The Nine Provinces entered the era of Heart Flame. Fire was no longer a resource for battle, but an extension of life. Elders used fire to nourish their meridians, children painted their dreams with it, farmers drew it into their fields to ripen the grain, and healers kindled it within medicines to cure lingering illnesses. Fire had truly become Mortal Hearthfire.
At the old site of Ash Kiln Village, a blind girl sat quietly before the "Heart Flame Stele." Her name was Wangxi. Blind since childhood, she always said, "I can see the stories in the fire." No flame burned in her palm, yet every night she lit an oil lamp. Its gentle flame shone into her vacant eyes as though illuminating a river of stars.
That night, the Heart Flame Stele suddenly stirred.
Countless overlapping shadows surfaced on the stele, resembling people yet not people, fire yet not fire. All burned, vanished, and were reborn in an endless cycle. Wangxi reached out and lightly touched its surface. In that instant—
Heart Flame entered her consciousness, and the river of memories opened.
She "saw"—
At the dawn of antiquity, there had been neither Dou Qi nor Emperor Flame, only the "Fireseed Civilization"—humanity recorded events with fire, passed on teachings with fire, and forged souls with fire. The memories of every generation were sealed within flames and handed down through the ages, keeping civilization alive.
But one day, the ancestors of the Nine Clans stole the fireseed and sealed those memories within the "Heavenly Mandate Fire Stele." With bloodlines as locks and Emperor Flame as a blade, they severed the path by which ordinary people communed with fire. From then on, fire became an instrument of authority, memories were falsified, and civilization was sundered.
"So... what fire holds isn't just power,"