Beneath the celestial dome so high,
Where stars like embers kissed the sky,
Lin Xun sat with breath controlled,
In lotus pose, his soul took hold.
The seal upon his chest still glowed,
Its warmth a path his fate bestowed.
He traced its heat with cautious thought,
Uncertain of the war it brought.
> "Bloodline flames and truths concealed...
What depths must now be slow revealed?"
From distant pines the winds blew chill,
Yet in his core, the fire burned still.
—
Back within the Skyrect keep,
Where silent lords their secrets keep,
Sect Leader Fang observed the flame
That carved itself in Lin Xun's name.
Ancient scrolls were brought in haste,
Their ink like vines, their words unchaste.
> "Phoenix seal… no, a deeper root.
The Flame of Kings, ancestral fruit."
An elder whispered, eyes gone wide,
> "This mark… the Flame Monarch's tide.
That blood was lost a thousand moons…
Could it now play Heaven's tunes?"
But Sect Leader Fang said none too fast,
For knowledge vast could kill as fast.
> "Tell no soul of what we read.
Let time decide the fire's speed."
—
Meanwhile in the Moonveil Grove,
Where jade and silence interwove,
A girl in robes of sapphire thread
Sat plucking strings, her eyes unread.
Lu Qingyan, cold yet fair,
With eyes like night and twilight's glare,
Paused upon her guqin's hum,
And whispered,
> "So the child has begun."
A figure stepped from mist behind,
A servant old, with shattered mind.
> "He bears the mark?" the servant said.
"Then blood must spill before he's wed."
Qingyan smiled, but not in glee,
Her tone like frost upon the sea.
> "The flame he holds burns worlds apart,
But still—he cannot match my heart.
Let him climb, and bleed, and strive…
Before the true storm comes alive."
—
In the next dawn's solemn breath,
Where dew still clung like whispered death,
Lin Xun was summoned to the Hall,
Where sect disciples filled the wall.
A tournament of higher grade
Was now to start—the real parade.
The Celestial Challenge, vast and wide,
Where sects beyond the Skyrect lied.
> "Those ranked in top shall earn the right,
To choose a treasure forged in light."
But with it came a fatal twist—
A curse of blades within the mist.
For some would not survive the climb,
And others fall before their time.
Lin Xun stepped into the crowd,
Where rivals stood both fierce and proud.
Beside him, Xu Qingxue stood still,
With winter in her breath and will.
> "You're walking paths they want you gone.
You do not kneel, so you'll be drawn.
Stay close. The snakes now bare their fangs."
He offered just a lopsided smile,
> "Let them come. I've burned through worse."
—
Their path led through the Mystic Vale,
A sacred test beyond the pale.
They moved in teams of two and three,
Through cursed fog and haunted tree.
Beside Lin Xun walked a youth,
Tall and scarred, with eyes of truth.
His name was Bai Zhe—calm and grave,
A disciple forged from mountain cave.
> "My saber knows your flame is right.
Let's pass this trial, win the fight."
But deeper still the forests sang,
With laughter cold and death that rang.
They passed through bones and spirit ash,
Through traps of flame and poison lash.
And just as stars began to rise,
A shadow fell from blackened skies.
Assassins cloaked in dark array—
Three shadows forged from Ghost Fang Clay.
Their strikes were swift, their presence vile,
With blades soaked in corrupted bile.
> "The bounty's high," one snarled and lunged.
"A thousand years for blood unplunged!"
Lin Xun whirled, his saber howled,
A comet born where thunder growled.
His flames danced in arcs precise,
Carving death with chilling ice.
Bai Zhe fell into his stance,
His fists like drums, his steps a dance.
Together both they held their ground,
While enemies rained strikes profound.
Then from the dark, a fourth arose—
A master assassin, cloaked in woes.
He bore a mask of dragon bone,
And spoke with voice that chilled the stone.
> "Lin Xun… flame-born bane of fate.
This world is not your rightful state.
Die now, before your roots unchain,
Or watch the world collapse in pain."
He struck. The blow—a demon's wrath.
But Lin Xun, with a steady path,
Invoked the seal upon his soul,
And burned the sky to meet the goal.
A phoenix soared from saber's roar,
And turned assassin into lore.
—
When silence fell and ash blew clear,
The forest wept with hidden fear.
Bai Zhe stood with heavy breath,
Yet smiled in awe at near-death.
> "You are no youth," he said with nod.
"You fight like kings. You move like god."
But Lin Xun only wiped his blade,
His eyes like dusk, half calm, half shade.
> "Each foe I slay leaves me less whole…
But still I walk. I pay the toll."
—
Back within the Skyrect's gate,
The elders learned of fate's new weight.
Assassins sent, but none returned,
Another sign the heavens burned.
Sect Leader Fang just watched the stars,
And spoke to ghosts behind the bars.
> "His path ascends, though blood must stain…
Let all who hunt prepare for pain."
And in the dark
where secrets rest,
A scroll unfurled with names unblessed.
A girl's name shone in jade-stamped text—
Lu Qingyan's fate was now intertext.
> "Let them meet," the cosmos swore,
"And birth a tale unseen before."