The compound erupted into controlled chaos.
I pressed myself deeper into the shadows of the storage building, listening to my father's voice cut through the night like a blade.
"Every building. Every corridor. Find whoever violated our treasury."
Chen Tianlong's spiritual sense swept across the compound—a Core Formation expert's perception that could detect a mouse breathing from a hundred meters away. The pressure of it made my newly restored foundation tremble.
[WARNING: PATRIARCH'S SPIRITUAL SENSE APPROACHING]
[YOUR FORTUNE FOUNDATION IS TOO WEAK TO HIDE FROM CORE FORMATION]
[DETECTION IN: 47 SECONDS]
"System, options. Now."
[OPTION 1: LUCK SEVERANCE ON YOUR FATHER]
[COST: 50 LP]
[RESULT: HIS SEARCH BECOMES UNLUCKY, MISSES YOU]
[MORAL IMPLICATIONS: HIGH]
[OPTION 2: FORTUNE ABSORPTION FROM STORAGE BUILDING]
[COST: TIME YOU DON'T HAVE]
[RESULT: MIGHT STRENGTHEN YOUR CONCEALMENT]
[OPTION 3: SURRENDER]
[COST: YOUR PLAN]
[RESULT: UNKNOWN]
Forty seconds. My father's spiritual sense was a tidal wave of power, methodical and thorough. It would reach the storage building any moment.
I couldn't sever my own father's fortune. I wouldn't.
"Give me option four."
[THERE IS NO OPTION FOUR]
"Make one."
[...ANALYZING]
[UNORTHODOX SOLUTION DETECTED]
[USE FORTUNE SENSE TO HIDE IN PROBABILITY SHADOW]
[EXPLANATION: YOUR FATHER EXPECTS TO FIND AN INTRUDER]
[THEREFORE HE'LL SEARCH HIGH-PROBABILITY LOCATIONS]
[IF YOU POSITION YOURSELF IN THE MOST UNLIKELY SPOT...]
Thirty seconds.
I understood immediately. The storage building was an obvious hiding place—which made it a low-probability choice for a smart infiltrator. My father would search it, but expect nothing.
Expectation created probability. Probability was my domain now.
I moved to the center of the room, to the most exposed position imaginable—right under the collapsed section of roof where moonlight streamed in. The exact spot anyone with sense would avoid.
[PROBABILITY MANIPULATION: PASSIVE]
[CURRENT LP: 159]
[HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT THROUGH INVERSE LUCK]
Twenty seconds.
Guards entered the compound's eastern section, their torches casting wild shadows. My father's spiritual sense washed over the storage building like cold water.
I stood perfectly still in the moonlight, my fortune sense extended, feeling the probability of detection. High. Very high. But I pushed against it, using my nascent cultivation to bend the odds.
He won't find me here. It's too obvious. Too stupid. No real infiltrator would hide here.
[PROBABILITY MANIPULATION: ACTIVE]
[DETECTION CHANCE: 67%... 54%... 41%...]
Chen Tianlong's perception passed through the storage building. Over me. Around me.
Past me.
His spiritual sense moved on to the next building.
[SUCCESS]
[DETECTION AVOIDED]
[-30 LP FOR EXTENDED PROBABILITY MANIPULATION]
[CURRENT LP: 129]
[NOTE: HIDING FROM YOUR FATHER BY BEING TOO OBVIOUS]
[THAT'S EITHER GENIUS OR INSANITY]
[PROBABLY BOTH]
I exhaled slowly, not daring to move yet. Outside, my father's voice continued directing the search.
"Captain Yang, you're certain about what you saw?"
"Patriarch Chen, I swear it on my cultivation." Captain Yang's voice was strained, almost desperate. "A young man, maybe eighteen, standing in the treasury. He touched the jade boxes, and light... golden light surrounded him. Then the door slammed shut on its own. When I broke through, he was gone."
"Describe him."
A pause. A very long pause.
"I... the light was strange, Patriarch. His features were unclear. But his build, his height..." Captain Yang's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "He reminded me of Young Master Chen Wei."
Silence fell across the compound like a physical weight.
[WARNING: DANGEROUS MOMENT]
[YOUR FATHER IS PROCESSING THIS INFORMATION]
"My son is dead." Chen Tianlong's voice was flat, emotionless—the tone of a man barely holding himself together. "I watched his body burn yesterday. You're suggesting a ghost robbed our treasury?"
"I... I don't know what I'm suggesting, Patriarch. I only know what I saw."
More silence. Then my father's voice, harder now: "What was stolen?"
"That's the strange part." This was Elder Feng's oily voice, and I felt my jaw clench. "I've inventoried the treasury twice. Nothing is missing. Not one jade box, not one spirit stone, not one weapon. Everything is exactly where it should be."
"Then what did this intruder take?"
"I don't know, Patriarch."
[THEY CAN'T DETECT FORTUNE THEFT]
[LUCK ISN'T A PHYSICAL RESOURCE]
[TO NORMAL CULTIVATORS, NOTHING WAS STOLEN]
[THEY'LL ASSUME IT WAS A FAILED ROBBERY]
My father's next words were heavy with exhaustion and grief. "Elder Feng, increase security. Double the guards. I want formation masters examining every lock in the compound. And Captain Yang..."
"Yes, Patriarch?"
"Get some sleep. You've been working since dawn. Grief and exhaustion make us see things that aren't there."
"But Patriarch—"
"That's an order." Chen Tianlong's voice softened slightly. "We've all seen ghosts these past two days. It's natural. But Chen Wei is gone. We must accept that."
Footsteps retreated. Orders were given. Slowly, the compound settled back into uneasy quiet.
I remained motionless in my moonlit spot for another hour, until I was certain the search had ended. Then I collapsed against the wall, my entire body shaking.
My father thought Captain Yang had hallucinated me. Grief-induced delusion. It was the perfect cover—no one would believe the supposedly cremated young master had robbed the treasury.
But it also meant something worse.
My father was broken. Truly, deeply broken by my death. The man who'd just spoken wasn't the stern, powerful Chen Tianlong I knew. He was a father who'd lost his only son and was holding himself together through sheer will.
What I was doing to him—letting him think I was dead, letting him grieve—it was necessary. But it was also cruel beyond measure.
[EMOTIONAL DISTRESS DETECTED]
[REMINDER: YOUR FAMILY'S GRIEF IS TEMPORARY]
[YOUR DEATH WOULD BE PERMANENT]
[PRIORITIZE SURVIVAL]
"I know," I whispered. "Doesn't make it easier."
[NO]
[IT DOESN'T]
[BUT THAT'S WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT FROM ZHAO MING]
[YOU STILL FEEL THE COST OF YOUR CHOICES]
The storage building's door opened silently. I tensed, preparing to use Luck Severance, but relaxed when I saw Xiao Lan's small figure slip inside.
"Young Master?" she whispered. "Are you alright? The entire compound is—" She stopped, staring at me. "You're different. Your eyes... they're glowing slightly."
I touched my face, surprised. "Glowing?"
"Like starlight behind glass," she said, moving closer with a bundle of food. "What happened?"
"I can cultivate again." The words felt surreal saying them aloud. "Not much. But it's a start."
Her face lit up with genuine joy. "Young Master, that's wonderful! How? The physicians said your meridians were destroyed beyond repair."
"It's... complicated." I accepted the food—rice porridge, steamed buns, preserved vegetables. Real food, still warm. "And it nearly got me caught. Captain Yang saw me in the treasury."
Xiao Lan's joy evaporated. "He saw you? Young Master, if he identifies you—"
"He won't. He can't. Everyone thinks I'm dead, so his mind won't accept what he saw. They'll dismiss it as grief hallucination." I ate quickly, my body desperate for fuel after the fortune absorption. "But it's a warning. I can't be careless. One more sighting and the delusion excuse won't work."
She nodded, then pulled a sealed letter from her robes. "This is why I came. I found something while cleaning Elder Feng's study this evening."
[INTELLIGENCE REPORT: INCOMING]
I broke the seal and read by moonlight. The letter was coded—simple substitution cipher that any educated person could break. But the content made my blood run cold.
"Subject: Chen Wei - Elimination Confirmed
Status: Cremated as scheduled
Bloodline suppression: Successful
Recommendation: Monitor parents for next three months
If no signs of inherited awakening, consider them neutralized
Begin Phase Two: Asset acquisition
Chen Clan treasury contains several items of interest
Particularly the Ancestral Jade Pendant
Estimated value to Celestial Court: Significant
Advise on procurement method"
The letter wasn't signed, but it didn't need to be. Elder Feng was reporting to someone—presumably the Celestial Court—about my death and suggesting they steal from my family's treasury.
"There's more," Xiao Lan said quietly, producing a small ledger. "I found this hidden in his desk. It's a record of payments. Large payments, going back five years, all from an account registered to something called 'The Celestial Court's Eastern Branch.'"
I flipped through the ledger. Hundreds of spirit stones. Precious pills. Even a Core Formation cultivation manual. All paid to Elder Feng in exchange for... what?
Then I saw an entry from three months ago: "Payment for target surveillance and relationship facilitation - 500 spirit stones."
Three months ago was when Liu Yue had suddenly become interested in me. When she'd started visiting the compound, bringing gifts, smiling at me with false warmth.
"He facilitated my relationship with Liu Yue," I said slowly. "Elder Feng introduced us at that clan banquet. I thought it was coincidence. But he arranged it. He pushed us together knowing she was going to kill me."
[ELDER FENG: CONFIRMED CONSPIRATOR]
[WORKING FOR CELESTIAL COURT FOR MINIMUM 5 YEARS]
[PAYMENT: SUBSTANTIAL]
[BETRAYAL LEVEL: ABSOLUTE]
Xiao Lan's face had gone pale. "Young Master, there's one more thing. I overheard him talking to someone through a communication talisman tonight. He said the 'ghost sighting' was a problem. That someone should check if the body they burned was actually yours."
My stomach dropped. "When?"
"Tomorrow morning. He's sending a subordinate to examine the ashes in the memorial garden."
[CRITICAL PROBLEM]
[YOUR PIG CORPSE SUBSTITUTION WILL BE DISCOVERED]
[ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL EXPOSURE: 12 HOURS]
"System, can pig bones pass as human remains?"
[AT CASUAL INSPECTION: YES]
[AT DETAILED EXAMINATION: NO]
[BONE STRUCTURE IS DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT]
[A CULTIVATOR WITH MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE WOULD NOTICE]
I set down the food, my appetite gone. Everything was unraveling faster than expected. Captain Yang's sighting had made them suspicious. Now they'd examine the ashes and discover the substitution.
Once they knew I wasn't truly dead, the entire conspiracy would mobilize to finish what they started.
"I need to disappear," I said. "Tonight. I can't stay in the compound anymore."
"Where will you go?" Xiao Lan asked. "Azure Peak City is dangerous for someone without backing. And you still can't hide your identity perfectly—if anyone recognizes you—"
"Then I won't be Chen Wei anymore."
[QUEST GENERATED: IDENTITY DEATH]
[OBJECTIVE: LEAVE COMPOUND UNDETECTED]
[OBJECTIVE: ESTABLISH NEW IDENTITY]
[OBJECTIVE: DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY]
[REWARD: SAFETY, FREEDOM, PREPARATION TIME]
I stood, testing my restored cultivation. Fortune Foundation 1st Layer wasn't impressive, but it was enough to enhance my physical abilities beyond mortal limits. I could run faster, jump higher, sense danger through probability fluctuations.
Most importantly, I could survive outside the compound walls.
"There's a district in the lower city," I said, thinking quickly. "The Outer Ring, where refugees and wandering cultivators gather. No one asks questions there. No one cares about your past. If I can reach it—"
"Young Master, the Outer Ring is where criminals hide. Gangs control the streets. People disappear there."
"Exactly. It's perfect." I managed a grim smile. "Xiao Lan, I need supplies. Commoner clothes, travel rations, whatever silver you can gather. And a weapon—nothing fancy, just something functional."
She nodded immediately. "I can get those things. But how will you leave? The gates are guarded, and after tonight's incident, security is doubled."
[ANALYZING ESCAPE ROUTES...]
[COMPOUND WALL HEIGHT: 6 METERS]
[GUARD DENSITY: HIGH]
[GATE SECURITY: EXTREME]
[RECOMMENDATION: USE FORTUNE SENSE TO FIND WEAK POINT]
I extended my fortune sense across the compound, feeling for probability threads. Most of the walls glowed with the concentrated luck of security—guards alert, formations strong, everything working as intended.
But there.
Near the southeast corner, where the compound bordered the city's merchant district, a single section of wall showed dark threads of misfortune. A weak point in the defenses.
"The southeast wall," I said. "Something's wrong there. I can feel it."
"That section was damaged during last month's storm," Xiao Lan confirmed. "They're scheduled to repair it next week, but with your funeral, the work was delayed. There's a crack in the formation array. Nothing serious—it still functions—but..."
"But it's unlucky," I finished. "Which means it might fail at exactly the wrong moment. Or in my case, exactly the right moment."
[PROBABILITY EXPLOITATION: CORRECT APPROACH]
[FORTUNE FOUNDATION CULTIVATORS THRIVE ON EXPLOITING WEAK POINTS]
[THIS IS LITERALLY YOUR CULTIVATION METHOD]
"Can you get the supplies by midnight?" I asked Xiao Lan.
"Earlier. Give me two hours."
"Then go. And Xiao Lan—" I caught her arm gently. "After tonight, we can't meet like this anymore. It's too dangerous. If they connect you to my disappearance..."
"I know." Her voice was steady despite her young age. "I'll be careful. And Young Master? When you're ready, when you've grown strong enough, come back. Make them pay for what they did to you. To your parents. To everyone."
She slipped out into the night, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the System's glowing interface.
[TWO HOURS UNTIL SUPPLY DELIVERY]
[TWELVE HOURS UNTIL DECEPTION DISCOVERED]
[CURRENT LP: 129]
[FORTUNE FOUNDATION: STABLE]
I spent the time practicing. Not cultivation—I was too weak still for meaningful advancement. But the Fortune Defying Manual contained more than just absorption and severance techniques.
There were movement arts based on probability manipulation. Combat styles that exploited enemy misfortune. Even stealth methods that made you functionally invisible by making observers unlucky enough to look elsewhere.
All of it required LP to use effectively. All of it required constant risk-taking to fuel.
I was learning that the Fortune Defying Manual wasn't just a cultivation method. It was a complete combat system built on a single principle: make yourself lucky and your enemies unlucky, then exploit the difference until you win.
Simple in concept. Brutal in execution.
[PRACTICING: PROBABILITY STEP]
[COST: 5 LP PER USE]
[EFFECT: YOUR NEXT STEP LANDS EXACTLY WHERE YOU NEED IT TO]
[APPLICATIONS: INFINITE]
I moved through the storage building, testing the technique. Step. The floorboard that should creak stayed silent. Step. The patch of moonlight shifted, leaving me in shadow. Step. A nail sticking up somehow missed my foot by millimeters.
Each movement spent 5 LP. Each movement made the impossible merely unlikely. Each movement felt like cheating reality itself.
I loved it.
[PRACTICING: FORTUNE STRIKE]
[COST: 10 LP]
[EFFECT: YOUR ATTACK FINDS WEAKNESS IN DEFENSE]
[NOTE: ONLY WORKS IF WEAKNESS EXISTS]
[CAN'T CREATE LUCK FROM NOTHING]
I practiced on an old barrel, my fist connecting at the exact weak point in the wood. The barrel collapsed with minimal force, structural integrity failing at precisely the wrong moment.
"This is insane," I muttered. "I'm not stronger. I'm not faster. I'm just... lucky."
[CORRECT]
[BUT CONSISTENT LUCK APPLIED STRATEGICALLY]
[IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM SKILL]
[KEEP PRACTICING]
Xiao Lan returned in ninety minutes, moving with the silent efficiency of someone who'd done this a hundred times. She brought everything I'd asked for and more.
"Dark commoner robes," she listed quietly, laying out items. "Hood to hide your face. Travel rations for a week. Twenty silver taels—it's all I could gather without suspicion. A short sword from the guard armory—old but functional. And this."
She produced a small jade token, unremarkable except for the faint formation script on its surface.
"What is it?"
"Identity token for the Outer Ring. My cousin works there as a information broker. Show him this, tell him Xiao Lan sent you, and he'll help you establish a new identity. His name is Xiao Chen. He's trustworthy—family."
[XIAO LAN'S RESOURCEFULNESS: EXCEPTIONAL]
[SHE PREPARED FOR YOUR ESCAPE BEFORE YOU ASKED]
[LOYALTY: ABSOLUTE]
I took the token, feeling its weight. "I don't know how to repay you for this."
"Stay alive. Get stronger. Come back and burn everything they built on your corpse." Her young face was fierce. "That's how you repay me."
I changed into the commoner clothes, hiding the short sword beneath the robes. The silver went into an inner pocket. The identity token on a cord around my neck, hidden under my shirt.
Chen Wei, the weak young master, was gone.
I looked at my reflection in a broken piece of mirror—dark robes, hooded face, the faint golden glow still visible in my eyes if you looked closely.
I looked like a wandering cultivator. A nobody. Perfect.
"Southeast wall," I said. "The formation crack. I'll wait until the guard rotation at the hour of the rat, then use the weak point to escape."
"There will still be guards nearby," Xiao Lan warned.
"I know. But I'm lucky now. Remember?"
[CURRENT TIME: 11:47 PM]
[GUARD ROTATION: 12:00 AM]
[THIRTEEN MINUTES]
We moved through the compound together one last time, Xiao Lan guiding me through servant passages while I used Probability Step to avoid detection. Each footfall cost me 5 LP, but each footfall landed in shadow, on silent stones, in perfect timing with guard rotations.
[LP: 129 → 124 → 119 → 114...]
We reached the southeast wall just as midnight bells began to ring. The guards were changing positions, their attention momentarily divided. Above us, the wall formation flickered—barely visible, but my fortune sense screamed that this was the weak point.
"This is where we separate," I told Xiao Lan. "Thank you. For everything. For believing in a dead man."
"You're not dead, Young Master Chen Wei." She smiled slightly. "You're just getting started."
She melted back into the shadows, and I was alone with the wall.
Six meters of stone and formation arrays. Guards twenty meters away on either side. The city beyond, dark and unknown.
I placed my hand on the wall, feeling the formation's structure through my fortune sense. There—a hairline crack in the script where energy leaked. If I pushed fortune into it, if I made the formation unlucky at exactly the right moment...
[ATTEMPTING: FORMATION BYPASS]
[COST: 30 LP]
[SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 67%]
I pushed.
The formation flickered once. Twice.
Then collapsed entirely, a localized failure that would read as random degradation to any formation master who examined it later.
The wall was just stone now. And with Fortune Foundation cultivation, six meters of stone was merely difficult, not impossible.
I jumped.
Probability Step carried me higher than physics should allow. Fortune Strike found handholds in tiny cracks. My shoulder, still injured, held weight it shouldn't be able to bear because right now, in this moment, I was lucky enough for it to.
I cleared the wall and dropped into an alley on the other side, landing in a crouch that should have shattered my ankles but instead absorbed the impact perfectly.
[ESCAPE SUCCESSFUL]
[COMPOUND PERIMETER: BREACHED]
[CURRENT LP: 54]
[YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY A FUGITIVE]
Behind me, the Chen Clan compound rose against the night sky—my home, my prison, my past. Somewhere inside, my father grieved. My mother prayed. Elder Feng plotted.
Ahead of me lay Azure Peak City's Outer Ring—dangerous, lawless, free.
I pulled my hood up and walked into the darkness, leaving Chen Wei's corpse behind in the memorial garden ashes.
By morning, they'd discover the substitution. By noon, the hunt would begin in earnest.
But by then, I'd be someone else entirely.
A ghost who walked. A corpse who cultivated. A dead man who refused to stay buried.
They'd created their own enemy.
And I was just getting started.
[END CHAPTER 6]
[STATUS UPDATE:]
Location: Azure Peak City - Outer Ring (Approaching)
Cultivation: Fortune Foundation 1st Layer
LP: 54/1000
Identity: Compromised (12 hours until discovery)
Allies: Xiao Lan (Compound), Xiao Chen (Outer Ring - Unknown)
Enemies: Liu Yue, Zhao Ming, Elder Feng, Celestial Court
Immediate Goal: Establish New Identity
Long-term Goal: Grow Strong Enough To Return.