The tremor faded, but the air still crackled with tension. Kai withdrew his hand from the sarcophagus, and the mark on his palm dimmed to a faint ember. Whatever connection had sparked—it had not been severed, only buried deeper.
Elder Jian exhaled slowly. "You didn't awaken him. That… is fortunate."
Kai turned toward the elder, his voice sharp. "I wasn't trying to. But he spoke to me."
Jian's brow furrowed. "He spoke?"
Kai nodded. "He asked if I'd burn the past or become it."
For a moment, the old man said nothing. Then, he gestured toward a stone bench nearby. "Sit, Kai. There's more you need to understand."
Kai obeyed, eyes still fixed on the sarcophagus as if it might stir again.
"The First Flame Sect wasn't the only one founded on blood," Jian began. "But we are the only ones that tried to erase it."
He tapped his chest.
"Every sect elder carries a flame brand. It binds our qi to the founding legacy, to the Crucible—and to the seal. That's how the Founder has remained dormant all these centuries."
Kai's eyes widened. "Then if the elders die—"
"The seal weakens." Jian nodded gravely. "And elders have been dying, Kai. Quietly. Some from age. Others… not so natural."
Kai's mind raced. "So someone is trying to break the seal."
"Or awaken what lies beneath it," Jian murmured. "We don't know who, or why. But we suspect an inner hand. Someone inside the sect."
A chill passed through Kai. "You brought me here because you think I can stop them."
"No," Jian said, standing. "I brought you here because the flame chose you—and if it did, it means the time of balance is ending."
The elder walked toward the exit of the chamber. "You're not ready yet, Kai. Not for what's coming. But you will be. If you're willing to endure."
Kai stood as well. "I've endured before."
"Not like this."
Jian raised his hand, and the stone door opened to a descending staircase shrouded in fog. The air that escaped was heavy with dampness and the scent of old stone and blood.
"The Obsidian Path lies below. A training ground once used by the Flame-Bound. No light reaches it. No guide leads the way. You enter alone—and emerge changed. Or not at all."
Kai stared into the dark, and something in him stirred.
Resolve.
"I'm ready."
Jian gave a nod. "Then may your flame outlast the shadows."
Without another word, Kai stepped into the mist, the stone door sealing behind him.
And the silence of the chamber returned—broken only by the faintest thud from within the sarcophagus.