Dawn came late over the Blackfog Wastes.
The sky was pale, unsure. As if afraid to shine light on what had happened the night before.
Shen Liun sat alone atop a shattered hill, his arms resting on his knees, bandages wrapped tightly around his shoulder and ribs. His robes were torn, scorched at the edges. Blood stained the earth beneath him.
But it wasn't the wounds that hurt most.
It was the flame inside.
---
> "Soulfire..." Aoshen whispered within his spirit sea.
"It is not born from inheritance or path. It is forged in rebellion, in identity."
"And it devours the weak."
Liun didn't reply.
He was staring at his palm, where faint threads of crimson still flickered, dancing between his fingers like restless ghosts.
They didn't feel like his flame.
They felt like something older. Something that had been waiting for a vessel.
And now… it was awake.
---
From behind him, Yan Wudi approached, limping slightly.
He didn't speak for a long while. Just stood there, watching the young man who had inherited, surpassed, and reshaped the legacy he once bore.
"I remember the first time I awakened it," Wudi said quietly. "It burned so brightly I thought I'd become invincible."
Liun looked up.
"But I couldn't control it," Wudi continued. "I destroyed my own sect in a single night. I lost everyone—followers, friends, even my own sister."
His voice faltered.
"I called it justice. But it was grief, Liun. Dressed in fire."
Liun looked back at his hand.
"I felt it," he admitted. "That pull. The moment I let it go, it didn't just burn the Heavenbinder… it tried to burn me."
Wudi nodded. "That's the price. Soulfire doesn't care about right or wrong. Only about truth. And truth is never kind."
---
Back at the ruined tomb, Ranyi and Ning'er prepared the camp for departure.
They said little. The battle had left its mark—not just on their bodies, but on their belief.
They had seen Shen Liun defy heaven itself.
And survive.
But they had also seen something else.
A look in his eyes.
Not anger. Not vengeance.
Something more dangerous.
Resolve.
---
As the group prepared to leave the Wastes, a gust of cold wind swept through the ruins.
At its center stood a man.
Clad in robes of black and gold, his face veiled by a porcelain mask etched with a single imperial rune:
> "Silence."
Ranyi and Ning'er drew their weapons instantly.
Wudi turned, expression hard. "An imperial envoy."
The man spoke softly, his voice calm and clear despite the distance.
"I come not with a blade," he said. "But with a message."
Liun stepped forward. "From who?"
The man tilted his head.
"From the Eternal Emperor himself."
---
The world seemed to go still.
Even Aoshen paused within Liun's spirit.
The Eternal Emperor. The man who had ruled for over four hundred years. Whose will shaped continents. Whose mere presence could cause weaker cultivators to bleed from the eyes.
Liun narrowed his gaze.
"Speak."
The envoy raised a scroll wrapped in black silk.
He unrolled it slowly.
Then read aloud:
> "To Shen Liun, bearer of broken flame and false judgment."
"You have taken a step where none were meant to tread."
"You have awakened a fire that belongs to no lineage, no law, no heaven."
"You have two choices."
"Kneel before the Eternal Throne… and offer your flame to its service."
"Or face the arrival of the Twilight Edict."
He paused, then added, "The Edict has not been invoked in over a century."
Liun looked to Wudi.
Wudi's face had gone pale.
> "The Twilight Edict…" he murmured. "They're not sending soldiers."
"They're sending Immortals."
---
The envoy tucked the scroll away.
"You have seven days."
He vanished into black mist, leaving only the scent of sandalwood and blood behind.
---
That night, no one spoke around the fire.
The flames crackled, but no one warmed their hands.
Finally, Liun broke the silence.
"I'm not kneeling," he said.
Ning'er smiled faintly. "We knew that."
"But the others need to be warned," Ranyi said. "The rebel sects. The Verdant Jade Alliance. The Hollow Wind. If the Twilight Edict is coming…"
Wudi nodded grimly.
"They won't survive it."
Liun stood, eyes burning softly.
"Then I'll meet it head-on."
Ranyi blinked. "Alone?"
"No," he said. "But I'll be the first flame they see."
He looked up at the moon, and his voice was quiet but unshakable.
> "If they want my flame... they'll have to burn first."
---