Silence gripped the Wu Clan's ancestral hall. The gray flames flickering around Ashen Wu cast eerie shadows on the stunned faces of the elders and disciples. He could feel it—the warmth, the raw power coursing through his veins, filling the emptiness of his once-shattered dantian.
Wu Tianlong staggered back, his golden Qi trembling. "What… what kind of fire is that?"
The elders exchanged glances, their expressions shifting from mockery to alarm.
"Gray flames… I've never seen such a thing."
"That's not true Qi—it's something else."
Ashen himself didn't understand. His entire life, he had felt nothing but emptiness where his dantian should have been. Now, the void within him pulsed with a heat that shouldn't exist, a power that devoured rather than nurtured.
His breathing was heavy, his vision flickering between reality and the strange ruins he had glimpsed in his mind. The Ashen Codex—he had no idea what it truly was, but it had awakened something inside him.
Tianlong gritted his teeth. "It doesn't matter what tricks you've learned. A cripple is still a cripple!"
With a roar, he launched himself at Ashen again, golden Qi swirling around his fist. This time, his intent was clear—this wasn't a warning strike. He wanted to kill.
The world seemed to slow again. Instinct took over.
Ashen raised his hand, and the gray flames surged.
BOOM!
Tianlong's punch collided with the fire, and an explosion of cinders erupted between them. The force sent Tianlong flying backward, crashing into the stone pillars of the hall.
A collective gasp rang out.
"He—he repelled Tianlong?"
"That's impossible! Tianlong is in the Spirit Vein Realm—he shouldn't even be scratched by a cripple!"
Ashen stared at his own hands. The fire hadn't consumed him. If anything, it felt… natural. Like it had always been part of him, waiting for this moment to awaken.
But the strain hit him all at once. His knees buckled, and a searing pain tore through his chest. It was as if his very body was burning from the inside. He coughed, tasting something metallic—blood.
The Ashen Codex had given him power, but it came at a cost.
Before he could recover, a booming voice filled the hall.
"That is enough."
A figure stepped forward—Wu Jian, his father, the patriarch of the Wu Clan.
For the first time that night, Ashen saw something in his father's eyes that wasn't cold indifference. It was something worse.
Fear.
The elders bowed their heads. "Patriarch."
Wu Jian studied Ashen, his gaze lingering on the fading gray embers still crackling around his son's body. "This power… it is unnatural." His voice was heavy, weighted with something unspoken.
Tianlong pushed himself up, his face twisted in rage. "Father! This cripple dares to—"
Wu Jian silenced him with a glare.
Then he turned to Ashen. "Leave the Wu Clan."
The words struck harder than any blow.
Ashen forced himself to stand, despite the pain. "You're banishing me?"
Wu Jian's expression didn't change. "You should have never been born."
The words cut deep. Deeper than they should have.
The clan that had mocked him, humiliated him, treated him as nothing—he had still, foolishly, wanted to prove himself to them. But in the end, it didn't matter. His own father had decided his fate.
The gray flames flickered again, as if responding to his anger.
For the first time, he smiled. It wasn't a smile of joy, but of something sharper. Colder.
He turned his back on them.
"You're right," he said softly. "I should have never been born into this clan."
With each step he took toward the exit, he felt something shift inside him.
The Wu Clan had taken everything from him.
But now… he had the power to take everything from them.
And one day, he would.
As he walked away into the night, the gray embers trailing in his wake, one thought burned in his mind.
If the heavens will not grant me a path, I will forge one from ashes.