The forest was silent again.
But not because of peace.
It was the kind of silence that came before a storm—the moment where the wind holds its breath, and even the trees seem to lean in to listen.
At the center of a cleared glade, Shen Liun sat cross-legged, eyes closed, Dawnmourne across his knees. His palms faced upward, glowing faintly with flickers of orange and gold.
Ning'er stood guard at the edge of the clearing, arms crossed, eyes scanning for threats.
Ranyi sat beside a tree, watching with quiet interest.
> "He's entering his forging state," she whispered to Ning'er. "He's about to create his first true technique… one tied to the Judgment Path."
Ning'er's expression darkened. "And if he fails?"
Ranyi hesitated. "…Then the flame devours him."
---
Inside himself, Shen Liun stood in a world of ash and light.
Golden fire flowed around him in gentle arcs, like molten rivers suspended in the sky.
Aoshen hovered beside him, no longer in the form of a beast—but a figure of flame, part human, part divine.
> "This is your core domain," the spirit said. "What you forge here becomes truth—etched into your soul and the world."
Liun took a breath.
He focused on the essence of what he had become—not just power, not just pain.
But judgment.
He saw the faces of those who had fallen. His mother. His father. Ruoxi's betrayal. The twisted smiles of bounty hunters who craved his death.
All of it.
He raised his hands.
And began.
> "Technique Name," Aoshen murmured, voice solemn. "Speak it. Shape it. Let it echo with meaning."
Liun's voice was clear:
> "Ashen Verdict."
A ring of golden fire erupted around him.
Not wild, not destructive. Controlled.
It formed a circle—burning with laws unseen, each flicker inscribed with characters representing sins, regrets, and memories.
He reached into the fire and pulled forth the first rune.
> "This technique," he said, "will judge those who raise their blades unjustly. Their power… will become their prison."
The fire thickened.
It began to form the structure of the technique—not a blade, not a shield—but a seal.
A burning, binding brand that wrapped around the spirit of its target. It would not kill. Not at first.
It would bind. Reflect. Punish.
The stronger the foe's killing intent, the heavier their body would become under its weight.
Until they collapsed beneath their own rage.
> "It is done," Aoshen whispered.
Shen Liun opened his eyes.
---
In the real world, golden runes blazed around his body. The clearing trembled. The trees leaned back, repelled by the force.
And then—it stopped.
The runes sealed themselves into his palms.
And the fire… calmed.
Liun stood slowly.
The weight in his chest wasn't pain.
It was certainty.
Ranyi rose to her feet, staring. "That… that was soul-level forging. Only high elders reach that."
Ning'er smiled faintly. "He's not normal."
Liun didn't speak right away.
He turned his hand and formed a seal in the air.
A brand of golden fire spun once… and hovered midair like a halo.
"Ashen Verdict," he said aloud.
Then, suddenly, he turned and launched the seal at a nearby stone.
The seal passed through it like mist—but the stone cracked from within, crumbling into dust seconds later.
Ning'er blinked. "It didn't touch it."
"It judged it," Liun said. "Measured its integrity. And shattered it from the inside out."
He closed his hand.
"I can now do the same to people."
---
Far to the south, a group of rogue cultivators were gathered in a fortress built from iron and bones. Their leader, a blood-soaked monk named Broken Nail, had just received a report.
"Ashen Verdict," he muttered. "Sounds like a parlor trick."
His second-in-command bowed. "He defeated two Iron Vein trackers and burned a Spirit Beast Elder with it."
Broken Nail laughed. "Then we'll see how it handles me."
He walked to the center of the courtyard and marked Shen Liun's name into the bounty board with a spike of blood Qi.
"Three days," he said. "We'll find him. And then we'll see what that little flame can do."
---
Back in the forest, Shen Liun stared at his palms. The runes had faded from view—but he could still feel them, buried beneath skin and soul.
Ranyi stepped beside him.
"What you just did…" she said slowly, "the Empire will take it as a declaration."
"They already declared war the day they killed my family," he replied. "Now I'm responding."
She hesitated.
Then she asked, quietly, "Do you ever worry you'll become like them? Cold. Merciless. A judge who forgets why he passed sentence in the first place?"
Liun turned to her.
"I don't want to be feared," he said. "I just want to make sure no one like me ever has to crawl through blood again."
Ning'er nodded from behind him.
"Then we keep moving. There's a town two days west. An old sect fragment is rumored to be hiding there—The Hollow Wind Clan. They might be willing to hear you out."
Liun looked west.
And smiled.
"Then let's give them something worth hearing."
---