> [Location: Dusk Marsh – Mirror Hollow Zone]
Instructor: Yan Feng
Flame Technique: Voidflare Step (Forbidden Movement Art – Temporal Phase Grade)
Requirement: Absolute Flame Thread Control + Moment Memory Calibration
Risk: Flame Thread Instability, Memory Bleed, Time Lag Damage
---
Lesson Two Begins
The Mirror Hollow was unlike anywhere Jiang had trained before. There were no solid walls, only flameglass panels reflecting a thousand versions of himself—standing, moving, kneeling, bleeding.
> "This is where I learned Voidflare," Yan Feng said. "The Sovereigns created it to test 'pre-moment warping.'"
> "Warping?" Jiang asked.
> "Moving between actions. Not before, not after. During."
He stepped into one of the mirror paths.
And vanished.
A moment later, he stood behind Jiang.
> "That was one breath. And I burned a year off my life to do it."
> "Why would anyone use this?" Jiang asked.
Yan Feng turned.
> "Because sometimes… that one breath is the only difference between losing everything and saving it."
---
The Cut That Leaves Nothing Behind
The first trial was basic: align his flame threads with the mirror of his own delay.
Jiang tried stepping forward while channeling flame—but each time, the reflection snapped, shattering the mirror and burning his skin.
> "Too slow. You're hesitating. Flame doesn't wait," Yan Feng barked.
Jiang gritted his teeth and tried again.
This time, he didn't step.
He remembered stepping.
And let the flame burn through that moment.
He phased across two mirrors—appearing ten feet behind where he started.
> "Better," Yan Feng nodded. "But now make it deadly."
---
Memory Echo Drill
The second exercise forced Jiang to strike a target that hadn't moved yet—but would.
He had to see not where the flame would go, but where fear would make it flinch.
He tried once.
Missed.
Tried again.
Failed.
On the third attempt, something clicked. He let Echofang guide him. The blade moved as if carried by something ancient, something that had already fought and died.
The mirror target cracked—
And shattered before the echo fully formed.
Yan Feng nodded once.
> "That's the void cut. The kind of move that only makes sense after you see it work."
---
Flame Thread Calibration
By sunset, Jiang collapsed to his knees. Threads flickered at his fingertips—faint, red, and unstable.
> "I feel like I'm unraveling," he said.
Yan Feng walked over and dropped something in front of him: a crystal flask filled with Blue Frost Flame Dew.
> "You are. That's the point."
> "Voidflare isn't about being faster. It's about being gone, just long enough to not exist in the moment that kills you."
> "And then burning back into reality."
Jiang took a slow sip, heart still racing.
> "You really think Long Chen couldn't do this?"
Yan Feng looked away.
> "He never tried."
---
A Glimpse of the Future
As Jiang drifted into recovery sleep, the mirror he'd cracked began to flicker.
A new flame shadow appeared—not one he created, but one projected from a distant moment.
It showed Tian Xue—standing atop a battlefield, surrounded by enemies, her blade drawn, alone.
She was bleeding. But still burning.
A message echoed faintly through the flicker:
> "Don't come for me. Not yet. Keep lighting the others."
Jiang's fists clenched even in sleep.
He would return.
But not empty-handed.