Reborn: Wrath of the flame

In that instant, Xie Tianlei leaned forward and brushed his forehead against hers. It was brief, cold, and deliberate. Then, without warning, a violent surge of Qi slammed into her body. It was sharp, painful, and invasive. Her spiritual veins screamed in protest as her knees gave out beneath her. She collapsed forward, barely catching herself on trembling hands. The world spun around her in dizzying spirals, her vision flickering.

No, noooo.

They had told her she was special. That she was chosen. So why was this happening?

She remembered ,she was thirteen years old. Kneeling in the center of a blazing ritual circle. Flames dancing around her with both joy and chaos. The day her core awakened. The elders had gasped in wonder.

"A rare and unknown root… perhaps a divine bloodline."

For the first time, she had felt truly seen. Not as the orphan girl with no history and no name, but as someone powerful. Someone destined for greatness. Someone who could be loved.

She had believed them.

"What...?" Her voice cracked as her vision blurred. Her spiritual veins twisted and shrieked, unraveling under the pressure of the invading force.

Xie Tianlei did not flinch. He looked ahead, cold and empty.

"Forgive me, Mei," he said, his tone devoid of remorse. "But your flame was never meant to be yours, you are not worthy."

It felt like being stabbed through the soul. The crowd around them remained perfectly still. No one gasped. No one moved. And in that silence, she understood. She was completely alone.

Her chest convulsed, her breath hitched. Something deeper than flesh and bone was being ripped away. Her essence was unspooling into the void.

He is stealing it. My soul flame.

Her lineage, her inheritance. The bloodline legacy that marked her as the daughter of the Flame Sovereign. It was being torn from her body, vein by vein, spark by spark.

"Why?" she gasped.

"You were never meant to have it," he said calmly. "A mere orphan girl pretending to be divine. You were just a tool. Nothing more."

The words cut deeper than any blade.

With one final pulse of power, he shattered her core.

The pain was explosive. So total, so violent, she could not even scream. She crumbled where she knelt, her body folding in on itself. Her bridal veil slipped away, falling to the floor like a torn promise.

Her vision dimmed. Her limbs refused to move. She lay in a pool of silence and silk, her heartbeat slowing, fading.

Then she saw something.

A figure on the upper western balcony. A man with silver eyes. Still and unmoving, he watched everything without emotion. His face unreadable. His presence distant. He did not lift a finger to help. And yet something about him felt strangely familiar.

Before her consciousness gave out entirely, a voice echoed deep in her soul.

"Rise, Daughter of Fire. My flame never dies."

The words ignited something faint and flickering inside her.

And in that moment, even with the world crumbling around her, she knew one truth.

She was not finished.

Then everything went black.

___

There was no pain.

No sound. No veil. No heartbeat.

Only cold.

Her body no longer existed. There was no ache, no pressure. She was simply there, floating in absolute stillness. Silence and emptiness engulfed her.

So this is death.

Fragments of memory drifted past her like smoke. Xie Tianlei's eyes.

The betrayal.

The man with silver eyes. The warmth of the flame she once carried. All distant now, snatched away like ash in the wind.

She expected fear or maybe regret but none of it came. Only numbness. And then, a voice thundered through her soul again.

"Rise, Daughter of Flame. My flame never dies."

This time, it did not feel like a memory. It was present,real and calling to her.

Somewhere deep in the void, there was a pulse, faint, lickering but alive.

Drawn to it, she moved or rather her spirit did.

The void around her stirred.

A landscape unfolded beneath her. A sky of silver stretched wide above. Mountains wreathed in everlasting fire rose around her. Rivers of lava cut through dark earth. At the highest peak, a sleeping phoenix rested, its feathers aglow and its eyes shut in eternal meditation.

This was not the mortal realm.

This was the Flame Realm.

The sacred world whispered about in forgotten scrolls and ancient songs. The place of rebirth and judgment where the true flame bearers were tested.

Mo Yanmei's spirit floated downward until her feet touched a diamond-shaped stone platform. Her robes were gone, her feet bare, her long hair trailed behind her in the heated wind.

The air pulsed with energy, divine and alive.

The stone beneath her feet began to glow with golden veins, patterns crawling like molten cracks. Then an ancient voice echoed through the realm.

"Your flame was stolen. Your core was shattered. But your spirit did not break. Why?"

She turned, looking for the voice, but saw no one. Her throat was dry, but she answered.

"Because I am not just the core. I am the flame itself."

Silence followed.

"You know the truth," the voice said at last. "Even though it was buried deep within. You are not just the daughter of fire. You are the vessel of it by soul that truth we will test."

Before she could speak again, the stone platform cracked beneath her feet. Then it shattered completely, dropping her into the fire below.

There was no scream. Only resolve.

The flames rose to meet her. They were not ordinary flames. They were alive, Intelligent, and aggressive. They wrapped around her spirit, clawing and judging. Testing her worth.

Memories returned with clarity.

The hunger in her stomach when she snuck scraps from temple kitchens. The loneliness of training alone in the flame yards while others had their families cheering. The shame of loving Xie Tianlei and believing every lie he fed her. The tears shed in silence. The prayers whispered to the stars that someone would finally see her.

The flames tried to consume those memories, to devour her completely.

But she held on.

She did not resist anymore. She welcomed the fire and embraced it even.

These memories were her truth. Her story.

And they fueled her.

With her arms open, she surrendered to the flames.

And in that surrender, something began to change.