Chapter One: The World Within the Flame
The night was as dark as ink, and the wilderness lay silent. A paper lantern, torn apart by the cold wind, swayed as it drifted into a deep valley. At the bottom of the shadowy gorge, a faint candlelight flickered to life.
Su Huan stood on the edge of a cliff, clutching a battered bronze lamp tightly. The flame within emitted a faint glow, but it eerily reflected a strange world—a realm where mountains floated, rivers flowed in reverse, and stars seemed suspended in an infinite void.
"As long as the Flame of Fate burns, Heaven's Evolution shall persist." The low murmuring voice from within the lamp was as hypnotic as it was unsettling.
"What is this?" Su Huan abruptly flung the lamp's lid open, intending to extinguish the mysterious flame. Yet instead of going out, the fire flared brighter, leaping toward his arm as though alive. In an instant, a searing heat coursed through his palm, as if something was etching itself deep into his very bones. He wanted to scream, but an icy chill suddenly rose in his throat, leaving him unable to make a sound.
The world spun around him, and the mountain winds on the cliff seemed to fall silent. When Su Huan looked up, he saw the sky bathed in a blood-red glow.
"Extinguish it." A raspy voice suddenly sounded behind him.
Su Huan turned to find an old man in a gray robe staring at him. Deep wrinkles etched the man's face like ravines, yet his eyes gleamed with an unsettling light. "If you don't want to die, don't let that lamp's light touch your soul."
"What do you mean? What is this thing?" Su Huan stumbled back, the bronze lamp seemingly fused to his palm, impossible to shake off.
"It will burn away your life, until the Flame of Fate is spent," the old man said, stepping closer, his tone growing colder. "But you needn't worry for long. Now that the lamp has been lit, you have, at most, three days to live."
"Three days?" Su Huan froze in disbelief
"Yes." The old man let out a chilling laugh. "You were meant to die tonight, but now, with the flame bound to you, your life is no longer your own."
"And if… I don't want to die?" Su Huan's grip on the bronze lamp tightened. His voice trembled, but a flicker of defiant madness burned within it.
The old man was silent for a moment before pointing to the faint light at the bottom of the gorge. "Jump. That is the Gate of Heaven's Evolution. If you manage to return alive, the lamp will no longer claim your life—it will become your power."
"And if I fail?"
"You won't fail, because those who die along the way don't even qualify as failures."
Taking a deep breath, Su Huan stared at the bronze lamp in his palm. Its eerie flame flickered as if mocking his weakness. Gritting his teeth, he stepped toward the cliff's edge, one deliberate footstep at a time, before finally leaping into the abyss.
The sound of the wind tore through his ears, and darkness swallowed his vision. Just as he thought everything was about to end, the flame of the bronze lamp flared brightly, illuminating a series of floating stone steps suspended in the void. On the first stone slab, an inscription was carved:
"As long as the Flame of Fate burns, life and death lie in Heaven's hands."