The city hadn't slept since that day.
Rumors were like wildfire, whispers crackled through alleys like dry leaves.
They didn't know his name, only what he left behind:
Ash. Silence. Fear.
---
Luan now wandered the desolate Outpost Town of Miran Hollow, built near the edge of mortal world territory—a land where maps began to blur and the wind carried voices not your own.
He wasn't running.
He was following something.
A pull—like gravity, but colder… older.
---
In a far-off temple of the Crimson Fang Clan,
three elders sat in silence.
One finally spoke:
> "The flame doesn't belong here. Not to mortals."
"It's not our realm's fire."
"It's bleeding through."
They didn't say where it came from.
They wouldn't even speak its name.
But they all agreed:
> "Send the Enforcers. And call the Sleepless Monk from the Veiled Star Monastery. He once touched the edge of that flame…"
---
Back in Miran Hollow, Luan met Toko—a rogue spirit-engraver who carved runes into broken bones for coin.
Toko looked at Luan's hand—the Eye Sigil pulsing slowly.
His eyes widened.
> "That's… no element I know. Not Fire. Not Void. Not Chaos. Not even Spirit."
He handed Luan a paper talisman with trembling fingers.
> "Hide that mark. Or the sky will start watching you."
---
The sky was already watching.
Above the mortal clouds, a floating island drifted slowly—its existence unknown to even the highest sects.
A woman with silver hair and eyes like dusk stood at its edge, her long cloak fluttering.
> "He walks among them. But the flame isn't theirs.
I wonder… how long before it remembers what it is."
---
Back on ground, danger came in mortal form.
Three bounty hunters tracked Luan through the woods beyond Miran Hollow.
All Spirit Gate cultivators. Veterans.
One had wind tattoos that made him disappear mid-fight.
One controlled bone-dust with his breath.
The last? Silent. Hooded. Always smiling.
Luan fought them with nothing but instinct and his living flame.
He dodged like he knew the strikes before they came.
He didn't control his power…
It protected him like a living thing.
But when the silent one reached for his neck—
> BOOM.
A surge of black fire exploded from his back, tearing trees, shattering earth, and leaving a perfect ring of scorched glass around him.
When he opened his eyes, the ground beneath him had cracked.
Buried in that earth—he found something:
A coffin. With ancient chains. And symbols in a language no one in this world used anymore.
One word etched on the lid:
> "Return."
Luan touched it.
And somewhere, in a realm beyond realms—a sealed gate twitched.
---
Far, far away… in a hidden dimension known only to those who forgot their names,
a figure inside a prison of mirrors opened one eye.
A voice echoed from within its cage:
> "He's walking the path again…
But he doesn't remember it was once mine."
---
End of Chapter 10.