Smoke still clung to Zhu Yan's skin like a tattered shroud. The Wrathfire Veins pulsing beneath his flesh had settled, but the heat had not. His body throbbed with unrelenting force, as though each heartbeat was pounding the war drums of an ancient demon clan.
Yet the Manual had not ended.
The scroll—thought dissolved—suddenly shimmered back into form before him. Not in physical shape, but etched into his mind like a dream too vivid to forget. As if a voice had whispered its commands directly into his soul.
> "You have burned the body. Now… hollow the mind."
Zhu Yan's breath caught. His senses stretched. He could feel the earth beneath him… and something beneath that. Bones. Buried. Writhing. Whispering. All once disciples like him, perhaps, or victims of this very Manual.
A second inscription ignited in his consciousness.
「Second Gate: Hollow Crown」
This time, there was no diagram. No map. Only the cold echo of what was to come.
> To ascend further, you must let go of who you were. Not just memories, not just thoughts—identity must be shattered. The self is a chain. The ego a curse. Break it. Or burn.
Zhu Yan shuddered.
Was that what the Wrathfire had begun? Not just physical remaking—but a dissolution of the self?
He gritted his teeth. "Then so be it," he whispered. "Let it be burned."
He sat again, legs crossed, spine straight, fists resting on his knees. This time, he didn't summon Qi with force. He let it rise naturally, like smoke from embers.
The pressure began in his temples—no pain at first, only a tickle. Then came the whispers.
They weren't hallucinations. They weren't illusions. They were him.
> "You were weak."
"You begged them not to cast you out."
"You cried when they killed her."
Zhu Yan's vision blurred. Shadows twisted before him. He saw her again—Lian. Her bloodied robes. Her final smile.
He clenched his jaw. "This is the price, then."
One by one, his memories rose like phantoms—each one speaking, judging, breaking.
> The day he failed his first trial.
The day his father disowned him.
The night he buried his mother beneath a moonless sky.
The moment Lian's corpse went cold in his arms.
Each recollection struck like a thunderclap, fracturing the shell of his being.
He screamed.
Not from pain—there was no pain.
This was something else.
An unraveling.
And then, like glass dropped from heaven, his mind… shattered.
He floated.
There was no Zhu Yan. No Manual. No betrayal. No vengeance. Just… void.
Silence.
Stillness.
Peace?
> "You have broken yourself."
The voice returned—colder, deeper, older than time.
> "Now, forge what remains."
From the void, something stirred. Not a memory. Not a thought. But a will. A single thread of existence, stubborn, defiant, burning despite the abyss:
> "I still choose."
That choice—raw, unfiltered, primal—was enough.
In the darkness, a crown appeared. Not of gold or jade. But of black iron, jagged and cruel, forged from fragments of shattered self.
> 「Second Gate: Hollow Crown – COMPLETE」
Cognition realigned. Ego restructured. Demonic seed deepened.
Zhu Yan gasped as awareness slammed back into him.
He fell forward, coughing blood laced with sparks. His limbs convulsed. But his eyes… his eyes burned brighter than ever.
Now they held not just wrath, but clarity.
Power didn't just pulse through his veins—it shimmered in his thoughts, flowed in his breath, echoed in his silence.
He was no longer just ascending. He was evolving.
---
The cave around him trembled.
Stones cracked. Wind howled.
From deeper within the mountain, a new presence stirred—something that had slumbered for centuries, now awakened by the completion of the Second Gate.
A whisper echoed through the dark:
> "Another descends the path. Another demon born."
Zhu Yan rose slowly, wiping the blood from his lips. His body was lighter now, not weaker, but unshackled—like a blade freed from its scabbard.
"I am Zhu Yan," he whispered.
"Not the boy they exiled.
Not the disciple they betrayed.
Not even the man they tried to kill."
"I am what remains after the fire.
I am what rises from the void."
He walked forward, deeper into the shadows.
Where the Third Gate waited.