The closer Hao Nhien came to the altar, the more clearly he could feel the resonance of the Fire Qilin Jade within his Sea of Consciousness.
While he was still standing outside the courtyard, the jade had only trembled faintly from time to time, almost like a reaction to a familiar aura. But as he followed Lieu Ban and the members of the Fire Qilin Tribe toward the center of the old homeland, those vibrations gradually became clearer. A thin warmth spread from his Sea of Consciousness through his meridians and into his flesh and blood, bringing neither pain nor disorder, only a deepening sense of heat.
Hao Nhien did not find it strange. The Fire Qilin Jade had already acknowledged him, while the altar was the place where successive Clan Heads of the Fire Qilin Tribe completed the inheritance rite. The two had always belonged to the same inheritance system, so as the distance between them narrowed, it was only natural for the resonance to grow stronger.
The altar stood at the center of the old homeland, formed from seven tiers of black stone, each nearly a zhang wide. Years of wind and sand had covered its surface in a weathered gray layer, but most of the flame patterns carved deep into the stone remained intact.
Hao Nhien stepped onto the first tier.
The Fire Qilin Jade trembled faintly.
When he reached the second tier, a dim red line appeared beneath the rainwater still clinging to the stone. By the third, the red glow had begun to follow the ancient carvings, extending several feet before stopping.
He continued upward.
With each step, another section of the patterns lit up. The light was neither dazzling nor violent, yet it was enough to gradually silence everyone following behind him.
Lieu Ban climbed beside him with the help of his staff. He was already very old, and each additional tier forced him to pause and catch his breath, yet his eyes never left the glowing patterns spreading across the altar.
Only when they reached the fifth tier did he speak in a hoarse voice.
"I saw this once before."
Hao Nhien turned toward him.
"Back then, my hair was still black, and the saber at my waist had not yet broken. The previous Clan Head placed his hand on the stone pedestal, and all four fire pillars around the altar ignited. In those days, the Fire Qilin Tribe was still large enough that you could hear children running through the courtyards every morning."
Lieu Ban paused to steady his breathing, his aged hand tightening around his staff.
"After the Clan Head died, the tribe divided, and the flames here went out as well. I once thought I would never live long enough to see these patterns light up again."
Hao Nhien said nothing. He simply continued climbing.
The moment he stepped onto the highest tier, every pattern from the base of the altar to its summit brightened at once.
The Fire Qilin Jade trembled strongly within his Sea of Consciousness.
This time, the vibration was clear enough for Hao Nhien to feel each pulse spreading through his Divine Soul and down into his body. Fine strands of Fire spiritual qi began flowing out from the jade, moving through his meridians before gradually gathering in his right arm.
At the center of the altar stood the flame-shaped stone pedestal he had seen on the first night he came here. Its surface was covered in fine cracks left behind by the passage of time, while a hand-shaped depression lay in the middle.
Hao Nhien turned toward Lieu Ban.
"Senior, what do I do next?"
Lieu Ban stared at the pedestal for a long moment before shaking his head.
"I do not know the entire rite. The most important parts were passed only between successive Clan Heads and the elders responsible for the altar. But that year, I personally saw the previous Clan Head place his hand there and use blood to begin the ceremony."
He pointed toward the depression.
"What happened afterward, I do not know."
Hao Nhien nodded and stepped forward.
He placed his right hand into the depression.
The stone was cold from the recent rain, but within a single breath, heat rose from deep beneath the altar into his palm. It traveled along his arm, passed through his shoulder, and spread into his chest, while the Fire Qilin Jade within his Sea of Consciousness began to rotate faintly.
The strands of Fire spiritual qi surrounding the jade immediately flowed down his meridians and into his right arm. The moment the two currents met beneath his palm, the entire pedestal gave a faint tremor.
Hao Nhien took out a small blade, cut the tip of one finger, and allowed his blood to drip into the depression.
The first drop sank into the stone.
The second made the patterns around his palm brighten.
When the third drop landed, a deep vibration suddenly rose from far beneath the ground.
The entire altar trembled.
Red light spread outward from beneath Hao Nhien's hand, first tracing the carvings around the pedestal before quickly flowing down through each tier, like heat rushing through a system that had lain dormant for far too long.
The four stone pillars at the corners of the altar shook at the same time.
Small sparks appeared within the cracks along their surfaces.
When Lieu Ban saw them, the hand holding his staff began to tremble. He slowly lowered himself onto one knee. The other members of the Fire Qilin Tribe followed one after another, not because some force compelled them, but because even the younger members who had never witnessed such a rite understood that the moment their people had waited for so long had finally arrived.
The light across the altar continued spreading.
The Fire Qilin Jade and the stone pedestal maintained a strange rhythm of resonance. Each time the jade trembled, a portion of Fire spiritual qi flowed into the altar, while another current of power answered from deep within the ancient stone.
When that resonance reached a certain point, all four pillars erupted into flame.
Four columns of red fire rose high into the air, illuminating the courtyard and casting a warm glow across the old rooftops, cracked walls, and upturned faces.
Then the light at the center of the altar began to gather.
A massive figure gradually took shape within the dark-red Fire qi.
Its four legs stood firm like stone pillars, its body covered in dark-red scales whose seams glowed like embers beneath ash. Two curved horns swept backward from its head, while thin flames coiled around its neck and spine like a mane made of fire.
Hao Nhien recognized the shape immediately.
His gaze settled on the Fire Qilin Beast's forelegs, where the layered scales and heavy claws looked far too familiar. Every time Berserk was activated, his right arm transformed according to the same structure. What had appeared on his body until now had only been a small part of the complete form standing before him.
When the Fire Qilin Beast slowly opened its golden eyes, Hao Nhien's Sea of Consciousness trembled.
Unfamiliar images immediately appeared.
A man in leather armor stood before the entrance to a cave in the middle of a sandstorm, shielding the elderly and children crouched in the darkness behind him. A woman clutched a child tightly to her chest as she ran through a sea of flames, blood still flowing from a wound across her back. A warrior whose leg had been shattered by a spirit beast used the last of his strength to push a companion away from the descending claws. Elsewhere, elders sat around a small fire, slowly reciting the names of those who had died so the next generation would not forget that they had once lived.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The scenes passed in only moments, yet the feeling they left behind was unmistakable.
The people in those memories knew fear and pain. They understood that they might die, but when someone behind them still needed protection, they chose to remain.
As Hao Nhien watched each image appear and fade, he gradually understood what the inheritance had preserved through generation after generation.
The Fire Qilin Tribe could lose its land, its people, even be forced to abandon its homeland, but as long as there were still those willing to shield the weaker, survivors willing to carry the wounded back, and elders who remembered the names of the dead so the next generation would know where they came from, the tribe had not truly disappeared.
Its flame was the same. It might be reduced to a tiny spark in the Western Wastes, but if someone still cupped their hands around it against the wind and passed it on to the next pair of hands, it could continue burning from one generation to another.
As the images gradually faded from his Sea of Consciousness, Hao Nhien's own memories surfaced in their place.
He remembered Tieu Lan beneath the lamplight, carefully preparing bottle after bottle of medicine before he left. He remembered Quan Nha standing beside him in danger without taking a step back, Lanh Hoa covered in blood yet still moving in front of him in the ravine, and Luu Tan choosing to return even though that choice could have cost him his life.
He also remembered the Fire Qilin children who had stood in the courtyard waiting for him to come back.
Those memories belonged to him, yet when placed beside the scenes preserved in the inheritance, Hao Nhien suddenly sensed a deep similarity between them.
He had once wondered why the Fire Qilin Jade had chosen him.
The Fire Qilin Tribe had existed for countless generations. Before Hao Nhien, there must have been people with purer bloodlines, higher cultivation, deeper knowledge of the inheritance, perhaps even people who had spent their entire lives searching for the jade. If bloodline, cultivation, or Fire affinity alone were enough, there should have been no reason for an outsider like him to be chosen.
Now, however, Hao Nhien began to understand that those things might never have been the deciding factor.
He did not know whether the Fire Qilin Jade followed a precise rule when choosing a successor, but standing before the altar now, he could feel a clear harmony between the traces preserved within the inheritance and the choices he himself had made long before he even knew the Fire Qilin Tribe existed.
It was not because he had always been stronger than others. Rather, when someone he could not bear to lose stood behind him, he had often chosen to remain.
Perhaps that similarity was what had created the resonance.
Not shared blood.
But the same rhythm when standing before someone who needed to be protected.
With that realization, many things that had once seemed unclear began to connect. The Fire Qilin Jade had never simply handed him authority over a tribe. It had placed a flame into his hands, and when the sandstorm truly came, the person carrying that flame also had to be the first to shield it from the wind.
Hao Nhien looked down at the people kneeling below and slowly tightened his hand against the stone pedestal.
"So that was it..."
He did not know whether his understanding had reached the full truth behind the Fire Qilin Jade's choice, but the moment that thought became clear, the resonance between the jade and the altar suddenly deepened.
The patterns around the pedestal lit up at once.
A stream of pure Fire spiritual qi surged through Hao Nhien's right arm.
The energy was completely different from the spiritual power the Fire Qilin Jade had absorbed from outside in the past. It merged into his body with remarkable ease, carrying such a high degree of compatibility that there was almost no sense of rejection.
The Fire Qilin Jade had already acknowledged him.
Now the altar was completing the part of the inheritance that had remained unfinished.
Hao Nhien immediately sat down in front of the stone pedestal.
He would not let the opportunity pass.
The Fire spiritual qi flowed through his meridians, first surrounding the injuries left behind by Berserk. The faint cracks across his right arm were gradually soaked in warmth, easing the lingering pain in his muscles, while most of the power continued along his meridians toward his dantian.
Hao Nhien's cultivation had already come very close to Foundation Establishment layer three.
The three days inside the Cosmic Ark had not directly pushed him through the breakthrough, but they had condensed the liquid-mist spiritual power within his dantian until only one final step remained.
Now the altar provided that step.
Hao Nhien guided the incoming power into his own spiritual power, circulated it repeatedly through his meridians, and continued compressing it. After several complete cycles, a faint vibration came from his dantian as the barrier that had already become thin was finally pierced.
His aura rose.
Foundation Establishment layer three.
Everyone below sensed the change, but no one spoke. The flames around the altar had not weakened, and the flow of power into Hao Nhien's body had not stopped.
If this had been ordinary spiritual qi, he would not have continued absorbing it immediately after breaking through. But the power entering him now came from the same inheritance system as the Fire Qilin Jade, while his Fire affinity had already been awakened long before. The compatibility between them made the process far more stable than absorbing unfamiliar spiritual qi from the outside.
Even so, Hao Nhien kept the pace slow.
Every portion of energy entering his dantian was circulated through his meridians several times, blended with his existing spiritual power, then further condensed. His cultivation did not swell chaotically after reaching the third layer. Instead, it gradually stabilized through the continued refinement.
Time passed slowly.
The flames around him rose and fell, sweat gradually appearing on his forehead while his breathing remained steady.
Once he entered the third layer, Hao Nhien had reached the final boundary of early Foundation Establishment. To advance one more step required more than a larger quantity of spiritual power. The spiritual power itself had to undergo another clear stage of condensation.
The energy from the altar continued feeding the accumulation he had already built.
The liquid mist within his dantian gradually became heavier. The areas that had once remained indistinct condensed more clearly, while the flow through his meridians became smoother and more continuous.
When the final portion of power from the altar merged into his body, another barrier finally began to tremble.
Hao Nhien still did not immediately force his way through.
He circulated his spiritual power for one more cycle, then another, and only when he was certain that the foundation he had formed at the third layer was stable enough did he guide the remaining Fire spiritual qi downward all at once.
His dantian trembled.
The boundary between early and mid-stage Foundation Establishment opened.
Spiritual power surged past the old limit, its circulation expanding as each current became noticeably heavier and denser.
Foundation Establishment layer four.
Mid-stage Foundation Establishment.
Hao Nhien remained seated for a while longer, circulating the newly transformed spiritual power through every meridian to suppress the remaining fluctuations. The Fire spiritual qi that he could no longer absorb was guided back toward his Sea of Consciousness, where the Fire Qilin Jade slowly took it in and settled.
The jade's red color deepened, while the patterns across its surface became slightly clearer.
When Hao Nhien opened his eyes, the four pillars around the altar were still burning.
The image of the Fire Qilin Beast behind him had grown fainter, but it remained clear enough for the members of the tribe below to see. At the same time, a light layer of Fire spiritual qi spread from the altar across the courtyard, and every person carrying the Fire Qilin bloodline felt a familiar warmth rise from deep within their bodies, making their blood and vitality feel more alive after so many years of decline.
A few children stared curiously at their hands, while several elders quietly wiped the tears from their faces as they realized that the altar had truly lit again after so many years.
Hao Nhien slowly rose amid the Fire qi still flowing around the stone pedestal. His white robe stirred in the heat, and although the aura of Foundation Establishment layer four had not yet been completely restrained, it already felt deeper and heavier than before.
He looked down at the people kneeling below, from the white-haired elders who had waited almost their entire lives for this day, to the women holding their children, the men carrying old wounds, and the children who still did not fully understand the meaning of what had just taken place.
Hao Nhien did not carry the bloodline of the Fire Qilin Tribe, but the Fire Qilin Jade had acknowledged him, and today the altar had completed the final part of the rite. From this moment onward, the title of Clan Head that Lanh Hoa and the others had already used for him no longer rested only on the trust of a small group of people.
The inheritance rite was complete.
Hao Nhien had officially become the Clan Head of the Fire Qilin Tribe.
He remained silent for a moment before speaking, his voice not loud, yet carrying clearly across the courtyard.
"Today the altar has lit again, but that alone is not why the Fire Qilin Tribe has returned. As long as our people still remember who they are, still protect one another when danger comes, and still bring the wounded home, this flame will not go out."
His gaze passed over the faces below.
"We have lost much. From today onward, we will find our people, rebuild our homes, and reclaim what should have been ours."
Hao Nhien paused briefly.
"The Fire Qilin Tribe has returned."
Lieu Ban bowed his head first. The staff in his hand trembled faintly, but his voice was clear.
"Clan Head."
Lanh Hoa also lowered himself onto one knee, one hand resting on the hilt of his ancient sword. Behind him, Luu Tan's eyes reddened before he slowly knelt as well.
A shout rose from the crowd.
"Fire Qilin Tribe!"
At first only a few voices joined in, but they quickly merged into a wave that swept across the courtyard, echoed from the old houses, and carried toward the mountain ranges surrounding the old homeland.
The four fire pillars continued burning amid the cries.
The image of the Fire Qilin Beast behind Hao Nhien gradually dissolved into countless red motes of light. Some returned to the altar, while the rest faded into the air, leaving only the real flames blazing atop the four stone pillars after years of darkness.
Hao Nhien stood within the firelight and looked down at the people below.
The altar had acknowledged him, and the Fire Qilin Jade had completed the missing connection with the inheritance, but what Hao Nhien felt most clearly at that moment was neither the fact that he had just entered mid-stage Foundation Establishment nor the greater power flowing through his meridians.
It was the weight of all those eyes resting upon him.
From today onward, he was no longer merely the bearer of the Fire Qilin Jade.
He was the one standing before the flame of an entire tribe.
After so many years, that flame was finally burning again.