The Traitor’s Shadow

The night after the Trial of Spirit fell thick and quiet, but tension hung heavier than the mountain mist. Bonfires flickered outside each sect's camp, their light unable to chase away the unease.

Word had already spread—Kai of Emberheart had passed the trial with clarity few cultivators ever achieved. Some praised him.

Others began to fear him.

Inside the Emberheart tent, Linya paced.

"I don't trust it," she said. "The way Meiya watched you. The sudden silence from the Bone Scripture elders. Even Yu Zhen hasn't shown herself since yesterday."

Kai sat cross-legged, slowly feeding flame into his palm. His eyes never left the ember.

"They're regrouping," he said. "Not to fight me… yet. But to decide who wants to control me—and who wants to end me."

Linya stopped. "And what about the warning?"

"The traitor."

Kai didn't respond immediately.

But in his core, he could feel it now. Something in the flame's memory, something that flickered wrong. A presence—too close, too quiet.

That night, he moved alone.

With the Ash Core Flame awakened, his perception had deepened. He could hear lies like echoes. Smell danger in still air.

He circled the outer edge of the summit, then ducked through a half-collapsed cavern used by outer sect members for storage.

And there, in the quiet—

He heard voices.

Low. Cautious.

Recognizable.

"—shouldn't have waited this long. He's stronger now."

"If we do it tonight, we'll draw suspicion. But if we wait until the third trial—he'll be isolated."

Kai stepped silently to the edge of the rock.

He saw two figures cloaked in black—one from the Bone Scripture Sect… and the other…

A junior elder from Emberheart.

One of their own.

The rage in Kai's heart sparked, but he didn't rush in.

Instead, he stepped forward calmly, letting the light of his palm ignite the cavern like a sunrise.

"Planning something?" he asked coldly.

The traitor whipped around, eyes wide, but the Bone Scripture spy reacted faster—throwing a cursed talisman toward Kai.

It detonated midair—but Kai stepped through the smoke unharmed, flame coiling around him like armor.

"You could've told me to my face," Kai said, eyes locked on the Emberheart elder. "But I suppose betrayal always needs shadows."

The traitor stammered, "Y-You were changing! You weren't following the old teachings—"

"The old teachings died when they burned our disciples and called it balance."

Kai raised his hand.

The Ash Core Flame burst forth in a sharp, radiant arc.

When the fire cleared, the spy was unconscious, and the traitor lay trembling, scorched but alive.

Kai dragged them both to the summit's center before dawn.

As the sects gathered for the next day's trials, they found him already waiting—two captives at his feet.

"Here," Kai announced, voice loud, unwavering. "Two who would poison the Conclave with treachery."

He looked directly at the Emberheart elders.

"Even in our own ranks."

There was silence. Then Elder Ragan stood.

He looked at the traitor, then at Kai.

"You are the flame, Kai. From now on, we follow you."