Chapter 10: The First Contact

The Flame Domain made its first decision—
Not to purge, not to seal, but to make contact.

That decision alone said everything.

At the center of the Flame Domain, the Council issued its secret order.

This time, there would be no Flame Envoys.
No Flame Guards.
And certainly no Law-Enforcing Flame Arrays.

The one being sent was someone “who should not have been sent.”

She belonged to no sect within the Flame Domain.
She was outside the hierarchy of the Flame Order.
She wasn’t even, in the truest sense, a Flame Practitioner.

Her name was—Su Lan.

Once the youngest Flame Order Analyst in the entire domain,
and the only one to publicly submit a sealed report after the Day Without Flame.

The report’s title was a single line:

Flame may not be the premise of the world.

That day, she was stripped of all authority.

But today, the Flame Sovereign himself had chosen her.

The reason was simple—
She was the only one who had tried to understand anomalies without relying on Flame.

The Outer Flame Wastes were quiet; the wind low and gentle.

Lin Jin had already sensed the arrival.

It wasn’t the fluctuation of Flame.

It was… restraint.

The approaching figure suppressed all Flame reactions deliberately.

“Smart.”
Lin Jin stood atop a rock, speaking softly.

He revealed nothing.
Released no pressure.
He simply existed.

And that mere existence made the surrounding space unusually silent.

Su Lan stopped a hundred paces away.

She did not step into the core of the wastes.
She did not bow.
She only drew a deep breath and looked up at him.

In that instant, she confirmed one thing—

The person before her did not belong to the Flame Order.

Not powerful.
Not dangerous.
But—
Unrecorded.

“Lin Jin.”
She spoke.

Her voice was dry but steady.

“I come on behalf of the Flame Domain Council.”

Lin Jin regarded her.
Calm.

“I have no obligation to obey representatives.”

Su Lan nodded.

“I know.

So I am not here to command you.”

She paused.

“I am here to confirm one thing.”

Lin Jin gestured for her to continue.

“The Flame Order shows that you have ‘ceased to exist.’

Yet anomalies from all over the Flame Domain are converging toward you.

This means—”

Su Lan met his gaze directly.

“You are not a source of calamity.

You are… a coordinate.”

The moment she spoke, far away at the center of the Flame Domain, the Flame Order arrays shuddered slightly.

This was Su Lan’s conclusion,
and the first time the Flame Sovereigns had not stopped an “unauthorized deduction.”

Lin Jin was silent for a few breaths.

Then he smiled.

Not mockingly,
but with a near-weary sense of relief.

“Finally… someone understands.”

He raised his hand.

No Flame.
No light.
Yet for a moment, the air itself felt “overlapped.”

Su Lan’s breath caught.

She sensed—
her perception of the world being gently pushed aside.

“Your concern is not whether I will destroy the Flame Domain.”
Lin Jin said calmly.

“It is whether the Flame Domain can endure a version of me that does not take Flame as a premise.”

Su Lan did not retreat.

This had been the only order she gave herself before this journey.

“The Flame Domain wants to know—what will you do next?”

Lin Jin gazed into the distance.

At the end of the wastes, the Flame mist swirled like fog, yet never dared to approach.

“I will not actively destroy the Flame Domain.”
He said.

Relief washed over Su Lan.

But his next words made her heart sink completely.

“But I will continue forward.

And wherever I go—”

“Flame must learn to adapt.”

Su Lan fell silent for a long moment.

She suddenly realized—this was not a negotiation.
It was a notice.

“And if the Flame Domain… does not adapt?”
She asked.

Lin Jin turned to her.

His gaze was not cold,
but impossible to evade.

“Then it proves one thing.

It should have changed long ago.”

The wind blew across the wastes.

Su Lan stepped back.

Not in submission.
But in confirmation.

“I will convey this truth.”
She said seriously.

“Whether they accept it or not.”

Lin Jin nodded.

“You’ve already done enough.”

Su Lan turned and left.

The moment she stepped off the edge of the wastes, she suddenly heard a voice behind her.

Soft,
yet extraordinarily clear.

“Next time we meet…
I may no longer be human.”

Her steps faltered ever so slightly.

She did not look back.

At the center of the Flame Domain,

the Sovereigns listened to the report.

Silence lingered.

Finally, one of them spoke softly:

“So—

He refuses to return to his place.”

Su Lan shook her head.

“No.

He said he was never in the Flame’s place to begin with.”

The Flame Order arrays turned silently.

The gray line still existed.

And—
It was now even clearer than before.