2025-10-10 21:48:25Night fell fast over Qingyang Ridge.
Mist still coiled along the ground like breath from the earth itself, and the forest that had been green and humming by day now seemed alive with whispers. A single lantern bobbed through the darkness its light soft and deliberate. The stranger from before moved silently, cloak brushing damp leaves, boots making no sound. In his left hand, the sigil on his wrist pulsed faintly, echoing with the same golden hue Lin Dong’s talisman had flared with. He stopped at the mouth of a cave hidden beneath hanging roots. The air shimmered faintly at its entrance a barrier, cloaked with concealment magic. He lifted his wrist, the sigil brightened, and the air split open like a curtain. Inside, torches flickered along stone walls etched with runes of containment. In the center sat a man cross-legged, face half-hidden by shadow. His robe bore no insignia, yet power coiled around him like smoke. The stranger knelt immediately. “Master, I’ve confirmed it. The Devouring Ancestral Talisman has awakened.” A long silence followed. Then the seated man exhaled softly, and the flame nearest him flared blue. “Impossible,” came the voice deep, calm, dangerous. “That relic was lost during the Great Purge. Are you certain?” “Yes, my lord. The pulse came from the western ridge of Qingyang Town within the Lin Clan’s territory.” At that name, the master’s eyes opened twin shards of cold light. “Lin Clan…” he murmured. “So fate still circles back to that bloodline.” He rose slowly, the runes on the walls quivering in response to his aura. The air thickened, vibrating with suppressed force. “Keep watching,” he ordered. “No contact yet. The boy is young his awakening will draw attention from more than just us. The Lei Clan, the Spirit Sect, perhaps even the Demon Seed cults. When they come for him…” He turned, the torchlight catching the edge of a cruel smile. “We’ll come for them all.” The stranger bowed deeply. “Yes, Master Ying Xuanzi.” Then he vanished into the mist, his lantern extinguished with a hiss. Meanwhile, in a small corner of the Lin estate, Lin Dong couldn’t sleep. The memory of the creek still replayed in his mind the surge, the loss of control, the fear and exhilaration twisted into one. He sat by the window, moonlight painting silver lines across his face. His palm itched again faint warmth spreading beneath the skin. He turned his hand slowly, and for an instant, he could see it: a faint silhouette of ancient script glowing beneath his flesh, symbols older than language itself. “Devouring…” he whispered. “That’s what you do, isn’t it?” He thought of the way the talisman had reacted how it had fed on the surrounding energy, swallowing light, heat, even sound. It was as if the world’s breath had entered him for a heartbeat. He clenched his hand. “If you can make me strong… I’ll accept the risk.” Outside, the wind shifted, carrying distant drums thunder rolling from the mountains. But they weren’t storms. They were war calls faint, ancient echoes of a conflict long buried. The rune on his palm flickered once more, as though it remembered.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 258 — The Forbidden Crucible
The path to the Forbidden Crucible did not exist on any map. Not the Celestial Order’s star-charts, not the Phoenix Clan’s ancestral scrolls, not even the living constellations Lin Dong had begun to decipher since stepping into the Celestial Frontier. It revealed itself only when silence aligned with intent—when one walked not with ambition, but with defiance tempered by resolve. The whispering ember burned faintly within Lin Dong’s sealed palm, its presence muted yet unmistakable. It no longer spoke in words. Instead, it pulsed in slow, deliberate rhythms, guiding him through folds of space that bent away from sanctioned divine routes. Arius hovered close, his glow dimmer than before, the scars of corruption still etched into his essence like hairline fractures in crystal. “This place…” Arius murmured as the world around them shifted. “It feels wrong. Even the heavens avoid it.” Before them, the Celestial Frontier peeled open—not torn, but recoiling, as though reality itself re
Chapter 257 — The Whispering Ember
Silence returned to the depths of Skyforge—but it was no longer empty. It pressed in from every direction, thick and watchful, like a presence holding its breath. The ancient cavern still bore the scars of the battle: fractured stone, frozen rivulets of corrupted flame hardened into jagged obsidian, and at the center of it all, a single ember pulsing faintly on the forge floor. The remnant of the cursed flame. Lin Dong stood before it, unmoving. The ember was no larger than a grain of rice, black at its core and rimmed with a dim, bruised violet glow. It looked fragile—harmless, even. Yet Lin Dong could feel it, tugging subtly at the Nine Flames within him, not with force, but with familiarity. Like an old scar aching before a storm. Arius hovered weakly at Lin Dong’s side, his once-brilliant form now subdued, streaked with faint lines of darkness that pulsed in slow rhythm. Though he had stabilized, the corruption he absorbed had not vanished—it slept. “This ember…” Arius murm
Chapter 256 — The Cursed Flame
The Skyforge slept like a slumbering god beneath the city. Deep below layers of divine stone, law-forged metal, and celestial sigils, the ancient forge core throbbed with a rhythm older than the Celestial Frontier itself. Each pulse sent tremors through the underground arteries of Skyforge City—imperceptible to most, but to Lin Dong, it was as loud as thunder in his bones. He stood alone within a cavern vast enough to swallow palaces. Above him, the ceiling arched like the inside of a colossal furnace, layered with concentric rings of ancient inscriptions. They glowed faintly, not with sanctioned divine fire, but with something rawer—primeval flame, stripped of law and hierarchy. Rivers of molten gold flowed through channels carved by forgotten hands, feeding into a central crucible the size of a mountain. And at its heart… Something was wrong. Lin Dong narrowed his eyes, his Nine Flames stirring uneasily within his core. Since his arrival in the Celestial Frontier, he had felt
Chapter 255 — Secrets of the Skyforge
Skyforge City never truly slept. Even in the deepest hours of the celestial cycle—when the divine suns dimmed to embers and the floating continents drifted in slow, deliberate orbits—the city hummed. Flame veins beneath the streets pulsed with restrained power, carrying heat, law, and will through structures older than most gods remembered. Lin Dong felt it the moment he crossed the threshold into the lower sanctums. This was not the Skyforge the Celestial Order displayed to visitors. This was its heart. The descent began beneath the Phoenix Clan’s outer district, through an aperture that only revealed itself when Lin Dong pressed his palm to a seemingly solid obsidian wall. The Nine Flames within him responded instinctively, releasing a controlled resonance. The wall rippled, folded inward like liquid metal, and revealed a spiraling stair of dark-gold stone descending into silence. Arius hovered closer than usual, his flame dim but alert. This place… it remembers, he whispere
Chapter 254 — Duel with the Fire Disciple
Fame arrived before Lin Dong did. By the time he returned to the outer districts of Skyforge City, whispers had already ignited into open discussion. Divine message arrays crackled with speculation. Flame mirrors replayed distorted visions of the Smoldering Vault’s awakening—blurred silhouettes, surges of ancient fire, the unmistakable tremor that had rattled half the Celestial Frontier. A forbidden place had stirred. And one name surfaced again and again. Lin Dong. He felt it the moment he crossed the Phoenix Clan’s threshold—eyes lingering too long, divine senses brushing against him with poorly disguised curiosity. Some gazes burned with awe. Others with calculation. A few with outright hostility. Arius, now brighter than ever, hovered at Lin Dong’s shoulder in a restrained form, his glow tempered but alert. They’re watching, the spirit murmured. Not like before. This time, they’re measuring you. Lin Dong nodded inwardly. “Let them.” He had barely taken three steps into th
Chapter 253 — The Smoldering Vault
The invitation did not come in words. It came as heat. Not the violent, devouring kind that roared when gods clashed or realms burned—but a low, persistent warmth that threaded itself through Lin Dong’s forge flame like a half-forgotten memory. It pulsed once… twice… then settled into a steady rhythm, guiding rather than commanding. Arius felt it first. This flame… the spirit whispered, his glow flickering with unease and awe. It’s old. Older than Heaven’s Laws. Lin Dong opened his eyes. He stood alone on the highest terrace of the Phoenix Clan enclave, Skyforge City spread beneath him like a constellation of living embers. The Celestial Frontier shimmered under layered divine arrays, yet beyond them—far beyond—he sensed something buried, sealed, and deliberately forgotten. “The Smoldering Vault,” he murmured. The name surfaced unbidden, carried by ancestral memory rather than knowledge. Behind him, the air rippled. Matriarch Feng Hualin stepped into view, her expression gr
You may also like
The Ultimate Devourer
Daoist Of Lies14.6K viewsWizard Of Cosmos
MadRain27.8K viewsThe Overpowered Grass Magician
Shame_less00744.8K viewsReturn of the S-class Young Master
IceFontana1818.6K viewsRELIC OF THE NAMELESS KING
Hunith384 viewsTHE DESTINED HERO: A Stranger's Chronicle.
Goodluck Ernest.1.2K viewsDepartment of unintentional Heroics
Oluwabiyi Raymond732 viewsShadow Assassin Rebirth
Tricia best280 views