The city of Emberlight stretched across the red mountain like a flame refusing to die.
Even from the distance, Lian Mu could feel the aura emanating from it thick with formation pressure, old cultivation residue, and the scent of incense burning from a thousand different altars.
Jagged towers reached upward like claws trying to catch the sun, their walls layered with crimson metal and carved obsidian.
Spirit lanterns drifted through the air, tethered to formation lines only visible when the light hit just right. Lian Mu stood on the edge of the ridge, his pack slung over one shoulder, and stared in silent awe.
This was no dusty outer-sect monastery. This was a true cultivation stronghold.
"Bigger than you thought?" Kael asked beside him, cracking a dry berry between his teeth.
Lian nodded slowly. "I didn't think cities like this were real. Not outside stories."
Kael smirked. "They're very real. And very eager to chew you up if you come in soft."
The carriage they'd traveled on one of many sent to ferry new initiates rattled down the winding mountain path. Ahead of them, dozens of other youths walked, rode, or glided their way toward the massive gate that led to the lower levels of the city.
Some wore clan colors flame reds, void blacks, storm silvers emblazoned with family crests and cultivation sect badges. Others walked alone, eyes hard and wary.
Most were older than Lian Mu by a few years. All of them radiated some form of qi. Some subtle. Others blatant.
And above them all, built into the carved terraces of the volcano itself, loomed the Emberlight Academy.
A monolithic tiered structure of smooth stone and rune-etched metal, with four rising levels that climbed into the clouds. The lowest tier was for initiates and outer disciples.
The second tier housed core students and elite apprentices. The third? Reserved for true cultivators those who had reached the higher stages of the Flamebearer Path and beyond.
As for the top tier?
That was for elders, councilors, and those few cultivators who had transcended the normal stages of cultivation and had begun to command elements directly.
It was said the Flame Council convened there, and that the roof was open to the stars not for beauty but to allow celestial energy to fall unhindered upon those worthy to harness it.
Lian swallowed hard.
Kael handed him a rolled parchment. "Your formal entry documents. Try not to lose them."
Lian opened the scroll.
Name: Lian Mu
Origin: Wandering Wilds, Ashwake Territory
Path Classification: Unranked – Initiate Flamebearer
Godseed Status: Registered
Trial Tier: Standard Initiate – Survival Class
"Survival class?" Lian muttered. "What does that mean?"
Kael looked away. "Means you're not in the luxury batch. Means you're going to have to prove you belong before they give you anything worth having."
The gates opened with a rumble.
A formation swept over them like a scanner, bathing each candidate in shimmering light.
Lian felt it pass through his skin, his bones, even his spiritual sea.
[Spiritual signature confirmed: Candidate Lian Mu]
[Synchronization: 23.2% – Godseed Registered]
[Initiate Access Granted]
Just like that, he stepped through.
Initiate Quarters Emberlight Academy, Lower Tier
Lian's living space was smaller than he'd expected a simple cell carved into the rock, barely wide enough to stretch out in. A spirit lamp hung overhead, flickering weakly.
At least there was a basin of water and a mat for cultivation.
Outside, initiates were already shouting and sparring in the courtyard. Some practiced techniques beneath copper framed statues of ancient cultivators. Others clustered in corners, forming alliances or eyeing enemies.
Lian took it in silently.
No one welcomed him. No one offered help.
He wasn't surprised.
He was no one, to them. No sect. No clan. Just a rural-born outsider who got lucky.
They didn't know about the Godseed burning in his chest. Or the visions. Or the fire that still whispered every time he focused.
He liked it that way.
He sat down, closed his eyes, and drew his breath inward.
The ember within him responded instantly.
[Godseed Activity: Low resonance – Meditation Mode: Active]
[Flame Resonance: Passive Qi Recovery – Moderate efficiency]
[Meridian Flow: Stable]
Every time he meditated now, the Godseed seemed to stretch slightly like a bird testing its wings after a long sleep.
And yet, he knew it wasn't ready to fully awaken.
Not yet.
First Initiation Trial - The Hollow Flame
At sunset, the Academy changed.
Flames lit along every walkway. Drums boomed from high towers. A flare rose into the sky red, searing, urgent.
An instructor's voice echoed across the courtyard, magically projected.
"All new initiates are to report to the Trial Arena immediately. Your first test begins now. Those who fail to arrive within one incense stick's burn will be removed from the path."
No time for hesitation.
Lian grabbed his satchel and sprinted with the others.
The Trial Arena was carved into the mountainside a coliseum of dark stone and flameglass, its stands partially filled with other disciples watching from above.
In the center of the arena stood a tall woman with raven black robes and crimson gauntlets.
Her voice rang out like a blade.
"I am Instructor Lin Serai, head of the Flamebearer Initiation Path. Tonight, you will undergo your first test not of skill, or of strength, but of instinct."
A portion of the arena floor began to descend, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.
"This is the Hollow Flame. A labyrinth beneath Emberlight filled with echoes of spiritual residue, failed trials, and unclaimed power. You will descend, survive, and find the Ember Torch. Light it, and you pass."
The air tensed.
"Some of you will break. Some of you will be broken. But understand this your journey as cultivators begins now. Not when you learn your first technique. Not when you earn your first kill. But now when you choose to walk into the dark, alone."
One by one, initiates were ushered forward.
Lian stepped onto the platform without hesitation.
He descended into the black below.
The descent felt eternal.
Lian Mu moved quickly through the spiral stair, the torchlight from above vanishing after the first thirty steps. The deeper he went, the colder it became not in temperature, but in spirit.
The very stone whispered of failure, echoing with fragments of thoughts left behind by broken cultivators.
"You're not strong enough…"
"Why did I come here?"
"Leave. Leave. Leave…"
The Hollow Flame was more than a test. It was a graveyard of ambition. At the bottom, the stair opened into a wide, circular chamber choked with a low burning fog.
The floor was etched with faded runes and charred claw marks. In the center sat a path of scorched stone, leading into a corridor swallowed by darkness.
Lian wasn't alone.
Others had already arrived four initiates stood apart from one another, each radiating a different kind of intensity.
There was Xun Mei, a girl cloaked in shifting water vapor, her tattoos glowing faintly with sapphire-blue script.
Lian recognized the markings they were from the Jade Whisper Clan, known for their secretive water arts and spirit illusions.
Beside her stood Jiro Kan, a tall initiate wielding a blade nearly as long as he was tall.
His aura pulsed like storm pressure he was from one of the outer Flame Provinces but clearly trained in high-level qi enhancement. Every breath he took sounded like a furnace being stoked.
The last was a mystery.
A figure cloaked in bone white wrappings stood at the edge of the room, hands clasped behind his back. No visible weapon. No obvious aura.
Yet Lian felt more threat from him than the other two combined.
"Looks like the Godseed runt made it," Jiro said, grinning wide.
Lian ignored him, studying the runes on the ground.
One pulsed faintly beneath his foot.
[Flameborne Residue Detected: Path 1 Activated]
A new passage opened with a soft click straight ahead, lined with sigils that shimmered in gold and red. The others watched, surprised.
"You activated it?" Xun Mei said quietly. "Without a charm?"
"I didn't need one," Lian replied.
The white-robed figure finally turned. His eyes were black, rimmed in crimson veins. No sclera. No emotion.
"You're not supposed to be here," the figure said softly.
"Neither are you," Lian said.
The figure tilted its head. "Interesting answer."
Then they all moved into the Hollow Flame.
Within the Trial Maze
The Hollow Flame maze wasn't just corridors it was alive.
Walls pulsed with old qi. Shadows bent at impossible angles. Spirits lingered at every turn, their eyes hollow and begging, drawn to any surge of energy. At times the halls changed behind them, sealing off passages and forcing detours.
Lian moved quickly, conserving his strength, striking only when he had to.
The Godseed pulsed with every skirmish.
[Flame Resonance: Advancing]
[Qi Absorption Efficiency: 45%]
[New Trait Detected – "Burning Thread": Minor fire based tether technique unlocked.]
The spirits grew more aggressive as he neared the center.
At one turn, he encountered a massive beast formed of ash and bone its ribcage lined with broken weapons, its eyes made of melted flameglass. It lunged with a roar that rattled the walls.
Lian dodged under its strike and drew deeply from his inner flame.
"Third Form: Ember Thread!"
A thin line of flame shot from his palm, wrapping around the beast's leg. The moment it connected, it ignited, chaining upward like wildfire along its body.
The creature shrieked and exploded into spiritual mist.
[Godseed Synchronization: 29.8%]
He pressed on.
Confrontation at the Ember Torch
After what felt like hours, Lian reached the chamber.
It was a wide, domed cavern with a broken skylight high above. In its center, atop a blackened pedestal, stood the Ember Torch an ancient brazier of obsidian and gold, unlit, its basin covered in ash.
He wasn't the first to arrive.
Xun Mei and the white-robed initiate were already there.
She stood with one hand raised, casting a protective mist barrier between her and the torch. The white-robed one simply watched her, unblinking.
When Lian entered, the barrier flickered.
"Back off," Xun Mei snapped. "This torch needs to be lit by someone worthy. That's not you."
The robed figure didn't respond. Instead, he stepped aside, gesturing toward the torch.
"You light it," he said to Lian.
"…Why me?"
"You're the variable," the figure replied. "The others are known quantities. You? You're the one the Council is watching."
"What?"
Before he could ask more, Jiro burst into the room, sword already half drawn.
He didn't waste words. He just charged.
Lian moved.
Their clash shook the room Jiro's brute force met Lian's refined flame techniques in a flurry of strikes and counters. The Godseed burned hotter with every second.
At last, Lian broke through Jiro's guard.
With a roar, he unleashed all of his remaining qi into a final strike "Fourth Form: Ember Lash!"
A wave of burning chains lashed outward, striking Jiro square in the chest and flinging him back into the wall, unconscious.
The room went quiet.
Xun Mei dropped her barrier, wide eyed.
Lian, panting, turned to the torch.
It called to him.
He reached out and the Godseed surged.
[Godseed Status: Igniting Pathway]
[Flame Resonance: Synchronization 33.1%]
[Initiate Flamebearer Path Unlocked Rank: Bronze Ember]
He touched the torch.
Flame erupted skyward not just any flame, but gold shot through with streaks of red and white. The cavern trembled. The torch drank the energy and burned brighter than it had in decades.
Above, the watching instructors saw it. So did the elders on the third tier. So did the Flame Council, in their shadowed observatory.
And somewhere far beyond Emberlight, deep in the wildlands, something stirred.
Aftermath
When Lian emerged from the Hollow Flame hours later, covered in ash and spirit burns, he wasn't alone.
Xun Mei walked beside him, glancing at him with something between confusion and curiosity. Jiro followed behind, limping but alive. The white robed figure? Gone. No one had seen him leave.
At the top of the stairs, Instructor Lin Serai waited.
She nodded once, expression unreadable.
"You pass," she said. "All three of you."
Then, to Lian: "And you Candidate Lian Mu are now officially recognized as a Flamebearer Disciple. From this day forward, your path is watched."
Lian bowed slightly. "By who?"
She turned away.
"By everyone."