Tian Rui emerged from the gate, cloaked in silence.
The mark of the Forsaken Flame still glowed faintly on his back, but his steps were different now—heavier, surer. Each movement radiated heat, as though the fire still burned beneath his skin.
Lyen rushed to him. "Rui! Are you—?"
"I'm fine."
He wasn't. But he was something else now.
Veylan studied him carefully. "What did you take from the sage?"
"A principle," Tian Rui said. "One the heavens tried to erase."
---
They didn't linger.
The wind had shifted across the Broken Steppe, and dark clouds gathered in the distance. Not storm clouds—spirit clouds. A storm of qi, drawn by the disturbance of a forbidden awakening.
"We have to move," Veylan said. "Whatever happened back there… it woke something."
As they crossed the cracked plain, Tian Rui began to feel it—his body adjusting to the fire within. He didn't draw qi like he used to. Now it rushed to him, reckless and unstable, like wildfire licking dry grass.
He tried to meditate once during a break—but the flame wouldn't calm.
It spoke.
Not in words. In sensations. In instincts.
In hunger.
---
That night, they set up camp beneath a ridge of wind-carved stone. Lyen sat with her legs folded beneath her, watching Tian Rui from across the fire.
"You're not sleeping."
"I can't," he admitted. "The fire's always awake."
"Does it hurt?"
Tian Rui looked at her. His gaze was sharper now, more intense—but not cruel. "Only when I try to hold it back."
She reached over and placed her hand on his. "Then don't do it alone."
The fire eased, just slightly.
---
The calm shattered at dawn.
A piercing screech split the sky as a winged beast descended—its body stitched from bones and shadows, its talons dripping with dark qi. A Nightshriek Chimera—a creature formed from failed spirit beasts, twisted by the corrupted paths.
"Down!" Veylan shouted, already unsheathing his blades.
Lyen formed a seal. "It's hunting Tian!"
"No," Tian Rui said, standing. His eyes flared gold and red. "It's answering the flame."
The beast lunged. Tian Rui didn't dodge.
He welcomed it.
With a roar, he punched forward—and fire surged from his palm, not golden or red… but black. A cursed flame, born from ruin. It struck the chimera mid-air and unraveled it—like fire devouring paper.
The creature screamed and burst into ash.
Veylan froze. "That flame…"
Tian Rui stood still, breathing hard. The ground beneath his feet steamed. His eyes glowed faintly.
"I can't control it yet," he said. "But it listens."
---
Later, as they rested again, Veylan approached him.
"You're walking a path none of us understand. Even I don't know if this ends with your triumph… or your ruin."
Tian Rui looked to the horizon. "Then stay close. If I fall, you'll be the first to see it."
"And if you don't?"
Tian Rui's voice was quiet, but unshaken.
"Then the heavens will."