The vault was beautiful and horrifying in equal measure.
Crystalline cases lined walls that stretched into darkness,each one containing artifacts seized from extinct bloodlines. Swords glowing with spiritual energy. Jade pendants pulsing with accumulated fortune. Ancient manuals bound in dragon leather. Three thousand years of systematic theft, organized with bureaucratic precision.
"Section twelve," Lin Mei said, consulting the floor plans she'd memorized. "Fate Weaver artifacts stored separately from general acquisitions."
We ran deeper into the vault, our footsteps silent on polished stone. The cases flashed past,weapons, pills, formation arrays, treasures beyond counting. Any one item could make a clan wealthy. We ignored them all.
We needed Fate Weaver artifacts specifically. Items that contained generations of accumulated fortune, techniques designed for causality manipulation, weapons forged by masters who could rewrite reality.
Section twelve materialized from the darkness—a separate chamber where the vault's most dangerous items were kept. The door was sealed, but Lin Mei severed its lock's connection to the locking mechanism. It opened like paper.
Inside, thirty cases. Each one marked with the Fate Weaver symbol—an infinite knot representing causality folded upon itself.
"Ten minutes," Yun Xia warned, checking her timepiece. "We need to grab and move."
I approached the nearest case, reading the identification plate: Chen Ancestor Sword—Origin: Chen Tianlong's great-grandfather. Seized: 847 years ago during Chen Clan submission. Warning: Contains fate-manipulation enchantments.
My family's sword. Taken before I was born, held hostage for centuries.
Not anymore.
I shattered the case with Fate Severance, severing the glass's structural integrity. The sword fell into my hands, and immediately I felt fortune flood through my meridians—eight centuries of accumulated luck, compressed into crystalline edge.
[FORTUNE ABSORPTION AVAILABLE: +300 LP]
I absorbed it greedily, feeling my reserves surge.
[CURRENT LP: 2,431]
Around me, Lin Mei and Yun Xia were smashing cases, grabbing artifacts, stuffing them into storage rings with practiced efficiency. Each broken case represented a small victory against tyranny, each stolen artifact a middle finger to three millennia of oppression.
"Wang Clan jade pendant," Lin Mei called out, tossing me a glowing amulet. "Fortune concentration extreme. Take it."
I caught it, absorbed its fortune immediately. +250 LP.
"Liu Clan technique scroll," Yun Xia added, shoving three manuals into her storage ring. "These belonged to the family killed two weeks ago."
We worked in controlled frenzy, methodical looting driven by time pressure and righteous fury. Every artifact we took was something the Court had stolen from murdered families, preserved as trophies while bloodlines went extinct.
Five minutes.
"That's fifteen artifacts," Lin Mei said, her storage ring bulging. "Enough to push you toward Core Formation and supply the refuge for years. We need to leave. Now."
She was right, but I couldn't help scanning the remaining cases. So much stolen history. So many extinct families represented by confiscated treasures.
My eyes caught on a case in the chamber's far cornerlarger than others, sealed with extra formations, marked with warnings in red script: EXTREME DANGER. CHEN CLAN ANCESTRAL INHERITANCE. DO NOT OPEN WITHOUT NASCENT SOUL SUPERVISION.
"That," I said, pointing. "That's coming with us."
"We don't have time"
"Three minutes to grab one more artifact. That case has Chen Clan marked all over it. Whatever's inside, the Court feared it enough to bury it with maximum security."
Lin Mei cursed but moved with me. Together we approached the case, and I felt fortune threads twisting around it like thorns—defensive enchantments designed to kill anyone who opened it improperly.
"Sever the defensive connections," she instructed. "I'll handle the lock."
I extended my fortune sense, identifying the causal threads connecting "case opened" to "defensive enchantments triggered." Seven different connections, each one a potential death sentence.
[COST: 150 LP TO SEVER ALL SEVEN]
[CURRENT LP: 2,681]
I spent the LP without hesitation, cutting each thread with surgical precision. The enchantments remained active technically, but causally disconnected from their trigger.
Lin Mei opened the case.
Inside lay a crown.
Not golden or jewelel,this was forged from solidified causality itself, crystallized fate taking physical form. It pulsed with power that made my fortune sense recoil, as if looking directly at concentrated destiny.
[DETECTING: FATE SOVEREIGN CROWN]
[ARTIFACT CLASSIFICATION: LEGENDARY]
[ORIGIN: CHEN CLAN FOUNDER, 3,847 YEARS AGO]
[POWER LEVEL: IMMEASURABLE]
[WARNING: REQUIRES NASCENT SOUL MINIMUM TO WIELD]
[WARNING: CONTAINS COMPLETE CHEN BLOODLINE INHERITANCE]
"That's..." Lin Mei's voice was awed. "That's a Sovereign artifact. One of the seven legendary items forged by the original Fate Weaver masters. The Celestial Court's been hiding this for millennia."
"Not anymore." I grabbed the crown, and the moment my fingers touched it, knowledge exploded through my mind.
Not the gentle transfer from the Inheritance Core. This was violent, absolute, overwhelming,the complete history of my bloodline compressed into a single moment of contact.
I saw the Chen Clan founder, standing atop a mountain, wearing this crown while rewriting reality itself. Saw him teach his descendants methods to wield fate without losing humanity. Saw the Celestial Court's forces attack, saw my ancestor hide the crown in plain sight through causality manipulation, saw it eventually captured and locked away as the Court's most feared trophy.
The crown contained everything: techniques beyond what the Inheritance Core held, methods to advance past Core Formation into true Fate Sovereign realm, secrets the Celestial Court had tried to erase.
And wearing it,even once,would mark me permanently as the Chen bloodline's true heir.
[FATE SOVEREIGN CROWN: PARTIAL BONDING DETECTED]
[BLOODLINE RECOGNITION: CONFIRMED]
[INHERITANCE TRANSFER: BEGINNING]
"Wei Chen!" Yun Xia's voice cut through the knowledge flood. "We're out of time! Causality correction is beginning!"
She was right. I could feel it,the severed causal threads starting to reconnect, reality fighting back against our manipulations. The formations we'd disconnected were finding new pathways. The guards' confusion was fading.
"Go!" Lin Mei ordered. "I'll collapse the entrance behind us, buy more time!"
We ran from section twelve, storage rings heavy with stolen artifacts. Behind us, I heard Lin Mei severing structural supports, causing a controlled collapse that would slow any pursuit.
The main vault chamber was already showing signs of causality restoration,formation arrays flickering back to life, defensive enchantments reactivating. We had maybe two minutes before full security came online.
We burst through the vault entrance into the staging area. Empty,the guards were still on sublevel two, still confused by Yun Xia's patrol manipulation.
But I heard footsteps approaching. Multiple sets. The causality correction was accelerating.
"Temporal severance," I said, pulling LP from my expanded reserves. "Now."
I activated the technique Lin Mei had drilled into me,not freezing objects but people. All three of us.
[ATTEMPTING: TRIPLE TEMPORAL SEVERANCE]
[COST: 600 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 2,081]
Reality screamed as I severed our collective connection to time's progression. The universe violently opposed three conscious beings existing outside causal flow.
But I pushed harder, spending LP like water, making our temporal displacement inevitable rather than probable.
The threads severed.
We froze.
From our perspective, the world exploded into impossible speed. Guards rushed past in blurs. Vault Keeper Shen appeared in the staging area, his Nascent Soul spiritual sense flooding the space—but we weren't there causally, so he found nothing.
I began walking, pulling Lin Mei and Yun Xia with me through frozen time. Each step cost LP—maintaining the triple severance while moving required constant expenditure. My reserves drained rapidly.
[LP: 2,081 → 1,881 → 1,681 → 1,481...]
Up the stairs to sublevel two. Guards rushing past us, unseeing. We were ghosts in frozen moments, causally absent from their perception.
Sublevel three. My concentration wavered—the causal strain was immense. Lin Mei's face showed similar strain, her own Fate Weaving supporting my temporal manipulation.
Sublevel four. I felt the temporal threads trying to reconnect, reality demanding we return to normal causal flow.
[LP: 1,481 → 1,281 → 1,081...]
Ground level. The main administrative building, still populated by night-shift workers. We walked through them like they were statues, existing in different temporal frames entirely.
Outside. Night air. The city stretching before us, oblivious to the heist just executed.
I released the temporal severance.
We reconnected to normal time with violent force, stumbling as causality caught up. Behind us, the administrative building erupted with alarms—silent no longer, the formations having fully reconnected.
"Run," Lin Mei gasped.
We ran.
Not toward the city gates—those would be locked down within minutes. Instead, toward the western wall where Feng Ming's intelligence indicated a section with weaker formations, accessible through a merchant district that stayed open late.
Cultivators flew overhead, responding to vault alarms. We pressed into shadows, using basic fortune manipulation to avoid their scanning spiritual senses.
"The wall," Yun Xia pointed.
We scaled it using cultivation-enhanced movement, clearing six meters of stone in seconds. Behind us, the Celestial Capital blazed with activity—every formation activating, every guard mobilizing, the entire city aware something catastrophic had happened.
We landed in darkness outside the walls and kept running.
Three Fate Weavers. Fifteen stolen artifacts. One legendary crown containing bloodline secrets the Celestial Court had hidden for millennia.
And approximately thirty minutes before they organized proper pursuit.
"The safe house," Lin Mei directed. "Five miles east, abandoned temple. We regroup there, then scatter toward the refuge."
We ran through forest, leaving no trace through fortune manipulation—severing the causal connection between our passage and detectable signs. Each use cost LP, but I still had over a thousand points remaining.
The safe house materialized—an old shrine to forgotten gods, hidden by natural terrain and neglect.
We collapsed inside, gasping, trembling with adrenaline and disbelief.
"We did it," Yun Xia said. "We actually robbed the Celestial Court's primary vault."
"Not just robbed," I corrected, pulling artifacts from my storage ring. "We reclaimed what they stole. Every item here belonged to murdered Fate Weavers. We're not thieves. We're inheritors taking back our legacy."
I examined the haul: Chen Ancestor Sword, Wang Clan pendant, Liu Clan techniques, Feng family formation arrays, and thirteen other artifacts representing extinct bloodlines. Each one pulsed with accumulated fortune from generations of use.
And the crown. The Fate Sovereign Crown that marked me as Chen Clan's true heir.
"What's our LP gain?" Lin Mei asked.
I checked the System interface, calculating fortune absorption potential.
[ARTIFACT FORTUNE ABSORPTION AVAILABLE]
[ESTIMATED TOTAL: 3,500 LP]
[CURRENT LP: 1,081]
[POTENTIAL LP AFTER ABSORPTION: 4,581]
[FORTUNE CORE FORMATION REQUIREMENT: 10,000 LP]
[PROGRESS: 45.8%]
"Three thousand five hundred points worth of fortune," I reported. "Combined with what I have, that's forty-six percent of what I need for Core Formation breakthrough."
"Not enough," Yun Xia observed. "We risked everything for halfway progress?"
"We risked everything for artifacts the Court can't use against us anymore," Lin Mei corrected. "For techniques we can study, weapons we can wield, formations we can deploy. The LP is secondary to denying them resources."
"And we got this," I added, lifting the crown. "The Court's most feared trophy. Complete Chen bloodline inheritance. Techniques beyond anything in the Inheritance Core."
"Can you use it?" Lin Mei asked. "The warning said Nascent Soul minimum."
"Warning said to wield it properly. Doesn't mean I can't access its knowledge." I felt the crown's power, how it resonated with my Fortune Foundation cultivation. "It recognizes my bloodline. When I'm strong enough, it'll grant full access."
"When will that be?"
"Core Formation minimum. Maybe Nascent Soul to use it properly. But even partial access gives advantages." I carefully stored the crown. "First priority: get back to the refuge alive. The Court will send everything,Enforcers, tracking formations, Nascent Soul hunters. We have maybe a day before organized pursuit catches up."
"Then we move now," Yun Xia decided. "Travel through the night, use every trick we have to mask our trail. Three hundred miles to the refuge. If we push hard, three days."
"Agreed," Lin Mei said. "But understand—we just declared war. The Celestial Court will retaliate. Not just hunting us, but the entire refuge. Everyone we care about becomes targets."
"They were already targets," I said. "The systematic purge would have found the refuge eventually. At least now we have weapons to fight back with. And I have enough fortune to advance significantly."
I looked at the stolen artifacts, at three millennia of accumulated Fate Weaver history, at tools that could turn survivors into actual resistance.
"The Court made a mistake," I said quietly. "They should have killed me better the first time. Instead, they created a ghost who learned to steal destiny itself."
"And now that ghost has teeth," Yun Xia added.
"Now that ghost has an army," Lin Mei corrected. "Four hundred Fate Weavers, all waiting for weapons and leadership. All ready to stop hiding."
We left the safe house at midnight, three criminals fleeing the scene of history's most audacious theft.
Behind us, the Celestial Capital burned with fury.
Ahead of us, war was inevitable.
But for the first time since my resurrection, I had resources. Had power. Had a chance.
The dead man had robbed tyranny blind.
The ghost had fangs and claws now.
And the Celestial Court was about to discover that some resurrections change everything.