The world stood still.
For just a breath.
Then all of Heaven tried to crush Shen Liun.
The leader of the Heavenbinders—her silver-threaded body glowing with divine law—pointed her staff toward him. Runes of judgment surged behind her like a tidal wave of shackles.
> "You have touched a flame that defies the heavens," she said coldly. "You do not understand the sin you carry."
"I don't need to understand your sin," Liun said, his voice like steel wrapped in fire. "I've survived it."
Then the chains fell.
---
Hundreds of divine chains, each thicker than a man's torso, plummeted from the sky like bolts of divine punishment. They didn't just aim for Liun.
They aimed for his soul.
> "Heaven's Binding Scripture — Seventh Chain: Soul Imprisonment!"
Liun stepped forward, golden fire bursting to life around him.
> "Ashen Verdict: Flame Beyond Judgment."
The crimson-gold seal flared again. It spun rapidly behind his back like a burning wheel, releasing waves of unrestrained energy. His robes tore. Blood leaked from his fingers.
He didn't care.
He raised Dawnmourne.
> CLANG!
The first chain met his blade—and shattered into flaming fragments.
But the second pierced through his shoulder.
The third coiled around his leg.
And the rest came, merciless and divine.
---
In the distance, Ranyi and Ning'er fought desperately.
Ning'er's arrows exploded with force, striking two of the Heavenbinders and knocking one off their feet.
Ranyi clashed with another, her blades dancing like wind and flame. "We can't hold them forever!"
But neither of them moved to help Liun.
They couldn't.
Because this wasn't their fight anymore.
It was his.
---
> "Aoshen!" Liun cried out in his mind.
"If I let go—if I let this flame consume me—will it kill me?"
The spirit's voice trembled. Not in fear. But in awe.
> "Yes. But it might kill her first."
Liun's vision dimmed as another chain struck his back. He dropped to one knee, coughing blood. The divine Qi around the Heavenbinder leader tightened, forming a spear of glowing law in her hand.
"This is mercy," she said.
But all Liun saw was his past.
His mother's hand slipping from his.
His father's roar as he held the Crimson Sword back.
The day his fiancée threw his token into the dirt and called him a failure.
And now…
Now they called this mercy?
No.
This wasn't mercy.
This was control masquerading as law.
---
He looked up—and let go.
The Ashen Verdict Seal behind him cracked. The spinning wheel shattered, not into pieces… but into embers that rose into the air and formed a new flame.
> A third path.
Not Ashen Flame.
Not Sovereign Embers.
But something deeper.
Untamed.
Unchained.
"Soulfire."
---
His eyes turned pure crimson, and the chains that wrapped around him began to smoke.
The staff-wielding Heavenbinder took a step back.
> "What… is that?"
Liun rose, the chains around his body igniting one by one and burning to ash.
> "This flame doesn't ask for permission."
"It doesn't kneel to heaven."
"It doesn't wait for justice."
He raised Dawnmourne, and the sword roared.
> "It makes it."
---
> BOOM!
With a single swing, the sky cracked.
The entire battlefield shook as the Soulfire erupted outward, engulfing the Heavenbinders in a wave of energy that ignored divine law. The very bindings that anchored them to Heaven began to flicker.
Two fell instantly—bodies breaking apart, their chains melting.
The leader gritted her teeth and raised her staff again.
But it was too late.
> "Ashen Verdict: Heavenfall."
Liun's final strike cleaved the sky in two, his Soulfire shattering her staff mid-incantation. The divine Qi around her exploded outward.
She screamed.
And vanished in a column of burning light.
---
Silence followed.
The other Heavenbinders retreated, those who still lived dragging wounded bodies away into mist. None dared look back.
The battlefield was scorched. Trees leveled. Stone melted.
And at the center stood Shen Liun.
Barely breathing.
But undefeated.
---
Yan Wudi emerged slowly from the tomb's entrance, hand pressed against his side, wounds still fresh.
He looked at the battlefield.
Then at Liun.
And for the first time, the legend bowed his head.
> "You have surpassed us both."
Liun dropped to one knee, the fire in his eyes dimming.
Aoshen whispered, "That flame… wasn't mine."
"I know," Liun replied weakly.
"But it's mine now."
---
That night, under a quiet sky, Ranyi tended to his wounds while Ning'er stood watch. No one spoke for a long time.
Then, softly, Ranyi asked, "What was that power?"
Liun opened his eyes.
And smiled faintly.
> "It was everything they tried to bury in me."
---