Chapter 13: The Flame Domain’s First Encirclement

The decision to encircle and eliminate him was not made in anger.

On the contrary.

It was calm, measured, perfectly in line with all established logic of the Flame Domain.

Because the Flame Sovereigns had finally confirmed one thing—

Lin Jin was beyond any “recoverable range.”

The Flame Domain Council issued secret orders in three simultaneous directives.

First:

Block all information regarding the “Flame-less one,” labeling him as a remnant of Flame Disasters.

Second:

Activate the Flame Domain’s seventh-level encirclement authority.

Third:

This mission’s objective—
No capture, no negotiation, no reclamation.
Only confirmation of death.

This was a permission rarely invoked in the history of the Flame Domain.

It meant—
The target was now considered a system-level threat.

The encirclement formation was assembled within a single day.

Three Flame Sovereigns remained in hiding.
Seven Flame Kings controlled the operation.
Twenty-one Flame Soul practitioners sealed all escape routes.

Additionally, one tool—never publicly used before—was deployed:

The Flame Order Erasure Array.

This was not a formation.
It was a directive written into the very foundations of the Flame Order.

Its purpose was singular:

When a target could no longer be understood by Flame—
Directly delete all traces of its existence.

The moment Lin Jin stepped into the border of the Flame Domain,

the sky changed color.

Flame clouds hung low.
The air thickened.

The Flame energy was not burning—it was locking on.

He stopped.

Not from fear.

But because—
He had already sensed it.

“It begins.”

The first wave: environmental encirclement.

The ground cracked with Flame patterns; arrays spread over hundreds of miles.

Not to attack him.

But to sever his “natural feedback” with the world.

The wind ceased.
Sounds vanished.
Gravity shifted subtly.

This was the Flame Domain’s most refined technique.

To make a target “unable to exist normally.”

Lin Jin stood within the array, body swaying slightly.

The cost of the second transformation revealed itself immediately.

His wounds remained open.
Blood dripped from his fingertips.

Yet his gaze was still clear.

“So this… is what you fear.”

He murmured.

The second wave: the Flame Soul practitioners acted.

Not a frontal strike.

But simultaneous pressure.

Twenty-one streams of Flame energy pressed down on him from different dimensions.

Not to kill.
But to oppress.

To force him—
To borrow Flame.

Even a single instant of using Flame,
And the Flame Order could reassert control over him.

This was the core of the encirclement.
The Sovereigns’ only hope.

Lin Jin drew a deep breath.

No Flame.
No power explosion.

He merely—
Stabilized his “existence.”

Beneath him, the ground cracked faintly.

Not from Flame energy.
But from the failure of the formation to hold.

He took a step forward.

At the edge of the array, a fissure appeared where none should exist.

A Flame Soul practitioner spat blood violently.

“Backlash?!”
“No… not backlash!”
“It’s the formation… failing beneath his feet!”

Panic appeared for the first time among the encirclers.

The third wave: the Flame Kings acted.

Seven of them formed seals simultaneously.
The Flame Order Erasure Array activated.

Flame patterns in the sky began rotating in reverse.

This was not power.
This was rule execution.

It needed no strike.
It only required—
That the target still be recognized by the world.

Lin Jin looked up.

For the first time, he sensed true danger.

Not death.
But—
Erasure.

If that happened, he could leave nothing behind.

No trace.
No memory.
No “having existed.”

He paused for a moment.

Then made a choice that none of the Flame Sovereigns anticipated.

He—
Abandoned “self-identification.”

Not suicide.
But no longer existing as Lin Jin.

At that moment,

The Erasure Array faltered for the briefest instant.

It realized—
The target was slipping beyond definable status.

“What?!”

The Flame Kings’ faces went pale.

“The formation cannot lock him!”
“His existence… is slipping away!”

The cost manifested immediately.

Lin Jin’s consciousness began to fragment.
Memories shattered.
His body convulsed violently.

This was the cruelest step of Flame-less cultivation—

Trading “Who am I?” for “I still exist.”

Just as the Flame Order prepared to enforce execution—

A command outside any Flame Domain authority forcibly intervened.

Not a Flame Sovereign.
Not a Flame King.
But—
Su Lan.

She stood at the perimeter, activating a long-sealed old authority.

“As a Flame Order Analyst…
Apply—
Execution suspension, three breaths.”

The Sovereigns were furious.

“You’ve overstepped!”

Su Lan’s voice trembled, yet was unshakably resolute.

“Just three breaths.”
“That’s enough.”

Three breaths.

First breath:
The Erasure Array halted.

Second breath:
Lin Jin’s existence fully escaped Flame Order locking.

Third breath:
He—
Disappeared.

Not erased.
But voluntarily exiting the scene.

The Flame arrays collapsed.
Flame clouds dispersed.

The encirclement—the Flame Domain’s first against a Flame-less one—
Ended in failure.

Afterwards, the Flame Sovereigns issued only one order:

“Confirm the result:
Target alive.
Encirclement authority—upgrade to highest level.”

Su Lan, however, was stripped of all status on the spot.
Imprisoned in the Flame Prison.

Somewhere on the unknown outskirts,

Lin Jin crashed heavily to the ground.

Consciousness blurry.
Memory fragmented.

He did not know who he was.
Did not know where he came from.

Only one faint thought lingered—

Cannot return.

In the darkness of night,

His eyes slowly opened.

No Flame.

Yet more than ever—he truly felt unknown.