The pattern continued for over a year. Guided by Bai Xin Yue's "memories," Chen Fei became a renowned, if mysterious, figure in the Whispering Star Realm. He was a lone swordsman who appeared from nowhere to challenge deeply entrenched evils that the major righteous sects had long ignored or were too afraid to confront. He fought demonic beasts plaguing remote villages and challenged corrupt city lords who exploited their people.
With each battle, his combat experience grew, and his cultivation soared under Bai Xin Yue's expert tutelage. He was becoming the hero he was always destined to be, and his admiration for his beautiful, wise mentor deepened into a profound, unspoken affection. He saw her as a tragic figure, a fallen empress from a cruel era, and felt a fierce desire to protect her and help her heal from her ancient wounds.
For Bai Xin Yue, each victory was a feast. By absorbing the life force and souls of powerful, karmically-negative cultivators, her own power was stabilizing and growing at a terrifying rate. The Nether Empress's bloodline was awakening more fully, and she was beginning to unlock its terrifying, soul-freezing techniques. Her act as the gentle, melancholic "Master Yue" became more flawless with each passing day. She had found the perfect, self-propelling engine for her ascension, and its name was Chen Fei.
"Chen Fei," she said one evening as they sat by a campfire under the violet nebulae. "Your progress is remarkable. You have a heart as pure as the starlight. But your techniques, while powerful, lack a certain... finality." Her expression turned grim. "I remember an old evil from my time, a true monster who called himself the 'Ghost-Faced Butcher.' He led a clan of assassins known as the Silent Blade Clan, and their signature art was a poison that didn't just kill the body, but rotted the soul itself. I sense a trace of that same poison in the winds of this realm. It seems his legacy has survived."
She looked into the fire, her eyes distant. "He was responsible for the fall of a kingdom that was very dear to me. Avenge them, Chen Fei. Eradicate this poison from the world. This will be your greatest test yet."
Chen Fei's heart ached at the pain in her voice. "I will not fail you, Master Yue," he declared, his hand gripping his sword. "I will wipe the Silent Blade Clan from existence."
Finding the Silent Blade Clan was a true challenge. They were not brutes like the Crimson Vultures; they were ghosts, a hidden cancer within the realm's underworld. It took months of Chen Fei's patient investigation, following a trail of mysterious deaths and whispered rumors, to finally locate their headquarters: a hidden fortress carved into the heart of a petrified, ancient forest.
This time, a frontal challenge was not an option. He and Bai Xin Yue infiltrated the fortress under the cover of darkness. The place was a labyrinth of traps and hidden assassins. Chen Fei moved like a phantom, his senses sharpened by Bai Xin Yue's training. He dispatched two guards with silent, precise strikes to the neck. He navigated a corridor filled with pressure-plate poison dart traps by using his 'Flowing Water Step' to glide over them without a sound. He was becoming a seasoned warrior.
They finally reached the clan's central chamber. On a throne of polished bone sat the Ghost-Faced Butcher, a man wearing a terrifying mask and radiating an aura of decay and death. His karmic value was a staggering -35,000.
"I have been expecting you, disciple of the Blue Water Sect," the Butcher's voice rasped, like stones grinding together. "Your little crusade has been making waves. Did you really think you could sneak into my home?"
The shadows in the room deepened, and a dozen elite assassins, all clad in black, materialized from the darkness, their blades coated in a shimmering, soul-rotting poison.
Chen Fei drew his sword, his expression grim but resolute. "Your reign of terror ends tonight, Butcher!"
The Butcher laughed, a dry, rattling sound. "Brave words." He unleashed his signature technique, the 'Thousand Ghost Soul-Rotting Palm.' A wave of black, spectral energy, filled with the screaming faces of his past victims, shot towards Chen Fei.
Chen Fei met it with his strongest defensive art. "Great Ocean Barrier!" A massive wall of swirling, purified water materialized in front of him. The spectral energy slammed into it, and the barrier hissed and steamed, the water turning black as the poison tried to corrode it. The barrier held, but it was clear Chen Fei was already on the defensive.
Watching from the celestial mirror, Ao Xian yawned. "This is taking a while. The hero struggles, the villainess watches, then she swoops in for the final blow. The formula is getting a bit repetitive."
"Perhaps it is time to introduce a new variable, Young Lord?" Lian Xin suggested, her eyes twinkling.
Ao Xian's smile returned. "An excellent idea. Let's complicate the plot."
Chen Fei gritted his teeth, pouring more spiritual energy into his Great Ocean Barrier. The wall of water shimmered, barely holding against the corrosive, spectral energy of the Thousand Ghost Soul-Rotting Palm. The elite assassins of the Silent Blade Clan began to advance, their poisoned blades glinting in the dim light, ready to strike the moment his defense failed. He was trapped, his defeat only a matter of moments away.
Bai Xin Yue, hidden in the shadows of the rafters, watched with cold, calculating patience. The plan was simple and effective. She would let the hero fight until he was on the verge of death, solidifying his desperation and gratitude. Then, she would descend like a goddess, annihilate the karmically-negative Butcher, and absorb his considerable life force to further her own cultivation. It was a perfect, repeatable strategy.
"See? This is what I mean," Ao Xian said, gesturing to the celestial mirror with a sense of mild boredom. "The hero is about to lose, and the hidden master is about to make a grand entrance. I've seen this play a thousand times." He turned to Lian Xin. "You had an idea. Let's hear it. Make it interesting."
Lian Xin's eyes, which held the allure of a thousand promises, twinkled with cunning. "The Ghost-Faced Butcher's poison rots the soul, Young Lord. A nasty, but ultimately straightforward, demonic art. But what if it had a... side effect? What if, instead of just destroying the soul, it had a minuscule chance of severing the connection between a person and their destiny?"
Ao Xian leaned forward, his interest genuinely piqued. "Go on."
"Chen Fei's fortune is what makes him the hero," Lian Xin explained, her voice a seductive whisper. "It guides him, protects him, and ensures his eventual victory. If that connection were to be severed, even temporarily, he would be just... a normal, talented cultivator. No luck, no fated encounters, no plot armor. Just a boy in over his head."
"And Bai Xin Yue," Ao Xian added, catching on immediately, a slow, delighted smile spreading across his face. "She is relying on him being the hero, the shepherd who leads her to her meals. If he's no longer a Child of Fortune, he's no longer a reliable tool. His luck will run out. The evils he seeks will become genuinely dangerous to them both."
"Precisely," Lian Xin confirmed. "It would force her to protect her 'asset' far more actively. Their dynamic would shift from master and student to something far more complicated. It would ruin her perfect, repeatable strategy."
"Brilliant!" Ao Xian declared. "Do it. A subtle nudge is all that's needed."
With an imperceptible gesture, Lian Xin reached through the fabric of reality. She didn't empower the poison. Instead, she took the conceptual "venom" of the Butcher's attack and infused it with a sliver of chaos law—the law of pure, unpredictable chance.
In the fortress, the Ghost-Faced Butcher laughed, sensing Chen Fei's defenses weakening. "It's over, boy!" He pressed his attack, and a single, almost invisible tendril of the soul-rotting energy, now imbued with a power far beyond its original design, slipped through a crack in the Great Ocean Barrier. It struck Chen Fei not in the chest, but in the space just above his head, where the invisible, golden halo of his fortune burned brightly.
Chen Fei felt a strange, chilling sensation, not of pain, but of disconnection. It was as if a warm, comforting presence that had been with him his entire life had suddenly vanished. The world, which had always seemed to subtly bend in his favor, suddenly felt sharp, indifferent, and hostile. His movements became slightly less fluid, his spiritual energy a fraction harder to control.
The Butcher seized the opportunity. With a final, explosive push, his palm strike shattered the water barrier. The assassins lunged.
This was Bai Xin Yue's cue. She was about to descend when she froze, her eyes narrowing. Something was wrong. The boy's aura... the brilliant, golden luck that had made him such a perfect tool, had vanished. He was still a beacon of positive karma, but the protective layer of destiny around him was gone. He was no longer a protagonist. He was just a liability.
Her instinct was to abandon him and flee. But a quick calculation flashed through her mind. Without his luck to guide them, finding these high-value, karmically-negative targets would become infinitely harder. He was a damaged tool, but he was still the only one she had. With a curse under her breath, her plan shifted from a grand rescue to a messy, inconvenient necessity. She erupted from the shadows, no longer a benevolent master, but a terrifying force of nature. "Nether Star Annihilation!" she roared, unleashing her power not just on the Butcher, but on the entire room.
The assassins, caught completely by surprise, were instantly consumed by the vortex of dark starlight. The Ghost-Faced Butcher threw up a desperate shield of bone and spectral energy, but it shattered like glass. As his life force was being ripped from his body, he stared at Bai Xin Yue in utter disbelief. "Two... two monsters in one place..." he rasped, before being reduced to dust.
Bai Xin Yue landed beside the stunned and wounded Chen Fei. Her expression was not one of concern, but of cold, sharp annoyance. "Get up," she commanded, her voice devoid of all its previous warmth. "You've become a lot more trouble than you're worth."