The Nether-Gouger did not roar. It was a predator born in the absolute dark of the Abyss of Despair, and it knew that true death always arrived in silence.
It burst from the shadows like a compressed spring of muscle, jagged bone, and necrotic flesh. Six bladed limbs gouged deep trenches into the obsidian floor, propelling its massive, wolf-like body forward. Saliva dripping from its mandibles hissed as it melted the stone beneath it.
Yet, Lu Chen did not look at its gnashing teeth or the lethal scythes it called legs. His eyes, now permanently altered by the archaic bronze mirror resting over his heart, were fixed squarely above the beast's head.
Hovering just inches above the monster's skull was a thick, muddy-yellow halo. It was its *Qi Yun*—its providence. In the Age of Fading Providence, even beasts had to horde luck to survive. This yellow halo was dense, undulating with the stolen fortune of a hundred lesser creatures the Nether-Gouger had devoured in the abyss. It was the reason the beast always found prey, the reason it had never stumbled into a fatal trap, and the reason it had survived to reach the equivalent of a human's Foundation Establishment realm.
But today, its luck had run out.
Lu Chen sidestepped, his newly reconnected meridians screaming in protest. A week ago, before Fang Tianyou ripped his Innate Spirit Root from his spine, this movement would have been effortless. Now, powered only by the residual deity luck he had scavenged moments prior, it was a clumsy, desperate lurch.
The beast's scythe-limb clipped Lu Chen's shoulder. Cloth tore, and a line of hot blood sprayed into the frigid air. The sheer kinetic force sent Lu Chen tumbling across the cavern floor. He slammed into the petrified ribcage of the fallen deity, his breath leaving his lungs in a sharp wheeze.
The Nether-Gouger pivoted, its blank, milky eyes locking onto Lu Chen's bleeding form. It lowered its body, preparing for the killing pounce.
Lu Chen wiped the blood from his chin, a cold, humorless smile touching his lips. "You think you've cornered a crippled prey," he whispered, his voice raspy but steady. "But you don't understand the rules of this game anymore. I don't have luck for you to steal. I am the void."
He pressed his bloodied hand against his chest. Beneath his torn robes, the Luck-Binding Mirror pulsed. It was a rhythmic, hungry heartbeat that resonated with his empty dantian.
"Plunder."
The command was a mere breath, but the mirror responded with the fury of a starving god.
An ethereal wave of absolute darkness erupted from Lu Chen's chest. It bypassed physical matter entirely, ignoring the Nether-Gouger's thick armor and bone plating. Instead, three spectral chains, forged of shifting shadows and void-light, shot upward and snapped around the muddy-yellow halo hovering above the beast.
The Nether-Gouger froze mid-pounce. A terrifying screech—a sound of sheer existential terror—tore from its throat. It didn't feel physical pain; it felt the sudden, agonizing loss of its destiny.
Lu Chen clenched his fist, and the chains pulled taut.
Riiiip!
A massive chunk of the yellow Qi Yun was violently torn away from the halo and dragged through the air, plunging directly into the mirror on Lu Chen's chest.
The immediate effect on the world was staggering. For its entire life, the Nether-Gouger's luck had passively bent reality to its favor. The ground was always solid where it stepped; the air currents always carried the scent of its enemies. But with its providence suddenly severed, reality snapped back into place with cruel indifference.
The beast thrashes wildly to break the spectral chains, its heavy hind leg slamming down to launch itself at Lu Chen. But without its luck guiding its footing, it stepped squarely onto a patch of black ice formed by the Abyss's miasma.
Its foot slipped.
The massive creature, carrying tons of forward momentum, lost its balance completely. It tumbled forward, its own scythe-like front limb folding awkwardly beneath its chest. The razor-sharp bone pierced its own hardened underbelly, sinking deep into its vital organs.
Simultaneously, the beast's violent thrashing dislodged a massive stalactite from the cavern ceiling directly above it. Without its Qi Yun to grant a 'Heavenly Opportunity' of evasion, the beast could only look up as the two-ton spike of solid obsidian plummeted.
CRUNCH.
The stalactite impaled the Nether-Gouger, pinning it to the cavern floor. Black blood erupted like a geyser. The beast spasmed, letting out a gurgling, pathetic wail.
Lu Chen slowly pushed himself off the deity's ribcage. He walked toward the dying creature, his eyes devoid of pity. In the cultivation world, the weak were meat, and the strong did eat. Fang Tianyou had taught him that lesson perfectly.
He stood over the pinned beast. Its Qi Yun was flickering now, desperately trying to cling to its dying host.
"Don't waste it," Lu Chen murmured. He pressed his palm directly onto the beast's skull. "Take it all."
The Luck-Binding Mirror flared with a blinding, dark light. The remaining muddy-yellow halo was sucked completely dry, leaving the Nether-Gouger as a hollow, lifeless husk. The beast's eyes dulled, its existence entirely erased from the tapestry of fate.
But for Lu Chen, the agony was just beginning.
The moment the massive influx of predatory Qi Yun entered his body, he dropped to his knees. His empty dantian—hollowed out by Fang Tianyou's cruel ritual—felt as though someone had poured molten iron into it.
"Arrrgh!" Lu Chen ground his teeth, his fingernails biting into the stone floor until they bled.
Normally, Qi Yun was an intangible force that granted fortuitous encounters. But the Luck-Binding Mirror defied the Heavens. It acted as a supreme crucible, taking the stolen destiny of the Nether-Gouger and forcibly converting it into raw, physical World Essence.
In his mind's eye, Lu Chen watched the miracle unfold. The muddy yellow luck was purified by the mirror, turning into shimmering threads of pure gold. These threads descended into his empty dantian, intertwining, twisting, and fusing together.
Fang Tianyou had stolen his Azure Wood Spirit Root. To cultivate the Sword Dao, one needed a Spirit Root to absorb and filter the world's energy. Without it, a cultivator was nothing more than a leaky vessel.
The golden threads began to weave a new vessel. But it was not aligned with the elements of wood, fire, water, earth, or metal. As the golden strands formed the foundation, the dark, consuming energy of the mirror bled into the structure. The gold turned black—an obsidian, crystalline root that seemed to absorb the light around it.
A Void Root.
Lu Chen gasped as the construct locked into his dantian. The pain vanished, replaced by an overwhelming surge of power. The surrounding miasma of the Abyss, which had previously been choking him, suddenly felt like a banquet. The Void Root did not passively filter World Essence; it devoured it.
The spiritual energy of the Abyss rushed into his body.
Crack.
First Stage of Qi Refinement.
Crack.
Second Stage of Qi Refinement.
Crack!
Third Stage of Qi Refinement!
Lu Chen's aura exploded outward, clearing the dark mist in a ten-foot radius. He opened his eyes, and a flash of dark light severed the air in front of him. He slowly stood, clenching his fists. The power coursing through his veins was violent, wild, and deeply predatory. It felt nothing like the righteous, serene energy he used to cultivate at the Azure Cloud Sect.
It felt better.
He raised his right hand, extending his index and middle fingers together to form a sword gesture. He channeled his newly acquired Qi through the Void Root.
Instead of the brilliant azure blade of light he used to summon, a dark, translucent blade of energy extended from his fingertips. It hummed with a dangerous frequency, seemingly tearing at the fabric of the air itself.
Sword Intent.
It was crude, raw, and unrefined, but it was unquestionably Sword Intent. He was back on the path of cultivation.
Lu Chen looked down at the blackened, withered corpse of the Nether-Gouger, then up toward the impossibly high ceiling of the Abyss of Despair. Beyond that darkness lay the Eastern Province. Beyond that lay the Azure Cloud Sect, Sect Master Fang, and Lin Muxue.
"You took my talent because you thought I was favored by the Heavens," Lu Chen said softly to the empty dark, the translucent dark blade in his hand casting strange shadows across his face. "You thought taking my Spirit Root would leave me with nothing."
He dismissed the Sword Intent, patting the cold bronze mirror hidden beneath his robes.
"But you didn't steal my destiny. You just untethered me from it. If the Heavens will not give me luck, I will strip the Heavens bare. I will take the luck of your prodigies, your elders, your sect... until there is nothing left."
He was the Sovereign of the Void. And his harvest had only just begun.
Lu Chen turned, intending to venture deeper into the Abyss to find a path that led back to the surface. He needed more luck. The yellow Qi Yun of beasts was sufficient for the Qi Refinement stage, but to reach Foundation Establishment, he would need the pure, brilliant luck of human cultivators. He needed to hunt 'Chosen Ones'.
But before he could take a single step, the Abyss violently trembled.
It wasn't a physical earthquake. The tremor originated from the very fabric of providence itself. The Luck-Binding Mirror against his chest grew searingly hot, vibrating so violently it felt like it might shatter his ribs.
Lu Chen spun around, his eyes wide as he looked upward.
Piercing through the miles of impenetrable black miasma of the Abyss was a light. It was not a physical beam, but a pillar of pure, staggering Qi Yun visible only to his mirror-enhanced eyes.
It was a blinding cascade of purple and gold—a color combination Lu Chen had only ever read about in the ancient texts of the Azure Cloud Sect. Gold represented great fortune, the mark of a once-in-a-century genius. But purple? Purple was the color of Imperial Providence. It was the mark of a 'Child of Heaven,' an existence so favored by the world that breathing too hard would probably cause an ancient artifact to fall into their lap.
And this massive, impossible pillar of purple-gold luck was rapidly descending directly into the Abyss of Despair.
Lu Chen swallowed hard, the dark light in his eyes flaring with a mix of extreme caution and unadulterated hunger.
Someone—or something—carrying the destiny of a continent was coming down here.
Whether they were an enemy hunting for him, or merely an arrogant prodigy seeking the treasures of the Abyss, it didn't matter.
To the rest of the world, they were a favored child of fate.
To Lu Chen, they were the ultimate feast.