As the Lamp River flowed like a pulse through the earth veins of the Nine Provinces, a silent transformation quietly unfolded between heaven and earth.
That night, the Lamp Guarder's Heart atop the Heart Lantern Tower suddenly trembled. Its flame slowly rose, neither toward heaven nor toward earth, but shattered into countless sparks, like spring snow melting into the wind, like autumn leaves leaving their branches, drifting gently over the land of the Nine Provinces.
The sparks neither burned the skin nor set things alight. Against human skin, they felt only like a warm breeze brushing the face. Everyone they touched, young or old, rich or poor, noble or lowly, felt a tremor in their heart—as though something long asleep had been gently knocked upon, and a faint light kindled deep within.
Those were the flame seeds of kindness.
A child begging on a street corner accepted a steamed bun from a passerby, then suddenly looked up and said, "Thank you. May you have a lamp to light your way at night, too." As his words fell, a spark rose from his palm and became a tiny lamp suspended above his broken bowl. Small though its flame was, it lit the entire dark alley.
An apothecary boy on night duty at a clinic closed the eyes of an old man who had died without anyone knowing his name, and sighed softly. "Go on. I'll light a lamp for you." Before he finished speaking, the old lamp against his chest suddenly lit of its own accord. The heart of its flame became a spark and flew toward the Ruin Abyss Well.
A retired veteran gathering remains on a battlefield built a burial mound for the clothing and belongings of nameless soldiers in the wilderness. He knelt and bowed three times, murmuring,