Path of Infernal Dao

Tower Seven stood tall in the distance, but its shadow no longer fell the way it once had. Not after blood turned to ash on its stones. Not after Zhou Liang's screamless death.

The Inner Court was changing. Fear had a name again — not yet spoken aloud, but burned quietly into every disciple's tongue and at the heart of it, Shen Yao sat cross-legged beneath the cracked statue of the Flame Ancestor.

Around him, no heat radiated. His flame had gone inward — turned to pressure, weight, hunger.

[System Update – First Flame Resonance Node Charging: 67%]

Tribulation Core: Low-Level Storm Detected – 4 Days Until Activation.

Sinflame Ledger: Next Karmic Enemy Marked – Elder Mu Shan.

The name etched itself deeper into his mind each time it flashed.

Elder Mu Shan.

A man whose voice had once praised Shen Yao for his talent. The same man who'd handed down the decree to sacrifice him to Heaven's edict. Calm. Efficient. Silent.

He hadn't screamed either but he would.

The Elders' Court was built like a spiral — seven tiers, one for each elder — with the Flame Fountain in the center. Its fire no longer roared. It sputtered now, like it feared to rise. Shen Yao stood at its edge, hood drawn low, robes stitched together from three different styles — no longer belonging to any sect formally.

He stared at the flame as if listening and then he moved.

Below the spiral, deep beneath the court, were the Ash Furnaces — where condemned spirit roots were incinerated. Failed flame cultivators. Defective cores. The sect's graveyard.

No disciples came here.

Only two elders had keys.

Shen Yao had one now. He'd taken it off Zhou Liang's corpse.

"If you're going to kill a rat, find its nest."

The furnaces weren't empty. A thin figure knelt before one of the broken grates, whispering incantations into the flame.

Elder Mu Shan.

His face was aged, clean-shaven, lips cracked. He didn't sense the killing intent behind him until it was too late. Shen Yao didn't announce himself. He pressed a finger to the ash-stone wall — flame seeped out silently, coiling like snakes along the surface.

Void Ash Web.

A technique born from years of studying heat signatures. It was invisible unless you had fire sight.

It wrapped around the chamber.

Sealed it.

Mu Shan stiffened, slowly rising.

"Who—?"

Shen Yao stepped forward.

Mu Shan turned.

Their eyes met.

Recognition hit him like cold water. "No... it can't be—"

"I've returned," Shen Yao said flatly. "Ten years early."

Mu Shan backed up one step, two. His spiritual pressure flared— Then collapsed.

A wave of flame-crushing will snapped through the air. Shen Yao's aura cracked the stone under Mu Shan's feet.

"You're just a brat," Mu Shan growled. "You shouldn't have that level of flame…"

"I earned it the moment you tried to strip it from me," Shen Yao replied.

He raised a hand.

Infernal Chain Breaker.

One punch.

Not aimed at the man but aimed at the spiritual lock hovering behind him. A spectral seal shattered — Mu Shan's backup talismans, shattering like porcelain. The elder roared, conjuring a flame spear — divine-forged, laced with lightning threads.

He hurled it.

Shen Yao didn't flinch. Instead, he took one step forward, vanished in a burst of spiraling ash — and reappeared behind Mu Shan.

Cremation Palm.

Hand to back.

Soul to soul.

The flame didn't explode but sank in. Mu Shan screamed as flame tunneled through his spine, drilling into his core. He collapsed to his knees.

"Mercy!" he howled. "I was only following orders! It wasn't personal, Shen Yao! I didn't even vote to—"

"You watched me fall," Shen Yao whispered. "That was enough."

[Sinflame Ledger – Karmic Thread Consumed.]

Target: Elder Mu Shan

Sin Value: 3.1 Flames

Flame Resonance Node – 100%

[Node Unlocked: Ash Resonance – Path of the First Flame.]

Effect: Enhances all destructive flame-based techniques by 22% when targeting karmic enemies. Permanently increases soul flame evolution rate.

Mu Shan's body turned gray.

His scream faded into the walls then he collapsed to dust.

No bones. No blood. Only heat — the kind that didn't fade. The kind that remembered.

Shen Yao stood in silence.

His body trembled slightly — not from strain but From acceptance.

"You are no longer kind. Good. Mercy is for those who haven't burned yet."

The system's voice echoed like judgment and applause. Back in Tower Seven, Lian Xue sat quietly beside a flame lantern. She had heard the news. Another elder gone. Another ash spiral.

Her hand trembled slightly.

Not with fear but with conviction.

That boy she had once saved — the one who'd wept quietly in her arms after being beaten in the outer sect — was now a creature the elders whispered about in locked rooms.

She didn't know what scared her more: The world that had forced him into this… or the way her heart beat faster every time she thought about him.

That night, Shen Yao stood atop the tallest spire of the Inner Peak, robes fluttering, face shadowed. He looked down at the sect and counted the names in his head.

Six more.

Six betrayals that needed to be burned before he was free.

Before he could rise.

Before he could reshape the world and far above — in the sky where only spiritual vision could see — faint cracks had begun to appear.

Heaven was watching and was nervous.

[Tribulation Core Active.]

Tribulation Forecast – Storm Level: Crimson Tier.

Arrival: 3 Days.

Shen Yao didn't smile. He simply whispered to the night, "Come then. Let's see who breaks first — me, or the sky."

The flame in his soul flared. 

Every betrayal he burned became a step upward — into the storm, into immortality, into legend.