The mountain path was steep, choked with overgrowth and the whisper of beasts hiding in the trees.
Li Fan had traveled for three days without rest. His legs ached, his body was stiff, and his water had run dry the day before. But his pace didn't slow. If anything, it grew steadier — the rhythm of footfalls upon earth, like a war drum in his chest.
His thoughts were ironclad, locked onto a single goal:
The Fire Cauldron.
At dusk, he reached it — a cleft in the mountainside, wreathed in sulfur and smoke.
The Scarlet Demon Forge.
Legend said it had once been a sacred fire-temple, until something inside it turned feral. No elder dared approach. Spirit beasts avoided the surrounding land.
Standing at its entrance, Li Fan could feel it — the heat radiating from deep within, far too intense for an ordinary human to survive.
> "This is it."
He stepped inside.
Immediately, sweat poured from his body. The heat scalded his lungs. The stone beneath his feet glowed faintly red. The tunnel twisted downward, deeper into the earth. And all around him, the walls whispered — faint echoes of screams and roaring flame.
Eventually, he entered a massive chamber — half-collapsed, with veins of magma running like rivers across the floor. At its center was a dais — a broken ritual platform shaped like a cauldron with nine arms. As he approached, his skin began to blister. The cauldron sigil in his chest pulsed in response.
Then the voice returned.
> "Initiating Second Tempering: Fire Cauldron — Blood Purification."
A roar sounded — not from the stone, but from beneath it. Lava surged. Magma beasts, glowing with infernal heat, rose from the molten cracks — hounds, serpents, and winged things made of pure fire.
Li Fan closed his eyes. His blood boiled. His fists clenched.
> "Burn me."