Two days.
Wang Ben woke with Shen Ruoxi's words still echoing in his mind. Unknown watchers. Forces beyond the mercenaries. A war more complicated than anyone realized.
He dressed quickly and made his way to the training grounds, but this morning felt different. The compound had changed overnight. Disciples moved with sharper purpose. Conversations died when strangers approached. The easy camaraderie of peacetime had been replaced by something harder, more alert.
War was no longer coming. It was here, waiting just beyond a fragile wall of protocol.
Dao Zhen stood in his usual position, practice sword already in hand. But today there were others. Half a dozen Dao Clan disciples had gathered at the edge of the training ground, watching with undisguised curiosity.
"You've attracted an audience," Dao Zhen said by way of greeting.
"Should I be flattered?"
"You should be focused." He tossed Wang Ben a practice blade. "Word has spread about our sessions. Some of my people wanted to see what all the fuss was about."
Wang Ben caught the sword and settled into a ready stance. "And what will they see?"
"That depends entirely on you."
The spar began without further preamble.
This morning, something was different. The repetitive drilling of the past days had carved new pathways into Wang Ben's reflexes. He moved without thinking, body flowing through stance transitions that had once required conscious effort. The Flowing Water technique Dao Zhen had taught him emerged naturally, redirecting force instead of absorbing it.
He lasted longer than ever before. And twice, his counterattacks came close enough that Dao Zhen had to actually defend rather than simply evade.
When the heir finally ended the session with a sweep that sent Wang Ben tumbling, there was a new quality to his expression. Not quite approval, but something close.
"You're learning faster than you should," Dao Zhen said quietly, pitched for Wang Ben's ears alone. "Four days ago, you couldn't touch me. Now you're making me think. How?"
"I don't know." It was the truth. The instincts that guided his movements came from somewhere deeper than conscious understanding.
[OBSERVATION: Combat pattern integration accelerating]
[Analysis: Host unconsciously accessing archived movement sequences]
[Note: Rate of integration exceeds normal parameters]
[Assessment: Unique consciousness structure enables accelerated learning]
Dao Zhen studied him for a long moment. Then he nodded, once, as if confirming something to himself.
"Whatever you're doing, keep doing it. You'll need every advantage in the days ahead."
Wang Ben requested an audience with the war council that morning.
The elders convened within the hour, their faces showing varying degrees of concern and curiosity. Grand Elder Wang Feng gestured for Wang Ben to speak.
"Last night, I received information from an outside source." He chose his words carefully, conscious of every elder's gaze upon him. His hands wanted to fidget beneath the table, but he kept them still. "Someone with exceptional spiritual senses has detected unknown forces in the region. Beyond the mercenaries. Watching."
The silence that followed was heavy.
"Unknown forces." Patriarch Wang Tiexin's voice was dry as dead leaves. "Can you be more specific?"
"No. My source couldn't identify them. Only that they're present and observing the conflict."
"And the reliability of this source?" Grand Elder Wang Feng's scarred face was unreadable.
Wang Ben hesitated. "Exceptional. The source has proven accurate in the past."
The elders exchanged glances. Wang Ben could see the calculation happening behind their eyes. The timing was terrible. Two days before war, with all resources committed, and now this.
"Sect representatives?" Elder Wang Qing suggested, adjusting his spectacles. "The beast tide would have attracted attention. A conflict between established clans might draw observers."
"Crimson Bastion scouts," Grand Elder Wang Feng countered. "Checking on their investment."
"Or something else entirely." Patriarch Wang Tiexin's voice cut through the speculation. "We cannot afford to divert resources from our primary objective. The Xue Clan remains the immediate threat."
"But if there are unknown parties..." Wang Ben began.
"Then we deal with them after we've secured our survival." The Patriarch's tone brooked no argument. "The grace period ends in two days. The mercenaries arrive one day after that. If we don't strike the Xue Clan's eastern compound in that window, we lose our best chance to cripple their resources."
The logic was sound, even if it left Wang Ben uneasy.
"However," the Patriarch continued, "your observation assignment takes on additional importance. You will be watching the battlefield for tactical intelligence. Now you will also watch for anything... unusual. Anything that doesn't fit the expected pattern of a clan conflict."
"Yes, Patriarch."
"If these watchers reveal themselves, if they interfere, we need to know immediately." Wang Feng leaned forward. "Your analysis capabilities may be our only warning."
Wang Ben nodded, feeling the weight of the responsibility settling on his shoulders. It was one thing to observe a battle. It was another to watch for threats that even a mortal shedding cultivator couldn't identify.
The afternoon brought the first signs of evacuation.
Non-combatants began leaving the compound in small groups. The very young, the very old, those whose cultivation was insufficient for war. They traveled with minimal belongings to pre-arranged shelters throughout the city. Homes of allied families. Secured positions that the Xue Clan wouldn't target directly.
Wang Ben found his mother in the family courtyard, packing a small bag while Wang Chen fussed in his cradle.
"You're leaving." It wasn't a question.
"Tomorrow morning." Li Mei's hands moved with practiced efficiency, folding clothes into tight bundles. "Chen and I will stay at a secured residence in the merchant district until the fighting ends."
"Father?"
"Remains at the medical compound. As do you." She paused in her packing, looking up at him with those tired, worried eyes. "I don't like it. Either of you being in danger. But I understand why it's necessary."
"We'll be careful."
"Will you?" There was an edge to her voice. "Your father told me about your assignment. Observation team. Close to the fighting but not in it. Watching." She resumed her packing. "He says your mind is too valuable to risk. The Grand Elder's words, apparently."
"It's true. I'm body refinement. I'd be a liability in direct combat."
"And yet you train with the Dao Clan heir every morning. Disciples talk, Ben. They say you touched him during a spar. A body refinement cultivator touching a mid-stage qi condensation fighter." She shook her head. "That's not supposed to be possible."
Wang Ben didn't know how to respond.
"I'm not asking for explanations." Li Mei tied off her bag and straightened. "I learned to stop asking questions I don't want answered. But whatever is happening with you, whatever you've become..." She reached out and cupped his face, a gesture that reminded him suddenly that he was still only fifteen. "Just come back. That's all I ask. Just come back."
"I will."
She held his gaze for a long moment, then dropped her hands and turned back to the cradle. Wang Chen had fallen asleep, unaware of the chaos preparing to consume his world.
"Go. You have preparations to make." Her voice was steady again, pragmatic. "I'll see you when this is over."
The news came just after sunset.
Wang Ben was in the forge district, reviewing the compound's defensive positions with a junior officer, when a runner arrived with urgent word. The Xue Clan had made a move.
Not an attack. Nothing so overt. But three of their retainer families had abruptly withdrawn from a neutral commercial district, abandoning businesses that had operated there for generations. In their wake, they'd left small fires. Accidents, they claimed. Equipment malfunctions. The kind of thing that happened in any workshop.
But the fires had spread to Wang Clan allied businesses before they could be contained. Two warehouses lost. A smithy destroyed. The economic damage was significant, and the message was clear.
This is what we can do while still observing the grace period. Imagine what happens when the restrictions end.
Grand Elder Wang Feng's briefing was terse. "They're testing our resolve. Probing for weakness before the real fighting begins."
"Should we retaliate?" someone asked.
"With what? They've committed no provable violation. The fires were accidents." Wang Feng's scarred face twisted with disgust. "They want us to break the grace period first. Give them justification to claim we started the war."
"So we do nothing?"
"We do what we've always done. We endure. We prepare. And when the grace period ends, we make them pay for every slight, every insult, every so-called accident." Wang Feng's voice hardened. "Two days. That's all we need. Two more days of patience."
Wang Ben listened, but his mind kept returning to Shen Ruoxi's warning. Unknown watchers. Forces beyond the mercenaries.
Were they watching this too? These small escalations, these careful provocations? What did they see when they looked at Redstone City's petty conflicts?
And what would happen when they decided to stop watching and start acting?
Night fell, and Wang Ben found himself in his father's workshop.
Wang Tian was preparing medicines. Rows of pills lined the workbench, each one representing hours of careful refinement. Healing compounds. Blood restoratives. Emergency stabilizers for damaged meridians. The supplies that would determine how many wounded cultivators survived the coming battles.
"You should be resting." Wang Tian didn't look up from his work.
"So should you."
"I'll rest when the war is won." His father's hands moved with the sure precision of decades of practice. "Every pill I make tonight is a life I might save tomorrow."
Wang Ben watched him work in silence. The man before him was so different from the broken figure he remembered from childhood. The trembling hands had steadied. The doubt had been replaced by purpose. The weight of nine years of sabotage had been lifted, and in its place was something that looked almost like peace.
"Father. When the fighting starts..."
"I'll be in the medical compound. You'll be with the observation team." Wang Tian set down his tools and turned to face his son fully. "We've discussed this."
"I know. But there's something else." Wang Ben hesitated, then decided that his father deserved to know. "There are unknown forces watching the city. Someone warned me last night. Cultivators or... something else. No one knows what they want."
Wang Tian was quiet for a moment. "The woman. The one who appears in your courtyard."
"Yes."
"And you trust her warning?"
"I don't trust her. But I believe she's telling the truth. Whatever game she's playing, lying about this wouldn't serve her interests."
His father nodded slowly. "Then we add it to the list of things to worry about. Unknown watchers. Mercenaries. The Xue Clan. Crimson Bastion interference." A tired smile crossed his face. "When I was your age, the biggest threat I faced was failing my alchemy examination."
"Times change."
"Yes." Wang Tian picked up his tools again. "They do. But some things stay the same. Family. Duty. The willingness to fight for what matters." He began working on the next pill. "Whatever is watching us, whatever happens in the coming days, remember that. We fight for what matters."
Wang Ben stayed a while longer, watching his father work. The rhythmic movements of pill refinement. The careful attention to temperature and timing. A craft that had been taken from him for nine years and was now restored.
Some things, at least, could be recovered.
The compound grew quiet as midnight approached.
Wang Ben walked the walls one final time, looking out at the city below. Redstone City, with its four major clans and its petty politics and its fragile peace that was about to shatter. From here, in the darkness, it almost looked peaceful. Lights flickering in windows. The occasional movement of night patrol cultivators. A city sleeping through its final quiet night.
Tomorrow would bring more preparations. The last training session with Dao Zhen. The final war council. His mother and brother departing for safety. And then, the next dawn, the grace period would end and the killing would begin.
[STATUS UPDATE]
[Body Tempering Pill absorption: 54.7%]
[Physical enhancement: +93% baseline]
[Projected advancement to Stage 9: 2 weeks]
[Note: Combat stress continues to accelerate integration]
[Note: Unknown external threat remains unidentified]
[Recommendation: Maintain elevated awareness protocols]
Two days.
And then everything changed.
Wang Ben turned from the wall and headed toward his courtyard. Tomorrow would demand everything he had. Tonight, he would rest.
Behind him, the stars continued their silent vigil, indifferent to the wars of mortals. And somewhere in the darkness beyond the city walls, something watched.
Waiting.
END OF CHAPTER 38