Chapter 6: Forbidden Flame, Secret Hope
The stars hung like cold watchers above the outer sect. Their faint light trickled through the broken tiles of the servant quarters, painting the room in pale silver and deep shadows. In that dim silence sat Raiyen, motionless on the creaking wooden floor, legs crossed, spine rigid, hands resting open in his lap.
He could hear every breath in the room. Every crack in the wood. Every whisper of wind.
But beneath the stillness, his soul screamed.
A thousand years of agony. A thousand years of betrayal. A thousand years of watching the people he trusted most—his sect, his brothers, his lovers—smile as they carved out his heart and offered it to the heavens.
He was alive again. But this life was different.
He was nothing now. A servant. A shadow. The kind of person no one looked at twice.
And yet… he burned.
It wasn't just rage. It was hunger. The kind of hunger that came only from a soul fractured and stitched back together by resentment. A quiet, endless gnawing that clawed at his mind and body, whispering with every heartbeat:
Climb. Corrupt. Conquer.
Something stirred in his chest.
A sharp pulse, like a heartbeat that didn't belong to him. Then another. Pain followed—an ache deep within his soul that sent black tendrils crawling across his veins. He clenched his jaw, gasping as it grew stronger, seizing him with invisible chains.
Then came the voice.
Not from the outside world—but from within.
> [Sinbound System: Awakening…]
[Legacy Identified: Host Reincarnated from Condemned Soul. System Synchronizing…]
[Sin Core: Dormant. Forbidden Variant Detected. Unlocking Primary Function…]
He buckled forward, fingers clawing at the floor, sweat pouring down his face. Every nerve in his body felt like it was on fire. But no matter how much it hurt, he didn't scream.
He couldn't.
He wouldn't give the world that satisfaction.
The pain crested—and then stopped.
Dead silence fell.
Raiyen exhaled sharply, then looked down at his hands.
They were trembling.
But no longer from weakness.
A black ember floated above his palm, pulsing faintly with eerie light. It wasn't like spiritual energy—not the kind he'd known in his past life. This flame was unnatural, chaotic. It didn't belong to the world of cultivation. It was the antithesis of it.
And yet… it obeyed him.
He watched it for a long time.
> [Forbidden Flame - Level 1]
Effect: Burn through spiritual bindings. Corrupts lower-tier techniques. Absorbs essence from spiritual remnants.
Cost: Sin Points.
The ember flared as the system's voice echoed again.
> [You have acquired 10 Sin Points: Cause – Hatred of Sect.]
[New Trait: Whispers of Resentment – Converts negative emotion from others into passive spiritual energy.]
His lips curled into a grin.
So even their hatred feeds me now.
He looked around the room. It was small. Cracked tiles, splintered walls, and a straw mattress barely thick enough to sleep on. For two weeks, he'd lived here like a dog.
He wasn't ashamed of it.
Because now, this room would become the birthplace of something the world had long forgotten—true vengeance.
Raiyen stood slowly, letting the ember hover above his palm like a forbidden sun. He walked to the far corner of the room, where broken cultivation tools lay forgotten—a shattered spiritual talisman, a cracked jade pendant, and a tattered robe once worn by outer disciples.
He fed the flame into them.
One by one, they turned to ash.
Not from fire—but from unraveling. As if the very laws that gave them spiritual purpose had been rewritten.
He let the ashes fall through his fingers, then knelt. He dragged a line through the dust, drawing an old sigil—a symbol he once carved into stone walls as a child. Not the official crest of the sect, but something else. A thing of his own making.
He no longer followed the sect's mark.
He followed his.
As he stared at the symbol glowing faintly with the lingering heat of the flame, a memory surfaced. One of the few gentle ones.
His mother, bending over a young Raiyen, brushing his hair from his face.
"Someday, you'll rise higher than anyone," she'd whispered, pressing her palm over his heart. "But promise me, no matter how high you climb, you won't lose your soul."
He'd nodded back then, a proud and foolish child.
Now, as he sat in the dark, he whispered aloud, "Mother, I'm sorry."
He had no soul left to lose.
Not after what they did.
He stayed kneeling there for a while, the flame hovering above him like a quiet watcher. Slowly, the ache in his body began to recede, replaced by something cold and focused.
He felt it now—power. Not much, but enough to begin.
A system birthed from Sin. Techniques forged from corruption. Strength drawn from the filth others discarded.
And it was his.
> [Milestone Reached: Forbidden Awakening – First Forbidden Technique Manifested.]
[Perk Gained: Sin Insight – You can now perceive and analyze Sin Auras in others.]
Raiyen blinked.
Then blinked again.
In the air, faint red lines began to form—emanating through the walls, seeping through the earth. Trails of resentment, envy, lust, arrogance. They lingered in every corner of the sect like poison in a temple.
He could see it.
The true world, rotting beneath the robes of righteousness.
"Perfect," he muttered.
He rose, brushing dust from his knees.
Tonight, he didn't make noise. He didn't scream or laugh or curse the heavens.
He walked out quietly, past the rows of sleeping servants, and into the open night.
No one noticed him. He was still a nobody.
But not for long.
Beneath the moonlight, his steps were steady, slow, and laced with purpose. He made his way to the ancient tree behind the outer sect library—a place no disciple visited, where memories of childhood once lived.
He stood beneath its crooked limbs, reached out, and carved his sigil into the bark.
It pulsed briefly, and then bled black.
He smiled.
His foundation was laid.
And from here, the world would burn.