A-Zhao withdrew into the depths of the Northern Desert, and no one knew her whereabouts. Only amid the wind and sand were crimson-gold flame patterns occasionally seen flowing over the dune crests, like a guardian, like a whisper. She plunged the Flame Blade "From the Heart" into the earth, making it the soul of the Path-Seeking Stele. From then on, mortal flames governed themselves, with no sovereign to command them and no power to monopolize them.
Fire had truly returned to the people.
Across the Nine Provinces, every village had furnaces, every household had flame lamps, children learned fire as they learned their letters, and the elderly kindled flames to nourish their spirits. Fire was no longer merely a source of Dou Qi; it had become warmth, light, protection, and resolve.
Yet amid this peace, a question quietly arose.
At the old site of Ash Kiln Village, a youth picked up a sandy stone. Embedded within it was a fragment of a Flame Blade—a wisp of the blade soul scattered when "From the Heart" had broken. The youth was named Zhaoming. Since childhood, he had possessed no flame, no fire in his palms, yet at night he always dreamed of a sea of fire. Within that sea stood a figure with their back turned, holding an edgeless blade and whispering, "Fire Comes from the Heart, but what gives birth to the heart?"
He took hold of the fragment, and his palm suddenly warmed.
It was neither Dou Qi nor mortal fire, but a warmth gentle as blood, weighty as the earth, flowing from the fragment into his chest and straight into his sea of consciousness.
In that instant, he "saw"—
He saw A-Zhao burn her body in sacrifice to fire, awakening the fire seeds of the people;
He saw Lin