chapter 6
6: Names Written in Flame
Night fell heavily on Falling Cloud City, but its shadows were restless.
Rumors spread like wildfire.
> "The Lin bloodline has returned." "A slave awakened seven Pulse Rings." "The Celestial Qin will move."
And in the stillness of the moonlight, the city's many forces began to stir.
---
An Offer from the Sky Frost Pavilion
At the heart of the city's upper court, the icy mist around the Sky Frost Pavilion parted. Inside, Mu Yanyu stood before a council of elders.
The eldest, Matron Leng Zhi, spoke in a voice colder than her snow-bound veins:
> "You wish to sponsor a peasant boy with a forbidden surname?"
Mu Yanyu met her gaze.
> "He bears the Heavenly Internal Body. And he is no peasant. He is fate's defiance."
Matron Leng frowned.
> "And what of the Celestial Qin? Would you pit our sect against them for a boy?"
Yanyu stepped forward. The frost around her shimmered.
> "I will make that choice as a direct inheritor of the Mu Clan. Mark him under our protection. Or I leave Sky Frost forever."
The room fell silent.
And then Matron Leng gave a single nod.
> "Then we shall watch. From a distance. You have one chance."
---
The Black Fangs Move
At the same hour, far outside the city, the Black Fang Assassins—an elite group under the Beast Cult Alliance—descended silently.
Their leader, Shen Lanyou, was a phantom of poison and breathless steps. She held a single mission:
> "Slaughter everyone who knows his name. Spare only his corpse."
She moved like wind through the outer villages, slaughtering three informants of the Mountain Sect before dawn.
> "Lin Sheng… fate's echo. What a lovely kill."
But her blade trembled when she tried to scry his location.
His fate-thread was blurred—wrapped in flame and law and… time itself.
---
Qin Feilong's Wrath
Inside a private fortress in the east wing of Falling Cloud City, Qin Feilong sat wrapped in bandages, humiliated and furious.
His father, Qin Yuze, a middle elder of the Celestial Qin Clan, entered with narrowed eyes.
> "You struck at a child of fate… and you lost."
Feilong roared. "He's just a slave!"
Qin Yuze slapped him across the face.
> "He's Lin. And if he lives… the heavens themselves will remember who destroyed us."
He turned to a cloaked messenger.
> "Issue the command. Let the Heaven Law Sect know:
The Lin bloodline has survived."
---
Lin Sheng's Choice
Far away from the fires of politics, Lin Sheng sat alone under a waterfall cliff outside the city walls.
He had declined the Mountain Sect's invitation. He had declined bribes from lower clans.
He was forging his own path.
But now, beneath the moon, he had a visitor.
> "You're reckless," Mu Yanyu said, stepping from the mist. "And you're going to die alone if you keep refusing help."
Lin Sheng smirked. "I'm used to being alone."
Yanyu walked up and touched his forehead gently.
> "But you're not allowed to die. Not before you find out why you were born with that body."
He closed his eyes.
For a moment, time slowed.
He saw something—not a vision, but a reversal—the world turning backward. A village burning. His mother's screams. The sigil of Lin blazing on a sword. And then darkness.
He opened his eyes with a shudder.
Yanyu saw it too.
> "Your memories… they were sealed."
He stood, fists clenched.
> "Then I'll unseal everything."
And for the first time, he spoke a vow.
> "I will find out what happened to the Lin Clan. I will rewrite every name they erased. And I'll burn their lies into the sky."
---
Far Above, in the Forbidden Domain
On a mountaintop where no mortal should walk, inside the Forbidden Hall of the Upper Realm, ancient bells rang.
An immortal elder dressed in black and red whispered:
> "The Gaternal Flame has sparked. The boy walks the Mortal Path. We must prepare… before the world remembers who he is."
And from a coffin of light, a sleeping Immortal Emperor stirred.
---
Thus begins the awakening of flame-written fate. And Lin Sheng, marked by time, takes his first step toward reclaiming the sky.