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"To teach is to kill a version of yourself in another."
—Ashscript Proverb
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I. The March of Flame-Words
Yun Mu walked.
Not as a ruler.
Not as a savior.
But as a man surrounded by reflections he did not write.
The world had changed without him.
Where once there were sects and scrolls, there now stood ashes with slogans.
> "Write to live."
"Untruth is weakness."
"Ink before inheritance."
In the northern hills, flame disciples trained by scorching their memories away to "clear the page."
In the western cities, Ash Monks tattooed their faces with regrets and burned them nightly to cultivate grief resonance.
Everywhere, Yun Mu saw his doctrine…
Distorted.
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II. The First Truthling
In the southern ruin of what once was the Saintcloud Sect, a girl knelt before him.
She was no more than twelve.
Her skin was a scripture of his words—written not by him, but by those who followed.
Eyes hollow. Voice calm.
> "You are the Author."
> "We are the Drafts."
Behind her stood dozens.
The Truthlings.
Children cultivated through pure mimicry of Yun Mu's narrative, injected with his words, reshaped by his myth.
He looked at them—and felt something rupture.
> "I never wanted this," he said.
The girl tilted her head.
> "You wrote it."
And in a whisper only the flame could hear—
Yun Mu answered:
> "Then I must write again."
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III. Yu Ling's Burden
Far in the east, Yu Ling sat in the ruins of the Phoenixbone Cliff.
Her sword hummed.
Not with power, but with doubt.
She had become a symbol, a war-leader, the First Flame Disciple.
But with every faction burning the world in Yun Mu's name, she wondered:
> "Have we freed the world?
Or just given them a new god to cage themselves in?"
One night, she received a scroll.
It was written not in ink—but in Yun Mu's own blood-fire script.
It read:
> "Come to the Forest Where Memory Burns.
Bring no followers.
Bring your doubts.
Bring the part of you that would still stab me."
She left the next day.
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IV. The Archivore Consumes
While truth fractured—
A silent, patient thing marched.
Not alive. Not dead.
Not holy. Not demonic.
The Archivore.
It reached the ancient kingdom of Vermillion Dusk and stopped.
Opened its maw.
And wrote.
The people's names.
Their regrets.
Their beliefs.
Their entire existence.
And with that—
They could never change again.
No cultivation.
No dreams.
No rebellion.
Just frozen narratives.
The Archivore whispered:
> "I am Order."
> "I will burn the chaos of authorship."
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V. Yun Mu Confronts the Drafts
Back in the southern wasteland, Yun Mu sat with the Truthlings.
He asked them a question:
> "Why do you write?"
The girl, First Draft, answered:
> "Because you did."
He shook his head.
> "Wrong."
> "I wrote because the world lied to me."
> "I wrote because no one else's truth fit my pain."
Then, he asked them again.
One by one, the children tried to answer differently.
And those who lied—were burned by their own inner fire.
Only those who dared to speak ugly, broken, personal truths…
Cultivated.
And for the first time—
A new path emerged:
> Ashscript Variant: Truthroot Flame
Cultivation based not on identity, but on conflict with it.
Not who you are.
But who you refuse to be.
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VI. A New Flame Kindles
As the night deepened, Yun Mu stood before a bonfire made from dead teachings.
He looked up.
The stars were bleeding ink again.
He wrote a single line in the air with his flame:
> "My truth is not your cage."
The words didn't burn away.
They hovered, etched into the world.
He smiled.
And somewhere, the Archivore paused.
Something it could not archive…
Had been born.
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