The Fury-Flame Lion Core

The chaos at the auction stage was a vortex of anger and confusion. The auctioneer was frantically trying to placate the crowd while Academy guards secured the now-hissing and smoking Fury-Flame Lion Core. The students who had been bidding on it were a mixture of pale-faced relief and righteous fury. They had nearly been duped into buying a cursed, soul-destroying artifact.

"This is an outrage!" shouted the disciple from the fire sect, whose bid had been the highest. "The Academy's official auction house tried to sell us a tainted core! This is gross negligence!"

"An investigation must be launched!" another student demanded.

Amidst the uproar, a figure pushed his way through the crowd. It was Yan Tao, the Core Disciple alchemist Amrit had humiliated a day earlier. His expression was grim, but his eyes held a keen, analytical light. He approached the stage, his status allowing him to pass the guards. He produced a pair of silver tongs and a crystal vial, carefully taking a sample of the dark red smoke emanating from the core.

He brought the vial to his nose, taking a cautious sniff. His face immediately twisted in disgust. "Soul-Ember Larva," he pronounced, his voice carrying across the hushed crowd. "A rare and insidious parasite. It lays dormant until the core's energy is disturbed. Whoever consumed this would have had their soul eaten from the inside out. A truly nasty business."

His gaze then swept the crowd, not randomly, but with a hunter's focus. He was searching. Such a rare parasite, dormant for so long… it was too coincidental that it would awaken at the precise moment it was being sold. Someone, or something, had deliberately triggered it. Someone with an incredible degree of spiritual perception and control.

His eyes scanned past the furious bidders, the curious onlookers, and finally landed on the empty space where he knew Amrit and Zian had been standing moments before. His eyes narrowed. There was only one person in the entire Outer Court with the mysterious capabilities to pull off such a feat.

Amrit of Kshirapura, Yan Tao thought, a cold knot forming in his stomach. He didn't just know it was flawed. He proved it to the entire world without saying a word. What kind of perception is that?

His resentment towards Amrit was now mixed with a heavy dose of professional fear. He was beginning to understand that he wasn't dealing with a lucky upstart, but with an alchemical perception that bordered on the supernatural.

Unaware that he had once again captured the attention of a powerful rival, Amrit walked with Zian through the less crowded side-streets of the city.

"That was… masterful," Zian said, still processing what had happened. "You saved those students from a terrible fate and exposed a flaw in the Academy's own auction house without making a single enemy. In fact, you made them all grateful to an unknown savior."

"It was a matter of principle," Amrit said. "A flaw should be revealed."

"Most people would call that 'interfering'," Zian countered. "But you… you seem to operate on a different set of principles entirely."

As they were about to turn onto the path leading back to their residential sector, a voice called out to them.

"Wait!"

They turned to see a young woman hurrying to catch up. She was one of the students who had been bidding on the lion core. She had a determined look on her face and a small, sleeping fire-lizard, no bigger than her forearm, draped over her shoulder like a living scarf. The lizard was beautiful, its scales the color of cooling embers, and it occasionally let out a tiny puff of smoke in its sleep.

"I am Shreya," the girl said, stopping before them, slightly out of breath. "I was bidding on that core. For him." She gently stroked the sleeping lizard's head. "Spike needs a high-purity fire source to advance to his next growth stage."

"It is fortunate you did not win the bid," Zian said politely. "That core would have killed your spirit pet and likely harmed you as well."

"I know," Shreya said, her gaze fixed intently on Amrit. "And I saw you. Just before the core went bad, you were the only one in the entire crowd who wasn't excited. You were just… watching. And you looked at the core like you knew its secrets. And then, moments after you turned away, it revealed its cursed nature. That wasn't a coincidence, was it? You did that. You awakened the parasite somehow."

She was sharp, her intuition cutting straight through the chaos to the heart of the matter.

Amrit neither confirmed nor denied it. "The core was flawed. Its nature was bound to be revealed eventually."

Shreya's eyes narrowed, but then her expression softened. "Whether it was you or the heavens, I am in your debt. You saved Spike's life." She bowed her head respectfully. "But now I am back where I started. Finding another pure fire source of that grade before the tournament is impossible."

She looked at him with a hopeful, pleading expression. "You knew that core was flawed. That means you have a perception far beyond anyone else here. I don't suppose… you would know where I might find a true pure fire source?"

It was a long shot, a desperate request made to a mysterious stranger.

Amrit paused. He thought back to the vast library of knowledge in his mind. He had absorbed dozens of texts on geology, herbology, and the distribution of spiritual veins. He cross-referenced this with the three-dimensional map of the Sky-Piercer mountain range that was now permanently etched in his memory. He focused on sources of high-grade fire Prana. Most were in dangerous, inaccessible locations. But then, his system-enhanced mind found a pattern, an obscure reference in a geology text cross-linked with a note in a monster compendium.

"There is a place," Amrit said slowly. "Three miles up the eastern slope of the third peak. There is a colony of Crystal-Vein Salamanders. They are not powerful, but they live in nests made of geothermic crystals. Most of these crystals are mundane."

He paused, his mind's eye seeing the location with perfect clarity. "However, according to the texts, in one out of every hundred nests, the salamanders' latent fire energy will, over centuries, cause a single crystal to undergo a metamorphosis. It becomes a 'Sun-Fused Heartstone.' It is not a beast core, so it contains no life force, no risk of parasites. It is pure, crystallized, perfectly stable fire essence. Far superior to a lion core for nurturing a spirit pet."

Shreya and Zian stared at him, dumbfounded. The level of detail, the confidence, the sheer obscurity of the knowledge was staggering. He spoke of it as if he were reading from a celestial map.

"A Sun-Fused Heartstone?" Shreya breathed, her eyes wide with wonder. "I've only read about them in legends! They're considered priceless!"

"The location is dangerous," Amrit warned. "The cliffs are treacherous, and the area is guarded by territorial Rock-Wing birds."

"I don't care," Shreya said, her face set with a fierce determination. "If there's even a chance, I have to try. Thank you, Student Amrit. You have given me more than hope."

Her gratitude was palpable. She gave him another deep, respectful bow before turning and hurrying off, a new, desperate mission in her eyes. The little fire-lizard on her shoulder, Spike, woke up and gave a happy little chirp before she disappeared.

Zian turned to Amrit, his expression one of complete exasperation. "Do you have an encyclopedia for the entire universe in that head of yours?"

"Knowledge is a tool," Amrit said. "It is meant to be used."

"You didn't just give her knowledge," Zian pointed out. "You may have just earned a powerful ally for life. Shreya may not look like much, but her family, the House of Agni, are renowned beast masters and have deep connections in the southern territories. Saving her spirit pet is a greater favor than saving her own life."

Amrit had not thought of the political ramifications. He had simply seen a problem and offered a solution. But Zian was right. His actions were creating ripples he hadn't intended, forging connections and earning debts of gratitude.

He looked in the direction Shreya had gone. He had given her a path, but it was a dangerous one. He made a mental note to keep a thread of his spiritual sense extended in that direction, just in case. An ally was only useful if they survived long enough to be one.

The incident with the Fury-Flame Lion Core had started as a simple act of revealing a truth. It had now branched out, creating new enemies, new mysteries, and new, unexpected allies. The complex web of relationships at the Academy was growing more tangled by the hour, and Amrit found himself standing right at its center.