Pale Flame

Within his chest, a churning, metallic taste of blood continued to wreak havoc.

Su Chen sat cross-legged on the cold ground, every breath pulling at the needle-like stabs of pain radiating from the depths of his soul.

That insane experiment, an attempt to usurp the authority of the gods, had struck him like a ruthless hammer, shattering all his arrogance and conceit.

The backlash from the exotic flame made him realize, with unprecedented clarity, the vast chasm that lay between him and the true wonders of heaven and earth.

Yet, he did not wallow in the shadows of failure.

On the contrary, the near-death experience acted like a basin of bone-chilling ice water, dousing the false fire of greed in his heart and leaving his mind calmer and clearer than ever before.

His consciousness sank once more into the chaotic expanse of his mental space.

The light of the ancient Stone Platform had dimmed to the extreme, resembling a weathered crystal drained of all energy, its surface covered in fine cracks.

Su Chen's consciousness hovered before the Stone Platform.

His gaze no longer lingered on the complete data model representing the Bone Chilling Flame.

That thing was poison to him now.

"Review."

A weak thought was transmitted outward.

The dim Stone Platform flickered slightly.

Lines of data composed of runes began to emerge slowly on the surface of the platform, recording the entire process of the failed experiment.

From model construction to energy injection, followed by repulsion, conflict, and finally, annihilation.

Every detail was presented before him with cold, precise accuracy.

Su Chen's consciousness stared fixedly at the data stream, not letting a single detail escape.

He saw how the energy structure of the Rock Fire Seed began to collapse from within the very instant it made contact with the Bone Chilling Flame model.

He saw that the fusion rate of the two energies had never exceeded one-thousandth from start to finish.

His approach had been fundamentally wrong from the root.

What he had attempted was "overwriting"—using a higher-order soul to forcibly replace a lower-order vessel.

That was a feat reserved for gods.

And he was merely a mortal.

A mortal... who had dared to covet the authority of the divine.

"Wrong... all of it was wrong..."

Su Chen's consciousness murmured to itself.

His gaze, amidst countless lines of data, finally locked onto a small segment of code.

That segment represented the most fundamental and core trait among the countless characteristics of the Bone Chilling Flame.

"Energy Property: Extreme Cold."

He stared at that code, and deep within his originally dim consciousness, a faint spark of light suddenly reignited.

That light grew brighter and brighter.

A brand new, even more insane, yet far more feasible idea sprouted defiantly in his heart!

He could not replicate the entire sun.

That was the domain of the gods.

But...

Perhaps he did not need to replicate the sun itself.

Instead, he could find a way to borrow a single ray... of its light from that distant star!

"Attribute Extraction!"

As this new command was issued, the entire Stone Platform shuddered violently, as if injected with a final surge of energy!

The complete data model of the Bone Chilling Flame began to be forcibly dismantled.

Countless rune chains representing complex traits like "Domineering," "Spirituality," and "Devouring" were stripped away and discarded one by one.

The process was like the brutal destruction of a peerless treasure.

Su Chen's mental energy poured out like a burst dam, consuming itself frantically.

In the end, all the extraneous attributes were purged.

Only one remained.

A single energy model, composed of the purest runes, representing the very concept of "Extreme Cold"!

It was formless and intangible, yet it radiated an aura of origin capable of freezing the soul itself.

Having finished this, Su Chen did not pause for a second.

He retrieved a set of materials he had long prepared from his storage space.

That was a vial of Rock Fire Seed that he had purified to the absolute limit.

Its energy was docile and pure; it was the highest-quality beast fire in his possession and the final "carrier" he had prepared for this experiment.

The orange-red flame appeared quietly upon the Stone Platform, emitting a gentle, warm glow.

It was like an ignorant, innocent creature, gazing blankly at the invisible specter above that radiated a deadly chill.

"Infiltrate!"

Su Chen issued the command once more, his voice carrying a sense of resolve he had not even realized himself.

This time, it was not a crude injection or an overwhelming blanket.

Instead, it was like spring rain nourishing the earth—cautiously, carefully... infiltrating!

That strand of the invisible Extreme Cold attribute model moved.

Like the finest needle of ice, it carried an irresistible will as it slowly pierced into the heart of the orange-red Rock Fire Seed below!

There was no earth-shattering roar.

There was no collision of energy.

The moment the two made contact, time seemed to have been pressed into slow motion.

Su Chen held his breath, focusing every ounce of his spirit upon that ball of flame.

The flame remained the size of a fist, floating in silence.

Yet, a bizarre change began to occur on its surface.

Wisps of pale, frigid mist, like living vines, struggled to climb out from within the flame, inch by agonizing inch!

The orange-red flame began to tremble violently!

It was no longer stable, no longer quiet.

It was like a living thing injected with a potent poison, enduring unimaginable pain and torment!

The color of the flame flickered frantically between orange-red and pale white.

Across the entire Stone Platform, it was at times as scorching as a furnace, and at others as frigid as a frozen pool!

"Steady!"

Veins bulged on Su Chen's forehead.

He was fully focused, his mental energy concentrated to the extreme, like a tightrope walker balancing a scale while traversing the edge of a bottomless abyss.

His left hand held the weight of the Extreme Cold.

His right hand held the weight of the Scorching Heat.

He had to find that one-in-a-million miracle point where both ends of the scale could achieve perfect balance!

If the injection of the Extreme Cold attribute was even a fraction too much, the flame would be instantly shattered by the cold and extinguished entirely.

If it were a fraction too little, he would fail to alter its essence and repeat his past mistakes.

Once.

Twice.

Ten times.

Su Chen continued to test and correct, each adjustment tearing at his mental energy with brutal force.

His complexion had long since shifted from pale to a bloodless, sallow yellow.

His consciousness space began to shake violently due to this war occurring at a microscopic level!

The Stone Platform hummed, and the surrounding void twisted!

The flame's struggle grew increasingly intense.

Its form began to distort wildly, at times swelling into a massive, ghastly white sphere of light, and at others, violently contracting, spraying countless sparks of scorching orange-red fire.

Just as Su Chen felt his mind was about to be completely drained and his consciousness began to blur.

The struggling flame was on the verge of total collapse.

He found it!

Now!

"Sever!"

A decisive thought fell like a blade!

He forcibly cut the connection to the Extreme Cold attribute model!

On the Stone Platform, the struggling, twisted flame suddenly went still.

All the violence, all the conflict, and all the struggle ceased abruptly in that ten-thousandth of a second.

Then.

The miracle happened.

The color of the flames began to change in an irreversible manner.

The original, pure orange-red hue faded rapidly, like a sand painting washed away by the tide.

Replacing it was a strange, metallic-textured... Pale!

The form of the flames also stabilized once more.

It hovered silently above the Stone Platform, no longer flickering or dancing.

Its size was a full circle smaller than the previous Rock Fire Seed, now only the size of an infant's fist.

Yet, the aura it radiated had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation!

A contradictory yet powerful force permeated from that small, pale flame.

Its outer edges radiated wisps of cold air visible to the naked eye.

Wherever that cold air passed, even the void of space seemed to condense into a faint layer of ice crystals.

Yet, directly above the flame, that same space presented a violent, irregular distortion due to the astonishing high temperature contained within its core!

A brand-new flame, cold on the outside and hot on the inside, freezing on the exterior and fiery at the core, possessing a trace of the true essence of a Divine Flame.

It was born!

"Hoo... hoo..."

Su Chen abruptly withdrew from his consciousness space.

His entire body felt as if it had been fished out of water; he collapsed onto the bed, gasping for air, while a violent sense of vertigo caused his vision to black out in waves.

The aftereffects of excessive mental energy consumption surged over him like a tide.

But he could not concern himself with that.

There was not a trace of exhaustion on his face.

Only an irrepressible, near-maniacal ecstasy!

He had succeeded!

He had truly succeeded!

He reached out a trembling hand, and with a single thought, summoned that brand-new flame from his consciousness space into the real world!

Hum.

A pale flame appeared out of thin air above his palm.

The moment it appeared, the temperature inside the dilapidated shack plummeted!

A thin layer of white frost even began to form on the surface of the water vat in the corner at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Yet, Su Chen's palm felt not a shred of cold.

He could clearly perceive that beneath that cold, pale outer shell, there lay a core of fire so pure and so Scorching Heat!

This was the first true trump card in his hands!

It was the source of his confidence to face that smiling tiger from the Aoba Clan three days from now!

It was the first "masterpiece" he had presented to this world!

Su Chen gazed at the pale flame burning quietly in his palm for a long time, before slowly exhaling three words.

"From this day forth, you shall be called..."

"Pale Flame."