They were divided into squads of five and cast into a scorched valley known as Emberfall. The challenge: survive for seven days, secure resources, and defend a flame sigil carved into obsidian at the heart of each team's temporary stronghold.
Those who lost their flame sigil lost everything.
Each squad received one item of aid, a mystery treasure drawn from the imperial vault.
Xie Lan's team drew the Blazing Mirror, an artifact that could reflect a single attack but only once. And only under moonlight.
His squad was… inconvenient.
Zhao Heng, still bitter, now painfully respectful.
Fan Yushu, an aloof scholar with wind-based techniques.
Mu Lanyin, a silent blade-dancer with a vendetta against nobility.
Lin Bai, a wandering healer and illusionist who never stopped smiling.
"This'll be fun," Lin Bai said as they made camp. "Fire, backstabbing, the usual."
Xie Lan merely nodded. "Stay sharp. They'll come for our flame tonight."
They did.
---
Nightfall – First Siege
The attackers arrived in silence, masked in smoke. Xie Lan sensed them before the others.
Ten enemies. Coordinated.
He moved like shadow cutting down two before the alarm even rose. Zhao Heng fought like a rabid beast. Lanyin vanished and reappeared with throats in her hands. But the attackers were only a distraction.
From the treeline, a cloaked figure hurled a soul-breaking talisman at the flame sigil.
"Mirror!" Xie Lan barked.
Fan Yushu unleashed the Blazing Mirror under moonlight. The talisman rebounded, striking the enemy squad's own camp across the valley.
A column of fire erupted.
Screams followed.
> [Enemy Team Eliminated. Villain Points +20.
Reputation: Rising Flame, Notorious Among Contestants.]
Xie Lan stared into the fire.
This wasn't war. It was rehearsal.
---
Day 3 – Negotiations
Two teams approached under flags of temporary truce. One was led by a prince of the western provinces , Ji Hanlin, famed for both his charm and cruelty.
The other… was led by Li Meiyan.
She stood, hair braided in silver thread, expression unreadable.
"Seventh Brother," she said, voice melodic. "We thought it wise to speak."
He said nothing, gesturing for her to continue.
"There are greater threats than one another. The Crown Prince's squad has rallied three other teams. They intend to wipe out the rest — us included."
Ji Hanlin smirked. "Which is why, for now, I propose a temporary alliance. We crush Xie Yan. Then return to tearing each other apart."
Xie Lan stared at them.
He knew the games. The lies.
But he also knew he couldn't defeat Xie Yan alone, not yet.
"Fine," he said. "But betray me, and you'll burn before your sigils do."
Li Meiyan smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it."
> [Temporary Alliance Formed: +Access to Intelligence Network | Sub-Quest Unlocked: Sabotage the Crown Prince's Supply Line]
---
Night 6 — The Sabotage
Xie Lan moved alone beneath moonlight, cloaked in Shadow Cloak and reinforced with Soulflame Warding.
The Crown Prince's fortress was an architectural insult — lavish, reinforced, and surrounded by cowardice.
Xie Yan himself stood at its core, glowing with radiance.
Xie Lan didn't confront him.
He poisoned the wells. Reversed the compass runes. Replaced half the fire powder with black sand.
> [Sabotage Success: -20 Resources to Crown Prince Team | Villain Points +25 | Reputation Title Upgraded: Ember Strategist]
When he returned, the alliance camp buzzed.
Whispers of the Crown Prince's rage spread like wildfire.
Xie Lan slept that night with a blade beneath his pillow and a plan forming in his mind.
Let them think this is about survival.
Let them underestimate what a villain truly is.
---
Smoke rolled over Emberfall like a creeping tide, carrying the scent of scorched iron and dying flame. The air had turned red beneath the rising sun, as if the sky itself had bled into morning. Where once silence ruled, now came the thunder of marching boots.
The third trial was entering its final act.
And Xie Lan stood at the center of it all.
---
Dawn of the Seventh Day – Alliance Stronghold
"They'll be here by high sun," Li Meiyan said, her voice clipped but composed. A rough map lay unfurled across a slab of rock, showing the terrain of Emberfall.
"Scouts counted at least thirty approaching from the south ridge — led by Crown Prince Xie Yan himself."
Xie Lan's gaze swept over the battlefield.
"They won't stop at victory," he murmured. "They want humiliation."
Fan Yushu chuckled. "Then let's give them disappointment."
Ji Hanlin leaned in with a toothy grin. "This is where we burn the golden boy off his pedestal."
"Not yet," Xie Lan said.
He pointed to a choke point northeast — a narrow pass lined with crumbling obsidian walls.
"We bleed them there."
---
Preparation
Traps were laid, fire runes hidden beneath leaves, spirit-twine strung between trees to create barriers, and pools of quick-burning oil buried under dirt.
Xie Lan oversaw everything.
He carved talismans into the very rock, embedding subtle echoes of soul energy to manipulate perception and spatial orientation. Those who entered would lose direction, lose nerve, lose formation.
By midmorning, even the birds had fled.
> [System Alert: Tactical Environment Control Achieved. Buff to Team Awareness +10%. Buff to Enemy Accuracy -15%. Unique Reward Pending Based on Outcome.]
He nodded once. Everything was set.
---
Noon – The Battle Ignites
They came with banners high and blades drawn the elite squads of the Crown Prince's forces, draped in silks and armor blessed by temple monks. At the forefront stood Xie Yan, golden as ever, with a cultivator's poise and an emperor's arrogance.
He raised his hand. Thunder cracked.
Attack.
The southern ridge erupted in flame.
Enemies flooded the pass and were immediately swallowed in chaos. Explosions from the rune traps shattered their formation. Fan Yushu's wind blades cut through smoke like razors. Ji Hanlin's squad drove forward, spears tipped with lightning essence.
Then came Zhao Heng, roaring as he swung his halberd through two enemies in one blow.
But it wasn't enough.
The Crown Prince's elite still advanced.
That's when Xie Lan acted.
---
Shadow Surge
Cloaked in his Shadow Cloak and boosted by the Villain System, Xie Lan blinked through the chaos, slipping behind enemy lines. His target wasn't the soldiers.
It was the commanders.
He struck fast disabling a key strategist by severing their meridians, shattering a qi core with a precise jab to the spine, and binding one with a silence talisman to keep them from casting.
Then he faced him.
Xie Yan.
---
Brothers Clash
They circled each other amid fire and blood.
"I see you've grown bolder, little brother," Xie Yan sneered. "But ambition doesn't suit you."
Xie Lan gave a small smile. "Neither did the crown."
Their blades clashed.
Xie Yan wielded a sword of sunsteel, glowing with divine essence. Xie Lan countered with the Shadow Lotus Blade granted by the system, its petals of dark energy unfurling with each strike.
The air cracked around them.
Xie Yan launched an incantation a Heaven-Tier technique meant to annihilate.
Xie Lan whispered, "Absorb."
The blade shimmered. The petals wrapped around the attack and devoured it.
Xie Yan's eyes widened.
"What have you become?"
Xie Lan stepped forward, his aura rising, twisting, seething.
"The villain you made me."
---
Victory in Fire
Xie Lan didn't kill him.
He humiliated him, disarmed him, shattered his spirit shield, and struck him down in front of all watching eyes.
Li Meiyan's forces advanced, scattering the remaining troops.
Within minutes, it was over.
> [System Update: Major Quest Complete — Crown Prince Humbled] [Villain Points +150 |
Title Unlocked: Ember King | Reward: Heaven-Grade Artifact — Phoenix Ash Heart]
> [New Subsystem Unlocked: Political Influence Tracking — "Shadows of the Court"]
---
Aftermath
As the victors returned to the stronghold, celebration broke like dawn, laughter, cheer, and awe.
But Xie Lan remained outside, standing amid the dying flames.
Lin Bai joined him, holding a flask. "You did it. The whole court will hear of this."
Xie Lan looked to the horizon.
"Good. Let them know."
He turned to face the ruins.
"This was never about the throne. This is about making them regret giving it to someone else."