The Fire Well Assembly was over, but Lin Tian's name lingered like smoke in the halls.
In the outer sect, no one said it out loud. But they said other things.
"That one with the ring."
"Him? He burned Guo's sleeve clean off."
"Did you hear he can talk to it?"
"No, I heard it talks to him."
And sometimes:"He's marked. Not clan-marked. Legacy-marked."
None of these people offered help.
None stood too close.
Chen Mu hovered in the ring as Lin Tian walked the garden path to the outer sect's supply shed, head low, hands tucked into his sleeves.
"They think you're cursed," he said.
"I'm used to that."
"Then you won't mind what's coming."
Lin Tian's eyes flicked upward. "That bad?"
Chen Mu was quiet a moment before answering.
"It's not over, Lin Tian. The duel was just the start. Guo lost. Hu blinked. But others were watching. And now they're all asking the same thing."
"Which is?"
"Where did that fire come from?"
By the time Lin Tian returned to his hut, the dusk bells were ringing. His robes clung to him with dried sweat. He sat down, tried to meditate, failed, and stood up again.
Too much noise in his head.
Guo's face, sneering.Hu's tone, velvet with threat.The crowd's stunned silence as flame took shape.
And the moment the fire had responded. It hadn't felt like a technique.
It felt like... a question being answered.
Chen Mu, too, seemed restless in the ring. He drifted back and forth in the inner space like a storm trying to decide if it wanted to form.
Finally he said, "We need to go back to the start."
Lin Tian turned.
"To the Fire Spiral?"
"No. The Vault. The true one. The place this legacy began."
"We don't know where that is."
"Correction," Chen Mu said. "We didn't."
That night, Wei Yulan arrived without knocking.
She stepped inside with a leather satchel and the air of someone who'd run up a mountain in silence.
"I have a map," she said. "Or the closest thing you'll get."
She unrolled it on the floor. It was old, hand-drawn, and stitched together from multiple fragments. Patches of ink blurred with time. But one part was circled in thick charcoal:
EMBER RIDGE.
"Officially erased sixty years ago," Yulan said. "Accidental spiritual backlash. No survivors. No remains."
Chen Mu floated closer to the scroll.
"Looks like a cover-up."
"Smells like one too."
There was a second mark beside the ridge, smaller, nearly invisible—faded but still legible to spiritual sight.
A flame spiral.
[+4 BP for discovering a buried origin point.]
Bluff Points: 132 → 136
"Can we reach it?" Lin Tian asked.
"Barely," Yulan said. "It's off-grid. But I charted a route through the Ghost Orchard and past the ash basin. You'll need to falsify an assignment slip."
Chen Mu chuckled. "I already have a template."
By dawn, they were gone.
The slip read:
"Outer Disciple Lin Tian assigned to gather deeproot blossom and ashvine fungus along south ridge. Accompanied by escort Wei Yulan."
It bore Hu's assistant's signature. It was a fake.
But a good one.
"Rule one of stealth," Chen Mu said as they passed the guard checkpoint, "make your lies boring."
The first half of the journey was familiar.
They passed the old logging path, the broken shrine, the stream that once shimmered blue but now flowed gray with spiritual runoff.
Then the path ended.
The rest was climbing.
"Ember Ridge lies above the ash line," Yulan said. "That's why it's forgotten. It's inconvenient."
They reached the ridge by midday.
And found it exactly as the rumors said:
Burned.
Nothing but cracked stone, blackened ruins, and soil that reeked faintly of sulfur and wet memory.
But something pulsed beneath it.
Chen Mu felt it in the ring's core.
"Start digging."
They found the entrance at dusk.
Buried under layers of collapsed foundation and time, a narrow stairwell led downward, the stones scorched and sealed by spiritual fire. Lin Tian swept aside ash, and his fingers brushed a glyph.
It blinked.
Then glowed.
[System Notice: Legacy Coordinate Reached.][Ember Vault Detected.][Entry Lock Engaged: Flame Sigil Key Required.]
"Of course it's locked," Lin Tian muttered.
"No," Chen Mu said. "It's testing us."
Inside, the ruins felt wrong.
Not haunted.
Quiet.
Not the silence of stillness. The silence of something holding its breath.
They passed through charred halls, broken murals, twisted remains of meditation platforms. A collapsed training yard still held scattered fragments of fire jade.
And at the very end:
A vault door.
Circular.
Marked with the spiral.
But broken.
It pulsed as Lin Tian approached, reacting faintly to the Spiral Fire Array etched into his spirit.
"Touch it," Chen Mu whispered.
Lin Tian laid his hand on the stone.
Qi flowed.
The vault opened.
The room beyond was round, empty... and alive.
Flame-like light shimmered on the walls, forming scenes in spirals:
—Disciples training with spirals of flame.—A red ring floating above a volcano.—A temple melting under a sky full of golden fire.—A name etched into flame:
CHEN MUTITLE: FLAME SAGE — HIDDEN FLAME SECT
Lin Tian turned slowly. "That's you."
Chen Mu said nothing.
Then:
"I was someone."
[+5 BP for confirming ancestral identity.]
BP: 136 → 141
A pedestal rose from the floor, shaped like a ring.
Chen Mu descended onto it without hesitation.
[System Alert: Legacy Thread Stabilized.][Vault Access Granted.][System Upgrade: Flame Memory Projection Lv.2 Unlocked.][Vault Entry Recognized – Hidden Flame Access Restored.]
And then, with no fanfare, the fire changed.
It stopped showing memories.
It started showing techniques.
They spent hours copying everything they could.
The projection system was rudimentary. The Vault offered fragments only — partial stances, motion loops, incomplete diagrams.
But the system filled in gaps.
Chen Mu internalized one pattern completely.
[New Ability: Ash Spiral Palm (Fragment)]Effect: Channel internal fire in a spiraling pulse to generate directed pressure and momentary heat ignition.
Not strong.
But real.
Not bluff.
And Lin Tian?
He didn't speak for a long time.
Then said: "We can't go back to being nobodies after this."
"No," Chen Mu agreed. "We're building something."
By midnight, they'd returned to the sect in silence.
No one stopped them.
But someone was watching.
Back at the hut, Lin Tian lit a lantern and stared at his hands.
"They'll come for us soon."
"I know."
"They'll want to own this. Or bury it."
Chen Mu hovered above the Spiral Fire symbol glowing faintly in the inner ring.
"Then we make our own path."
[System Status Panel – Chen Mu (Ring State)]
Bluff Points: 141Soul Strength: 8Current Vessel: Refined Jade Core Ring (Stabilized)Abilities:
Voice of Authority Lv.1
Soul Tap (1/day)
Resonant Presence (Passive)
Flame Memory Projection Lv.2
Ash Spiral Palm (Fragment)
Manual Access: Beginner Cultivation Manual (Simulated)Current Objective: Unlock Full Legacy Technique PathDisciple Status: Qi Initiation – Mid Stage (Stable, Post-Assembly)Legacy Flag: Lit – Hidden Flame Echo (Active)Known Array: Spiral Fire Refinement (Integrated)New Entry: Ember Vault (Active Node, Accessed)