📕 Sutra of Immortal Flame
Volume 1: Ember of the Forsaken
Chapter 1: The Boy Who Burned the Sky
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🌌 Scene 1: Beneath the Scorched Sky
The horizon was ablaze.
Not from fire… but from memory.
The once lush forest of Luòyán Plains now stood as a graveyard of blackened roots and smoking soil. Trees had been carved by flame, wildlife had fled, and even Qi in the air felt scorched and broken. There was no wind, no sound—only heat, rising like waves of grief.
And in the heart of it all stood Yīnghuǒ, barefoot, shirtless, skin etched with flickers of golden flame veins, his breaths slow but terrifyingly deep.
He looked like a boy.
But even the sky above him feared blinking.
Floating around him were ember petals, each one a fragment of the Immortal Flame Sutra's awakening. His clothes, charred and falling apart, revealed a glowing Burning Core (燃核) pulsing faintly beneath his sternum—like a second sun. It was not just a dantian anymore. It was an altar.
A temple where the past had died and something new had been born.
"...So this is what it means to start again," he murmured.
No one answered.
Only the sky cracked, thunder rolling like drums of war in the distance. Something… had noticed his rebirth.
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🔥 Scene 2: The Messenger from the Heaven-Eyed Sect
Somewhere above the shattered ridge, a young cultivator hovered on a flying sword — robed in grey silk, eyes glowing with spiritual sight. His name was Jīn Ruòyě (金若夜), an outer disciple of the Heaven-Eyed Sect, known for his sensitivity to energy imbalances.
He stared at the valley below — the one now glassed by fire.
"…This kind of Qi fluctuation…" he whispered.
His spiritual mirror trembled, showing flickers of a forbidden flame scripture that should've been locked away in the Vault of Endless Night.
"Impossible. The Sutra of Immortal Flame was destroyed during the War of Nine Suns."
But the proof danced below — in the form of a boy.
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🧠 Scene 3: Fragments of Flame Memory
As Yīnghuǒ stood amidst the ashes, visions flashed before his eyes.
Each ember was a memory shard, not his own… but from the former wielders of the Sutra.
> —A screaming girl chained to a pyre, laughing as the flames consumed her.
—A blood-soaked man carving flames into his bones to remember the faces of those he failed.
—A phoenix weeping over its shattered egg, burning its own wings to keep the ashes warm.
Yīnghuǒ collapsed to his knees, gripping his head. The weight of centuries, of death, of suffering — all burned into his soul.
But he didn't resist.
Instead… he smiled.
> "If you're all dead, then let me carry you."
"Let me burn in your place."
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⚔️ Scene 4: The First Enemy – Iron-Fang Mercenaries
Far off, a caravan of Iron-Fang Mercenaries marched across the ruins. Bandits disguised as cultivators — hired by small kingdoms to plunder forbidden lands. Their leader, a brutal man named Zhào Kuí, bore a beast-tooth blade and wore armor made of stitched flame beast hides.
"Boss," one scout said, "we saw a kid in the valley."
Zhào Kuí spat on the soil.
"Then let's gut him before the Sect dogs find him. If the rumors are true, the Immortal Flame relic is down there."
The mercenaries descended with no honor, no warning.
But they didn't find a boy.
They found wrath.
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🔥 Scene 5: First Fight — Ember Mirror Counter
Yīnghuǒ opened his eyes as they charged. One mercenary swung a halberd at him.
Too slow.
Yīnghuǒ didn't dodge. The blade neared his throat—and passed through flame.
A false body.
The real Yīnghuǒ reappeared behind him.
> [Sutra Technique – Ember Mirror Counter (灰镜反击)]
Creates a reflection made of heat mirage. When the enemy attacks the image, it captures their Qi and redirects a burning strike at a pressure point.
With a flick, flame struck the man's spine. He collapsed, unconscious.
Others screamed, charging together. Yīnghuǒ's fingers ignited.
> [Echo Flame Strike: Level 2 Activated]
"Return what you gave. But hotter."
The sky rained fire.
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🕯️ Scene 6: A Child's Softness Hidden in Fire
Once the mercenaries were gone—dead or fleeing—Yīnghuǒ returned to stillness.
A child from a nearby village had been caught in the chaos — a little girl with one arm, hiding under a burnt tree.
Yīnghuǒ knelt beside her.
She was trembling, eyes wide.
"You're not… going to burn me too?"
Yīnghuǒ lowered his flame aura instantly, gently wrapping her in his robe.
"No. I only burn monsters."
She wept. He held her, eyes distant.
Deep inside, Yīnghuǒ hated that he could still cry.
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🏯 Scene 7: The Three Great Sects Stir
In the floating citadel of the Glass Sky Pavilion, a bell rang for the first time in 600 years.
At the Sect of Verdant Thunder, lightning statues cracked from resonance.
And in the Heaven-Eyed Sect, the grand elder opened a forbidden scroll and gasped.
> "The Sutra… has awakened again."
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🌅 Scene 8: The Flame that Will Never Go Out
As dawn rose over the ruined Luòyán Plains, the golden light of the sun touched the boy's shoulder.
But it no longer warmed him.
He didn't need it anymore.
Yīnghuǒ stood with the child sleeping in his arms. He looked toward the horizon — toward kingdoms he didn't know, sects he hadn't yet challenged, and powers that would soon try to kill him.
The Sutra pulsed in his core like a heartbeat.
> "Let them come."
"Let them try."
"I won't burn for revenge..."
"...I'll burn for everyone who couldn't."
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