They found the first body at dawn.
Charred to the bone. No flame marks—only the evidence of internal combustion. As if the victim had ignited from the inside out.
The healers of Heavenly Sword Villa were baffled.
The elders were not.
"This is no accidental death," said Ling Yuefeng, his face dark. "Nor is it a sect grudge. This… is predation."
By midday, they found two more corpses. One disciple. One mid-level elder. Both drained of qi and meridians in a way that didn't align with any known technique.
No wounds.
No spiritual signature.
Just... emptiness.
"Something is inside the Villa," Ling Tianni said, voice cold. "And it's watching us."
---
Li Fan crouched in a shallow basin behind the Villa's west garden.
A secluded pond. No fish. No footsteps. Only silence.
He had not fed today.
But the flame within him burned anyway.
He held his hand above the water and watched the blue-white fire coil along his palm like a living serpent. It did not flicker. It hissed—devouring moisture from the air.
He clenched his fist, and it vanished.
"It's accelerating now."
"The devouring changes me even when I'm not eating."
He looked up at the distant spire where the sect masters convened. He could smell them through the walls—fear laced with discipline.
"They know something's wrong."
"Good."
"Fear breeds mistakes."
---
That night, they doubled the patrols.
Disciples walked the halls in groups of three.
Elders stationed themselves at the perimeter. Even Heavenly Sword Villa's Sword Tomb Guardian—an old silent figure known only as Elder Qin—left his cave for the first time in a decade.
He wandered the gardens at midnight, sword slung across his back, eyes closed.
Li Fan watched him.
He could smell death in the old man's bones. Not weakness—no, Elder Qin was stronger than anyone Li Fan had tasted thus far—but exhausted. His life force frayed, stretched like an old blade at the edge of breaking.
"If I eat him… I'll gain sword insight."
"But he'll see me coming."
He didn't move.
Instead, he did something he hadn't done in months.
He waited.
---
He didn't have to wait long.
At dawn, word spread that the Burning Heaven Clan was preparing to leave the Villa early. Some claimed it was a political move. Others said it was fear of Yun Che's rising reputation.
But Li Fan knew the truth.
"They know one of their elders is missing."
"They're cutting losses."
He followed their caravan as it prepared to descend the mountain.
They were heavily guarded. Even inner elders had joined the escort.
But one…
One rode alone at the rear.
An old beast-tamer. Wounded in Yun Che's flame storm. His aura still flickering with internal injuries.
Li Fan's smile returned.
"He'll do nicely."
---
The Villa's mountain path was long, coiled with switchbacks and hidden alcoves.
Just before dawn, the fog rolled in—thick, silver, silent.
And in the fog, a whisper of fire slithered through the trees.
The old beast-tamer paused. Looked behind him.
Nothing.
He turned forward—and saw eyes.
Silver. Empty. His own reflection, just inches away.
Li Fan stepped forward.
The elder screamed.
Heard by no one.
---
When the Burning Heaven Clan reached the base of the mountain, they were one man short.
Again.
But this time, they didn't go back to look.
---
Three disappearances. No trace. No witnesses.
Ling Tianni stood atop the inner gate wall that night, hands behind his back.
"This is no rogue beast. No poison master."
"This is an intruder."
His eyes narrowed.
"Seal the gates. Close all exits. From this moment… no one leaves the Villa."
Across the sect, bells rang. Swords unsheathed. The halls echoed with tension.
Some thought it was Yun Che's doing.
Others blamed rival sects.
No one suspected the man who had already eaten three elders.
Li Fan smiled from the rooftop tiles, body pressed flat like a hunting cat.
"Good."
"Make it a cage."
"I do my best work in cages."
---
That night, his body convulsed.
In a hidden cistern beneath the guest quarters, he bit down on his own wrist to stop from screaming as the devoured flame warped through his spine.
The old beast-tamer had possessed a rare trait—fire-beast resonance. Not a technique, but a mutation that allowed him to bond with spirit beasts through flame alignment.
Now it was Li Fan's.
And his body was changing again.
His back sprouted faint ridges. His lungs burned but no longer needed to breathe air. His muscles became rope-like cords, optimized for coiled strikes, not endurance.
The blue-white flame pulsed inside his chest.
"No more hunting humans for scraps."
"Soon…"
"I'll start eating monsters."