The crimson scroll pulsed with a warmth that felt dangerously close to burning Ethan's skin. Strange glyphs shimmered and writhed across the surface some etched in a fiery gold ink, others scorched into the parchment as if by searing pain itself. The moment he touched it, a faint ringing echoed through his spiritual sea.
Elena stepped closer, her brows furrowed. That scroll it's one of the Crimson Sun Sect's forbidden scriptures. My ancestors once fought to destroy them all. But some especially the worst were hidden.
Ethan sat cross-legged, laying the scroll before him as moonlight filtered through the leaves. He lit protective incense crafted from Soul-Calming Bark and stilled his breathing. Around him, formation talismans floated into place.
Then, carefully, he broke the seal.
The scroll snapped open, releasing a sharp hiss of flame. Sparks burst upward like fireflies, and Ethan's vision turned to fire and shadow.
Within his mind, he saw a war of red skies and black fire. Cultivators chanting sun incantations, sacrificing Qi for ultimate destructive techniques. Solar arrays that condensed flames into piercing spears. Cultivation methods that used the burning of one's own lifespan in exchange for explosive power.
But deeper in the scroll was something far more sinister.
Assassination formations. Techniques meant to infiltrate, deceive, and kill from within. Hidden methods of implanting spiritual decay. The doctrine wasn't just for warriors it was for spies, saboteurs, and betrayers.
Ethan gasped and pulled away, sweat soaking his collar. This isn't just a battle technique. It's a doctrine of internal collapse.
Elena knelt beside him, her eyes scanning the flames licking from the parchment,
I told you. The Crimson Sun Sect wasn't always noble. There was a splinter faction obsessed with absolute destruction. They even targeted their own. My clan helped eradicate them, but...
She trailed off.
There, etched at the edge of the scroll, was a name burned deep into the margin: Kade.
Elena's hand trembled. He was one of the worst. A former inner sect disciple turned assassin. He vanished after the Great Purge, taking scrolls and forbidden arts with him.
Ethan clenched his fists. He was here recently. His energy still lingers.
A short distance away, Ethan found a rock engraved with a familiar sun sigil, scorched into the surface. Beneath it lay remnants of an extinguished campfire, and beside that ashes of what might've been a half-burned identity seal.
He's on the move.
Ethan muttered,
Probably sensed we were coming.
Then we can't wait,
Elena said firmly,
He won't stop. Especially not if he thinks you've awakened the Immortal Legacy.
I'll hunt him down.
End him before he becomes a greater threat.
They packed and descended the mountain at first light. Using Kade's scattered signs and the encrypted coordinates embedded within the scroll, they tracked him across the windswept Skyrock Wastes a dead land littered with shattered spirit stones and cursed weapons from ancient battles.
Finally, they arrived at a half-collapsed monastery hidden within the Blightshade Hills. Flames still smoldered in the underbrush. Dozens of corpses lay motionless, some still clutching shattered talismans.
Kade was standing at the center.
He wore a black cloak trimmed in crimson, a mask shaped like a snarling sun. His voice was a whisper of ash and fire,
So you bring the legacy and think yourself ready?
Ethan stepped forward, drawing the Dragon Slayer Sword,
You've betrayed every sect that ever gave you shelter. This ends now.
Kade laughed, flames coiling around his arms,
Then come. Let us see if your frost can silence the sun.
As the wind howled and the ruins around them burned, their blades clashed.
The duel of fire and frost had begun.