The realm was silent, save for the flickering pulse of molten wind.
Xu Shen stepped toward the man on the throne. Every step left behind echoes—flames shaped like forgotten symbols, ancient laws unraveling at his presence.
Yue Qian and Lian Ming stayed behind.
They couldn't move forward.
The pressure was too ancient.
This wasn't power.
This was origin.
The man sat without rising.
His throne was built not from stone, but from shattered commandments—divine scripts that once bound fate, now cracked and cold.
His eyes were not eyes.
They were embers that remembered creation.
He smiled.
"I am what you might have been… if you had never been rewritten."
"I am not your past."
"I am your source."
Xu Shen stopped two meters away.
Voice low. Controlled.
"Who are you?"
The man's smile didn't falter.
"The first name they tried to erase."
"The first soul to refuse the law of death."
"I was the fire in the Garden of the Gods."
"The breath that broke the cycle."
"The first… and the last…"
He stood.
And the realm trembled.
"…I am Xu. No surname. No chains. Just meaning."
The real Xu Shen's breath caught.
"Then the Devourer Path…"
"Was never about consuming power," the man said.
"It was about preserving memory. Not just knowledge—meaning."
"Because the gods feared a world where mortals could define truth without them."
He stepped down from the throne.
"So they created the wheel."
"They made it seem like reincarnation was mercy."
"But it was a cage."
Xu Shen clenched his fists.
"Then why was I made?"
"Because I fractured myself," the first Xu said.
"I scattered my flame across the cycle. You are the last piece."
"You weren't made to survive."
"You were made to return."
Suddenly—
The flame of the realm ignited.
Not in destruction.
In remembrance.
All around them, memories long erased lit up like stars—flashes of forgotten souls, broken timelines, sealed truths.
The first Xu extended his hand.
"Take it. And remember the rest."
Xu Shen hesitated.
Then stepped forward—
And took the hand.
[Legacy Thread Activated]
[Source Identity Confirmed: Xu | Original Flamebearer]
[Cycle Override Permission Acquired]
[Designated Class: World Reclaimer]
[The First Name Has Returned.]