Snow fell gently over the Blackwhistle Ridge, cloaking the mountains in silence. Each flake melted the moment it neared Lin Xun's body—burned away by the relentless heat that pulsed within his veins.
The fire inside him refused to rest.
Yet his surroundings whispered of stillness, of frost and forgotten memories.
As Lin Xun trekked deeper into the cold, he pulled his cloak tighter. The wind bit at his skin, not with malice, but with warning.
This place was sacred. And dangerous.
Beneath the snow and silence, something ancient stirred.
---
Days had passed since the ambush at Ember's Fang. The assassin's blood had barely dried before Lin Xun was on the move, following only whispers—a trail of half-truths and dying words that spoke of the Ember Sect's remnants.
A hidden valley. A forbidden seal. A place where fire and frost once lived in harmony.
His steps slowed near a cluster of frost-covered ruins.
Here, the snow fell heavier. Here, the silence deepened.
Here, he felt it—the resonance.
The ring on his finger pulsed once, and suddenly, the world blinked.
His surroundings shimmered, revealing a vision of the past—warriors dressed in crimson and white, standing atop these same stones, channeling twin elements in harmony.
They were beautiful.
And then they burned.
A great battle. Betrayal. Fire turned against frost. Frost sealed away fire.
And in the end—silence.
Lin Xun blinked the vision away, heart pounding.
These were his ancestors. Their spirits still lingered.
Their power, buried beneath the snow.
---
He pressed deeper into the ruins, guided by instinct.
Each step stirred the air. Symbols flared faintly beneath his boots. Ancient formations, still alive, still hungry.
When he stepped into the center of the altar, the ground cracked.
A burst of frost surged upward like a tidal wave.
But Lin Xun did not flee.
Instead, he raised both hands—one blazing, one freezing.
He spun them slowly, weaving the Ashen Tempest Flow, his body becoming the eye of a storm.
The frost hesitated.
Then accepted him.
The altar lowered into the earth, revealing a staircase carved from frozen flame.
He descended.
---
The hidden chamber was vast, lined with black ice and crimson crystal. At its heart, a throne—empty, save for a burning scroll and a blade sealed in chains.
He approached the scroll first.
Its letters rearranged themselves as he neared, revealing a message written by the founder of the Ember Sect.
> "To the last Emberblood—if you read this, it means our legacy failed to burn through the frost of betrayal."
> "But our flame never died. Within this chamber lies our final technique—Twin Tribulation Pulse. A method of absolute fusion, of balance between opposites."
> "It cannot be forced. It must be earned. With pain. With clarity."
Lin Xun clenched his fists.
He had known only pain. Betrayal. Isolation.
But clarity? That was something he was still searching for.
He stepped toward the chained blade.
It whispered his name.
The moment his fingers brushed the hilt, fire erupted—and frost followed. Chains shattered. The chamber trembled.
Visions flashed.
Himself—older, cloaked in fire.
Himself—frozen, unaging, eternal.
Himself—neither.
A flame that could not be tamed. A frost that would never melt.
He screamed as both entered him at once.
The world turned white, then black.
---
When he awoke, the chamber had quieted.
The blade lay beside him—now pulsing with both blue and crimson hues.
The scroll had burned to ash, its knowledge etched into his bones.
He had not mastered the Twin Tribulation Pulse, but he had inherited it.
The beginning was his.
He stood slowly, gripping the blade.
His core pulsed differently now—less chaotic, more deliberate.
He had taken another step.
From trash to threat.
From student to heir.
---
Outside, the snow had stopped falling.
A lone figure watched from the treetops, his breath curling in the cold.
"So… the last Ember has awakened," the man whispered. "Interesting. The others will want to know."
He vanished into the mist, leaving only footprints and the faint scent of spirit smoke.
---
And Lin Xun, unaware
of the new eyes upon him, walked into the dawning light.
Each step melted the snow.
But deep inside, beneath the heat…
…his heart had begun to chill.