He and Zhang Ying got along the best, one a hunter and the other from the Martial Family, both practiced martial arts from a young age and were interested in hunting, fighting, and weapons such as knives, guns, sticks, and swords. Although Zhang Ying wasn't as skilled as he was, the gap wasn't that wide, especially since Zhang Ying was an archer par excellence, peerless among them, which allowed for mutual learning.

Usually, the two of them followed An Jing closely, almost inseparable.

"Could he have been running around and got locked up in confinement?"

Zhan Feng muttered, although most of the children from Hanging Fate Manor were more mature than their peers due to their refugee status, once in a safe environment, some naturally mischievous kids would emerge, liking to run around and then be punished by being locked in confinement, even missing dinner.

Zhan Feng cared most about meals; although big, he never took risks, in contrast to Zhang Ying, who most certainly would have run around had An Jing not called out to him several times.

"Let's go ask the instructors," Ye Xiuyuan said softly, one of the smartest children among them. He tilted his head slightly towards An Jing and noticed that the dormitory's leader had an expressionless face, seemingly deep in thought, and he had already some ideas in his heart, "Maybe... he just left."

Left? Could it be... he was eliminated?

Had the second round of eliminations begun?

A possibility arose in everyone's mind, but none dared to voice it. Not until they had searched the entire dormitory and the Martial Arts Field, unable to find any trace of Zhang Ying, were they forced to accept the truth.

Like those apprentices who had left before, Zhang Ying had been eliminated.

And he wasn't the only one.

This time there were twenty-seven people eliminated, not a large number; some had performed well, and others mediocre, the specific criteria were indiscernible.

Before dinner, just like the last time, a lecturer announced this to everyone.

"It was to be expected."

Ye Xiuyuan just sighed. He said he had known this would be the result all along, but he thought he might leave before Zhang Ying; he didn't expect the hunter boy to be the first to leave the mountain.

"I think I could still make a good accountant," he said to An Jing and the others during the evening training at the Martial Arts Field after dinner, frankly stating the truth, "I'm not cut out for martial arts. The recent training has already made me feel overwhelmed. Maybe one day I'll also leave the mountain."

"I might, too," Gu Yeqi sighed. They had also lost a few people in the girls' dormitory, one of whom was a sister who had come with her from the refugee camp in Ming Mountain City. With one less person to talk to, she felt lonely.

Not to mention, although Gu Yeqi could still cope with the current training, she increasingly found it more difficult and was worried she might not be able to keep up with An Jing.

"Zhang Ying just didn't train properly; I told him, martial arts training requires practice, not actual combat!"

Cang Linzu felt gloomy and unhappy, kicking the dirt beneath his feet and grumbling, "Everyone is thinking about leaving, but I'd like staying here as long as possible—the longer we learn from them, the more we'll have to rely on when we leave the mountain."

"And not to mention, it will be even harder to get meat after descending the mountain; Zhang Ying will regret it!"

Having lost a playmate, he had no choice but to put up a stiff upper lip.

"One must admit," Zhan Feng smacked his lips, savoring the taste of dinner and said languidly, "it's true."

Ye Xiuyuan and An Jing both shook their heads, and An Jing turned to look at Ye Xiuyuan, the frail youth who said with a sigh, "Perhaps only An could climb to the peak... I hope he won't forget about us by then."

"How could I," An Jing replied solemnly, "we escaped the Frost Calamity together, trained for so long, and lived in the same dormitory—we are all brothers. How could I forget."

He had a lot of questions in his heart, for instance, Master of the Medicine Manor and many instructors were nowhere to be seen all day today—could they all have gone to see the children off the mountain?

Even he had woken up an hour late; was Zhang Ying woken up halfway through his sleep to leave quietly without saying goodbye? All this was unknowable.

Moreover, today, he also hadn't heard the sound of carriages coming and going from the mountain or seen the traces of carriages leaving or entering.

The eliminated children should still be in the manor, right?

However, these doubts could only be suppressed.

"I've already planned to do this. Today, the Master of the Medicine Manor and most of the instructors were absent... I won't sleep tonight and will go look around the manor; maybe I can find those who were eliminated."

An Jing made up his mind, yet he tried to comfort everyone: "Let's all go to sleep early today. The better you sleep, the better your spirit will be, and the better the training outcome, so no one gets eliminated."

"An always keeps his cool... maybe a little too cool,"

Ye Xiuyuan smiled, his face always tinged with melancholy.

After all, a scholar from a wealthy family, whose life goal was to pass the imperial examinations and enter the capital but who had fallen into such straits due to natural disasters, had a bleak future at best, managing accounts; even if he had come to terms with his fate, he couldn't truly let it go.

"How can I be your Eldest Senior Brother if I'm not calm."

Unable to stand this attitude of conceding defeat, An Jing slapped him on the back of the head irritably: "You're grieving over spring at such a young age; it's not that you aren't suited for martial arts, you just haven't trained enough. Tomorrow, add two moves to our leg workout!"

"Eh?!" Hearing this, even someone as placid as Ye Xiuyuan panicked: "Leg workout? Two moves? That's deadly, Big Brother! I don't want my legs still trembling the next day!"

"You talk too much, make it three!"

Under An Jing's forceful suppression, nightfall came quickly.

After everyone had fallen asleep, An Jing, who had been lying with his eyes shut, suddenly opened them.

With the instructors not patrolling tonight, it was the perfect time for a nocturnal exploration.

An Jing silently left the dormitory, leaping agilely to the rooftop, then moving onto the wall to survey the entire layout of the manor.

Living in Hanging Fate Manor before, he never noticed, but now from a higher vantage point, he could see that Hanging Fate Manor was sandwiched between two mountains, with a peculiar terrain that recalled some kind of strategic geography called 'Twin Dragons Playing with a Pearl' from his previous life's memory—it seemed that the manor was the pearl that the dragons of the two mountains were playing with, gathering the essence of the surrounding mountains.

Centered around the area where the children lived, there were layers of defensive towers guarding Hanging Fate Manor tightly, making the entire estate less like a manor and more like a small fortress.