When Lu Chan woke, the world had changed.
His limbs felt heavier, denser — like something ancient had been poured into them. The cavern had collapsed behind him, sealing off the path to the beast's remains. Yet the black scale remained in his palm, warm and pulsing with silent rhythm.
"This is no ordinary beast…""Its essence hasn't faded."
A whisper rose within him — not a voice, but a knowing.
The Hollow Flame didn't just destroy.It refined.
And his body, weak and malnourished, was now the furnace.
Beneath a dying sky, on the desolate slopes of the forgotten valley, Lu Chan began his first cultivation.
There were no jade manuals. No elders guiding him.
Only instinct… and the flame.
He started with breathwork. Each inhale stoked the Hollow Flame inside him. Each exhale cooled the searing pain crawling through his tendons. The first night, his skin blistered from within. The second, it cracked and peeled. By the third, steam rose from his back even in the mountain frost.
Then came the Tempering.
Refine the flesh. Temper the marrow. Ignite the bones.
Sitting cross-legged, he pressed the black scale to his chest.The moment it touched, the pain came — sharp, searing — but he endured.Flame threaded through his blood. Not burning… reshaping.
The scattered Qi in his meridians trembled. The shattered spiritual root, once declared useless, began to shift — as if the flame was melting it down, and forging it anew.
Days passed.The boy who had once collapsed from a single blow now punched through stone.His bones glowed faintly under moonlight.His breath steamed even in snow.
He was still no cultivator. Not yet.But the path of Body Forging — once seen as barbaric — had become his first step.
Then, on the seventh night, a figure appeared beneath the plum tree.
Not quite man. Not quite spirit. Cloaked in black, face veiled, hands clasped behind his back.
"The Hollow Flame has chosen again...""Very well. Let us see if you're worthy to carry the name of the first Forgemaster."
Lu Chan looked up, fists clenched, flame swirling faintly in his eyes.
"Then teach me," he said.
"Teach me how to fight Heaven."