36: Chapter 36: We made back what we owed, and even made more.

The beam of light shattered.

Golden fragments rained down from the firmament, landing on Liu Yuyan's shoulders, on her hair, and on the stone steps beneath her feet.

Liu Yuyan's feet touched the ground.

Her body swayed once.

Just once.

Then it steadied.

It was a steadiness that did not resemble someone who had just crawled out of another person's life.

Liu Yuyan looked down at her hands.

She slowly curled her fingers.

"Click."

A crisp sound.

It was not the sound of bones—it was the signal of cells reorganizing, of muscle fibers firing after crossing a certain threshold.

Power surged from her palms, flowing along her bones, blood vessels, and nerves, flooding every limb and bone.

Pure order, the order of Holy Light.

Eight points of light pulsed at her chest: Mercy, Humility, Honor, Sacrifice, Awe, Loyalty, Bravery, and Justice.

Each one was a small flame, the kind that could never be extinguished.

Liu Yuyan tightened her fingers.

The strength coming from her fingertips startled her.

If she threw this punch, the stone tiles beneath her feet would shatter.

Then she looked up at Su Chen.

This gaze was different from all her previous ones.

She used her Transcendent perception to "read" him—an instinct following her awakening.

The next second, Liu Yuyan's pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks.

Her Holy Light perception touched the boundary of the energy within Su Chen—and then it was gone.

It wasn't blocked.

It had fallen in.

The signal annihilated, the echo vanished, like dropping a grain of sand into a bottomless well; she waited for a long, long time, but heard no sound of it hitting water.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through her shirt.

Before, she was a mortal, and using mortal eyes to look at him, she felt he was unfathomable.

Now that she was a Transcendent, she used her Transcendent perception to look.

Only then did she realize that she had understood the phrase "unfathomable" too shallowly before.

It wasn't just deep.

It was bottomless.

Liu Yuyan withdrew her perception and took half a step back.

When her breathing resumed, her chest trembled slightly.

She stood still three steps in front of Su Chen.

Her spine was straight, her right fist covering her left palm, folded over her chest.

The movement was not her own—it was guided by Elena's muscle memory, the oldest salute of the Kindling Paladins.

"Guild Master."

Her voice was hoarse.

But every word was bitten into her bones.

"I have awakened as a Transcendent. From this day forward—I shall, in the name of the Kindling Paladin, protect human civilization until death."

Su Chen looked at her.

He nodded once.

"You are now a Tier 1 Transcendent; your physique has already surpassed the limits of humanity."

Su Chen's gaze drifted past Liu Yuyan's shoulder, landing on the one-meter-fifty-two figure beside the broken pillar.

Lin Xiaoman was frozen in place.

Her hat was crooked, a strand of her twin tails was stuck to her face, her mouth was open, and her fingers were tightly gripped into the cracks of the broken pillar.

From the moment the beam of light rose until Liu Yuyan landed, she hadn't said a word.

It wasn't that she didn't want to.

It was that her throat was choked shut by something.

Su Chen's gaze fell upon her.

Lin Xiaoman's spine instinctively straightened.

"The fact that you pushed the door open means you have already figured it out."

Su Chen's voice was as flat as a water surface.

"I know you have many questions. Once I complete the final ritual, I will answer them one by one."

The final ritual.

Lin Xiaoman watched him turn and walk toward the ancient tree.

Su Chen's aura shifted within two seconds.

The curve of his lips vanished, and his jawline tightened.

This play was not over yet.

The grand finale was just about to begin.

He walked up to the highest stone step of the altar and turned around.

The ancient tree was behind him, and the golden light fell upon his shoulders.

"Anyone who becomes an official member of the Kindling, passes the test, and obtains the Kindling, must take the final step—"

Su Chen's voice deepened by half a degree.

"Complete the oath under the witness of the ancient tree."

Liu Yuyan stepped forward and stood still before him.

Su Chen began.

For every sentence he spoke, he paused for a beat.

Liu Yuyan followed him.

"We who hold the fire, do not ask of the return journey."

The ancient tree's golden light pulsed, and the golden threads in the cracks of the stone tiles spread outward.

"Guard the order of the world, protect the continuity of civilization."

The golden words of the oath on the broken pillar lit up.

"All evils must be eradicated, all rifts must be sealed."

The virtual projection of the ruins in the distance trembled beneath the firmament.

"The Kindling is here, all things return to order."

Liu Yuyan's voice changed—each word no longer followed behind Su Chen's, but fell in unison with his.

The second part.

"Born in the darkness, standing in the light."

"Holding no selfishness, craving no fleeting fame."

"Using the body as a shield, using fire as a blade."

"The Kindling shall not be extinguished, order shall endure forever."

All the golden words on the broken pillars lit up, and golden light flooded the entire altar plaza.

The last eight words.

Su Chen stepped back half a step, leaving these eight words to her alone.

Liu Yuyan straightened her spine.

Her gaze drifted past the ancient tree and landed on that pale golden firmament.

"Civilization shall not be extinguished—the Kindling shall burn forever."

The voice fell.

It did not stop.

From all directions of the altar, from the cracks in the broken pillars, from deep within the roots of the ancient tree—other voices were reciting along.

One, two, ten, one hundred, countless.

Male, female, old, young.

Eastern accents, Western accents.

Every single voice was reciting the same sentence.

"Civilization shall not be extinguished, the Kindling shall burn forever."

Golden phantoms began to appear.

The air around the ancient tree seemed to have been twisted open like a door.

One after another, human silhouettes emerged from the golden light.

Knights in silver-white holy armor, Taoists wielding rune swords, mages manipulating arcane arts, warriors holding long spears, hunters carrying twin bows, priests holding staves with bare feet.

Dozens, hundreds.

They surrounded the ancient tree and the altar, circle after circle, filling the entire plaza.

Their feet did not touch the solid ground, hovering half an inch above the stone tiles.

The clashing of armor, the friction of Taoist robes, extremely faint, traveled through time from thousands of years ago.

Each phantom was semi-transparent gold, their features blurred, but their postures clear.

All of them faced Liu Yuyan's direction, backs straight, heads held high.

Liu Yuyan's tears fell once more.

In the very front row of the crowd, she saw a figure.

Silver-white holy armor, long hair turned silver-white, but those blue eyes—Elena von Brightshield.

She stood there, nodding slightly toward Liu Yuyan.

Her lips moved, silent.

But Liu Yuyan understood.

"Good child."

All the phantoms simultaneously recited the oath for the last time.

Ten thousand voices in unison.

"Civilization shall not be extinguished—the Kindling shall burn forever!"

The moment the sound waves reached their peak, the firmament shook.

Fine ripples appeared on the surface of the pale golden dome of light, the golden words on the broken pillars shone to their limit, and the golden light in the cracks of the stone tiles surged three times over, spreading to the boundaries of the air wall.

The outlines of those ruins and halls in the distance became clear in the light—the once-glorious training grounds, library, and armory seemed to come alive in this instant.

Then the phantoms scattered.

They didn't disappear; they turned into specks of light.

Golden, tiny, warm specks of light peeled away from the bodies of every phantom, drifting slowly toward the ancient tree.

The specks of light touched the branches.

"Click."

An extremely faint sound.

The tips of the ancient tree's branches—those ends that had been withered for who knows how many years—sprouted tender buds.

Golden buds emerged from the cracks in the branches.

One leaf, two leaves, three leaves.

The specks of light condensed into golden leaves, swaying gently beneath the pale golden firmament.

The surface of the leaves flowed with golden veins of light, sharing the same origin as the tree bark.

The wind came.

For the first time in the space, there was the sound of wind blowing through leaves.

Rustling, warm, vivid.

Lin Xiaoman covered her mouth.

Liu Yuyan knelt on the stone steps, tears splashing onto the stone tiles.

"These predecessors..."

Her voice trembled,

"Even after thousands or tens of thousands of years... their will remains with the ancient tree..."

"This is the Kindling."

Su Chen's voice came from above.

"The Kindling that never dies."

The ancient tree's new golden leaves swayed gently in the windless space.

Su Chen stood beneath the tree, behind his mask, the corners of his mouth finally relaxed.

The system panel quietly popped up two lines of text.

"Points +3000. Current points: 4050."

"Authenticity +190. Current authenticity: 615."

Earned it back.

And earned even more.

He withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the one-meter-fifty-two girl beside the broken pillar, who didn't even know to straighten her crooked hat.

It was time to close the net.