The first thing you learn when you come back from the dead is that staying dead is surprisingly difficult.
I lay in my funeral chamber for three hours after Xiao Lan left, forcing myself to remain still while servants came and went, preparing my body for cremation. They washed me with ceremonial water. They dressed me in white burial robes. They placed spirit coins on my eyes and jade in my mouth, traditional preparations for the journey to the afterlife.
Through it all, I didn't move. Didn't breathe more than the shallowest sips of air. The Heavenly Luck System kept my heart rate so slow that even cultivators couldn't detect it.
[MAINTAINING FALSE DEATH STATE]
[ENERGY CONSUMPTION: 1 LP PER HOUR]
[CURRENT LP: 250]
[WARNING: EXTENDED USE NOT RECOMMENDED]
"Young Master Chen Wei was too young," Aunt Zhou whispered as she arranged incense around my body. Her wrinkled hands trembled slightly, she'd been with the Chen Clan for forty years, had practically helped raise me when I was a child. "Only eighteen. Such a tragedy. I remember when he was just a little boy, always getting into the kitchens to steal sweet cakes."
"I heard it was that Nascent Qi Elixir," replied Mei Ling, a younger servant woman with a kind face. She was carefully folding my favorite blue robe to place beside me, a gesture that made my chest tighten with unexpected emotion. "Too powerful for his cultivation level. The poor boy should have known better."
"The Liu Clan girl gave it to him, didn't she? As a birthday gift?" Aunt Zhou's voice carried a note of something, suspicion, perhaps, or just old woman's intuition.
Mei Ling glanced nervously at the door before lowering her voice. "Between you and me, Zhou jie, I never liked that Liu Yue. Too perfect, you know? Like a beautiful mask with nothing behind it. Young Master Chen Wei deserved better."
"Hush! You'll bring trouble speaking of such things," Aunt Zhou scolded, though her tone was gentle. "The Patriarch is beside himself with grief. I saw Master Chen Tianlong this morning, he looked like he'd aged ten years overnight. And Mistress Lin Yuhua hasn't stopped weeping since they found the body."
My heart clenched at the mention of my parents. What I was putting them through, letting them believe I was dead, it was cruel. But it was necessary. If Zhao Ming and his mysterious conspirator thought I might still be alive, they'd come after my family to finish the job.
"I just feel so helpless," Mei Ling said softly, adjusting the funeral banner above my head. "We can't do anything but prepare his body and pray his spirit finds peace."
They finished their preparations and left, closing the door softly behind them. Aunt Zhou paused at the threshold, looking back at my "corpse" with tears in her weathered eyes.
"Rest well, Young Master," she whispered. "You were a good boy. Too good for this cruel world."
The moment I heard their footsteps fade down the corridor, I opened my eyes and immediately felt like an absolute monster for deceiving these women who genuinely cared about me.
I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Pain exploded through my body, not the System-induced pain of resurrection, but the deep, aching agony of a cultivation foundation destroyed. My meridians felt like shattered glass grinding with every movement. My dantian was a hollow void where power once resided.
"Careful, Young Master Chen Wei!"
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Xiao Lan had somehow entered the room without me hearing, a testament to how compromised my senses were without cultivation. She rushed to my side, her small hands surprisingly strong as she helped me sit up slowly.
"You move like my grandfather," she said, worry creasing her young face. Despite her concern, there was a hint of relieved humor in her voice. "And he's seventy three."
"I feel like your grandfather," I muttered, wincing as my back spasmed. "Your grandfather after he was trampled by horses and then pushed off a cliff for good measure."
Xiao Lan didn't smile at my weak attempt at humor. Instead, she pulled a bundle from beneath her servant's robes with the careful efficiency of someone who'd planned this thoroughly. "I brought what you asked for. Dark clothes, dried meat, water, and..." she hesitated, her fingers tightening on a small jade bottle, "and this."
She held it out, and I saw my hand instinctively reach for it before I froze, my entire body going rigid. The last time someone had given me a jade bottle, it had contained the poison that destroyed my life.
Xiao Lan saw my expression, the fear, the suspicion, the trauma written plainly across my face, and her eyes widened with understanding. "Young Master Chen Wei, I swear it on my brother's life, on Xiao Feng's life. It's just basic healing salve. Nothing more. I bought it from Old Physician Gu at the outer pharmacy with my own savings. Five copper coins. It won't restore your cultivation, but it should help with the pain so you can move."
Her voice cracked slightly when she mentioned her brother's name. Xiao Feng, I did remember him. A small boy, maybe seven years old, who'd fallen ill with Winter Fever two years ago. The clan physicians had refused to waste medicine on a servant's child. I'd given Xiao Lan two spirit stones from my personal allowance to buy the cure from the city's medicine hall.
Two spirit stones. At the time, it had been nearly a month's worth of my allowance. I'd had to skip purchasing cultivation resources that month, falling even further behind my peers.
But the boy had lived.
And now his sister was risking everything to help me.
I took the jade bottle carefully, examining the seal with paranoid thoroughness that would have seemed insane a week ago. It appeared genuine, a simple pain relief ointment, nothing more. The wax seal bore Old Physician Gu's mark.
[ANALYZING ITEM...]
[RESULT: BASIC HEALING SALVE, NO HARMFUL SUBSTANCES DETECTED]
[XIAO LAN'S LOYALTY: 100%]
[NOTE: THIS GIRL WOULD DIE FOR YOU. PROTECT HER.]
The System's confirmation helped. That last note felt oddly... personal. Almost protective. I hadn't realized the System had opinions about people.
"Thank you, Xiao Lan," I said, meeting her eyes directly. "Truly. You're risking everything helping me. If they catch you,"
"Then they catch me," she interrupted with surprising fierceness for such a small girl. "Young Master Chen Wei, when Xiao Feng was dying, you didn't hesitate. You didn't calculate risk versus reward. You just helped because it was the right thing to do. Now it's my turn."
I felt something twist in my chest, not pain, but something warmer. In a world where my fiancée had poisoned me and my sworn brother had orchestrated my murder, this servant girl's loyalty felt like a lifeline to my humanity.
"Your brother," I asked quietly as I pulled on the dark servant's clothes she'd brought. "How is Xiao Feng?"
Xiao Lan's face lit up despite the dire circumstances. "He's wonderful! He works in the stables now. He's terrible with horses, they sense his fear, but he's learning. He talks about you sometimes, you know. Calls you 'the kind young master.' He'll be devastated when he hears about your death."
"Then we'd better make sure he eventually learns the truth," I said. "When this is all over, when I've climbed back from this pit, I'll make sure Xiao Feng gets proper cultivation training if he has the talent for it. A debt repaid."
[PROMISE MADE: REWARD XIAO LAN'S FAMILY]
[KARMIC THREAD STRENGTHENED]
[FUTURE QUEST UNLOCKED]
"Young Master is too kind," Xiao Lan whispered, but I saw hope flash in her eyes. For servants, cultivation training for their children was an impossible dream. "Now, we need to move soon. The funeral procession is scheduled for sunset. Once they place your body in the ceremonial coffin and seal it, there won't be another chance to escape."
"What's happening outside?" I asked, pulling on the simple servant's garments. They were baggy on my frame, I'd lost weight during the ordeal, but they'd serve. "I've been playing dead for hours. I need to know the situation."
Xiao Lan moved to the window, peeking through the paper screens. "The entire clan is in mourning. Your father, Master Chen Tianlong, hasn't left his study since dawn. Old Guan, you know, the butler who's been with your father for thirty years? He said the Patriarch is just sitting at his desk, staring at nothing. Won't eat. Won't speak."
My hands stilled on the buttons of my robe. My father, stern, powerful, unshakeable Chen Tianlong, broken by grief. Because of me.
"And my mother?" I asked, my voice hoarse.
"Mistress Lin Yuhua is in the ancestral hall, praying to your grandparents' tablets," Xiao Lan said softly. "Cook Li tried to bring her tea this morning. She said the Mistress looks like a ghost herself, just kneeling there, not moving, tears running down her face. It's... it's heartbreaking, Young Master Chen Wei."
I closed my eyes, forcing down the guilt and pain. This was necessary. I had to keep telling myself that. If they knew I was alive, they'd be in danger.
"The elders are investigating the 'accident,'" Xiao Lan continued, "but Miss Liu Yue and Young Master Zhao Ming have already given their testimonies. Everyone believes it was a tragic cultivation deviation. Elder Feng even praised you for your 'admirable but reckless determination to improve despite limited talent.'"
"Of course they do," I said bitterly. "Liu Yue and Zhao Ming are both talented cultivators from respected families. Heaven grade talents. Why would anyone suspect them of murdering trash like me?"
"Don't call yourself that," Xiao Lan said sharply, surprising me with her vehemence. "You're not trash, Young Master Chen Wei. You were never trash. The world just... it measures the wrong things."
I looked at this servant girl, barely fifteen years old, risking everything for someone the world had already forgotten, and felt something shift inside me. A reminder of why I'd chosen to come back. Not just for revenge, but to prove that the world's measurements were wrong.
"There's more," Xiao Lan continued, her voice dropping to barely a whisper. "Something strange. I overheard Young Master Zhao Ming speaking with someone in the eastern garden this morning. A man in black robes, not from any local clan that I recognized. They thought they were alone, but I was trimming the hedges nearby. Old Gardener Wu had sent me to cut fresh chrysanthemums for your funeral arrangements."
My hands stilled completely. "What did they say? Exactly, Xiao Lan. Every word you can remember."
She closed her eyes, concentrating. "The stranger's voice was cold. Like ice given sound. He asked, 'Is the trash dealt with?' Young Master Zhao Ming," she grimaced at having to use that honorific, "he confirmed your death and said, 'The impediment is removed. Everything went exactly as planned.'"
My jaw clenched so hard I heard my teeth grind.
"Then the stranger said something that didn't make sense to me," Xiao Lan continued. "He said, 'Good. The Chen Clan's bloodline must not interfere with the Celestial Court's plans. The boy would have awakened his heritage eventually. Better he dies thinking he was simply unlucky.' Young Master Zhao Ming asked, 'What about the parents?' And the stranger replied, 'Chen Tianlong and Lin Yuhua are being watched. As long as they remain docile, they'll be allowed to live out their days in ignorance.'"
A chill ran down my spine like icy water. This wasn't just about Liu Yue and Zhao Ming's petty ambitions. This was bigger. Much bigger.
"Celestial Court? Heritage? Awakening?" I muttered. "What the hell are they talking about? And why are my parents being watched?"
[HIDDEN QUEST TRIGGERED: THE TRUTH OF YOUR BLOODLINE]
[REWARDS: UNKNOWN]
[PROGRESS: 1%]
[WARNING: THIS QUEST MAY FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY]
"I don't know, Young Master Chen Wei," Xiao Lan said, her young face troubled. "But it sounded like... like your death wasn't just about Miss Liu and Young Master Zhao Ming wanting to be together. It sounded like something much more dangerous. Something involving your family's past."
I processed this information slowly, my mind racing despite my physical weakness. So my murder wasn't just a simple betrayal by greedy young cultivators who wanted to elope without clan interference. There was a deeper conspiracy at play, something involving the mysterious Celestial Court, whatever that was. Forces beyond Azure Peak City had orchestrated my death.
Which meant that even if I escaped today, even if I somehow rebuilt my shattered cultivation from nothing, I'd still have powerful enemies I didn't understand. Enemies who were watching my parents.
"One problem at a time, Chen Wei," I muttered to myself, using my own name like a mantra. "First, survive the next few hours. Then worry about mysterious conspiracies and hidden bloodlines."
"The servants will come to move your body to the main hall at the hour of the sheep," Xiao Lan said, glancing at the position of the sun through the window. "That's when the formal viewing begins. The entire clan will pay respects, elders, inner disciples, outer disciples, even the servants. We have maybe two hours to get you out of the compound before they discover the body is missing."
"Two hours to smuggle a supposedly dead body out of the most secure compound in Azure Peak City," I said dryly. "With guards at every gate and cultivators who could sense a mouse breathing from fifty feet away. Should be simple."
This time, Xiao Lan did smile, a small, nervous expression that made her look even younger. "I have a plan, Young Master Chen Wei. It's... not a good plan. Actually, it's a terrible plan. But it's the only one I could think of that might actually work."
"I'm listening," I said, applying the healing salve to my aching joints. The relief was immediate, if minor.
"The servants need to take out the ceremonial washing water and used burial materials before the formal viewing begins," she explained. "It's tradition, all the 'death touched' items must be removed and burned outside the city walls before the clan can properly honor the deceased. They'll be carried in large woven baskets by the funeral preparation team. Aunt Zhou, Mei Ling, and Old Guan usually handle it."
"Wait," I said slowly, understanding dawning. "You want me to hide in one of those baskets?"
Xiao Lan nodded. "You'd be carried right out of the compound by the servants themselves. Hidden in plain sight among the refuse. The guards won't inspect baskets of dirty funeral materials, it's considered spiritually unclean to interfere with death rites."
"That's..." I paused, considering. "That's actually brilliant. Risky as hell, but brilliant."
"But Young Master Chen Wei," she said, worry flooding back into her voice, "you'd need to fit in the basket and remain completely still for at least an hour, maybe more. With your injuries, I don't know if you can,"
"I can," I interrupted firmly. "I've already spent three hours playing dead while Aunt Zhou and Mei Ling prepared my body. I heard every word they said. Every tear they shed. What's one more hour of pretending to be refuse?"
[QUEST UPDATED: ESCAPE BEFORE CREMATION]
[METHOD SELECTED: HIDING IN FUNERAL REFUSE BASKET]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE WITHOUT DETECTION]
[ADDITIONAL REWARD IF COMPLETED: +100 LP]
[RISK ASSESSMENT: MODERATE TO HIGH]
Xiao Lan led me through the servant corridors of the Chen Clan compound, narrow passages that the masters rarely noticed or cared about, the hidden arteries of clan life that kept everything running smoothly. I moved slowly, each step sending jolts of pain through my broken body. Without cultivation to enhance my physical strength and durability, I was weaker than a mortal who exercised regularly. My breath came in short gasps, and sweat beaded on my forehead from the effort.
This was what it meant to be crippled. This helplessness. This vulnerability. This weakness.
I hated it with every fiber of my being.
"Here," Xiao Lan whispered, pulling me into a storage room that smelled of soap and incense ash. "The washing baskets are kept here. The servants will come in about half an hour to collect them and take them to the burning grounds outside the city."
The basket was larger than I'd expected, a massive woven container nearly four feet across, meant to carry soiled linens and ceremonial materials from funerals. But it was also currently full of used fabrics stained with ritual oils, dirty water containers that reeked of herbs, and incense ash that made my nose itch just looking at it.
"You want me to hide under dirty laundry soaked in funeral preparation materials," I said flatly, staring at the basket's contents.
"Would you prefer to burn at sunset in the ceremonial pyre?" Xiao Lan shot back, hands on her hips in an expression that reminded me of Cook Li scolding kitchen boys.
Fair point. Very fair point.
I climbed awkwardly into the basket, my body protesting every movement with fresh waves of pain. Xiao Lan helped pile the soiled materials around and over me, carefully creating enough coverage that I'd be invisible to casual inspection while still leaving small gaps for air.
"Young Master Chen Wei," she said softly, her hand briefly touching mine through the fabric, "once you're outside the compound, where will you go? You can't survive in the wild without cultivation. The forests around Azure Peak City are full of spirit beasts that would kill you in seconds."
"There's an old storage building on the eastern edge of the Chen compound," I said, my voice muffled by burial linens. "The one that's been abandoned for years, Old Guan used to store winter supplies there before the new warehouses were built. I'll hide there for a few days while I figure out my next move and start trying to repair my cultivation."
"That's still inside the compound!" Xiao Lan hissed, genuine alarm in her voice. "Young Master, if they find you, if Young Master Zhao Ming or Miss Liu Yue discover you're alive,"
"The most dangerous place is often the safest," I interrupted, remembering something my father had once told me about military strategy. "They'll assume I've fled the city entirely. No one will search inside our own walls for a dead man. And I need to stay close enough to gather information about what Zhao Ming and that mysterious stranger in black robes are planning. If they're watching my parents, I need to know why."
She looked like she wanted to argue further, but footsteps echoed in the hallway outside, multiple pairs, moving with the purposeful gait of people on a task.
"The servants are coming," Xiao Lan whispered urgently, quickly adjusting the fabrics over me one final time. "Remember, don't move, don't make a sound, barely breathe. I'll check on you tonight at the storage building with food and water. If I can't make it tonight, I'll come tomorrow before dawn. Stay alive, Young Master Chen Wei."
She slipped out of the room just as the door opened fully and three familiar voices entered, mid conversation.
"Such a waste," Aunt Zhou was saying, her voice heavy with grief. "Young Master Chen Wei was always kind to us servants. Not like some of the other young masters who treat us like furniture."
"Kind doesn't matter in the cultivation world," replied Mei Ling pragmatically, though I could hear the sadness in her tone. "Only strength matters. My cousin serves the Zhao Clan, she says Young Master Zhao Ming had reached Foundation Establishment Peak by seventeen. That's the difference between someone who succeeds and someone who..."
"Who dies at eighteen," finished a male voice I recognized as Old Guan, the head servant who'd been with the Chen Clan since before I was born. "Come on, ladies. Let's get these baskets to the burning grounds outside the city walls. The ceremony starts at sunset, and we still have to help set up the viewing hall."
I felt the basket lift as Aunt Zhou and Mei Ling grabbed the handles on either side, grunting slightly at the weight. Old Guan took a third basket from the corner. The motion of being carried sent waves of nausea through me, but I bit the inside of my cheek and remained perfectly still. The System helpfully kept my breathing shallow and my heart rate imperceptible to anyone without serious cultivation senses.
[STEALTH MODE ACTIVE]
[ENERGY COST: 2 LP PER HOUR]
[DETECTION CHANCE: 3%]
[MAINTAINING VITAL SIGN SUPPRESSION]
They carried me through the compound, and I tracked our progress by sound and memory, using everything my father had taught me about spatial awareness. Through the servants' quarters where I could hear Cook Li barking orders about the funeral feast preparations. Past the kitchens where the smell of food made my empty stomach clench. Along the eastern wall where the morning training sessions usually took place, though today, everything was silent out of respect.
"Heavy today," Mei Ling grunted, adjusting her grip on the basket handle.
"All that ceremonial fabric," Aunt Zhou replied, her breathing slightly labored. "The Patriarch and Mistress went all out for Young Master Chen Wei's funeral preparations. Imported silk burial robes, the finest incense from the capital, jade coins worth more than I'll earn in ten years..."
"Of course they did," Old Guan said quietly. "He was Chen Tianlong's only son. His only child. The end of a direct bloodline that stretched back eight generations. You don't skimp on those preparations."
Was, I thought bitterly, lying in darkness and dirty laundry. Past tense already. I'd been dead less than a day, and already I was being spoken of as history. As a tragedy. As something finished and done.
The basket suddenly jerked to a stop hard enough that I had to clench every muscle to avoid shifting position.
"Hold there!" a stern voice barked. I recognized it immediately, Captain Yang of the Chen Clan guards, a gruff man in his fifties with a cultivation base at Core Formation Realm. "What are you three carrying?"
My heart, which had been barely beating, suddenly hammered against my ribs like it was trying to escape. Discovery now would mean real death. Zhao Ming and Liu Yue would make absolutely certain of it this time.
"Just the refuse from the funeral preparations, Guard Captain Yang," Old Guan replied with the careful respect of a servant addressing a superior. His voice was steady, professional. "We're taking it to the burning grounds outside the compound, as tradition requires."
"Open it," Captain Yang ordered, his footsteps approaching. "Let me see what you're carrying. Security has been increased, Patriarch's orders after... after what happened."
No. No, no, no,
I felt Aunt Zhou and Mei Ling tense, about to comply with the order. Any second now, they'd start removing the fabrics piled on top of me, and Captain Yang would find a supposedly dead young master hiding in funeral refuse like a criminal.
"Guard Captain Yang!" Another voice interrupted, female, young, slightly breathless as if she'd been running. Xiao Lan. "Guard Captain, please! The ceremonial materials are spiritually unclean now. They've been in direct contact with the deceased's body, touched by death energy. Opening them before the proper burning ritual could bring bad luck to the entire clan. My grandmother always said that disturbing death touched items is one of the worst omens."
A moment of tense silence. I could hear Captain Yang's breathing, sense his hesitation.
"Superstitious nonsense," he finally muttered, but his voice lacked conviction. Even cultivators respected the old traditions about death and burial rites. "But... I suppose I won't risk the Patriarch's wrath if something goes wrong with the funeral. Master Chen Tianlong is barely holding himself together as it is. If we add more problems..."
He trailed off, and I heard him step back.
"Move along," Captain Yang ordered. "But straight to the burning grounds and back. No detours. The Patriarch wants all non essential personnel present for the viewing ceremony."
"Yes, Guard Captain," Old Guan said respectfully. "Straight there and back."
[DETECTION AVOIDED]
[XIAO LAN'S QUICK THINKING: +25 LP]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: 75%]
The basket began moving again, but I could feel the tension in how Aunt Zhou and Mei Ling carried it now, quicker, more urgent, wanting to be away from that checkpoint as fast as possible.
I heard the massive compound gates creak open on their iron hinges, then felt the subtle change as we passed through. The sounds shifted, the ordered quiet of the Chen Clan compound replaced by the bustling noise of Azure Peak City's eastern district. Merchants calling their wares. Cultivators discussing techniques at tea houses. Street children playing. Normal life continuing as if the world hadn't ended for me last night.
As if I hadn't died and been reborn at my own birthday celebration.
After what felt like an eternity but was probably only twenty minutes of walking, the basket was set down roughly on hard ground.
"Finally," Mei Ling groaned, stretching her back. "That was heavier than usual. My arms are going to ache for days."
"Let's dump this quickly and get back," Old Guan said. "I want to grab something to eat before the ceremony. Cook Li made those meat buns I like, and they'll be gone if we're slow."
"Always thinking with your stomach, Old Guan," Aunt Zhou chided affectionately. "Alright, on three. One, two, three,"
I felt the basket begin to tip, they were going to pour everything out onto the burning pile. Including me.
Panic surged through my system like lightning. If I moved now, they'd see me, would scream, cause a scene, alert the guards. If I didn't move, I'd roll out onto a pile of refuse meant for burning, right in front of three servants who'd prepared my body for burial.
At the last possible second, acting on pure instinct and the tiny bit of spatial awareness I still retained, I shifted my weight subtly, rolling my body toward the edge of the basket's opening. As the contents dumped out in a cascade of dirty fabric and incense ash, I remained wedged against the basket's interior rim, hidden from the servants' view by the angle and the remaining materials.
They never noticed. They never even looked inside. They simply tipped the basket back upright, satisfied their task was complete.
"Done," Old Guan declared. "Let's go. Those meat buns are calling my name."
"You and your meat buns," Mei Ling laughed. "Come on, Aunt Zhou. We still need to help set up the viewing hall before,"
Their voices faded as they walked back toward the compound, leaving me alone in the basket at the burning grounds.
I waited five more minutes, counting each second, before slowly and painfully climbing out of the basket. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest from having stayed tensed and motionless for so long. My legs nearly buckled when I put weight on them.
I was behind a small wooden structure near the compound's outer wall, the burning grounds for ceremonial refuse, as Xiao Lan had described. It was isolated, screened from casual view by a wooden fence. Perfect cover.
[QUEST COMPLETE: ESCAPE BEFORE CREMATION]
[REWARDS: 300 LP + 100 LP (BONUS OBJECTIVE COMPLETED)]
[CURRENT LP: 675]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: DEATH'S FUGITIVE]
[TITLE GAINED: ONE WHO CHEATED FATE]
I allowed myself a small smile of victory, crouching behind the wooden structure to catch my breath. I was out. I was alive. And I had accumulated over 600 Luck Points.
Now came the hard part: surviving long enough to use them.
I peered around the edge of the structure, observing the area carefully. The burning grounds were at the base of the eastern wall, separated from the main compound by about a hundred yards of open ground. Guards patrolled the walls above, but their attention was focused outward toward potential threats, not inward at their own refuse area.
I needed to get back inside the compound and reach that abandoned storage building without being seen. In my current state, weak, exhausted, barely able to walk, it would take a miracle.
Or maybe just a little luck.
"Alright, System," I whispered to the golden text only I could see. "Let's see what 675 Luck Points can buy me. Time to start climbing from zero to godhood."
[ACKNOWLEDGED]
[YOUR JOURNEY TRULY BEGINS NOW, CHEN WEI]
[GOOD LUCK]