The snowstorm came suddenly.
Winds howled through the forest with a fury that turned pine needles into daggers and the sky into a spinning veil of white. Lin Yan stood at the mouth of the cave, cloak whipping behind him, watching nature's wrath with calm eyes.
He had changed.
Only a few weeks ago, he would've flinched at thunder or cowered from cold.
Now… he welcomed it.
"Your time in the cave is ending," Mei Qingxue said from behind him. "The outside world is waking up. And so is your past."
She handed him a scroll sealed with a dark-red talisman.
"The Cauldron Hall has issued a bounty."
Lin Yan turned slowly. "On me?"
"No. On themselves," she replied with a faint smirk. "They're looking for you. But not to kill you… yet. They want to retrieve what they believe is still theirs."
Lin Yan's eyes darkened.
"Their property," he muttered.
Mei Qingxue nodded. "They think you're still a furnace. Still weak. Still broken."
He unrolled the scroll.
It was a notice marked by the **Seal of the Thousand Desires Sect**, the mother sect of Cauldron Hall. There was a sketch of his younger face, his name written in cruel calligraphy:
> *"Furnace: Lin Yan — Property of Cauldron Hall. Runaway. Unauthorized. Reward: 300 Spirit Stones (intact body), 50 (damaged)."*
His fists clenched.
Not even a person.
A **commodity**.
---
That night, Lin Yan didn't sleep.
He meditated beneath the open sky as the storm passed. Snow settled on his shoulders and melted into steam.
Mei Qingxue approached quietly and knelt beside him.
"I can burn the scroll if you're not ready," she offered.
Lin Yan didn't open his eyes.
"I'm not afraid of them," he said. "But I won't fight them as I am now. Not yet."
He turned to her.
"I want to enter the **Spirit Tempering Realm**."
Mei Qingxue was silent for a moment.
"You could die."
"I already have," Lin Yan replied. "Many times. I just didn't stay dead."
---
The next day, Mei Qingxue led him to the edge of a cliff that overlooked a ravine filled with glowing red mist.
"The **Rift of Reflection**," she said. "A natural spirit convergence. Every soul that steps into it faces their darkest self. If you survive, you emerge reborn. If not…"
She let the wind finish the sentence.
Lin Yan stepped forward.
No hesitation.
No turning back.
As he jumped into the rift, Mei Qingxue whispered under her breath:
"Forge well, little flame."