A Memory Buried in Fire
The chamber beneath the Twin Lantern Sect was silent except for Jayden's breathing.
The scroll from his father burned faintly in his hand, and even as the ash from the vaporized beast settled aboveground, his mind was spinning.
The Dragon Eye Seal now embedded in his chest pulsed like a second heart — ancient, alive, and sentient.
"It's started," the blind Flame Seeker said. "Your trial for the Dragon Mirror."
Jayden looked up. "You said he crossed the Sky Rift. Did he find the Mirror?"
The man gave no answer. Instead, he pointed toward the massive jade door carved with twelve dragons circling a single eye.
"The Mirror lies within. But not all who enter come back whole."
Jayden stepped forward, tightening his fists. "Then it's a good thing I've already been broken."
The door opened with a sound like cracking bones.
The Test of Reflections
Inside, darkness swallowed him.
No walls. No light. No sound.
Then his reflection stepped out from the void.
At first, it looked like him — the same face, the same eyes.
But then it changed.
Its aura turned violent. Its chi flared red and black. The reflection radiated bloodlust.
Jayden tensed.
The reflection smiled. "So weak. So soft. You think you're worthy of the Dragon Lineage?"
He responded by dashing forward — fists glowing with chi-enhanced speed.
But the reflection moved faster.
It countered blow for blow, a perfect mirror of every technique he knew — except more refined, more brutal.
Jayden was knocked back with a spinning knee to the ribs. Blood flew from his mouth.
This thing is fighting like it knows every move I've ever made… and every one I will make.
He closed his eyes.
Breathed in.
Slowed his pulse.
Then he shifted his stance — not to the martial forms he had learned, but to one he'd only recently begun to grasp.
The Dragon Form.
The moment he did, his reflection faltered.
Jayden opened his eyes — now glowing with golden flame.
This wasn't imitation. This was evolution.
He moved with devastating grace, striking from impossible angles, flowing like wind and flame fused into one.
His palm struck his reflection's chest.
The Dragon Eye Seal ignited — and his reflection shattered like glass.
Jayden dropped to one knee, panting.
The darkness lifted.
Before him, rising from the floor, floated a mirror made of obsidian dragon scale — rippling with a light that wasn't light, but memory.
He reached out.
The Truth of the Missing Flame
Jayden's fingers touched the mirror.
A surge of heat raced up his arm — and his vision changed.
He saw a mountaintop fortress.
A man stood at the edge of a cliff, wind whipping around him.
Tall. Scarred. Eyes like molten gold.
His father.
Jayden watched in stunned silence.
Another figure approached — cloaked in white, face obscured.
"You shouldn't be here," his father said.
The figure laughed. "And you shouldn't have awakened the Mirror."
"You were my brother," his father said bitterly. "You betrayed the family."
"I inherited the right to rule," the man replied. "You ran away."
Jayden's father raised his hand. Fire flared.
"I ran to protect my son."
"You failed," the man said, lifting a black talisman.
Suddenly, the sky split — and a Rift opened above the mountain, swallowing the fortress in shadow and fire.
The last thing Jayden saw was his father turning toward the Mirror, whispering: "Find me, Jayden."
Then darkness again.
The Alchemist's Arena
Jayden awoke in a cold sweat back in the Flame Seeker's chamber, the Dragon Mirror pulsing beside him.
He had seen the truth — or part of it.
But there was no time to dwell.
A message waited for him, scrawled on a bamboo slip:
"The Crimson Alchemy Duel begins at dawn. Your entry has been submitted."
Jayden blinked.
He hadn't signed up.
Then he spotted the name at the bottom.
Eve.
The Duel of Flames
The Crimson Alchemy Arena was nestled atop Mount Haru — a floating platform surrounded by chi clouds and blazing lanterns. Refined cultivators, clan elders, and martial overlords lined the seats.
Jayden stood at his podium, clad in black alchemist robes, facing his opponent:
Kai Chen, heir of the Sun Furnace Pavilion — a smug, silver-haired prodigy known for humiliating rivals.
"You sure you're in the right place, street rat?" Kai sneered.
Jayden didn't respond. His god-tier flame sparkled to life — subtle but searing.
"Begin!" the elder announced.
The duel was on.
Three cauldrons.
Five herbs.
One god-tier pill to refine in under an hour.
Kai's flames roared high — showy, aggressive, wasteful.
Jayden's stayed low — focused, piercing.
He worked with precision, channeling his breath, his chi, and the god-tier refining technique he'd practiced hundreds of times in solitude. Though the crowd laughed at his slowness, the inner core of his pill glowed with dragon flame.
Kai, trying to mock him, overfired — his pill imploded.
Jayden completed his final spin, cooling the pill in a perfect spiral.
The crowd fell silent as the judges examined both.
"Jayden's pill… Fifth Grade, Dragon Core Pill… complete harmony," one elder whispered in awe.
"Impossible," Kai muttered.
Jayden turned toward him.
"Next time, talk less. Burn cleaner."
He walked away as Kai collapsed in shame.
Eve met him at the exit, tossing him a small flame talisman.
"That was brutal," she grinned. "I liked it."
An Invitation Written in Blood
Back at the old dojo, Jayden studied the Dragon Mirror again — now stored within his spiritual space.
His strength was rising.
But so were the threats.
A bloodstained scroll was waiting for him.
No seal. Just one sentence, written in black ink:
"Come to the Ghost Valley. Your father isn't the only dragon left."
Jayden crushed the note in his fist, flames dancing between his fingers.
Whatever came next, he would be ready.