*Chapter 54: Inferno’s Embrace**
The bandit leader emerged from the smoke like a vengeful god, his molten eye blazing with a fury that set the air itself aflame. The villagers' cheers died in their throats as he strode forward, each step leaving smoldering footprints in the earth. His remaining bandits—a dozen scarred survivors—fanned out behind him, their weapons glinting with stolen qi.
"You think killing my hounds makes you a wolf?" His voice was a furnace roar, flames licking from his lips. "You're just another ember to be crushed."
Li Tian tightened his grip on the spatial staff, the Aeternum Core's fissures throbbing beneath his robes. The artifact's light had dimmed to a sickly amber, its whispers frayed and distant. Xiaoling's voice, once a steady guide, now flickered like a dying candle. *"Gege… his fire… it's not just qi…"*
The bandit leader raised a hand, and the ruins of the granary erupted into a pillar of black flame. Villagers screamed as the inferno spread, swallowing homes and crops alike.
"Run to the river!" Meiying barked, herding the panicked crowd.
Li Tian didn't move. His staff hummed with spatial energy, its tip carving defensive sigils into the air.
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**The Dance of Fire and Void**
The bandit leader struck first, a whip of liquid fire snapping toward Li Tian's throat. He warped space, redirecting the flame into a cluster of bandits. Their screams were cut short as the fire consumed them, leaving only ash.
"Pathetic," the leader growled. "You protect these worms, yet feed them to the flame!"
Li Tian lunged, staff spinning. Spatial blades sliced through the fire whip, but the leader reformed it with a flick of his wrist. The molten eye pulsed, and the ground beneath Li Tian's feet liquefied into magma.
*"Left!"* Xiaoling's warning came a heartbeat too late.
Li Tian twisted, but the magma geyser grazed his leg, searing through flesh. He hissed, channeling the Core's energy to numb the pain. The artifact protested, shadows leaking from its cracks.
The leader pressed his advantage. Fire serpents coiled from his palms, their fangs dripping molten stone. Li Tian countered with gravity wells, crushing the serpents mid-strike. Each deflection cost him—the Core's fissures spread, veins of shadow creeping up his neck.
"You're dying, boy," the leader taunted, summoning a vortex of embers. "That trinket's eating you alive."
Li Tian didn't answer. He couldn't. Every breath seared his lungs, every heartbeat echoed the Core's faltering pulse.
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**The Villagers' Defiance**
A rock struck the leader's shoulder. Then another.
Lin stood at the river's edge, his small arm drawn back. "Leave him alone!"
The villagers followed suit—stones, arrows, even farming tools rained down. The bandit leader snarled, swatting the projectiles aside with a wave of heat.
"Insects!"
A fireball surged toward Lin.
Li Tian moved.
Space folded, and he materialized in front of the boy, staff raised. The fireball detonated against a spatial barrier, the backlash hurling Li Tian into the riverbank.
"Tian!" Meiying dragged him from the mud, her face ashen.
He coughed blood, the Core's light sputtering. "Get them… out."
The leader's laughter shook the earth. "Too late."
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**The Core's Gambit**
Li Tian staggered to his feet. The river's chill seeped into his boots, a stark contrast to the inferno around him. He pressed the Core to his chest, its fractured surface biting into his skin.
*"Xiaoling… one last push."*
The artifact flared, shadows and light intertwining. The bandit leader hesitated, his molten eye narrowing.
"What—?"
Li Tian slammed the staff into the river. Spatial energy ripped through the water, carving a trench that diverted the current into a spiraling tsunami. The bandit leader's flames met the deluge in a cataclysmic clash, steam erupting in a blinding cloud.
"You drown us both?!" the leader roared, his form flickering within the mist.
"No." Li Tian's voice was calm. "Just you."
He channeled the Core's remaining energy into a singularity—a pinprick of infinite gravity hidden within the steam. The bandit leader's flames inverted, sucked into the void.
"NO! The Flame Emperor will—!"
The singularity collapsed, taking the leader with it.
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**The Cost**
Silence.
Then, the wails began.
The village was a charred skeleton, its fields ash, its homes smoldering ruins. Lin knelt beside Wen's body, the old blacksmith's branch-leg shattered. Meiying's bow lay in pieces, her arm bleeding from a dozen burns.
Li Tian collapsed, the Core's light extinguished. Its scar was now a blackened fissure, tendrils of shadow spiderwebbing across his chest. Xiaoling's voice, faint and fractured, whispered:
*"Gege… I'm sorry…"*
As the survivors gathered, their faces hollow with grief, Li Tian understood the truth.
Victory had never been the hard part.
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