Wang Ben did not sleep well that night.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Shen Ruoxi sitting on his courtyard wall, ancient power contained in a form that appeared barely older than himself. Every time he started to drift off, his mind replayed her words.
There's something wrong about you, Wang Ben. Wrong in an interesting way.
She had seen through him. Not completely, not the full truth, but enough to recognize that something didn't fit. Eight hundred years of experience had given her the ability to spot anomalies that most cultivators would never notice.
And now she was watching.
[STATUS UPDATE]
[Body Tempering Pill absorption: 24.2%]
[Physical enhancement: +40% baseline]
[Note: Sleep disruption has minimal impact on absorption rate]
[Projected advancement to Stage 7: 1-2 days]
Wang Ben opened his eyes to pale morning light filtering through his window. The fourth day after the beast tide. His body ached with the familiar pressure of approaching advancement, muscles and bones straining against the energy accumulating within them.
He rose, dressed, and stepped into the main room of the family quarters.
His father was already there, seated at the low table with a cup of tea cooling beside him. Wang Tian looked tired, lines around his eyes that hadn't been there a week ago. The burden of vindication, perhaps. Knowing you were sabotaged wasn't the same as knowing what to do about it.
"You're up early," Wang Tian said.
"Couldn't sleep."
His father nodded slowly, as if that explained everything. "Neither could I. Your mother is still resting. The baby kept her up half the night."
Wang Ben settled across from his father, accepting the tea that was poured for him without asking. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, two people who had learned to share space without filling it with unnecessary words.
"Something happened yesterday," Wang Ben said finally. "While I was training."
Wang Tian's eyes sharpened. "What kind of something?"
"A visitor." Wang Ben paused, considering how much to say. "Do you know The Quiet Cup? The tea house in the merchant district?"
"I've heard of it." Wang Tian frowned slightly. "A tea house in the merchant district. The owner is supposed to be a minor cultivator. Core formation, I think. Why?"
"His name is Shen Wuyan. I met him before the beast tide, when I was looking for information about the auction." Wang Ben hesitated, then continued. "He's more than he appears, Father. Much more. And his sister appeared in my courtyard yesterday. Her cultivation is at the peak of mortal shedding."
The cup in his father's hand went still. Wang Tian's face remained composed, but Wang Ben could see the effort it took. A mortal shedding cultivator was beyond anything Redstone City could produce. Beyond anything most frontier regions ever saw.
"She visited you specifically?"
"She said I was interesting. That she wanted to see for herself what her brother had been watching." Wang Ben met his father's eyes. "She knows about the wolf. About your healing. About what I saw during the beast tide."
"How much does she know?"
"Enough to be curious. Not enough to understand." Wang Ben wrapped his hands around his tea cup, feeling its warmth. "She said she would keep watching. That I was her entertainment now."
Wang Tian was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was carefully controlled. "People at that level of cultivation... they don't think the way we do. Time moves differently for them. Priorities shift."
"You know something about the tea house owner."
"More than he appears." Wang Tian set down his cup, processing this. "You're certain? The man is supposed to be core formation at most. Unremarkable."
"I'm certain." Wang Ben couldn't explain the System, but he could share the conclusion. "His sister's cultivation alone proves it. Mortal shedding cultivators don't have core formation siblings. Whatever he's hiding, it's significant."
Wang Tian was silent for a long moment. "If what you're saying is true... if there are cultivators of that level operating in Redstone City without anyone knowing..." He shook his head. "These are not people we can fight. Not people we can hide from either."
"And his sister?"
"I didn't know he had a sister until you just told me." Wang Tian's expression was grim. "Which means she's either new to the city, or she's been hiding even more effectively than he has."
[ANALYSIS: Wang Tian's assessment consistent with available data]
[Assessment: Shen Wuyan and sister operate outside normal political structures]
[Note: Their interest in host remains unexplained but not immediately hostile]
Wang Ben absorbed this in silence. His father's perspective confirmed what he had already suspected. Shen Wuyan and his sister were a force unto themselves, beholden to no one in Redstone City. Their attention was both dangerous and potentially valuable.
The question was how to survive it.
The morning brought a delivery to the compound gates.
Wang Ben was finishing his breakfast when a servant appeared at the door, bowing low. "Young Master. Master Wang. A shipment has arrived for the alchemy workshop. The porters are asking where to place it."
Wang Tian rose immediately, his expression shifting from contemplation to professional focus. "I wasn't expecting anything until next week."
"The merchant said it was a rush order, Master. Paid for in advance. He said you would understand."
Wang Tian exchanged a glance with Wang Ben. Neither of them had ordered a rush shipment.
They walked together to the workshop that had been Wang Tian's domain for nearly a decade, even during his years of diminished capability. The building sat near the eastern wall of the compound, close to the Zhao family quarters where the sound of Zhao Daniu's forge provided constant background rhythm.
Three porters waited outside with wooden crates stacked on a handcart. The lead porter was a thin man with nervous eyes who kept glancing at the compound walls as if expecting trouble.
"Master Wang." The porter bowed, perhaps too deeply. "Your shipment. Silverleaf, Fireroot essence, and Thunder Moss. All Grade 8 quality, as specified."
Wang Tian's frown deepened. "I didn't specify anything. Who placed this order?"
"The... the payment came through a broker, Master. Anonymous commission. We assumed it was your usual arrangement."
[ALERT: Anomalous situation detected]
[Assessment: Unsolicited delivery of alchemy materials suggests external manipulation]
[Recommendation: Exercise extreme caution]
Wang Ben stepped closer to the crates, his senses sharpening. The System's warning confirmed his instincts. Something about this was wrong.
"Father," he said quietly. "May I examine the materials?"
Wang Tian nodded, watching his son with an expression that mixed curiosity with growing concern.
Wang Ben opened the first crate. Inside, bundles of Silverleaf were arranged in neat rows, their characteristic silver-green color gleaming in the morning light. To an untrained eye, they looked perfect. Grade 8 quality, just as the porter claimed.
[FLORA ANALYSIS: SILVERLEAF]
[Grade: Appears Grade 8]
[Condition: Leaves show appropriate coloration and texture]
[CONTAMINATION DETECTED]
[Trace compounds identified: Rootwilt spores, concentration 0.003%]
[Effect: Minimal direct toxicity. Primary impact on alchemical processes.]
[Assessment: Contamination would cause pill refinement to fail at critical stage]
[Note: Failure would appear to be alchemist error, not ingredient problem]
[Intent assessment: Sabotage designed to damage professional reputation]
Wang Ben's blood ran cold. The contamination was subtle. Brilliant, even. A lesser alchemist might never notice the spores. They wouldn't kill anyone. They would simply cause every pill refined with these ingredients to fail, destroying batches of valuable materials and making Wang Tian look incompetent.
After nine years of damaged reputation, another round of failures might be enough to ruin him permanently.
"Father." Wang Ben kept his voice low, aware of the porters still waiting. "Check the Silverleaf. Something's wrong."
Wang Tian's eyes narrowed. He reached into the crate and lifted a bundle of leaves, examining them with the practiced eye of a Grade 8 alchemist. For a moment, he saw nothing. Then his expression changed.
"Bring me a testing kit," he said to a nearby disciple. His voice was calm, but Wang Ben could hear the steel beneath it.
The next few minutes passed in tense silence. Wang Tian worked methodically, crushing a small sample of leaves and mixing them with reagents that would reveal hidden contaminants. Wang Ben watched the porters, noting how the lead man's nervousness had increased.
The reagent turned a faint purple. Rootwilt.
"These materials are contaminated," Wang Tian said. His voice carried across the courtyard, deliberately loud enough for the porters to hear. "The entire shipment is unusable."
The lead porter went pale. "Master, I... we had no idea. The merchant assured us..."
"Which merchant?"
"I... I don't know his name. He operates out of the eastern market. Said he had connections to suppliers in Ironforge."
"Did he." Wang Tian's tone made the words a statement rather than a question. "And did this anonymous merchant mention who was paying for this generous gift to the Wang Clan?"
The porter's mouth opened and closed. He looked like a man who had just realized he was standing on thin ice over deep water.
"We'll keep the shipment as evidence," Wang Tian continued. "You can tell your employer that the Wang Clan is not so easily fooled. And you can tell whoever paid for this that we know what they're doing."
The porters fled, leaving their handcart behind.
Wang Tian didn't speak until they were inside the workshop with the door closed. Then he turned to his son with an expression Wang Ben had never seen before. Not anger. Something colder.
"How did you know?"
Wang Ben had prepared for this question. "The leaves looked wrong. The color was slightly off."
"The color was perfect. I checked. Even experienced alchemists would have missed that contamination." Wang Tian stepped closer, studying his son's face. "Ben'er. How did you really know?"
For a moment, Wang Ben considered lying. It would be easy. His father wanted to believe in him, wanted to accept whatever explanation he offered. But they were past that now. Too much had happened for comfortable deceptions.
"I can't explain it fully," he said. "But sometimes I notice things that I shouldn't be able to notice. Patterns that don't fit. Details that seem wrong." He met his father's eyes. "It started after the wolf. Or maybe it started before that, and the wolf just woke it up."
Wang Tian was silent for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was quiet.
"Your mother said something similar. She said you've been different since you woke up. That you move differently, think differently. That sometimes you look at the world like you're seeing it for the first time."
Wang Ben felt his heart clench. His mother had noticed. Of course she had. Li Mei saw everything, even the things she pretended not to see.
"I'm still me," he said. "Just... more."
"More." Wang Tian repeated the word, tasting it. "More what?"
"I don't know yet. But whatever it is, it's helping us. It warned me about the contamination. It's helped me survive things that should have killed me." Wang Ben paused. "I'm still your son, Father. That hasn't changed."
Wang Tian reached out and placed a hand on Wang Ben's shoulder. The touch was warm, grounding.
"I know you are," he said. "Whatever else is happening, I know that." He squeezed once, then released. "But we need to be careful. If others notice what I've noticed, what your mother's noticed... there will be questions we can't answer."
"I know."
"Then we'll figure this out together. One step at a time." Wang Tian turned back to the contaminated shipment, and for a moment his jaw tightened, knuckles whitening where his hand gripped the edge of the crate. Nine years. Nine years of believing he was a failure, and now they were trying to make it true again. "But first, we need to deal with this. The Xue Clan has made their first move."
Word spread quickly through the compound.
By midday, everyone knew that someone had tried to sabotage Wang Tian's alchemy supplies. The identity of the saboteur was technically unknown, but no one pretended to be confused. The timing was too convenient. The method was too subtle. This had Xue Clan fingerprints all over it.
Wang Ben found Zhao Yu in the training yard, working through sword forms with more aggression than technique.
"You heard?" Wang Ben asked.
"Everyone heard." Zhao Yu's next strike bit into the training dummy with unnecessary force. "They're trying to destroy your father's reputation. Again. Like nine years wasn't enough."
"This is different. This time we caught them."
"And what good does that do?" Zhao Yu lowered his sword, breathing hard. "You can't prove the Xue Clan sent those ingredients. You can't even prove they paid for them. All you can prove is that some anonymous merchant tried to ruin your father with contaminated supplies."
[ANALYSIS: Subject Zhao Yu's assessment is tactically accurate]
[Note: Circumstantial evidence insufficient for formal accusation]
[Observation: Xue Clan likely anticipated this limitation]
Zhao Yu wasn't wrong. The Xue Clan had been careful. They had created distance between themselves and the sabotage, layers of deniability that would hold up to any official inquiry.
"We don't need to prove it," Wang Ben said. "Everyone already knows. The court of public opinion doesn't require evidence."
"Public opinion didn't save your father the first time."
"The first time, we didn't know we were under attack." Wang Ben sat on a training bench, watching the afternoon light play across the courtyard. "This time we do. That changes everything."
Zhao Yu sheathed his sword and sat beside him. "What's your father going to do?"
"Find new suppliers. Zhao Daniu has contacts through his forge work. People who deal with cultivators from other regions." Wang Ben paused. "Your father might be able to help."
"He already offered. This morning, after he heard." Zhao Yu's expression softened slightly. "He said your family and ours have been connected for generations. That we don't abandon our own."
Wang Ben felt a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with cultivation. The Zhao family's loyalty was more valuable than any resource the Xue Clan could contaminate.
"Thank him for me."
"Thank him yourself. He's been asking when you'll come by the forge." Zhao Yu grinned, the first genuine smile Wang Ben had seen from him in days. "I think he wants to talk about that sword you've been using. Says the balance is wrong for your fighting style."
The afternoon passed in a blur of activity.
Wang Ben visited Zhao Daniu's forge, a hot and crowded space that smelled of metal and coal smoke. The older man was everything his son had described: broad, practical, with the scarred hands of a lifelong forger. He listened to Wang Ben's request for supplier contacts with a thoughtful expression, then nodded once.
"I know people. Good people who don't ask questions and don't take bribes." Zhao Daniu wiped his scarred knuckles on a leather apron. "Give me two days. I'll have names for your father."
"Thank you, Master Zhao."
"Don't thank me yet. Thank me when the supplies arrive clean." The forger's eyes were shrewd. "And be careful, young master. Poisoned ingredients are just the beginning. The Xue Clan didn't survive this long by being subtle once."
[OBSERVATION: Subject Zhao Daniu demonstrates strategic awareness]
[Assessment: Warning consistent with escalating pressure campaign]
[Recommendation: Prepare for additional sabotage attempts]
Wang Ben returned to his family's quarters as the sun began to set, his mind turning over the day's events. The contaminated shipment. His father's questions. The Xue Clan's opening move in a war that hadn't officially started.
He found his mother in the main room, Wang Chen sleeping peacefully in her arms. Li Mei looked up as he entered, her expression unreadable.
"Your father told me about the shipment," she said quietly. "And about what you noticed."
Wang Ben sat across from her, suddenly tired in a way that had nothing to do with physical exhaustion. "Mother..."
"I'm not asking for explanations." Li Mei's voice was gentle but firm. "Whatever is happening with you, whatever changed after that wolf... I trust you. I trust your father's judgment. And I trust that you're still the boy I raised, even if you're becoming something more." She paused, and her eyes sharpened slightly. "But be careful who else notices, Ben. Not everyone will accept what they can't understand."
Wang Ben's throat tightened. "I'm trying to keep everyone safe."
"I know you are. That's what worries me." Li Mei smiled, sad and knowing. "You're fifteen, Ben. You shouldn't have to carry this much weight. None of us should have to carry this much weight."
"But we do."
"Yes. We do." She looked down at Wang Chen, sleeping oblivious in her arms. "When your brother is older, I hope the world is different. I hope he never has to know what it feels like to have enemies everywhere, to wonder if the next delivery is poisoned or the next smile is a lie."
Wang Ben had no answer for that. He couldn't promise a better world. All he could do was fight for one.
They sat together in the fading light, mother and son and sleeping child, while outside the compound walls, Redstone City prepared for a conflict that everyone could feel coming.
That night, Wang Ben dreamed of snow.
He stood in a vast white expanse, wind howling around him, cold that should have killed him seeping into his bones. But he didn't feel cold. He felt... right. As if this frozen wasteland was exactly where he was meant to be.
In the distance, something moved. A shape too large to be human, too graceful to be a beast. It turned toward him, and for a moment, Wang Ben saw eyes like distant stars, ancient and knowing.
The cold preserves, a voice whispered. Not in his ears. In his mind. What burns away quickly, the cold keeps forever. Remember this.
He woke with frost on his breath and the taste of winter on his tongue.
[OBSERVATION: Dream content shows unusual coherence]
[Assessment: Possible resonance with unknown memory source]
[Note: Imagery consistent with high-altitude cultivation environments]
[Recommendation: Monitor for recurrence]
Wang Ben lay in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, and wondered what the cold was trying to tell him.
END OF CHAPTER 25