The classroom was silent.
Flame glyphs floated over the students' heads, pulsing softly—each tuned to a different path:
Remembrance.
Harmony.
Echo.
Cycle.
Most students focused quietly.
But in the back row, four students sat unmoving, their glyphs flickering gray.
They had chosen no path.
They did not speak.
Until the teacher, Master Yun, called one by name.
"Shen Tai. You have not declared your flame."
The boy stood—tall, lean, eyes cold.
He was not born in the Archive.
He was not raised on Xu Shen's teachings.
He came from the outer realms—where fear still ruled.
He stared at the elder.
And said:
"I choose a path not listed."
The room froze.
Master Yun's voice grew tight. "Only paths blessed by the Flamefather are permitted."
Shen Tai didn't blink.
"Then I'll walk the one he sealed."
"The path of Absolute Consumption."
The glyphs over his head shattered.
Gray chi surged from his palms, spiraling upward into a jagged ring of shadowflame.
Another student screamed.
Two passed out.
Wei Lin stood slowly, stunned. "That path was forbidden."
Shen Tai turned to him.
"Exactly."
Far above, in the Skyward Tower, elders watched the tremor in the flame threads.
One muttered, "He found it. The seed Xu Shen buried after the Reclamation."
Another paled. "It was supposed to be unrecoverable."
A third said nothing.
Just turned to the Flamefather's seat—
Empty.
Far away, Xu Shen stood in a quiet forest, hands folded.
He had already felt the shift.
He knew what Shen Tai had done.
And he whispered to the wind:
"You found what I feared you might."
"The flame with no memory."
"The path I couldn't rewrite."
Back at the school, Shen Tai faced the shocked crowd of students.
His flame snapped, hungry and cold.
"Xu Shen taught the world to remember."
"But some of us were never remembered to begin with."
"We don't want harmony."
"We want fire that consumes everything."
And behind him, three others stepped forward.
Four in total.
The beginning of a new faction.
The Hollow Flame Sect.