The training was brutal.
Each morning before sunrise, Lee crept from his family's hut and made his way to the old soldier's shack on the village outskirts. The man — who insisted Lee call him simply "Bo" — did not believe in softness.
"You're not a bender," Bo grunted on the first day. "Your bones and speed are your weapons. You want to win a fight? Make sure it ends before it begins."
And so it began: hours of conditioning, stance work, joint strikes, nerve manipulation. It wasn't chi blocking yet — Bo didn't call it that — but it was close. Strikes to limbs that made them go numb, ways to shift weight that broke balance, pressure points that made grown men cry.
Lee learned fast.
He didn't show off. He made mistakes on purpose at first. Played the role of an eager, clumsy boy. But at night, when no one watched, he repeated every drill until his limbs burned and his skin blistered.
He was forging a weapon out of a body that had no natural gifts.
And in parallel... he kept diving deeper.
Spirit training.
Now, at night, when his body ached too much to move, Lee meditated until sleep and wake blurred. He began using the pain as an anchor — breathing into it, following its edge into silence.
That's when he saw it — the forest.
In a vision, during one meditation, he saw it: trees blackened by fire, a crescent moon hanging low over claw-like branches. A presence moved within. Something ancient. Angry. Watching.
Hei Bai.
Lee awoke, heart pounding.
The next day, he asked Bo casually if there had ever been attacks from spirits nearby.
"Once, long ago," Bo said. "A forest village about a week's walk west of here got torched. People say an angry spirit did it. Some say it was a demon panda. Some say it was the Fire Nation."
Lee nodded. "What happened to the forest?"
"Burned. Still dead to this day."
Lee smiled faintly. "Think I could visit it?"
Bo snorted. "You? That's cursed land. Your parents would beat me to death if I let you go."
So Lee waited.
He began planting rumors in the village — that he'd heard travelers saw a strange animal spirit nearby, that maybe treasure was hidden in the ruined woods. He made sure those rumors got to some of the boys his age. The kind who couldn't resist dares.
And when they planned a stupid expedition, Lee offered to go along. "To keep you idiots safe," he joked.
They set out at dawn. Only three boys made it to the edge of the burned forest. The others chickened out.
The trees were black and jagged like broken spears. The wind was silent. Even the birds avoided the place.
Lee told the others to wait while he "scouted ahead."
And then, alone, he walked deeper.
He carried a small obsidian blade he had sharpened himself. Around his wrist, a charm made from bone, ash, and red thread — a makeshift spirit attractor based on legends he'd read.
When the shadows deepened and the world turned cold, he stopped.
"Hei Bai," he said quietly. "I know you're here."
Silence.
Then a growl.
A shape formed from the mist — massive, hulking, eyes burning like lanterns.
Lee bowed. "I've come to make a pact."
The creature roared, and darkness crashed over him.
But in that darkness... Lee smiled.
This was the beginning.
The fear. The power. The connection.
Ashen Hellflame was ready to be born.