8: Chapter 8 The Fire Keepers

Young.

Liu Yuyan froze for a full two seconds.

A face of twenty-five or twenty-six.

Clear brow bone, clean jawline, handsome and refined.

But those eyes were wrong.

It was heavy enough when covered by the mask.

After taking it off, that layer of something was fully exposed, laid bare by the golden light of the ancient tree.

A twenty-five-year-old face shouldn't have eyes like that.

Su Chen tucked the mask into his waistband, his movements very casual.

"You asked three questions."

"They are also what I am about to tell you."

"Since you pushed open that door, you have the right to know the truth."

Su Chen turned around to face the ancient tree.

His back fell into Liu Yuyan's field of vision.

The shoulder line of his black trench coat stood straight; the tree's light broke through the branches, sprinkling onto his hair tips and collar.

Then he spoke.

His speaking speed was slow, his voice kept very low; it didn't sound like he was talking to someone, but rather reciting something already carved into his bones.

"From the beginning of Blue Star civilization, heaven and earth have hidden an eternal fate."

"Every thousand years, a world-ending catastrophe must occur."

The outline of the distant ruins stood silent under the sky, the golden characters on the broken pillars brightening by a fraction.

"Outer evil gods awaken, spatial rifts collapse, anomalies descend, laws of nature fall into chaos—civilization is extinguished, all living beings are wiped clean."

Liu Yuyan's breath hitched for half a beat.

Su Chen did not turn back.

"In the earliest years, the first pioneers who saw through the cycle of fate gathered the embers of heaven and earth, collecting the remnant souls of civilization—"

He paused for a second.

"Established Kindling."

The two words fell.

The echo structure of the altar plaza caught them, bouncing them back from the surrounding ruined walls, layer upon layer, colliding with the two words carved on the stone pillars.

Liu Yuyan's ears buzzed.

"Not subordinate to any dynasty, nation, or sect. Not competing for power, not seizing profit, not interfering with the rise and fall of the mundane world."

"Awakening once every thousand years; when the catastrophe comes, save the world; when the catastrophe passes, return to seclusion."

"When civilization thrives, Kindling hides. When the apocalypse arrives, Kindling burns."

His voice was flat.

But with every sentence that landed, another piece of the puzzle in Liu Yuyan's mind snapped into place.

Murals, stone pillars, oaths, ruins, that ancient tree still breathing.

Fragments clicked in one by one, piecing together a picture she had never imagined in her twenty-seven years of life.

"Those people in the murals..."

She only realized her voice was trembling when she spoke,

"Are they the ones who fought against the thousand-year catastrophe?"

Su Chen turned his face to the side.

The light from the ancient tree carved a line of light and shadow on his cheekbones.

After two seconds of silence, his tone changed, just a little.

A hint of something tightly suppressed emerged—not sadness, but more like the subconscious bracing when touching an old scar.

"They have always been there."

"Beyond Blue Star, there are things watching this planet. They have never looked away."

"Every thousand years, rifts appear, and anomalies pour in. Every time, someone stands up."

"They are the ones you saw in the murals."

"They fight, sacrifice, and seal the rifts shut."

"Then the survivors seal the base and return to the mortal world."

"Leaving only one person behind."

Su Chen turned around to face Liu Yuyan directly.

"Flame Keeper."

Liu Yuyan's pupils contracted.

She didn't speak, but something in her mind collapsed,

not a breakdown, but the old framework unable to bear the new weight, crumbling down.

Flame Keeper.

The person who lived to the end in the last apocalypse.

Guarding the spark, walking alone in the human world for a thousand years.

Waiting for the next catastrophe to descend, to reignite Kindling, and recruit new people.

Then watching them go to their deaths.

She looked at Su Chen's face again.

Twenty-five years old.

Those eyes.

Liu Yuyan's eyes felt swollen.

She blinked hard, forcing that feeling back.

Taking a deep breath, she straightened her body.

"I want to join."

"I want to join Kindling."

Su Chen looked at her.

He didn't express an opinion.

On the altar plaza, there was only the sound of the ancient tree breathing, expanding and contracting, slow and heavy like some kind of countdown.

One second.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

Liu Yuyan's heartbeat started to rise.

"You need to understand one thing."

Su Chen finally spoke, his tone unyielding, not a hint of softening.

"From the moment you stand here, you are no longer an ordinary person."

"I know."

He nodded, but nothing changed on his face.

Then he didn't continue speaking.

He walked to the ancient tree and placed his palm against the lowest branch.

Dark golden light flowed from the branch into the gaps between his fingers, and then flowed back.

It was like some kind of conversation that only they could hear.

Liu Yuyan stared at this scene.

Three seconds later, Su Chen withdrew his hand.

"Only those recognized by the ancient tree can become members of Kindling; it has witnessed the rise and fall of every generation of Kindling. When the trial begins is not for me to decide."

Su Chen looked at Liu Yuyan, as if waiting for her to retreat.

"I will pass."

Su Chen didn't respond.

After a few seconds of silence, Liu Yuyan pulled back those emotions, the shell of the cool-headed CEO snapping back into place.

"Kindling is reignited, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt. Funds, supplies, connections—the things needed on a worldly level, the Liu family will handle. Regardless of whether I pass the trial."

She paused.

"This is not a transaction."

Su Chen looked at her for a few seconds.

He nodded.

"Go back. When I need you, I will contact you."

Su Chen turned and walked two steps towards the ancient tree, then stopped.

Without turning his head back, he faced her with his profile.

"Your management talent is excellent. The reconstruction of Kindling needs not only combat power, but also order."

He paused for a beat.

"Don't let it go to waste."

Liu Yuyan froze in place.

The weight of this sentence wasn't heavy.

In the business world, it would just be a polite affirmation.

But the person who said this had lived for a thousand years and had seen more people than she had read financial reports.

He said "Don't let it go to waste."

Liu Yuyan's earlobes began to burn.

She lowered her head and bowed at ninety degrees.

"I understand. I will wait for your news."

Straightening up, she turned and walked step by step towards the entrance of the stone corridor.

The holy light and thunderous glow on the murals swept past her on both sides, the echo of the stone bricks under her feet getting lighter with each step.

The back of her white shirt walked into the darkness of the stone corridor, then was illuminated by the light of the next mural, alternating between bright and dim, getting further and further away.

The old wooden door creaked.

It closed.

Only Su Chen remained on the altar.

The light of the ancient tree still fell on his shoulders, shattering into a few golden spots.

He stood there, listening intently.

The sound of footsteps passed through the stone corridor, through the old wooden door, through the courtyard, and drifted further away.

It was gone.

Su Chen's shoulders slumped down three inches.

He sat down on the stone steps of the altar, his back against the stone surface, his head tilted back.

The mask was still tucked at his waist, not removed.

But his whole body from the neck down completely relaxed.

Su Chen stared at the pale golden sky above his head for five seconds.

"...The part about the history was okay."

He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse, his throat dry.

"I controlled the speaking speed. My breathing was steady when I threw out the words 'Flame Keeper'; it was still shaky when I practiced last time."

Su Chen rubbed his throat.

"But."

He paused.

When he recited the line "Leaving only one person behind" just now, his voice had indeed changed.

That hint of "restrained sadness" in the plan had been practiced many times; he had even used a metronome to time which word to hold back and which to let out.

But the moment he actually said it, something wasn't quite right.

That slight variation in tone wasn't entirely acted.

When he said "Leaving only one person behind," the images that flashed in his mind weren't the "Kindling History" written in his notebook, but himself.

A six-square-meter partitioned room, three buckets of instant noodles, a 0.8 follow-read rate on the first day of launch, the editor saying "suggest cutting losses."

One person.

Just for that second.

Su Chen rubbed his face, pushing that thought down.

"Too deep into the role, need to be careful next time."

He took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it.

No signal; this crappy place didn't even have a base station.

His stomach growled.

The thousand-year Flame Keeper of Kindling hadn't eaten breakfast.