Day four began with blood and desperation.
We'd traveled through the night despite our injuries, pushing our cultivation-enhanced bodies past safe limits. Yun Xia's Foundation Establishment regeneration kept her functional, but I could see the strain in how she moved. My own ribs screamed with each breath.
But stopping meant dying.
[CURRENT PROGRESS: 57 MILES / 120 MILES]
[REQUIRED DAILY PACE: 21 MILES]
[YESTERDAY'S PACE: 19 MILES]
[DEFICIT: ACCUMULATING]
"We're falling behind," Yun Xia said during a brief water break. Dawn light filtered through red moss, painting everything in shades of crimson. "Even pushing through the night, we're not fast enough."
"Then we push harder." I checked my LP—1,565 points. Enough for emergencies, but each fight drained reserves I couldn't easily replenish. "What's the terrain ahead?"
She pulled out her increasingly tattered map. "Bad news and worse news. Bad news: we're entering the Razorback Ridge, a mountain pass with narrow trails and vertical drops. Slow going even in perfect conditions."
"And the worse news?"
"Razorback Ridge is home to Cliff Drakes. Flying predators, Foundation Establishment level, hunt in mated pairs. They control the airspace, attack anything crossing their territory."
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: CLIFF DRAKES]
[ESTIMATED ENCOUNTERS: 4-6 PAIRS]
[COMBAT DIFFICULTY: HIGH]
[TIME COST: SIGNIFICANT IF FORCED TO FIGHT]
"Can we go around?"
"Not without adding two days to the journey. Which we definitely don't have." She studied my face. "You're thinking something stupid again."
"I'm thinking we don't go around. We don't go through." I looked up at the ridge ahead, calculating probabilities. "We go over."
"Over. You want to climb a mountain while injured, exhausted, and being hunted?"
"Not climb. Fly." I drew Fate Severance, feeling its power resonate with my cultivation. "The Cliff Drakes control the airspace. What if we make them unlucky enough that they can't?"
Understanding dawned in Yun Xia's eyes. "Probability manipulation. Make the drakes too unlucky to intercept us while we cross their territory at speed."
"Exactly. It'll cost LP, but it's faster than fighting or detouring."
"It's also insane. If your luck manipulation fails mid-crossing, we fall a thousand feet to our deaths."
"Then I won't fail." I activated my fortune sense, mapping the probability threads across the ridge. "I can feel the drake patrol patterns. They follow predictable routes, create gaps we can exploit. With Luck Severance draining their fortune and Probability Shield protecting us..."
"A two percent chance becomes twenty percent," Yun Xia finished. She smiled despite the danger. "Your fortune manipulation is either going to save us or kill us. Probably both."
"Story of my cultivation path."
The Razorback Ridge lived up to its name,sharp stone peaks that jutted like teeth against the sky. The trails were narrow, crumbling, with sheer drops on both sides. One misstep meant death.
We didn't use the trails.
Instead, we ran along the ridge's spine itself, using cultivation-enhanced speed to maintain impossible balance on stone barely a foot wide. Below us, a thousand-foot drop. Above us, Cliff Drakes circling in mated pairs.
The first pair spotted us immediately.
[CLIFF DRAKES x2 - FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT 3RD LAYER]
[DIVE ATTACK INITIATED]
[IMPACT IN: 8 SECONDS]
I activated Luck Severance and Probability Cascade simultaneously.
[COST: 50 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 1,515]
The drakes' dive went wrong immediately. The lead drake's wing caught an updraft at the wrong angle, throwing off its trajectory. Its mate, trying to compensate, collided with its partner.
Both drakes spiraled away, screeching in confusion and rage.
We kept running.
"Three more pairs ahead!" Yun Xia called, her spiritual sense stretched to maximum range. "And they're coordinating. They know something's in their territory."
"Then we make coordination impossible." I channeled LP into Fate Severance, activating its Luck Drain ability. The blade began radiating misfortune in a wide radius, affecting everything nearby.
[FATE SEVERANCE: LUCK DRAIN ACTIVE]
[COST: 20 LP PER MINUTE]
[EFFECT: ALL ENEMIES WITHIN 50 METERS BECOME UNLUCKY]
The second pair of drakes attacked from opposite sides—a pincer maneuver that should have been impossible to escape. But their timing faltered. One drake's dive started too early, the other too late. The gap between them widened from 'certain death' to 'barely survivable.'
We shot through the gap.
Yun Xia threw a dagger behind us without looking. The blade, guided by Foundation Establishment precision and probability manipulation, found a drake's eye.
The creature screamed and fell, its mate diving after it instinctively.
"Four down, four to go!" I shouted over the wind.
The remaining drakes changed tactics. Instead of diving attacks, they began dropping rocks from above—crude but effective. Boulders the size of people plummeted toward us.
I activated Probability Shield.
[COST: 100 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 1,395]
The boulders deflected at impossible angles, their trajectories shifting mid-fall. One boulder that should have crushed us instead bounced off an invisible barrier and struck a drake that had flown too close.
The drake plummeted, unconscious.
"The ridge exit is ahead!" Yun Xia pointed to where the narrow spine widened into a plateau. "Half a mile!"
The final drake pair made their last attempt,a coordinated dive from directly above, using their bulk to simply crush us through overwhelming force.
I drew on everything I'd learned, every technique refined through constant combat.
Fortune Strike to find the weakness in their formation.
Probability Step to move us three feet left at the exact right moment.
Luck Severance to make their dive trajectory fail catastrophically.
[TOTAL COST: 75 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 1,320]
The drakes crashed into each other mid-dive, their coordination destroyed by manipulated probability. They tumbled past us, hitting the ridge behind us with bone-shattering force.
We reached the plateau.
I collapsed immediately, gasping. My LP expenditure had been massive,245 points burned in less than ten minutes. But we'd crossed Razorback Ridge in a fraction of the time it should have taken.
"Distance?" I managed between breaths.
Yun Xia checked her calculations. "Twelve miles. We crossed twelve miles in ten minutes." She laughed,slightly hysterical, mostly amazed. "At this rate, we might actually make it."
[CURRENT PROGRESS: 69 MILES / 120 MILES]
[REMAINING DISTANCE: 51 MILES]
[TIME REMAINING: 2.5 DAYS]
[REQUIRED PACE: 20 MILES PER DAY]
[CURRENT PACE: SIGNIFICANTLY AHEAD]
"Rest for one hour," I decided. "Let my LP regenerate, let our bodies recover. Then we push through to the northern border."
"Enforcer Liu?"
"Still three days behind us if the Guardian's information was accurate. We have margin now." I pulled out dried meat from my storage ring, forcing myself to eat despite exhaustion. "We're going to make it, Yun Xia."
"Don't jinx it."
"I manipulate probability for a living. Jinxes are just probability patterns I can exploit."
"That's not how jinxes work."
"It is if you're a Fortune Foundation cultivator."
She laughed and settled down to rest.
I sat in meditation, pulling ambient fortune from the Vale to replenish my reserves. The passive absorption was slow—5 LP per hour—but steady. Combined with my Fortune Pool's natural regeneration, I'd recover about 30 LP during the hour rest.
Not enough to fully replenish, but enough to continue.
[LP REGENERATION: 1,320 → 1,350 OVER 1 HOUR]
The Vale around us was quieter here. The plateau marked a transition zone between the central region's Core Formation threats and the northern region's lesser dangers. We were past the worst of it.
Probably.
A sound made me open my eyes—not a threat, but something else. Footsteps. Human footsteps. Measured, confident, approaching from the south.
From the direction of Enforcer Liu's pursuit.
"Yun Xia," I whispered urgently. "We have company."
She was on her feet instantly, daggers drawn. "It's been barely an hour. We should have days before"
A man stepped onto the plateau.
He was younger than I expected for an Enforcer,maybe thirty, with sharp features and eyes like frozen lakes. His robes bore the Celestial Court's symbol openly, confidently. No need to hide his allegiance when he had the power to enforce it.
His cultivation base pressed against reality like a physical weight.
Core Formation 5th Layer.
[ENFORCER LIU: DETECTED]
[POWER LEVEL: CORE FORMATION 5TH LAYER]
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: LETHAL]
[COMBAT PROBABILITY: 0.3%]
[ESCAPE PROBABILITY: 2.1%]
"Chen Wei," he said, his voice carrying easily across the plateau. "Or should I call you Wei Chen? The identity forgery was competent, but not good enough to fool Celestial Court intelligence."
I stood slowly, Fate Severance already in hand. "You're faster than expected."
"I'm better than expected. Better than Shen Tu, certainly. Better than you're prepared for." His eyes fixed on my sword. "That's a Fortune Weaver artifact. Fate Severance, if I'm not mistaken. Impressive that you claimed it. Also damning—possessing a Fate Weaver weapon is proof of your bloodline awakening."
"Are you here to talk or to kill us?"
"Both. I talk to understand. I kill to enforce order." He drew his own sword—ordinary steel, but wreathed in Core Formation level qi that made it more dangerous than any artifact. "The Celestial Court's orders are clear: Chen Wei must be eliminated permanently. His companion is expendable."
Yun Xia shifted into a ready stance. "Former Enforcer Yun Xia. You might remember me from five years ago, before I defected."
"I remember. You were talented. Throwing away that talent for sentimentality was foolish." Liu's expression didn't change. "I won't offer you mercy for old time's sake. You chose your path."
"Good. I'd have refused anyway."
Liu's spiritual sense swept over us, analyzing our cultivation, our injuries, our readiness. "You're both exhausted. Chen Wei has burned through significant LP reserves. Yun Xia has barely recovered from severe injuries. You cannot win this fight."
"Probably not," I agreed. "But here's the thing about probability,it's never absolute."
I activated Fate Glimpse.
[COST: 75 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 1,275]
[VIEWING: NEXT 5 MINUTES OF PROBABLE FUTURES]
A thousand futures branched before me. In almost all of them, Liu killed us easily. His Core Formation cultivation was simply too overwhelming. Experience, power, technique,he exceeded us in every category.
But there were a handful of futures where something changed. Where external factors intervened. Where the Vale itself became the battlefield instead of just the arena.
And there was one future—one improbable, nearly impossible future—where we survived by making the fight not about combat but about terrain.
I followed that thread.
"Yun Xia," I said quietly. "When I move, you run north. Don't argue. Don't look back. Just run."
"I'm not leaving you to,"
"You're not leaving me to die. You're leaving me to buy time." I met her eyes. "Trust me. Please."
She hesitated, then nodded once. "Don't die, Wei Chen."
"I'll do my best."
Liu watched this exchange with detached interest. "Noble sacrifice? Or desperate gambit?"
"Both." I raised Fate Severance, feeling its power resonate with my cultivation. "Tell me something, Enforcer. Have you ever fought a Fortune Foundation cultivator before?"
"Several. They died like everyone else—through superior cultivation applied with overwhelming force."
"Then you've never fought one properly. Because fortune manipulation isn't about direct combat." I activated Luck Severance on him. "It's about changing the rules."
[COST: 25 LP (CORE FORMATION TARGET)]
[CURRENT LP: 1,250]
Liu's next step caught on nothing. A minor stumble, easily corrected with Core Formation reflexes. But it was enough.
"Run!" I shouted to Yun Xia.
She ran north without hesitation.
Liu moved to intercept—Core Formation speed should have let him catch her easily. But I activated Probability Cascade, spreading misfortune from him to the terrain around him.
[COST: 200 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 1,050]
The ground beneath his feet cracked. A branch overhead chose that moment to fall. His sword, raised to strike, caught on his own robes for a split second.
Small things. Meaningless against Core Formation cultivation.
But enough to slow him for three seconds.
Three seconds that let Yun Xia reach the plateau's edge and vanish over it.
Liu turned his attention fully to me, and I felt the weight of a predator focusing on prey.
"Impressive tricks. But tricks don't defeat power." He raised his sword, qi blazing around the blade. "Any last words, Fate Weaver?"
"Yeah," I said, backing toward the plateau's southern edge. "Ever wonder why the Crimson Vale is so dangerous?"
"Natural spiritual density creates powerful beasts. Common knowledge."
"Wrong. The Vale is dangerous because reality is thin here. Fate flows stronger. Probability bends easier." I smiled despite the terror. "And I can manipulate probability."
I drove Fate Severance into the ground beneath me.
Not attacking Liu—attacking the plateau itself.
[ACTIVATING: PROBABILITY CASCADE + CURSE REFINEMENT + FORTUNE STRIKE]
[TARGETING: RAZORBACK RIDGE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY]
[COST: 400 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 650]
I channeled every point of misfortune I could manipulate into the stone beneath us. Decades of accumulated micro-fractures, each one harmless, suddenly aligned at exactly the wrong angle. Probability that should have taken centuries to manifest compressed into seconds.
The plateau began collapsing.
Liu's eyes widened,the first real emotion I'd seen from him. "You're insane! You'll kill yourself too!"
"Probably!" I shouted back as the ground gave way beneath us. "But I'm lucky!"
We fell.
The Razorback Ridge, already unstable from Cliff Drake impacts and erosion, collapsed in a cascade of falling stone. Thousands of tons of rock tumbling into the chasm below, taking everything on the plateau with it.
Including one Core Formation Enforcer and one Fortune Foundation cultivator.
I activated every defensive technique simultaneously.
Probability Shield to deflect debris.
Probability Step to find safe paths through falling stone.
Fortune Strike to identify stable rocks I could use to slow my descent.
[LP: 650 → 550 → 450 → 350...]
I wasn't trying to survive the fall unscathed—that was impossible. I was trying to survive it better than Liu.
And unlike him, I had fortune manipulation.
I made myself lucky and him unlucky.
A falling boulder that should have crushed him instead blocked his attempt to fly upward. A safe outcropping that could have broken his fall crumbled just as he reached for it. Every probability, every chance, every roll of fate's dice—I loaded them all against him.
[LP: 350 → 250 → 150 → 50...]
We hit the bottom of the chasm three seconds apart.
I landed on a pile of moss-covered debris that had accumulated over decades,soft enough to absorb some impact, positioned exactly where my probability manipulation had guided me.
It still hurt. Ribs definitely broken now, multiple fractures. My left arm felt wrong. Blood in my mouth suggested internal injuries.
But I was alive.
[CRITICAL INJURIES SUSTAINED]
[SURVIVAL: IMPROBABLE BUT CONFIRMED]
Liu landed on bare stone.
Core Formation cultivation meant he survived what would have killed anyone weaker. But even Core Formation had limits. I heard him groan, saw him struggle to rise.
He was hurt. Seriously hurt.
For the first time, the fight was almost even.
I forced myself up, Fate Severance clutched in my working hand. My fortune sense was barely functional through the pain, but I could still feel probability threads.
Liu was standing now, his cultivation burning to heal injuries. Blood ran from a gash on his head. His left leg bent at a wrong angle.
"Insane," he repeated, his voice strained. "You collapsed a mountain to stop me. Killed yourself in the process."
"Didn't kill myself. Just made myself very unlucky in a controlled way." I spat blood. "And made you even unluckier."
"You're dead, Chen Wei. These injuries are fatal for Fortune Foundation. You're bleeding internally, your meridians are damaged, your cultivation is barely holding together."
"Maybe. But I'm still standing."
"For how long?" Despite his injuries, Liu's sword rose. "I'm Core Formation 5th Layer. Even injured, I'm stronger than you. This ends now."
He attacked, and even hurt, he was terrifyingly fast.
I barely blocked his first strike. The impact sent shockwaves through my broken body. My sword arm nearly gave out.
But I'd bought time. Time for Yun Xia to escape. Time for my cultivation to stabilize. Time for one final gamble.
I activated Fate Severance's ultimate ability,Probability Edge.
[COST: 100 LP]
[CURRENT LP: -50]
[WARNING: LP DEFICIT]
[DRAWING ON LIFE FORCE]
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
My blade glowed with silver light, every probability thread I could manipulate focused into a single edge. Not just sharp,statistically certain to cut through any defense.
Liu's next attack came at my throat.
I didn't block it.
I attacked through it.
Fate Severance and Liu's sword met. For a moment, both blades held.
Then probability asserted itself.
My sword cut through his. Through the Core Formation qi reinforcing it. Through the superior metal and masterwork forging.
Through everything except absolute certainty.
The blade continued into Liu's chest.
Not deep,his Core Formation cultivation protected him even from probability manipulation. But deep enough to matter. Deep enough to disrupt his cultivation.
He staggered back, blood spreading across his robes.
"Impossible," he whispered. "Foundation Establishment cultivation can't..."
"Fortune Foundation," I corrected, my vision going gray. "Different rules."
My body gave out. I collapsed, darkness closing in from all sides.
The last thing I saw was Liu stumbling away, clutching his chest, his perfect composure finally broken.
Then nothing.
I woke to pain and Yun Xia's voice.
"crazy, absolutely insane, collapsed an entire mountain, nearly got yourself killed—"
"Did it work?" I croaked.
She stopped mid-rant, relief flooding her face. "You're awake. Thank the heavens. And yes, you absolute madman, it worked. Enforcer Liu retreated. I tracked him for an hour,he was heading south, back toward Azure Peak City. Your wound disrupted his cultivation. He won't die, but he won't be pursuing us either."
"Good." Every word hurt. "How long was I unconscious?"
"Six hours. And your injuries..." She trailed off, her expression grim. "Wei Chen, you're in bad shape. Multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, meridian damage from LP deficit. You need real medical attention."
"How far to the northern exit?"
"Thirty miles. But in your condition"
"How. Far. To. Safety."
She sighed. "Thirty miles. Maybe two days at your current pace."
"Then we move. Now."
"You can't even stand!"
I proved her wrong by standing. It took three attempts and left me gasping in pain, but I stood.
"Fortune Foundation cultivation," I said. "Defying probability includes defying physical limitations."
"That's not how—you know what? Fine. We move. But slowly. And if you collapse again, I'm dragging you the rest of the way unconscious."
"Deal."
[CURRENT STATUS:]
Realm: Fortune Foundation 6th Layer (Barely Stable)
LP: 25/3,000 (Critical Deficit)
Location: Razorback Ridge Chasm
Progress: 69 Miles / 120 Miles
Distance Remaining: 51 Miles
Injuries: Critical
Enforcer Liu: Defeated (Temporarily)
Time Remaining: 2 Days
We began moving north, each step agony, each breath fire.
But we were alive.
And Enforcer Liu wasn't pursuing.
Two days to the northern exit.
Two days to find Lin Mei.
Two days to begin building the resistance.
I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, let pain become background noise, and walked.
The dead man refused to stay down.
The ghost kept haunting.
And the Crimson Vale, finally, began to yield.