> [Location: Whispering Province – Emberveil Temple (Hidden Nexus)]
Status: Safe Zone Established | Monolith Core Shard Stable
Free Flame Influence: Spreading (Detected by 3 Minor Flame Relays)
New Thread Activated: "Children of the Spark" – Objective: Reconnect with Lost Flame Lineages
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The Map of Broken Names
In the lowest chamber of Emberveil Temple, Qing Yue spread a cloth of stitched soul-thread across the stone floor. Woven into it were over 70 flame clan emblems—most crossed out, a few still glowing faintly.
Jiang knelt beside her, eyebrows furrowed.
> "These symbols… I saw some of them in the Sovereign archives. They were labeled 'extinct.'"
Qing Yue's voice was quiet.
> "They weren't extinct. They were erased. The Sovereigns burned their names, not their hearts."
Tian Xue tapped a still-glowing crest near the edge: a phoenix wound around a burning tree.
> "What about this one?"
Qing Yue smiled faintly.
> "That's the Verdant Ash Flamehold. They were the first to refuse Sovereign flame law. Last I heard… they fled to the Spinewood Peaks, near the storm barrier."
> "Then that's where we go next," Jiang said.
---
System Update – Flamehold Trail
> [New Region Marked: Spinewood Peaks – Hazard Level: High (Flame Storms + Sovereign Patrols)]
Time Estimate: 3 Days via Flame Trek | 2 Days if Tempest Skyburst Activated (Soulpet Fatigue Risk)]
> Optional Objective: Recover Verdant Ash Soul Glyphs – Required for Nexus Expansion (Tier II)]
> Caution: Sovereign Division has deployed "Frost Flame Surveyors" to Whispering Province borders. Proceed with stealth.
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Quiet Moments Before the Storm
As Qing Yue prepared supplies, Jiang and Tian Xue stood beneath a tree blooming with ash-petals—an ancient species said to grow where flame and sorrow mingled.
> "How do you feel?" Tian Xue asked, gently brushing his sleeve.
Jiang exhaled. His flame had never been calmer—yet never carried more weight.
> "Like the fire isn't just power anymore," he said. "It's memory. It wants to burn, but not to destroy."
> "It wants to remind the world."
She smiled. "Then let's give it something worth remembering."
They stood a while longer, not as fugitives, not as flameborn—
But as two people who had chosen each other.
---
A Message in the Fire
That night, as Jiang meditated near the altar, the Monolith Shard flickered with an unfamiliar pattern.
Not a memory. Not a warning.
A message.
From someone who shouldn't be alive.
> "If you're seeing this, Jiang Han, then you've passed through the Monolith."
"Good."
"Because you'll need what's coming next."
The flame formed a face for only a moment.
Yan Feng.
An old legend. Once Long Chen's rival. Declared dead during the last Flame Collapse.
> "I'm at the edge of the Northern Dusk Marsh. The Sovereigns don't come this deep anymore."
"But I remember what they tried to erase."
"Come find me—if you want to know what's beneath the flame."
The shard pulsed once.
Then dimmed.
---
A Path Forks
Qing Yue found them in the hallway just after.
> "I heard the message," she said. "Yan Feng was a monster in the records. Ruthless, cold… but he never betrayed the flame."
> "He was Long Chen's last student," Jiang murmured. "And maybe the only person left who knows what he died trying to stop."
Tian Xue crossed her arms.
> "So what now?"
Jiang looked at the cloth map.
Then at the smoldering flame in his palm.
> "We split."