The moment Wei Feng and Lin Yue descended the Fire Origin Temple's final steps, they were met with a sky no longer passive—it churned with dark clouds, and distant roars echoed like drums of war.
Word of the Rootless Flame's awakening had already spread.
Sect envoys, bounty hunters, spirit beasts drawn by ancient instincts—they were all moving. And at the center of it stood a lone cultivator who had dared to brand himself Heaven-Breaker.
At the base of the volcanic ridge, a battle had already begun.
Dozens of cultivators from the Eight Star Alliance had surrounded the entrance, but they weren't prepared for what walked out. Wei Feng's aura alone made the ground tremble. Lin Yue beside him radiated sharpness like a blade unsheathed for the first time in centuries.
"You must be Wei Feng," a cold voice said.
A woman stepped forward, dressed in sky-blue robes, her pupils like twin lotus petals. "I am Bai Qian of the Jade Bloom Valley. I was sent to retrieve the flame."
"I retrieved it first," Wei Feng said calmly. "And now it burns with me."
Bai Qian's brows furrowed. "Then you burn with all its enemies."
Wei Feng smiled faintly. "Then let them come."
Suddenly, her form blurred—petals burst in the air, concealing a fatal strike. But the flame leapt on its own, forming a phoenix-wing shield that deflected the blow.
Lin Yue was already moving—her sword slicing clean through the illusion Bai Qian had left behind. But Wei Feng didn't chase.
"She wasn't here to fight," he said. "Just to confirm."
"Confirm what?" Lin Yue asked.
"That I'm alive," he replied. "And that soon, I'll be hunted by everyone who fears what breaking heaven might mean."