Eternal Flame Yuan Huo

At first, due to the difference of the shrines from Earth, Shi Ye had some difficulty finding where to pay his respects. After spending a few minutes to look around, Shi Ye finally found where the altar of the shrine was. "The hell...why would you put the shrine's altar at the back of shrine..." muttered Shi Ye, whilst walking towards it. Opening the door to the altar, Shi Ye saw that it was just a small room with a few tapestries. In the center of the room was a burning blue flame. It was strange that although the flame's color was intensely blue, it only gave off a warm feeling in the room.

"This is quite a peculiar flame, I wonder if it has something to do with the tapestries on the walls" he muttered to himself. As Shi Ye was observing the room in closer detail, he noticed that the tapestries depicted some sort of story. The tapestry at the center of the first wall depicted that of an empty fireplace. The next then showed a small white flame slowly being lit up into existence. Over the course of the next few tapestries, it showed the flame growing stronger over millenniums, gaining sentience, being found by human cultivators and imparting the knowledge it had accumulated over its lifetime to them. The humans then built a shrine to honor the mysterious flame that had granted them new knowledge. The last tapestry showed the humans throwing incense papers into the flame to pay their respects.

As Shi Ye read more of the tapestries, the more cautious he became towards the flame in the story. He felt suspicious of the flame as it had just suddenly become sentient in the tapestries. 'There is surely something odd about that' he thought. He also didn't understand if the flame in the tapestries and the blue flame were the same and if they weren't, why would the tapestries be up in the altar room. 'It's probably best if I don't mind these details too much and just pay my respects and get back to the path again' thought Shi Ye as he began to walk towards the flame. After bowing to the flame first then throwing some of the nearby incense papers into it, Shi Ye began to leave the altar. As he was about to exit the altar, he suddenly heard the flame say "Oi! You clearly read the tapestries and you just ignore that I'm alive and just walk away?!"

As if he was struck by lightning, Shi Ye paused for a second and then frantically walked away at an even faster pace than he was walking just a moment ago.

"Hey get back here! You clearly heard me talk to you!" shouted the flame.

"Hmm... I must be going crazy, to think I'm now starting to hear voices," muttered Shi Ye as he kept his hasty pace towards the exit. He did not want to involve himself with the suspicious flame, he felt that if he did he would suffer greatly.

"...Like hell you are! I'm real dammit!" proclaimed the flame.

"Ah...to think my imaginary friend from my childhood was actually real...I'm going to cry…" said Shi Ye, running at full speed towards the door.

"Imaginary friend my ass! I don't need to know that, I am trying to talk to you for god's sake!" the flame yelled.

"Just forget I was ever here!" yelled Shi Ye, as he was about to escape the room. Unfortunately, right at the doorway, he ran into something like an invisible wall. Ping! Due to him running at full speed, Shi Ye's momentum caused him to knock into a wall.

"You idiot...did you actually think I would let you out... this is my shrine you know..." said flame. 'Why did I even bother with this person... to knock himself into the wall just because he ran into my sealing wall...only an idiot can do that...', the flame thought to himself.

"Who's the idiot... if you could have done that from the start, why didn't you stop me?", retorted Shi Ye, as he recovered from slamming into the wall.

"...Uh...ahem...", momentarily flustered responded the flame, "Never mind that, more importantly... who the hell do you think you are barging into someone else's shrine and throwing valuable paper talismans to burn?!?"

"The heck? If they were valuable then why would the tapestries show the humans burning it?" said Shi Ye. Right now, Shi Ye wanted to get out of the shrine as fast as he could so he could continue walking on the path, he did not want anything to do with a flame!

"..." The flame had nothing to respond. "...Ahem...umm... how about we just introduce ourselves?" It said, desperately trying to change the subject. "My name is Yuan Huo, the Eternal Flame God."

"For a God who has lived for many millenniums, you sure suck at communicating with others..." said Shi Ye, shaking his head. "My name is Shi Ye...umm... an intern..."

"F-for an intern, you sure have some guts to say that to a wise God like m-me...." Stuttered Yuan Huo.

'The hell is wrong with this god…' Shi Ye felt like his worldview of Gods was slowly shattering because of this God. Exasperated, Shi Ye asked, "So what does a 'wise' God like you want with me?"

"...Uh...ahem...Have you read the Terms and Conditions at the entrance of the altar?" Yuan Huo asked.

'...The hell..why is there a Terms and Conditions for a freaking altar?!?' thought Shi Ye. "Of course I haven't read it, who in their right mind would decide to place a Terms and Conditions at a shrine!?", retorted Shi Ye. This conversation started to resemble another conversation he had with a certain person...

'Are the powerful beings of this world obsessed with placing 'Terms and Conditions of Service' or something?', Shi Ye could help but curse in his mind.

"An old friend told me to that to have a praiseworthy altar there had to be a Terms and Conditions place on it...", replied Yuan Huo.

"..." Shi Ye

When Yuan Huo mentioned an "old friend", Shi Ye felt a sense of dread. 'This "old friend can't possibly be Infinite Pillar, right?' He thought to himself.

Seeing how awkward the atmosphere was, Yuan Huo said, "Ahem...anyways because you haven't read the Terms and Conditions yet, I'll tell you what they are. First, anyone is permitted into the shrine as long as they do not have any evil intentions. Second, to enter the altar one must possess a cultivation level of at least Half-Star Establishment. Third, those at the Star Establishment level and above will have a chance to reach enlightenment in the Dao of the Eternal Flame."

Listening to Yuan Huo, Shi Ye realized he hadn't broken anything in the Terms and Conditions. "I haven't broken any of these Terms and Conditions, so why the hell are you not letting me out of this place?", asked Shi Ye.

"Well...you see, my old friend told me that if one day I were to see someone possessing the Aura of Fateful Encounters, I should stop them from exiting the shrine and have them stay until they reach Nova Formation.", replied Yuan Huo.

"Aura of Fateful Encounters my ass! I have no clue why I have this aura and no way in hell am I staying here until I'm at Nova Formation!", shouted Shi Ye. According to the starter pack, Nova Formation was the tier beyond Star Establishment and even geniuses in this world needed at least 50 years until they reached it! There was no way Shi Ye could wait that long, by that time he would already be an old man! Before he could fix worlds, he would already have difficulty standing up properly!

'The hell...ever since I was dragged into this world I've been encountering these kinds of unfortunate events…', thought Shi Ye, 'Is this world against me or something?'

"Hmm...well that's strange, with such a strong Aura of Fateful Encounters, are you sure you didn't use a Fateful Encounter Scroll or something?", Yuan Huo suddenly asked.

It was at that moment something in Shi Ye's mind clicked. 'A Fateful Encounter Scroll… no… it can't possibly be that right...? I haven't even touched it ever since I received it from Infinite Pillar', thought Shi Ye. 'Wait… ever since I received it from Infinite Pillar… the hell?! This has been that bastard's doing all along!'

Ever since Shi Ye was transported to the Nine Stars World, he wasn't meeting unfortunate events because the world was against him, it was because Infinite Pillar was having fun trolling him!