The sun never touched the Hollow Vale, a cursed canyon east of Emberheart territory where Qi hung heavy and dead birds rotted mid-flight. Few cultivators ventured here -- and none returned.
But today, he was here.
The Soul Hunter.
He stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ruins of an ancient battlefield, his cloak fluttering, his face hidden behind a porcelain-white mask etched with black veins.
Behind him, the air shimmered—and the Matron's voice slithered into his mind.
"The target is Kai. Outer disciple. Fire attribute. Carries the Dragon's Flame."
"Eliminate him before the Second Seal awakens."
The Soul Hunter didn't speak.
He didn't need it.
He raised his hand, and a silver bell floated above his palm. It rang once—no sound came, yet somewhere, a soul flame lit up inlit up in the air, marking his target.
Then he vanished.
Back at Emberheart, Kai stood at the edge of the training cliff, blindfolded.
Around him, twelve flame sabres floated in a circle, each enchanted to strike at random intervals. A test of pure reaction, designed to sharpen a cultivator's instinct beyond vision.
Sabres flashed.
Kai has moved.
Twisting. Ducking. Parrying. Redirecting the flame.
He moved like a shadow, every counter tighter than the last. Sweat dripped down his face, but his expression was calm.
From the steps above, Elder Xuan and Linya watched in silence.
"He's adapting faster than predicted," Xuan said.
Linya crossed her arms. "Or the flame inside him is."
The elder's gaze darkened. "That's what worries me."
As Kai ended the session, sabre halted mid-air, a courier disciple approached, trembling.
"Message for Disciple Kai," the boy said, holding out a black scroll sealed in red wax.
Kai broke the seal.
There was no name. Just a phrase.
"Come to the Ashwood Temple at dusk. Come alone. Or others will die."
Linya leaned over his shoulder and read it. Her face hardened.
"Trap."
Kai nodded. "I know."
She grabbed his wrist. "You're not going alone."
Kai met her gaze—firm, but not angry.
"If I don't go, they'll come here."
He turned and walked away.
At dusk, the Ashwood Temple ruins were silent, save for the wind whispering through the crumbling stone.
Kai stood alone, a saber strapped to his back, eyes scanning the empty temple.
Then he felt it.
Not with killing intent.
Something worse.
The absence of life.
The Soul Hunter stepped on from behind a shattered pillar. No footsteps. No sound.
Only those hollow white eyes were staring from behind the mask.
"I thought you'd be taller," he said.
Kai's hand tightened on his hilt. "You came alone."
"I always do."
The bell floats between them, spinning slowly.
Then it rang, and the world shuddered.
The air around Kai compressed. His knees buckled. Voices screamed in his ears—memories not his own, pain not his own, hundreds of dying souls wailing in the dark.
"You carry the dragon's blood," the Soul Hunter said, his voice cold. "Give it to me, and I'll let your soul remain whole."
Kai's flames burst around him in defiance.
"I'll die before I give it up."
"Good," the hunter said. "That makes it easier."
They clashed.
Fire meets shadow. Sabre against silence.
Kai's strikes were fast, burning with golden fire—but the Hunter's movements were impossible to track. He moved like mist, like smoke, appearing behind Kai, then above, then beneath.
Kai bled. Wounds opened.
But he didn't retreat.
He learned.
Every clash gave him something. A pattern. A rhythm. A flaw.
And then he struck.
The golden flame arced upward, hitting the bell mid-ring. It shattered and the screams stopped.
The Hunter staggered for the first time, his mask cracked at the edge.
"You…"
He raised his hand again, this time summoning a sphere of black soul fire.
But before it could reach Kai, a white blade pierced through the Hunter's shoulder from behind.
Wei Chen stepped from the shadows.
"You took too long," he said to Kai.
Kai collapsed on one knee, breathing raggedly.
The Soul Hunter vanished in a burst of smoke—but left behind his mask.
Wei Chen picked it up, frowning.
"They won't stop now."
Kai looked up, eyes burning.
"Then neither will I."