The road east of Yemu was quiet, but Lin Yan could feel the tension bleeding from the earth itself.
Each step he took now hummed with energy—not just of his cultivation, but of something deeper.
**A shift.**
The Reversed Furnace Art didn't just change how he cultivated—it changed how **he was perceived** by the world. Trees bent slightly when he passed. Lesser beasts gave way. The spiritual aura around him trembled with both fear and recognition.
Beside him, Yan Ruo said nothing. But she glanced at him more often now.
Not with suspicion.
Not with fear.
But with something dangerously close to **belief**.
---
At dusk, they reached a burned-out outpost near the Silverroot Crossing.
An old boundary marker, once a minor checkpoint under the jurisdiction of the Thousand Desires Sect. Now abandoned. Its tower collapsed, its gates twisted open like broken ribs.
But someone was there.
Waiting.
A single figure knelt in the ashes, cloaked in silver robes, a curved dagger across her lap.
When Lin Yan and Yan Ruo approached, she stood slowly, brushing soot from her sleeves.
Her eyes were pure white.
No pupils. No iris.
Just blank light.
A voice echoed from her lips—beautiful and dead.
> "By decree of Elder Shi Lanyue. You are marked, Lin Yan."
> "You will return. Bound. Or burned."
Lin Yan's eyes narrowed. "She sent an assassin. Alone?"
The woman's smile was cold.
> "One is enough."
---
She struck first.
A burst of wind. A ripple of talismanic power.
Lin Yan deflected, but barely—the edge of her blade grazing his shoulder. She moved like a ghost, blinking between shadows, each strike laced with binding energy.
He'd fought before.
But never like this.
Never someone trained to kill **only him**.
---
Yan Ruo launched her own attack, violet lightning flashing—but the assassin spun mid-air, flinging a soul-binding rune toward her. It latched to Yan Ruo's chest, knocking her into a pillar with a cry.
"Stay down," the assassin whispered. "This is between furnaces."
Lin Yan's flame exploded—crimson-black, devouring the talismans mid-air. The assassin paused, eyebrows lifting slightly.
"So it's true," she murmured. "You walk the Reversed Path."
Lin Yan stepped forward, his flames swirling like a dying star.
"Let me show you what it means."
---
The fight turned.
Where before he defended, now he **pulled**—drawing in her attacks, absorbing her spirit energy, redirecting it into pure pressure.
The Reversed Furnace Art did not simply resist.
It **fed**.
Her blade slowed.
Her footing faltered.
And then—Lin Yan struck her chest with a palm of devouring flame. Her body flew back into the wreckage, crashing through broken stone.
Smoke rose.
When it cleared, she was unconscious—her robes scorched, her breath shallow.
Lin Yan stood over her and whispered:
> "Tell Shi Lanyue this: The furnace she broke is forging something stronger."
---
He turned away.
Yan Ruo pulled herself up, eyes wide.
"You didn't kill her."
"No," he said. "Let her carry the fear back."
---
Above them, storm clouds began to gather.
And deep within the Thousand Desires Sect, Elder Shi Lanyue's expression cracked for the first time.
> "He defeated my personal envoy…"
> "...and didn't kill her."
She turned to her inner circle.
> "Send the next one."
> "A former furnace."
> "Let him face one of his own."