A Flask of Pure Yang Qi, and Freedom No More

In the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds of the past several thousand years, tales of Flame Emperor, the fire qilin, had all but vanished.

But Zhong Yuxiu knew how formidable that fire qilin was.

Some members of the Qilin Clan chose their own names; others received honorifics bestowed by the myriad peoples of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.

Flame Emperor was one such honorific, bestowed by the inhabitants of many worlds upon this benevolent, sacred auspicious beast.

Though the Qilin Clan had an ancestral homeland, qilin had always preferred to roam alone. Few stayed there; most wandered abroad, witnessing the rise and fall of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.

Qilin were benevolent and sacred by nature. Their temperaments varied, but all delighted in punishing evil and promoting good, favored beings possessed of virtue, and enjoyed joining a spectacle. Thus, qilin had appeared during the changing of dynasties across many worlds.

And because the most common qilin belonged to the Five Elements, tales of the Five Virtues cycling with each change of dynasty were widespread. One dynasty might be said to possess the virtue of fire, for instance, and the next the virtue of water.

In truth, a fire qilin had probably appeared the previous time, while a water qilin had come to watch this time.

As qilin matured, however, they often found lifelong mates. The pair would then open a small world in the Chaos Void, live there apart from worldly strife, and raise their young.

Once their offspring grew a little older, they sent them back to the ancestral homeland to receive the Qilin Clan's most authentic and complete inheritance. Those young qilin would eventually leave to wander the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, find suitable mates of their own, and repeat the cycle.

Flame Emperor had