A single drop of blood fell onto the charred earth, sizzled by its own heat.
Lin Xun stood at the edge of a scorched clearing deep in the Firebone Mountains. The air around him shimmered with rising heat. His shirt clung to his body, soaked in sweat and tinged with ash, but his eyes blazed with purpose.
The hunt had lasted three days.
Three days of surviving venomous beasts, flame-imbued serpents, and territorial rogue cultivators. But it was worth it.
In his palm glowed a crimson beast core—the heart of a Flame-Tusked Boar, a Tier 3 spirit beast known for its explosive fire qi.
He knelt, setting the core before him.
"Now," he muttered, voice low and steady. "We refine."
The silver ring on his finger pulsed. Runes flared up his arm as the beast core dissolved into vapor, drawn toward his dantian by an invisible force. The heat that entered him wasn't just warmth—it was fury, wild and untamed.
His bones groaned. Muscles flexed. Veins throbbed like molten rivers.
But Lin Xun didn't falter.
He gritted his teeth and endured the firestorm coursing through his meridians. The Emberblood within him answered the call, awakening from dormancy and surging with power.
A scarlet lotus bloomed within his spiritual sea—a sign of internal awakening.
"Break!" he roared.
A deafening crack echoed through the mountains.
[Breakthrough: Foundation Realm - Stage 2]
The pulse of power that followed sent a wave of flame sweeping through the clearing, scorching trees, shattering rocks, and silencing the nearby beasts. Birds took flight. The very mountain trembled.
Lin Xun stood, panting, smoke rising from his skin.
He had ascended.
Again.
But it wasn't just a rise in cultivation. His qi had changed—denser, hotter, fused with beast essence. His attacks would now carry the weight of a beast's might and the cunning of a human heart.
Yet, it still wasn't enough.
He looked down at his hands. "I need more… I need to forge my Emberblood Core."
That core—spoken of in his mother's final words—was the legacy of their bloodline. Neither fire nor frost alone could create it. It required balance, mastery of opposing forces.
He sat down again, cross-legged, and summoned both elements.
Fire roared in his left palm.
Frost shimmered in his right.
And between them—a swirling vortex of chaos.
The dual elements clashed violently, tearing at each other, sending surges of unstable energy through his limbs. His face twisted in pain, sweat pouring down like rain, but he kept going.
He willed them to merge.
Not dominate, not destroy, but understand.
The image of his mother flickered in his mind. Her voice, soft but strong: "In harmony, you'll find creation. In balance, power."
The ring flared again.
Symbols he hadn't seen before lit up across his chest—an ancient formation etched into his very soul.
Suddenly, the clash between fire and frost slowed. The flames cooled; the ice warmed. A faint golden glow emerged from the center of the vortex.
It pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
BOOM!
The vortex collapsed inward, and a core formed—half red, half blue, lined with golden runes.
[Emberblood Core Initiated.]
Lin Xun gasped as the rush of energy exploded through his being, filling every corner of his body, every vein, every pore.
His senses expanded. He could hear the heartbeat of a beast over a hundred meters away. Feel the tremor of footsteps in distant caves. Taste the fire in the air.
The power wasn't just his—it was him.
He had become the flame and the frost.
He opened his eyes, now glowing with a subtle golden sheen, and whispered, "Now the real cultivation begins."
---
The following day, Lin Xun trekked deeper into the mountains, each step heavier with purpose. He had left behind the ruins of Emberwind. Left behind weakness, pain, and the identity they forced on him.
He was no longer a discarded branch of the Lin clan.
He was a new root entirely.
He found a cavern by the cliffs of Ember's Fang, a sacred location mentioned in his mother's memories. The walls were etched with faded runes, some glowing faintly in the presence of his core.
It was here he decided to train in the first of the lost techniques of the Emberblood line.
Blazing Heaven Scripture, First Form: Ashen Tempest Palm.
He pulled the technique scroll from a hidden pouch beneath his robes. Ink made of beast blood and spirit flame danced across its surface.
Each line he read burned itself into his memory, merging with the rhythm of his breath.
One stance.
Two stances.
Three forms…
The fourth stance nearly ruptured his veins.
The fifth singed the skin off his hands.
But he kept going, bleeding, breaking, healing.
At midnight, he collapsed, gasping, but smiling.
His right palm flared with flame.
His left shimmered with frost.
And the space between them crackled with gold.
He whispered, "I've begun."
---
Far away, in the inner Lin clan stronghold, a gathering of elders stared grimly at a glowing talisman.
"He's awakened it," one said.
"The Emberblood Core… after all these years."
"He must be eliminated before he completes the Scripture."
A shadow stepped forward, cloaked in black.
"I'll handle him," it said. "Before he rem
embers who he truly is."
The elders nodded.
And so, the first true enemy was dispatched.
Toward the mountains.
Toward Lin Xun.
Toward destiny.