The system remained silent, waiting. She realized, then, that all the truths she had told had been about other people. There was one person left.
She looked at her reflection in the still water of the pond. She saw a girl in a simple maid's uniform, her face flushed with excitement and power.
"I am Chen Yue," she whispered to her reflection. Her voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of a vow. "And I am tired of being invisible. I am tired of being polite and obedient. I am jealous of the Young Masters and Misses who have everything handed to them. I want power. I want the power to make them all look at me, to make them acknowledge me, to make them fear me."
It was the deepest truth she had ever spoken, because it came from the very core of her soul.
The system responded with a message that burned in her mind like a golden sun.
[Absolute Self-Honesty validated. Truth Purity: 100%. Reward: Breakthrough to the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation.]
BOOM!
The final breakthrough was the most profound of all. It was a fundamental transformation. A bright seed of power solidified within her Dantian. She felt connected to the world in a way she never had before. The power of a Fifth Layer cultivator was hers.
She stood up, a true expert. The night's work was done. Tomorrow, she thought with a giddy smile, tomorrow the Chen Family would meet the real Chen Yue.
The next morning, she woke up feeling like a goddess. The aches and pains from years of servitude were replaced by a vibrant energy that hummed beneath her skin. She walked through the estate with the confident stride of a master. The air was sweeter, the sun was brighter. Everything was perfect.
Her first assigned task was to fetch some ingredients from the main kitchen for one of the Young Misses. She entered the bustling space with a newfound sense of superiority. The greasy smell of cooking oil, the frantic shouting of the chefs, the clatter of pots and pans—it all seemed so… mundane.
The atmosphere in the kitchen was different today. The usual boisterous energy was replaced by a nervous undercurrent. Servants were gathered in small groups, whispering amongst themselves with fearful eyes. Chen Yue's enhanced senses easily picked up their conversation.
"…found him this morning in his own room," a young kitchen hand whispered, his voice trembling as he furiously peeled a potato. "The servant who brought his tea, she just… screamed."
"They say the room was a complete wreck," another added, her face pale. "And he was… covered in blood. They're saying it was a cultivation deviation, but he was only at the Second Layer! How could a deviation be that… gruesome?"
Chen Yue paused, a flicker of recognition in her mind. They were talking about Young Master Chen Wei. That pathetic cousin who was a walking embarrassment to the family name. She had seen him sulking in his courtyard just yesterday. And now he was dead.
Chen Wei, she thought, her internal voice laced with scorn. He was weak. The world of cultivation is a cruel river, and the weak are destined to drown. He probably did something foolish, tried a technique far beyond his capabilities, and paid the price.
The whispers continued, speculating about curses and assassins. Chen Yue scoffed internally. They didn't understand. They couldn't. They were mortals, scrabbling in the dirt.
His fate has nothing to do with me, she affirmed to herself, a profound sense of superiority washing over her. He was a stray dog on the path. I am a soaring phoenix. I am different. I have a System. I am chosen. His death is irrelevant.
She pushed the thought of the dead Chen Wei from her mind. He was a footnote in a story that was now entirely about her.
Her gaze swept across the kitchen and landed on the main chopping station, where a junior cook was hacking away at a pile of spirit-yams with the reckless abandon of a berserker. She felt a surge of pity for him, a grand and magnanimous pity that only the truly powerful could feel for the truly insignificant. He would spend his whole life here, chopping yams until his hands were gnarled and his back was bent, while she was destined for the heavens.
It was this momentary lapse into supreme arrogance that sealed her fate. So lost was she in her own glorious destiny, she didn't notice the small puddle of spilled cooking oil on the stone floor directly in her path.
Her foot shot out from under her. For a horrifying moment, she was airborne, her arms windmilling uselessly. As she fell, her flailing hand bumped into the berserker cook. His grip on his razor-sharp cleaver faltered.
The cleaver flew from his grasp. It spun through the air in a beautiful arc, a silver comet on a collision course with destiny.
A final message flashed in Chen Yue's mind as the world turned upside down.
[Warning: Host's karmic luck value has reached zero. Retribution cycle initiating.]
Time seemed to slow. She saw the faces of the shocked kitchen staff. She saw the steam rising from a pot of soup. She saw the spinning cleaver reach the apex of its arc and begin its descent.
She landed hard on her back, the impact knocking the wind from her lungs. The cleaver followed a second later, its trajectory perfectly aligned with her throat.
There was no pain. Just a sudden cold, a wetness, and then a profound silence. The immense power of the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation, the power she had earned with a night of glorious honesty, offered no resistance at all.
Her last coherent thought was one of comical disbelief.
But… I was just getting started…
In the chaotic aftermath, amidst the screaming and the fainting, no one could quite explain how such a freak accident could have happened. It was just an unfortunate case of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong flying kitchen utensil.