The corridor beyond the fourth trial was unlike anything Kai had passed through before.
It pulsed with life.
The obsidian walls glowed with shifting runes, flowing like liquid fire across the stone. The air was thick with ancient power—so potent it sang against his skin. His every step felt like treading through the memory of a god.
And then…
Silence.
He stepped into a circular chamber, the largest yet. No walls. No sky. Just an endless void stretching in all directions. In the center hovered a single lotus made entirely of flame, its petals curled inward like a closed eye.
As Kai entered, the lotus began to unfold.
From its heart emerged a figure—neither illusion nor doppelgänger.
It was… the Flame itself.
The Ascendant Flame.
A being formed of pure essence—no face, no limbs, only a vaguely humanoid shape carved from roaring fire. Its voice struck not his ears, but his soul.
"You have walked the path of memory, of pain, of chains, and choice. Now, you must face truth."
Kai stood his ground, eyes narrowing. "I've passed every trial. What truth is left to reveal?"
The flame's heat intensified—not in temperature, but in gravity. Every regret, every fear he had long buried began to rise within him like ash caught in wind.
"You seek to ascend. But tell me… why?"
It was a simple question. But the silence that followed was deafening.
Kai opened his mouth, only to falter.
He had answers—he thought he did.
"To protect others… to honor the fallen… to cleanse the sect… to reach the peak…"
But the Flame was not asking for words.
It demanded conviction.
The lotus began to spin, its fire drawing closer.
Visions erupted around Kai—dozens, hundreds.
Him standing atop mountains of corpses, his blade soaked in blood.
Him failing to save Lin Yue—again and again.
Him breaking under the weight of leadership, consumed by ambition, or worse… becoming the very monster he swore to fight.
"Stop…" Kai gritted his teeth, fists clenched. "This isn't me."
"Not yet. But every step upward brings temptation. Power will ask for your soul—again and again."
The flame surged.
"So answer, Kai. Why do you ascend?"
He closed his eyes.
He saw his master's teachings. His childhood friends. The kindness of strangers who expected nothing. The countless cultivators who'd fallen without ever getting a chance to rise.
And he saw himself—not as a warrior, but as a boy beneath a moonlit sky, watching stars and whispering dreams into the night.
When he opened his eyes, his flame blazed gold.
"I ascend… not to rule, not to destroy. I ascend because someone must walk forward when others fall behind. Because if no one dares to rise, darkness will take everything."
The Ascendant Flame paused.
And then… it bowed.
Its fire folded back into the lotus.
The petals turned to ember, then ash, floating gently around Kai like snow.
A single spark remained—and entered his chest.
It was warm.
Alive.
A gift.
"Final Trial… passed."
"You now bear the Ascendant Flame."
The chamber faded.
Kai opened his eyes to find himself at the summit of the Obsidian Path, the five pillars now lit in crimson and gold behind him. In his hand, a new mark glowed—an emblem of a lotus of flame, etched into his palm.
But the path had not ended.
It had just begun.
He looked up toward the sky, where a storm brewed over the Northern Wastes.
War was coming.
And he would be ready.