The stone gate hissed open, releasing waves of dry heat that hit Kai like a furnace blast. Beyond it lay darkness rimmed with red, like a volcano's throat. Elder Xuan offered no final words—just a nod.
Kai steps through.
The gate was sealed behind him with a thud.
Immediately, the world changed.
The sky was vanished. The ground cracked. He stood in a realm of flame and ash—an illusion, but so real it seared his lungs.
A voice boomed everywhere and nowhere:
"Welcome bearer of the heart. Your trial begins."
Before him, the ash swirled and rose, taking shape.
A perfect replica of himself.
Same sabre. Same stance.
But the eyes were hollow. Cold.
The voice returned.
"This is the Ember of Will. Prove that your path is yours alone. Or be consumed."
The copy struck first—blindingly fast, flames erupting from its sabre.
Kai blocked just in time, his arms shuddering. The clone fought like him, moved like him—but cleaner. No hesitations. No doubt.
They clashed again, and again, sabres ringing.
Kai dodged a low strike, countered with a spinning arc of golden fire—but his flame flickered, while the clone stayed steady.
This was no physical trial.
It was spiritual.
The clone fed on Kai's uncertainty, his scattered thoughts, his buried fear that he wasn't ready.
He faltered.
The clone drove him to his knees.
"You carry power not yours," the voice mocked. "A dragon's flame… but no dragon's will."
Kai's blade shook.
He remembered Soul Hunter's words.
"You're not about it. You're a vessel."
His flame dimmed further.
The clone raised its blade, ready to strike.
Then Kai remembered something else:
His mother's face is faint now, but real.
His childhood, scraping through back alleys to feed his younger siblings.
The days he burned his hands trying to channel raw flame qi without a guide.
His will was his own. His suffering was his own.
"I may carry this flame," Kai whispered, rising. "But I built this path. Bleeding. Crawling. Alone."
His flames exploded—brighter, hotter, sharper than before.
The clone lunged—
Kai met it with a downward slash, splitting it in half.
The ash has dispersed.
Silence.
Then the voice returned. Calmer now:
"Trial of Will… passed."
A path of red stone appeared before him, stretching into a canyon of flames.
He walked forward, breathing hard—but his steps were steady.
Behind him, on the outside of the sealed gate, Elder Xuan and Linya felt the flame rune glow faintly.
Xuan smiled.
"The boy has a spine of tempered steel."
Linya nodded. "Then let's see if he has a soul to match."
Far away, on the Blood Sect's spire, the Matron stood before a ritual pool. In the crimson mist, Kai's image flickered—and for a moment, his eyes looked directly at her.
Her expression twitched.
Then the image vanished.
"So… the first seal has chosen him," she murmured. "Fascinating."
Behind her, seven hooded assassins stepped forward—the Shades.
One asks, "Who do we silence next?"
The Matron smiled beneath her veil.
"Everyone close to him."