A moment stretched across the sky.
Then came the command.
> "Cleanse the valley."
The Emperor's voice wasn't loud — it didn't need to be. It echoed through every soul present like an eternal decree. There was no need for drums, no fanfare, no war cries.
Just inevitability.
A thousand Heaven-Rank cultivators moved as one.
Each clad in stormsteel, faces hidden behind polished bone masks etched with runes of silence. Their blades shimmered — not with spirit energy, but with commanded will, the kind of power that crushed sects, not bandits.
---
Ranyi acted first.
She lifted both arms, and with a whisper, ice swept out in a perfect arc. It didn't fall like snow — it lashed through the sky like a blizzard scythe, cutting three attackers from the sky instantly. Their bodies turned to blue crystals before shattering midair.
Yan Wudi roared and leapt, lightning crawling across his body like a second skin. His foot crashed against a descending warrior's chest with the force of a spirit beast stampede, sending the man spiraling backward like a comet.
But for every one they struck down, ten more fell from the heavens.
"They're endless!" a disciple shouted from behind the inner line.
"No," murmured the scrollkeeper, blood running from his nose as he tried to keep a defensive barrier intact.
> "They're Heaven's reminder."
---
Shen Liun stood still.
He watched the slaughter unfold, heart pounding, flame swirling silently around his fists.
He could feel it — the old fear creeping up his spine.
The voice whispering: You're not enough. You were never enough. You couldn't even save your family. Your fiancée abandoned you. You are a mistake given form.
But over that voice, another one rose.
Rao Jin's.
> "Grief is stronger than hate."
And deeper still… the memory of his mother's hand brushing his hair back.
Of his father's fingers stained with ink from scrollwork.
Of his little sister humming lullabies while braiding flowers into his robe.
All gone.
All taken.
He opened his eyes.
And everything burned.
---
A Heaven-Rank cultivator charged toward him, blade glowing with divine blue fire — the kind that devoured not just flesh but karma.
Liun didn't move.
Instead, he whispered.
> "Ashen Verdict."
The cultivator's swing halted midair.
Confused, he blinked.
Then screamed — as fire erupted from inside his veins, his own cultivation turning against him, surging through his body like molten chains.
Liun caught him by the throat.
"Your blade tastes blood," he said softly. "Mine remembers it."
He crushed the man's neck in one motion and launched the corpse into another group of descending warriors.
---
"Protect the wounded!" Yan Wudi barked, catching an imperial spear with both hands and snapping it like kindling.
A cultivator tried to flank him — and vanished, his spine frozen midstep.
Ranyi flicked her wrist. "Next."
Then something shifted.
The air split.
Twelve golden spears rained down from the skies like falling suns.
"Twelve-Seal Execution!" a commander howled. "Don't let the Ashen Flame reach the next awakening!"
The impact shattered the earth — craters exploded outward, fire mixed with thunder and divine pressure.
Dust and blood filled the valley.
---
But when the smoke cleared… Shen Liun still stood.
Hovering above the cracked battlefield, fire spiraling around him like a storm of banners.
He now wore ashen armor — shaped from soul-forged flame, its edges inscribed with names. Not his. Not his family's.
But every rebel who had died before him.
> "The Empire erases names."
> "I write them into flame."
He opened his hand.
And the fifth chain fragment — the one he'd taken from Rao Jin's collapse — lit up.
Lines of crimson and gold spread across the sky.
> "This is not a rebellion," Liun said.
> "This is a remembrance."
---
At the edge of the battlefield, a single cultivator from the imperial side stopped.
His sword lowered.
"…Why do I feel like I know that name?" he whispered.
Ranyi saw him hesitate. So did Yan Wudi.
Others began to falter too.
The Ashen Flame wasn't just fire.
It was truth.
---
Far above, the Emperor watched from his palanquin. For the first time, he narrowed his eyes.
> "So he has begun to awaken the Archive of Embers."
He turned to the silent immortal beside him.
> "Send in the Seven Shrouded Blades."
---
Back in the valley, Shen Liun descended, his breath sharp, face pale.
He wasn't yet invincible.
He had reached the upper Soulwalker tier — but the power he channeled was not his own.
Not yet.
But it would be.
He looked at the fallen bodies around him.
Some were enemies.
Some… were allies.
His fists tightened.
"Ranyi. Wudi. We need to leave this valley. The Flame isn't meant to stay here."
Ranyi nodded grimly.
"Where?"
Liun looked toward the horizon.
> "To the Sunken Library."
> "To awaken the names they buried."
---