Midnight.
The stars hung like burnt-out coals across the heavens. Moonlight poured through the cracks in the mountain, but it did not reach the canyon where Shen Yao now stood.
This was the Southern Abyssal Gorge — a restricted zone for outer sect disciples, said to be filled with unstable spiritual veins and buried beast graves. No one came here voluntarily.
Unless they had something to hide or something to kill.
Shen Yao stood still at the edge of the abyss, eyes closed, robes unmoving despite the cold wind that screamed up the chasm like a buried god weeping.
Behind him, faint footsteps which were light, cautious and cwardly.
Just as expected.
"Brother Yun," Shen Yao said without turning.
The footsteps froze.
"I knew it would be you."
Yun Cheng emerged from the shadows, face taut with fake calm. His outer robes were folded, trimmed in flame embroidery—a senior disciple's personal style. But his hand hovered too close to the hilt of his soulbound saber.
"You followed me?"
"No," Shen Yao said quietly. "I arrived before you."
Yun Cheng's smile twitched. "Then this meeting is a coincidence?"
"You brought your divine scroll. Don't insult both of us."
The wind shifted. A faint trace of golden paper hidden beneath Yun Cheng's sleeve glinted for a moment.
Divine decree.
Heaven's tool.
If activated, it would summon a binding formation and mark Shen Yao with a sin brand… the first step toward public execution.
Yun Cheng sighed and dropped the act.
"You've changed, Shen Yao."
"You haven't." said Shen Yao.
"You're smarter. More composed. Stronger." His eyes narrowed. "That usually comes after a life-or-death enlightenment. Or a contract with something forbidden."
Shen Yao's expression didn't shift.
"You think too little of me, brother."
"I think you're dangerous," Yun Cheng said. "That's why the Sect Master sent me."
So that was the truth. Not a traitor acting alone.
The sect had already begun its silent hunt and they sent the one closest to him to strike first — the loyal shadow of his past life.
They thought that would work.
How poetic and idiotic.
"Let me see the scroll," Shen Yao said.
Yun Cheng hesitated. "So you can destroy it?"
"No," Shen Yao replied. "So I can watch Heaven lie in calligraphy."
Yun Cheng unrolled the scroll. Golden ink glowed across the parchment like sunlight etched into flesh. Characters shimmered with divine authority, spinning midair into a binding formation.
It listed Shen Yao's crimes.
Suspected Flame Deviation.
Unauthorized Soul Root Enhancement.
Refusal to Submit Flame for Celestial Registration.
Shen Yao laughed.
Low, bitter and cold.
"All of them true. And none of them sins."
Yun Cheng's eyes were unreadable. "You could've just joined the Flame Registry. It's not like they would've sealed you—"
"They would've copied me," Shen Yao snapped. "Branded my flame, dissected my core, and thrown my ashes into the Pillar Archive as a 'case study.'"
He stepped forward, slow.
One pace.
Two.
And the golden scroll began to dim.
The wind had changed.
No longer just air.
It now carried heat.
"Your flame…" Yun Cheng whispered. "It's wrong. It's… listening."
Shen Yao said nothing. The Whisperbrand had activated the moment Yun Cheng unrolled the decree. Every word spoken with divine authority was now etched into Shen Yao's Sinflame Ledger.
He now knew the full language of Heaven's intent against him and with that came permission to burn.
"You were my brother once," Shen Yao said, voice quiet.
Yun Cheng's fingers trembled.
Shen Yao reached into his sleeve and drew a simple iron fan. No embellishment. Just cold steel. With a flick, flame sparked along its edge.
He snapped it open.
Six glyphs blazed across the folds: Ash. Silence. Karma. Flame. Sever. Sin.
"I won't kill you tonight," Shen Yao said. "Because I already branded you."
Yun Cheng's face drained of color.
"You… what?"
"The moment you held the talisman I gave you," Shen Yao said. "Your flame was marked. The Sinflame Ledger now sees you."
Yun Cheng backed away.
"You're bluffing."
"No," Shen Yao said. "I'm giving you a gift. Run back to the sect. Tell the elders. Tell them their favorite son carries a brand that cannot be removed."
"You want to start a war?"
"I am the war."
Yun Cheng turned and vanished into the gorge's shadow. His spiritual presence flared and vanished within moments—he was truly fleeing. Shen Yao stood at the edge of the chasm, watching the place where his past had just run then he turned to the abyss itself.
He leapt.
Down.
Silence.
Then— Heat.
He landed on a platform of emberstone, buried deep in the gorge's lungs. Here, the spiritual veins ran wild, spiraling into fractured essence currents. Most would've burned to ash the moment they tried to absorb even a thread.
Shen Yao inhaled and the flames answered.
His veins pulsed with pressure.
Fire flowed backward.
[Infernal Immortality System: Dangerous Essence Source detected. Initiating Soulfurnace Trial.]
[Tribulation Core: Ready.]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
Shen Yao closed his eyes.
"Yes." And the surroundings changed.
Flames coiled around him like chains of lightning. His skin split. His bones screamed. His soul flame surged, then fractured.
Then— Bound itself tighter.
The Silent Flame did not burn outward. It burned inward, refining every fragment of Shen Yao's body and mind. The tribulation didn't come from above.
It came from within.
His guilt, rage and buried pain.
It became the trial.
He saw Yun Cheng watching him die.
He saw Lian Xue's corpse half-buried in ash.
He saw himself — kneeling before the Divine Tribunal, begging for mercy he would never receive and then…He saw himself rise.
Wreathed in fire.
Laughing.
When he opened his eyes, the flames bowed.
The embers cooled And the Infernal Flame Mark glowed across his chest — a brand of truth carved from sin.
[Flame Resonance Node: Activated — Karma-Sensing Flame unlocked.]
[Tribulation Core strength doubled.]
[Whisperbrand Flame upgraded: Sinflame Threads — Can now trace karmic chains back to divine origin points.]
[New Martial Art Unlocked: Ember Pulse Severing Technique.]
Shen Yao stood naked, bloodied and reborn. He wrapped his robe back over his body and stepped out of the infernal trial as if walking from a hot spring.
The abyss whispered behind him but nothing followed because He had already consumed it.
Back at the sect, Yun Cheng collapsed before the elders, sobbing, scroll in hand.
They listened.
They pondered.
And one elder turned to the shadows and whispered:
"He activated it already?"
A second voice answered.
"Yes. The Sinflame awakens."
"Then we must proceed to phase two."
And from behind the curtain of Heaven, a divine eye opened.
Watching.
In the land of flame, those who watched too long were destined to be burned — and Shen Yao had just taught the first one how to scream.