THE FATE-STEALER’S ASCENSION: STRIPPING THE HERO BARE

Chapter 5 Ambushing the Sects Forbidden Carriage

The night air of the Cloud Ascent Sect was thin and bitingly cold, carrying the faint, sweet scent of incense from the inner shrines. High above, the crescent moon hung like a silver scimitar, illuminating the grand ivory gates. Down in the thick brush of the surrounding forest, Jian Chen crouched, his eyes fixed on the massive, ornate carriage currently being escorted through the secondary gates. The Imperial crest—a sunburst over a dragon—glinted with a nauseating sense of unearned authority.

“Look at them,” Jian Chen whispered, his voice low and vibrating with a dark hum. “Pompous. Predictable. They really think a few extra soldiers will keep destiny in their favor.”

“That carriage is a problem, Master,” Fubune said, her voice barely a breath beside him. “The Liu Clan guards aren't like the slag mine thugs. They’re professional. If the Saintess is truly inside, we aren't just looking at spiritual purity; we're looking at a Grade-A military unit.”

“Who said we were fighting the carriage?” Jian Chen asked, a cruel smirk playing on his lips as he checked his daggers. “I said we were increasing the price. If the Saintess is the distraction, then the back door to the Repository just became a whole lot lonelier.”

“You’re going in now?” Fubune’s eyes widened. “While the Sect Master is greeting the guests? The security will be focused on the courtyard, yes, but Elder Shen won’t leave the Void Pearl. He’s obsessed.”

“Exactly. He’ll be alone. Obsessive people make the best victims because they only ever look at their treasure,” Jian Chen replied. He looked at Fubune, his gaze sharp and calculating. “I need you to pull the tail of the tiger. How long can you hold a distraction at the south auxiliary gate?”

“Without dying?” Fubune wiped a smudge of blood from her cheek, her face hardening. “Five minutes. Maybe seven if I use the smoke-blades we swiped from the armory.”

“Make it ten. Use the alchemist's formulas I taught you. Make it look like a rival sect is probing their defenses. Don't be a hero, Fubune. Be a nuisance,” Jian Chen commanded, pushing off the ground. “The moment the bells toll for the welcome ceremony, you start the show.”

“And if I don't see you at the extraction point?”

“Then it means I’m busy burning this place to the ground. Now, move.”

Fubune nodded once—a quick, sharp movement—and disappeared into the shadows toward the southern wall. Jian Chen watched her for a second before turning his attention back to the massive pagoda that housed the sect’s most valuable treasures. To the original Jian Chen, this building was a temple of terror. To the current him, it was just a locked vault waiting for its rightful owner.

[Alert: Target 'Void Pearl' detected at 400 meters. Sentinel 'Elder Shen' at 350 meters. System predicts a 90% chance of success if the Host utilizes the 'Spatial Distortion' ripple from the Saintess's arrival.]

“Speak English for once, you bucket of bolts,” Jian Chen hissed, moving with the fluidity of a stalking panther. “What do you mean by ‘Spatial Distortion’?”

[Analysis: The Saintess carries an Ancestral Talisman that vibrates at a high frequency. It interferes with the sect’s defensive arrays. For the next thirty minutes, the Repository's internal seals will have a delay. It’s a literal blind spot.]

“Hah. Even the ‘righteous’ people bring their own demise with them,” Jian Chen chuckled, scaling the sheer rock face behind the Repository. “They want a celebration? I’ll give them a headline.”

He reached the high balcony, his fingers gripping the ancient wood as he pulled himself over the railing. The interior was quiet, the smell of dust and stagnant energy thick enough to taste. At the end of the long corridor, behind a set of double-heavy iron doors, he could sense it—the Void Pearl. It didn't just feel like a treasure; it felt like a hole in the universe, pulling at his very soul.

Suddenly, the soft, rhythmic tapping of a wooden staff echoed from the floor below. Step. Tap. Step. Tap.

“Who’s there?” a voice croaked—dry, papery, and filled with ancient authority. “The reception has already begun. No disciples are permitted here tonight.”

Jian Chen flattened himself against the ceiling, his fingers digging into the ornate beams. “Elder Shen, I presume? You sound like you haven’t had a glass of water in a hundred years.”

The old man stopped in his tracks, looking up. His eyes were clouded with cataracts, but he squinted as if he could sense the darkness. “That voice... you aren't one of ours. Who is it that dares to breathe my air?”

“A customer who heard you were holding something that belongs to me,” Jian Chen said, dropping from the ceiling and landing perfectly, three feet in front of the elder. He didn't wait for the old man to respond. He lunged, his hand wreathed in the jagged, dark energy of the ‘Sinner’s Remnant.’

“Impudence!” Elder Shen roared, slamming his staff onto the floor. A shockwave of pure, white Qi erupted, nearly knocking Jian Chen off his feet. “You think you can rob the Cloud Ascent Sect, boy? I’ve killed men twice your age for looking at these doors the wrong way!”

“Old man, age is just a number in a ledger I’ve already closed,” Jian Chen countered, his eyes flashing with violet light. He spun under a massive overhead swing from the staff, the wind whistling inches from his skull. “Is that it? Is that the legendary guard? You’re moving in slow motion!”

“Don’t get cocky, brat!” The Elder swept his staff in a low arc, trailing white flames. “Whirling Tiger Fang!”

Jian Chen took the hit on his forearm, his bones screaming in protest, but he didn't retreat. He grinned through the pain. “Hurt me? You barely touched me. Look at your sleeve, Pops.”

Elder Shen glanced down. His expensive silk robes were turning black, rotting where Jian Chen’s dark Qi had grazed him. “Necromancy? No... this is worse. What are you?”

“I’m the guy who’s stealing your retirement,” Jian Chen hissed. He grabbed the staff with his bare hand, ignoring the searing pain as it burned his skin. He yanked the old man closer, leaning into his ear. “Check the southern gate. Your ‘immortal’ brothers are about to deal with a very large explosion. If you hurry, you might save one or two of them.”

At that exact moment, a thunderous BOOM shook the entire building. The windows rattled, and distant screams echoed from the southern courtyard. Fubune had kept her word.

“The array! The auxiliary gates are failing!” Shen stammered, his focus wavering for a split second. “What have you done?!”

“Distraction 101,” Jian Chen said, his voice dropping into a lethal chill. He didn't waste another second. He drove his elbow into the elder’s throat, and as the old man wheezed, he channeled the entirety of his refined spiritual roots into a single strike against the iron doors. “Break!”

The doors didn't just open; they groaned as the mechanisms were forcibly overwhelmed by the spatial interference the System had predicted. Jian Chen stepped over the fallen elder, his boots clacking on the cold marble of the inner sanctum. In the center of the room, hovering on a pillar of pure moonlight, was the Void Pearl. It was a spheres of obsidian swirling with white, celestial dust.

“My God... the density of the Qi,” Jian Chen muttered, reaching out. “It’s like looking into the eyes of a dying star.”

[Warning: Dimensional containment failing. You must initiate the siphon immediately or the local space will collapse. The Saintess’s arrival has amplified the feedback loop!]

“Quiet, I know!” Jian Chen shouted, his hand closing around the pearl. The moment his skin touched the artifact, the world inverted. Gravity vanished. He felt himself being stretched across a thousand miles and then compressed into a grain of sand. The screaming in his mind was deafening.

“Drain it!” Jian Chen roared, his face contorting as his veins turned a deep, neon violet. “I didn’t come here to be swallowed by a rock!”

[Siphon Initialized. Usurping ‘Spatial Affinity Mastery’... 10%... 40%... 80%...]

Outside the chamber, Elder Shen was struggling to his feet, blood leaking from his nose. “Stop! You... you’re desecrating the heritage of the gods! That pearl was destined for the Savior! You’ll tear reality apart!”

“Destined for Lin Fan? Hah!” Jian Chen laughed through his gritted teeth, the raw power of space surging through his nervous system. “Lin Fan is a footnote! Tell your ‘savior’ to come find me when he’s done crying over his missing bride!”

[Extraction Complete. Protagonist Halo: ‘Spatial Affinity’ Drained.]

[Processing... Host receives: [Basic Spatial Manipulation] and [Dimensional Awareness (Passive)]. Skill acquired: ‘Ghost Blink.’]

The darkness in the room exploded outward. Jian Chen felt his consciousness expand, sensing the heartbeat of everyone within five miles. He saw Fubune running through the woods; he saw the Sect Master bowing to the carriage; he saw the Saintess—a young woman in golden silks, her eyes wide with a strange, sudden dread.

“Who... who is touching my fate?” the Saintess’s voice whispered in his mind—a phantom resonance through the pearl’s echo.

“A thief, sweetheart,” Jian Chen muttered to the empty air. “And you’re next on my shopping list.”

He turned back to the half-unconscious Elder Shen. The Repository was now a shambles, the walls cracking under the spatial stress. The grand pearl in his hand was now a dull, grey stone—its soul had been devoured.

“The pearl... what have you done to it?” Shen wheezed, his eyes filling with tears of pure despair.

“I liberated it,” Jian Chen said, tossing the useless stone into the corner. He walked toward the balcony, feeling lighter than air. His perception of distance had shifted. The three stories to the ground didn't look like a fall anymore; they looked like a choice. “Tell your Sect Master that Jian Chen isn't coming back for a trial. I’m coming back for the title.”

“Guards!” Shen finally found his voice, screaming into the night. “The Pearl is stolen! Murderer on the North Balcony!”

Within seconds, torches flared in the gardens below. The sound of dozens of cultivators unsheathing their swords echoed up the mountain. Archers were already taking position, their arrows tipped with spiritual light.

“Oh, look at that. An audience,” Jian Chen joked, stepping onto the railing. He didn't feel afraid. He felt like he was watching a movie at two-times speed. “Hey, you bunch of holy losers! Looking for this?” He held up his hand, letting a spark of spatial distortion flicker around his fingers.

“Release him! Kill the heretic!” a voice boomed from the garden—likely the Head Disciple.

A volley of arrows shrieked through the air, all aimed at Jian Chen’s chest. In the original novel, this is where the villain would have been skewered, humiliated, and dragged to the execution block. But the script was dead. Jian Chen focused on a point twenty yards into the darkness behind the archery line.

“Ghost Blink,” he whispered.

Pop.

The arrows pierced nothing but the wood of the balcony. The guards blinked, their heads whipping around as a dark figure suddenly materialized directly behind their formation. Jian Chen didn't give them a chance to scream. He struck the first two in the base of the skull, then leaped over the rest before they could even draw a breath.

“I told you!” Jian Chen shouted back as he sprinted into the treeline. “You’re all moving too slow!”

Ten minutes later, he reached the rocky outcropping where he’d agreed to meet Fubune. She was already there, leaning against a tree, her robes singed and her hair a tangled mess. She looked at him, then at the pulsating violet glow emanating from his chest.

“Did you get it?” she asked, her voice cracking with exhaustion.

“The Pearl? I ate it for a late-night snack,” Jian Chen replied, offering her a hand. “And you? Did you have fun burning down their pretty garden?”

“I think I accidentally blew up the guest stable,” Fubune said, her eyes gleaming with a newfound, terrifying excitement. “I heard the Imperial entourage screaming about their horses.”

“Good. Keep them annoyed,” Jian Chen said, looking back at the mountaintop. The alarms were ringing across the entire sect now, a beautiful symphony of panic. “But I saw her, Fubune. The Saintess.”

Fubune’s smile faded. “Is she as powerful as they say? My contact said she has the 'Prophecy of the Golden Seed' hidden in her aura.”

“Powerful? Maybe. But she felt the siphon. She knows there’s a ghost in the machine now,” Jian Chen said, his face darkening. He gripped the collar of his robe, feeling the warmth of his newfound power. “Fubune, get your map. I need to know the route the carriage takes when they leave the sect tomorrow.”

“You’re really going after her? That’s war, Master. That’s declaring yourself an enemy of the Emperor.”

“I was declared an enemy the day I woke up in this body, Fubune. Why settle for a sect when you can threaten a throne?” Jian Chen laughed, turning his back on the glowing mountain. “By tomorrow, the news of the theft will spread. They’ll say Jian Chen is a madman. A monster.”

“And what are we?” Fubune asked, stepping into the darkness behind him.

Jian Chen looked back over his shoulder, the spatial energy of the Void Pearl shimmering in his irises like a cold, hungry star.

“We’re the reason they tell children to be afraid of the dark,” he replied. “Now, hurry up. I want to see her face when I tell her that her ‘Golden Seed’ belongs to me.”

The sounds of the chase faded as they descended into the deep canyon, leaving the righteous sect to burn in their own chaos. High above on the Golden Peak, Lin Fan—the real Hero of the story—walked out onto his balcony, looking down at the smoking southern gate with a growing sense of unease.

“Something is missing,” Lin Fan whispered to the wind. “My heart... it feels empty.”

Little did he know, his entire world was being dismantled piece by piece, and the architect of his ruin was currently laughing in the shadows of the very mountain he called home.

“What’s the move, Master?” Fubune asked from the brush.

Jian Chen stopped at a crossroads and looked toward the capital. “We wait for the princess to realize her prince isn’t coming to save her. In fact... I think we’ll give the prince a reason to watch.”

“A reason? Master, you can't be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious in my two lives,” Jian Chen said, his grin terrifying in the moonlight. “Tell me, Fubune... do you know what a ransom note is?”

***