Radeon returned to his pavilion and climbed to the second floor, where the grand array core slept beneath newly lacquered boards.

It was the throat of Cairnlight Barterhold. A network that reached through the whole city, through incense stands and corner shrines, through little golden images made in the likeness of the statue atop the peak.

A copper coin per stick. A promise sold as comfort. Ward off bad luck. Calm the mind.

The incense smoke drifted into the array like pale river mist, and with it came the voices.

"If this is true, whoever Venerable this is, please make me earn a lot today."

"Luck, huh. A copper coin would not kill me. Better than nothing."

"I want to get a job to feed my family. Please."

Thousands at once. Some whispered with a real tremble in the chest. Most were only tossing a pebble into a well to see if it echoed back.

Radeon took them all the same. He let the prayers pool inside his skull.

In his sight, karmic threads stretched from the city and even beyond to his statue, fine as spider silk.

The array gathered them, and with them came the drag of misfortune, the residue people tried to buy their way away from.

That was the part he wanted. The ill luck flowed into him, and this time he did not merely endure it. He refined it.

He took each sharp little shard of bad fate and worked it over, turning its edge inward until it could no longer bite him through Heaven's curse.

He had pondered this path before and hesitated. He already had too much that was unfair.

A crystallized brain that held memory like a mirror and ran cold analysis in a heartbeat.

Crystal meridians that did not cripple, only deepened as he cultivated and repair itself to any damage.

He could have chosen golden bones, jade bones, titan diamond bones, all the proud combat routes that made men feel invincible.

Combat was a mortal ceiling wearing a cultivator's mask.

Radeon chose the thing he still feared. Bones of decaying heaven and man.

An anomaly that grew on turbid qi. A physique that did not need intent to ruin the world around it.

Just existence. Kingdoms toppled overnight from a bad harvest, a bad cough, a bad series of days that never ended.

Misfortune that did not care who deserved it.

Radeon did not plan to let it spill on those he meant to keep. That was the point of locking it under his skin.

The first grey lines etched across his flesh, ashy and thin. The air turned heavy. Incense smoke thickened. The pavilion groaned.

Wood creaked. Nails complained. A beam snapped with a sound like a rib breaking.

The pavilion collapsed on itself. Tiles crashed. Dust burst into the room. A rain of splinters and plaster fell.

Radeon stayed cross legged in the center of it, unmoving, ash settling on his shoulders like snow.

The impact shook the mountain path outside. The disciples surged toward the door, half panic, half instinct to run to their master.

The ghosts stopped them. With that old dead patience that treated this as more than a breakthrough.

This was a turning point you did not interrupt if you wanted your master alive when it ended.

For the five wraiths, it was also a kind of trust. No one dared attempt such cultivation with strangers at their back.

An epiphany like this could come only once in a lifetime, and if it was disturbed, there was no finding it again.

Radeon kept refining. He felt the luck he had stolen and stitched into his reconstruction, Fay's mortal shedding paid into his skin.

That luck held the lock while the misfortune packed itself tight, pressed down under his marrow where it could not leak unless he chose.

Minutes passed like slow drowning. The grey lines settled. The weight in his body changed.

The bones under his flesh felt denser, wronger, alive in a way that made the world feel slightly less safe.

He tested it. He roused the new bones with a thought.

The remaining structure did not just fall. It rotted. Foundation timbers softened as if centuries had eaten them in a breath.

Stone cracked with a tired sigh. The pavilion's base collapsed into powder, and the ground itself looked briefly sick.

Radeon sat in the wreckage, dust in his hair, ash on his lashes.

He smiled. He had consolidated his physique. He still lacked a bloodline, a proper one, but that could wait.

"For now, I'll call this the Causal Paradigm Constitution."

Radeon knew there were always ways to steal better blood. There were always people who thought their inheritance made them untouchable.

What mattered now was the work that would pay him back for the risk. Then he would hand out the missions.

Fay and Good Chip sparred with a wraith attendant in the training yard, yet they could not even brush a sleeve.

The ghost moved like mist pretending to be a man. Every strike Fay threw cut air. Every lunge Good Chip set met nothing but a gentle redirection.

Sweat ran. Breath shortened. Pride started to sting. Then their vision flickered.

[New Task Detected]

[Open File?]

[Yes] [No]

They stopped at the same time, chests heaving, eyes meeting in quick disbelief.

Fay nodded once. Good Chip nodded back. They accepted.

[Task. Investigate the market structure within Ledgegrove Bazaar.]

[Reward. 20 Contribution Points]

Elated was too small a word. Their faces lit like someone had finally handed them a ladder and told them it was theirs to climb.

Fay pushed the details out through the message channel at once, eager to prove she understood.

"Senior Calyx, were you able to receive my message?"

A reply did not come. Not because Calyx ignored her. Because the five wraiths were receiving something else.

Calyx opened his own window, and his face wore a grin.

[Task. Draw all buildings within Thornvine Stealthsnake Cartel Group.]

[Reward. 250 Contribution Points]

[Task. Seize half a ton of contraband substance currently flowing within the four peaks.]

[Reward. 250 Contribution Points]

[Task. Make sure Fay and Good Chip return safely.]

[Reward. 1 Contribution Point]

The last line hung there like a bad joke. Radeon had written it that way on purpose.

He wanted a different measure. Respect and reverence came easy, because the five wraiths knew his competence.

Radeon wanted to see what happened when protection became a chore and the pay was a single point.

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