For three days, Lin Yan remained inside the temple ruins, unmoving.
Not asleep.
Not meditating.
But burning.
The **Codex of the Forgotten Vessels** had seared itself into his soul, each rune branding its knowledge into his veins like wildfire. It wasn't just a technique—it was **rebellion woven into cultivation**.
Yan Ruo kept watch in silence.
On the third night, when Lin Yan opened his eyes, the flame that flickered in his pupils was no longer golden-red—it had deepened to **crimson-black**, a fire that devoured instead of illuminated.
She took a cautious step forward.
"You learned it?"
He slowly nodded. "I did more than that."
He raised his palm.
Instead of emitting flame, his hand drew in surrounding qi. The air bent toward him unnaturally.
"The **Reversed Furnace Art**," he said. "It turns absorption into consumption. Instead of being drained… I drain."
Yan Ruo's breath caught.
"That's forbidden."
"I know."
"But effective," she said, almost admiringly.
Lin Yan lowered his hand, clenching it into a fist. "It's dangerous. It burns not just the body—but what we believe is good inside us."
Yan Ruo gave a small, bitter smile. "Then it suits us well."
---
Outside the ruined city, storm clouds gathered.
Far in the northern sect territories, **Shi Lanyue** stood on a cliffside, holding a shattered raven talisman. Her eyes widened at the darkness that pulsed from the stone.
The report was clear: the **Furnace Codex** had awakened.
And the boy—**Lin Yan**—had absorbed it.
She turned to the disciples kneeling behind her.
> "Issue a red-level decree. Code Black Ember."
> "Kill on sight. I want his corpse brought to me intact. His soul… devoured."
One disciple dared to ask, "Isn't that a bit much, Elder Shi? He's only a broken furnace."
Shi Lanyue smiled without warmth.
> "No. He is **something worse now**."
> "He is a furnace… that burns back."
---
Back in the shrine, Yan Ruo stood beside Lin Yan as he prepared to leave.
He wore a new robe, dyed from soot and blood—one he found inside a sealed chamber of the temple, left behind by the Furnace Queen herself. A legacy robe.
Black silk, crimson trim, and a single silver thread embroidered across the back:
> **"Break the chains. Burn the sky."**
As they stepped into the twilight outside the shrine, Lin Yan looked ahead and said:
> "They called me a tool."
> "I'll show them what a tool becomes when the hand that wields it dies."