The hall fell into a hush.
The parchment still trembled where it had fallen from Xiao Yan's hand. Around him, the murmurs of the academy's disciples swelled like a tide struggling to contain disbelief.
"Five sects… wiped out overnight?" one of them whispered.
"They say no one lived above the third rank… only ashes."
"hundreds of cultivators, all dead. Their corpses vanished with not even a drop of blood left."
Xiao Yan said nothing. His gaze drifted to the window, where sunlight cut through dust motes like fragile glass. He could almost hear his brother's laughter in the echoes of those words — that cold, unhurried chuckle that followed every broken rule, every corpse left behind.
> "Xiao Chen…"
That name had become something more than a man. It was a storm. A whisper. A reminder that even the smallest ember could devour a forest when the wind was right.
From the upper dais, Elder Su Qian's voice carried through the stunned crowd.
"Enough. Return to your cultivation. Jia Nan Academy does not bend to rumor."
But the tension in his shoulders betrayed his own unease.
When the hall finally emptied, Xiao Yan lingered. His teacher, Yao Lao, drifted into view beside him in that faint, translucent form — his eyes half-closed, his tone mild but thoughtful.
"So, he's begun moving in earnest," Yao Lao said. "Five sects… all tied to the Hall of Souls, whether the world knows it or not. It seems your brother's blade has cut into someone's patience."
Xiao Yan frowned. "Then the Hall will retaliate."
"They already have," Yao Lao replied. "You just can't see it yet."
He turned toward the window, watching clouds form and scatter across the sky.
"They've begun stirring the undercurrents. Merchants refusing to trade with your clan. Alchemists quietly withdrawing their support. The Hall moves like rot — you don't see it until the roots collapse."
Xiao Yan's fingers tightened around the edge of the table. "Then they mean to isolate us."
"And they will succeed," Yao Lao said softly, "unless you move first."
Silence stretched between them until Yao Lao spoke again, his tone suddenly lighter, almost curious.
"Coincidence or not, there's another ripple in the world. Rumors say a new Heavenly Flame has appeared — in the depths of the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower."
Xiao Yan looked up sharply. "Here?"
"Here," Yao Lao confirmed. "The academy has kept it quiet, but the tower's barrier has been unstable for weeks. What you felt yesterday wasn't just shock — it was the world reacting to two forces meeting: your brother's slaughter, and Heaven's flame awakening."
Outside, a thunderclap rolled across the horizon.
From the tower in the distance, faint streams of crimson light coiled upward like smoke from a sleeping volcano.
Yao Lao smiled faintly. "It seems fate has handed you your next trial."
Xiao Yan's eyes reflected the burning horizon.
"If Heaven itself stirs," he murmured, "then perhaps it's time I stopped being cautious."
---
Far from the academy, in a chamber hidden beneath the Misty Cloud Sect, a man in grey robes slammed his palm against the table. The impact sent a ripple of cold Dou Qi through the room.
"Five sects gone," he hissed. "And you sit there telling me to wait?"
Across from him, a woman cloaked in mist raised her gaze. Her voice was calm, but it carried the weight of centuries.
"We do not move on impulse, Elder Shen. The Hall will decide when and how."
Elder Shen's eyes flickered, a brief flash of black mist escaping before he reined it in. "The Hall already decided when it let him live."
The woman's expression didn't change, but her next words were laced with venom.
"Then perhaps the Hall has other uses for the monster. You would do well to remember your place."
The candlelight flickered, casting two shadows that stretched and merged along the wall — one in the shape of a serpent, the other in the form of a human hand clutching invisible strings.
Outside, the wind shifted eastward — toward the Blazing Sky Tower, where the air shimmered faintly, the scent of an awakening flame drifting through the night.