All Chapters of The return of the Kirin Heir : Chapter 131
- Chapter 140
202 chapters
Maw of Time
The world collapsed inward.Yunlei wasn’t falling, yet he wasn’t standing either. He hovered in a void where color bled into nothing, where time fractured into a million shards. The Gate had swallowed him whole—mind, body, and Qi—and now he floated inside what could only be described as the Maw of Time.The air shimmered like boiling mercury. Whispers curled around him, each voice an echo of someone he’d been before—child, disciple, exile, emperor’s son, killer, healer. His lives tangled together like threads in a loom. Something unseen was weaving.“What are you?” a voice boomed—ancient, genderless, and infinite.Yunlei opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out.Images flared around him. Moments torn from memory: his mother’s smile, his father's dying words, Lady Xue’s quiet scolding, Meilin’s sharp wit, Yongli’s loyalty, the Sect’s betrayal. Each one formed a ring of light around him. Then, just as quickly, they shattered like porcelain.“What are you?” the voice asked again
The Citadel beyond Memory
The obsidian stairway stretched endlessly upward, suspended in the void like a bridge carved from forgotten starlight. Yunlei moved with measured purpose, each footstep sparking trails of golden flame that shimmered and twisted into fading symbols—words of old, remnants of a language he did not remember learning. But somehow, he understood them.The words said: You are being watched.He reached the top.Before him hovered a structure that seemed to pulse with life and intelligence—the Citadel Beyond Memory. It defied architecture. A colossal ring suspended in layers of folded reality, its surface etched with ever-shifting glyphs and mirrored plates that reflected not just his image but fragments of his past, his regrets, even his unspoken thoughts. A fusion of obsidian, star-iron, and spiritual quartz, the citadel was ancient—and alive.It waited for him.Yunlei took his first step inside. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the air thickened like a silent ocean. Pressure settl
The First Flame
Yunlei stepped into silence—an absolute void that neither welcomed nor repelled, but simply was. The blinding white Qi receded, replaced by a boundless field of darkness littered with floating embers, each one pulsing faintly like a dying star. It wasn’t cold, but there was a solemn weight to the air, the kind that only ancient truths could carry.In the center of this dark plane floated a solitary flame—brilliant gold threaded with violet and silver. Unlike any fire he had seen, this one breathed, shrinking and expanding as if alive. It wasn’t large—no bigger than his palm—but Yunlei felt its pull like a gravitational force. This was the Origin Spark, the source of the Kirin Flame, the divine essence from which all martial fires in the world had descended.As Yunlei took a step closer, the embers surrounding him began to flicker. Some surged brighter, responding to his presence. Others extinguished instantly, their light lost to the void.Then came the voice—not external, but inside
Skyfire Descends
The winds over the Ashen Plains shifted.High above, the sky dimmed unnaturally, as if recoiling from something it could not name. The clouds did not swirl or thunder—they simply parted. From the rift in the heavens, a shaft of violet-gold fire pierced downward, illuminating the entirety of the Imperial Battlefield like a divine spotlight.Elders of the Eight Great Sects, who had gathered for a summit outside the capital, froze mid-discussion.General Liang of the Celestial Tiger Army dropped his wine cup, its contents forgotten.In the secluded mountains of the Eastern Ascendancy, a blind monk lifted his head from meditation and muttered, “He has awakened.”Even the beasts in the Forbidden Forest fled underground, instinctively seeking refuge from the presence now radiating across the continent.At the heart of it all stood Yunlei.His robes, once tattered from battle, shimmered with a self-repairing flame, elegant yet unyielding. The tattoos etched into his back—the sigils of the br
The Phoenix and the Assassin
As the sun dipped behind the imperial walls, painting the sky in streaks of blood-red and gold, a strange silence settled over the palace. Word of Yunlei’s appearance had already swept through the capital like a wildfire. Courtiers whispered behind lacquered doors. Sects sent urgent messenger falcons into the night. Every clan, every spy, every sleeping threat suddenly awoke.But one figure moved through the shadows with purpose.A woman in crimson robes, her face veiled and her presence light as air, stood on the palace roof. Her eyes, amber and unblinking, fixed on the open courtyard below—where Yunlei knelt before the ancient flame altar, surrounded by nothing but wind and firelight.The woman was known only by one name in the underworld: Yue Qian, the Flame Widow.An assassin of unmatched skill, trained by the Phoenix Temple, her name had vanished from records years ago after completing a mission thought impossible—the quiet extermination of the Cloud Spear Sect’s entire elder cou
The Blood Pagoda Opens
The Imperial Archives were forbidden to all but the Crown, guarded by celestial beasts and ancient sigils no one had dared break in centuries. But tonight, those seals flickered—waning like dying stars—just as Yunlei, with Yue Qian at his side, approached the obsidian doors of the Blood Pagoda.It wasn’t truly a pagoda, not in the traditional sense. Beneath the palace, carved into bedrock and sealed by divine decree, the Blood Pagoda was a prison of knowledge and darkness. It held the secrets deemed too dangerous for the Empire to remember.And it was waking.“The scroll you took from the assassin monk,” Yue Qian murmured, her voice tight, “said this place was a gateway?”Yunlei nodded. “A gate to the forgotten… and the forbidden. My father once told me: ‘The truth of the Kirin’s fall lies buried beneath jade and blood.’ I think this is what he meant.”The twin statues of qilin flanking the entrance stirred to life as they approached. Red light ignited in their gem-like eyes. A deep v
The Masked Ones Return
The moment Yunlei stepped out of the Blood Pagoda, something shifted in the air above the palace. The moon, once half-shrouded in clouds, now gleamed like polished jade, casting silver light on the palace roofs. But what drew his attention wasn’t the sky—it was the silence.A silence too deep.Yue Qian emerged behind him, clutching the ancient scroll they had just claimed. “Where are the guards?” she whispered.“They’re watching,” Yunlei said quietly. “But they’re not from the palace.”As if summoned, a ripple passed through the courtyard ahead—then another. Shadows detached from the pillars, peeling away like oil from water, each forming a tall, robed figure with blank, porcelain masks. Their movements were eerily fluid, soundless.“The Masked Ones,” Yue Qian breathed.Yunlei nodded grimly. “They served the Obsidian Council. Or what’s left of it.”One of the masked figures stepped forward. The mask bore a crimson line down the center, like a blood tear. “Heir of Kirin,” came a voice
The Monk of The Withered Tree
The journey to the Monk of the Withered Tree began before dawn. Yunlei and Yue Qian left through the palace’s northern passage, bypassing the outer walls using a hidden tunnel long forgotten by the living—save for the Flame Prince’s heir. The passage echoed with the scent of mildew and ancient dust, and every step forward seemed to draw them further from the known world.Beyond the exit, the terrain changed. The capital's golden rooftops and humming bazaars gave way to a stretch of wild forest known as the Cradle of Ashes—a realm of gnarled roots, ghostly winds, and trees that whispered at night. No one ventured deep into it willingly. The last warlock who did came back broken… and mute.Yue Qian clutched her cloak tighter. “You’re sure he was last seen here?”Yunlei nodded. “The Withered Tree is real. My uncle mentioned it once—before he disappeared. He said the Monk held secrets the heavens themselves feared.”“And now we’re going to ask him for directions,” she muttered.By midmorn
The Temple of Fallen Stars
The sands of the Southern Reaches stretched endlessly before them, waves of golden heat undulating under a pitiless sun. The journey from the Cradle of Ashes to the edge of the desert had taken three days, and by the time Yunlei and Yue Qian reached the dunes, their supplies were almost gone. But they pressed forward, guided by a map the Monk of the Withered Tree had inscribed in ash on Yue Qian’s scroll.At twilight, the horizon shimmered—and then shifted. A jagged silhouette rose from the dunes like the bones of a dead titan: broken pillars, stone domes half-swallowed by sand, and a single intact archway carved with glyphs older than the empire.“The Temple of Falling Stars,” Yue Qian whispered, awe tinged with dread. “No one’s stepped inside in centuries.”Yunlei’s eyes narrowed. “It hasn’t been abandoned. Look.”Near the entrance, fresh footprints danced across the sand. Not one pair, but many—some human, others clawed. A sigil etched into the stone above the arch glowed faintly w
The Vault below the Stars
The stairs coiled downward like a serpent’s spine, each step warm with ancient energy. As Yunlei descended, the weight of the Heart of Silence in his hand grew heavier—not in mass, but in meaning. Behind him, Yue Qian followed, blade drawn, her senses taut as a drawn bowstring.Above them, the sounds of retreat faded. Liang Xun had not followed.The deeper they went, the quieter the world became. No wind, no echoes. Just the sound of breath and footsteps.At the bottom of the stairway, a great chamber unfolded—larger than any palace hall. The ceiling was a dome of translucent crystal, through which stars twinkled unnaturally, though no sky was visible. In the center stood an obsidian monolith, covered in spiraling glyphs. At its base was a depression shaped like the Heart of Silence.“This is it,” Yue Qian whispered. “The Vault Below the Stars. This is what the ancients sealed.”Yunlei’s eyes scanned the glyphs. “These aren’t just warnings… they’re instructions.”He stepped forward, t