Flame.

In Pangzhen, Flame presides over the Lion Dance Hall as its grandmaster. He formerly marched his disciples around the streets, dancing to bestow blessings.

His troupe performed to bring luck in peaceful times. Once Maskwalkers arrived, he made the iron lion spit fire to push them back, and the townsfolk looked up to him. Today the hall sits abandoned, and its grandmaster performs in a mask.

Soul confronts him in Lion Dance Hall Depths. This is a compulsory boss battle, and the prize unlocks areas of the world that thick vines had sealed off.

Armoring the Lion

As the Wulin slid into chaos, he read ancient texts and blended martial arts into the performance. His disciples covered the lion head with bronze and iron plating and attached blades.

Annual Dance at the Mirage Estate

Every year the troupe staged a lion dance at the Mirage Estate, an arrangement first made by Senior Mo. Sensing that all was not well there, Mo told Flame to guard the hall, then led a group of disciples up to investigate personally.

New Year’s Eve

Inside the estate, Senior Mo saw every guard slumped asleep and turned into a wooden puppet, so he yelled for Flame to leave. Later that night the bells roused the Sha-Chi and Flame's self-control slipped away. Perfect Transcension, performed by Leng Tu, preserved both of them, though it entombed them below the lion skin in permanent slumber.

Later he was made into a puppet of the mask.

The Last Dance

Many years after the hall became derelict, Flame was roused and again performed with Mo on the blazing Plum Blossom Stakes, taking the head while Mo took the tail. Fire pouring from the lion's mouth no longer warded off evil; it simply scorched. Spending the last of their will, they closed their own meridians so as to hold back the killing urge, then waited for the person arriving to pluck the green, inherit their arts and finish off their possessed bodies.

Soul takes on that role in Lion Dance Hall Depths. Flame hands down his arts over the course of the battle, and watches the lion's spirit collect in the lion head that Soul receives from him.

Flame comes across as an instructor and a performer. Per his in-game description, he regards the battle as a farewell lesson for whoever is destined to pluck the green; the clash shifts from tutoring toward rivalry. As Soul lifts the lion head out of his hands with no blow dealt, the lion's spirit is seen gathering in it.

The Dormant Flaming Mane

Beating Flame yields the Dormant Flaming Mane, which can't be used until Lei Dang fixes it at Jingyang Hall. After the fix it turns into the Flaming Mane Phantom Edge, able to burn thick vine barriers, among them the path next to Pond of Fading Song leading to Old Man Gen’s house.

The Phantom Edge You Loong’s Deluge extinguishes Flame's fire. Defeat Chang Hong, the Thunder Spear, first, prior to getting to him.

The Flaming Mane

Flame's trademark weapon is the Flaming Mane, shaped like a lion head. This Artifice Phantom Edge is located in Pangzhen.

Flame’s spoken lines

“Have preparations begun for this year's lion dance at the Mirage Estate?”

A voiced line of Flame's.

“Mr. Leng... in this puppetry of yours, does a man become a puppet—or a puppet become a man?”

A voiced line of Flame's.