Shouldn't.

A small, hopeful smile tugged at Wang Chen's lips as the demons advanced, their shadows stretching across the empty village like the opening jaws of night.

This thought had barely surfaced in Wang Chen's mind when suddenly—

Whoooo—!

A sharp, piercing whistle tore through the magical curtain's projection.

Wang Chen's heart plummeted. A suffocating premonition—cold, instinctive, absolute—rose inside his chest.

Something terrible is coming.

Li Mei lifted her gaze at the same moment, her senses instantly sharpened.

"What is that…?"

Her voice trembled faintly as her pupils constricted.

High above the village sky, an iron pillar, more than ten feet long and thick enough to crush an ox cart, was plummeting downward. It wasn't falling—it was cleaving through the air like a divine weapon hurled by an angry god.

Its descent warped the wind around it, leaving a spiraling tail of force in its wake.

Old Man Fang… didn't look up.

His entire attention was locked onto the approaching demons, sweat rolling down his forehead. His stance wavered, but he was determined. Fearful—but unyielding.

A shame that bravery counted for nothing in front of heaven-sent calamity.

BOOOOOOM!!

The iron pillar smashed into him with unstoppable, bone-shattering force.

There was no scream.

No final word.

No struggle.

Old Man Fang's body was reduced to a spray of red mist—shredded into pieces so small the wind scattered them instantly. The pillar buried itself into the earth, half its length vanishing underground with a deep, echoing thud.

Silence fell.

The only evidence Old Man Fang had ever existed…

was the wet crimson stain slowly spreading across the dirt.

Lin Huang swallowed hard, voice trembling despite his best effort to remain calm.

"He's dead… just like that."

His eyes were wide, disbelief breaking through his usual resolve.

That iron pillar… If that thing hit him, he would have been obliterated before he even saw it coming.

Li Mei's fingers clenched tightly. Even with her experience, the abruptness of it sent a cold shiver down her spine.

Wang Chen—

Wang Chen nearly lost it.

"What the hell?!"

He almost threw the magical curtain across the room.

This wasn't normal.

Not even close.

Last run, Old Man Fang died instantly too—before he could even react, crushed by a falling boulder. At the time, Wang Chen had thought it was the weird RNG of the Tower.

But this?

This was the exact same pattern—just more absurd.

It was as though the Tower itself had written Old Man Fang's death into its script… something predetermined… something that could not be changed.

Predestined.

Inevitable.

A death marked by the heavens.

Wang Chen felt a chill unlike anything he had felt on the first floor.

For a brief and terrible moment, his mind flashed with a line he once read:

"When death comes to claim you, even the gods cannot interfere."

His thoughts churned violently, blazing with sudden insight.

Is this… fate?

Bound fate?

A life shackled from the moment of its creation?

In the instant before the pillar struck, Wang Chen remembered clearly—

Old Man Fang's glow of providence—that faint, subtle shimmer of fate—had flickered.

Then vanished.

Not dimmed.

Not shaken.

But extinguished, as if the old man had spent the last thread of his destined luck.

Wang Chen stood frozen.

This wasn't coincidence.

This wasn't random chance.

This was a terrifying truth—one the Tower had kept hidden until now.

Slowly, the world returned to normal.

The magical curtain flickered once before stabilizing, and at that exact moment—

Ding.

A familiar system notification rang in Wang Chen's ears.

But he didn't even glance at it.

His attention was completely locked onto the screen before him.

On it, Lin Huang was charging toward the Abyssal Demons, blade in hand, expression cold and determined. Li Mei stood beside him, her posture calm but eyes sharp, ready to strike at any moment.

Yet…

Wang Chen couldn't see the demons at all.

Not because of distance.

Not because of the angle.

But because—

Their providence was blinding.

Golden light burst from both disciples' bodies, so brilliant, so immense, that it pierced through the simulated clouds and stretched hundreds of meters into the sky. The glow was so dense and powerful that it drowned out everything else on the screen.

Even the Abyssal Demons themselves appeared as faint silhouettes swallowed by the radiance.

Wang Chen's expression stiffened.

"Is this… the light of providence surrounding them?" he muttered, barely above a whisper.

The sight was overwhelming.

He had seen providence before—faint, thin streams of luck gathering around cultivators—but never anything like this.

Lin Huang's golden light was a tidal wave, vast and unstoppable.

Li Mei's glow wasn't any weaker—her radiance burned like a divine sun.

Finally, with trembling curiosity, Wang Chen withdrew his gaze from the screen… and looked down at himself.

A faint glow shimmered around his body.

A weak, flickering golden light—so dim it looked like it could be snuffed out by the slightest breeze.

A candle flame trembling in the wind.

Wang Chen's face darkened instantly.

"…Is this my providence?"

His expression froze.

A cold, creeping chill spread through his heart.

Because the faint, dying glow enveloping him…

looked exactly like Old Man Fang's—just moments before he was crushed to death.

A thin thread of luck.

Barely flickering.

Barely surviving.

A providence that looked like it was already running out.

Wang Chen stiffened, his heart thundering inside his chest.

An unfamiliar weight settled over his shoulders.

The realization was brutal, heavy, and terrifying—

"Is… is my providence about to run out too?"

As soon as this thought popped up in his head, Wang Chen swallowed hard, his face turning pale, draining of all color.

Fate worked in mysterious ways. Once the old Fang fire of providence was erased, he couldn't escape his death, not just from what he heard, your future achievement in the cultivation world also depended upon this mysterious fortune that was hard to read and detect and now he could actually see this with his own two eyes.

Such a thing was very rare! After all curing the invisible diseases was difficult, now that he could actually see there might be hope.

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