Wang Ben moved before the words finished leaving Xue Feng's mouth.
His wounds screamed. His muscles burned. The golden barrier around him flickered with each step, energy draining faster as he pushed his battered body toward the clinic stairs. None of it mattered. His mother was up there. His baby brother. And Xue Feng was already in motion, demonic qi flaring around him like black fire as he launched toward the door.
[COMBAT ANALYSIS: Subject Xue Feng cultivation exceeds host by minimum 5 stages]
[Demonic enhancement active but unstable. Qi signature fluctuating. Pattern suggests burnout phase initiated.]
[Intercept probability at current speed: 23%]
Twenty-three percent. Wang Ben didn't care. He threw himself into Xue Feng's path, the golden barrier meeting corrupted qi in a thunderclap of colliding energies. The impact drove him backward, his heels carving furrows in the street's packed earth, but he didn't fall.
Xue Feng's eyes widened. Not at the barrier's power, but at the fact that Wang Ben had reached him at all.
"Still protecting them." Black veins pulsed beneath Xue Feng's skin as he pressed forward, each strike sending shockwaves through the golden shell. "Still pretending you're the hero of this story."
"I'm not pretending anything." Wang Ben blocked another blow, feeling the barrier strain. The talisman had limits. Twenty breaths of protection remaining, maybe less at this rate. "I'm just not going to let you hurt my family."
Behind them, Zhao Yu engaged the surviving demonic cultivator. The sounds of combat rang through the morning air, steel against steel, punctuated by frustrated snarls as the corrupted fighter found himself unable to land a clean hit on the young man who moved like water through his attacks.
But Wang Ben couldn't watch. Couldn't help. All his attention was fixed on Xue Feng, on the hatred burning in those bloodshot eyes, on the corruption that was visibly consuming him from within.
[OBSERVATION: Subject's demonic qi consumption rate exceeds sustainable regeneration]
[Projected duration until critical failure: 8-12 minutes]
[Note: Subject appears aware of limited timeframe. Combat patterns suggest desperation rather than strategy.]
Xue Feng fought like a man with nothing left to lose.
Because he was.
Wang Ben could see it now, beneath the rage and the hatred. The black lines weren't just marks of corruption. They were cracks in a vessel that was already breaking. Xue Feng's skin had taken on an ashen quality, his movements growing more erratic with each exchange. He was burning through borrowed power faster than his body could sustain it.
"You think that barrier makes you invincible?" Xue Feng's laugh was wrong, cracking at the edges. "I've broken through foundation establishment protections. This is nothing."
He struck again, harder than before. The golden light flickered violently, and Wang Ben felt something in the talisman's formation give way.
[WARNING: Barrier integrity compromised. Estimated remaining protection reduced to 12-15 minutes.]
Not enough time. Xue Feng was too strong, too desperate, too willing to sacrifice everything for one moment of victory. Wang Ben couldn't outlast him, couldn't overpower him, couldn't...
"Wang Ben!"
Zhao Yu's voice cut through the chaos. Wang Ben risked a glance and saw his friend standing over the fallen demonic cultivator, sword bloodied, chest heaving. The corrupted fighter wasn't dead, but he wasn't getting up anytime soon.
"Go help your mother. I've got this."
Xue Feng snarled and launched another devastating strike at Wang Ben's barrier. "You think one early-stage cultivator can stop me? I'll kill you both and make him watch!"
But before he could follow through on the threat, something strange happened.
The wounded demonic cultivator stirred. Not to attack, but to retreat. He pushed himself to his feet, bleeding from half a dozen wounds, and began limping away from the battle.
"Where are you going?" Xue Feng's voice cracked with disbelief. "We're not finished! Kill the one with the barrier! Take the mother!"
The demonic cultivator paused. When he turned back, his expression was utterly empty. No loyalty. No hesitation. Just cold calculation.
"The signal came. You've served your purpose."
"What?" Xue Feng's qi fluctuated wildly, rage mixing with something that looked almost like fear. "The Bastion swore! They promised backing until the Wang Clan was destroyed!"
"They promised resources for an operation. The operation has concluded." The corrupted fighter began walking again, not even bothering to look back. "What happens to you now is not our concern."
"I'M NOT FINISHED!"
Xue Feng's scream was raw, desperate. He abandoned Wang Ben entirely, launching himself at the retreating cultivator with killing intent that warped the air around his fists.
He never reached him.
The demonic cultivator made a gesture too fast to follow, and Xue Feng crashed to the ground, qi disrupted by some technique Wang Ben had never seen. When the corrupted young master tried to rise, his own power turned against him, black energy lashing through his meridians like poison.
"You were always expendable." The demonic cultivator's voice carried no emotion whatsoever. "A tool to gather information, test defenses, and distract attention from more important operations. The fact that you believed otherwise was your failing, not ours."
He turned the corner and was gone.
Xue Feng lay in the street, corruption eating him from within.
Wang Ben approached slowly, sword ready, but some instinct told him the fight was over. Not because Xue Feng had surrendered, but because there was nothing left to fight with. The demonic power that had sustained him was consuming itself, and the young master who had once terrorized Redstone City was dying in the dirt.
[ANALYSIS: Subject experiencing cascade failure of demonic qi integration]
[Estimated time until complete systemic collapse: 3-5 minutes]
[Note: Condition is irreversible. Medical intervention would be ineffective.]
"Why?" Xue Feng's voice was barely a whisper. The rage was gone now, leaving something small and broken in its place. "They promised. They swore an oath."
"Oaths don't mean anything to people like that." Wang Ben lowered his sword but didn't sheath it. "You were useful until you weren't. That's all."
"And you?" A laugh that became a cough, black blood staining Xue Feng's lips. "You think your allies are different? The Phantom Gate, the powers protecting your family... you think they care about you?"
Wang Ben said nothing. He didn't have an answer that wouldn't sound hollow.
"We were children together, you know." Xue Feng's eyes found his, and for a moment, the corruption seemed to recede. "At the clan gatherings, when our fathers would meet. I remember you. A quiet boy who always watched everything, even then. You probably don't remember me at all."
Wang Ben searched his memories. Fragments of childhood, clan events, faces that blurred together. Had there been a young Xue heir? Someone his own age, watching him back?
"I..." He hesitated. "I'm sorry. I don't."
"Of course you don't." Something that might have been a smile crossed Xue Feng's ruined face. "I was nobody to you. Just another young master at another boring gathering. But I remember. I remember thinking you seemed... different. Like you were seeing things the rest of us couldn't."
The corruption surged again, and Xue Feng convulsed, his back arching as black lightning crackled through his veins.
[ALERT: Subject entering terminal phase. Demonic qi reaching critical density in core meridians.]
"I had a future." The words came between spasms of pain. "Before your father's failed breakthrough. Before the sabotage. Before my clan decided to use it against yours." Another cough, more blood. "I was going to be someone. A proper young master. A cultivator worthy of my name."
"The sabotage wasn't my family's choice." Wang Ben found himself speaking gently, though he didn't know why. "Elder Liu acted alone. He was punished for it."
"Does that matter?" Xue Feng's laugh was bitter, fading. "Does that change anything? My clan is destroyed. My future is ash. And you... you're still standing there with your barriers and your allies and your mother watching from the window."
Wang Ben glanced up. Li Mei was indeed watching, Wang Chen clutched to her chest, horror plain on her face. The surviving guard stood beside her, bloodied but alive.
"I just wanted to matter." Xue Feng's voice was almost too quiet to hear now. "One more time. I wanted to take something from you, the way everything was taken from me. I wanted you to know how it felt."
"I know how it feels." Wang Ben knelt beside the dying man. "I've lost things too. I've watched people I care about suffer. But hurting my family wouldn't have fixed anything."
"No." Xue Feng closed his eyes. "It wouldn't have. But I was too broken to care."
The corruption pulsed one final time, and Xue Feng made his last choice.
Instead of fading quietly, he gathered every scrap of demonic power still burning in his veins. His eyes snapped open, filled with black fire, and he lunged toward the clinic with everything he had left.
If he was going to die, he would take something with him.
Wang Ben moved to intercept, but Zhao Yu was faster. That strange prescience, that impossible awareness, put him exactly where he needed to be. His sword met Xue Feng's final strike, and the young master's corrupted qi shattered against Battle Soul instincts that defied explanation.
Xue Feng fell.
This time, he didn't get up.
[SUBJECT DECEASED: Demonic qi exhaustion resulting in complete meridian collapse]
[Cause: Self-inflicted terminal burnout attempting offensive action]
[Note: Death occurred approximately 2 minutes before projected timeline. Final attack accelerated systemic failure.]
Wang Ben stared at the body. At the young man who had been his enemy, who had threatened his family, who had once been a child at a clan gathering that Wang Ben couldn't remember.
He felt... nothing. And then everything.
Relief that it was over. Grief for what Xue Feng might have been. Anger at the forces that had used him and discarded him. And beneath it all, a cold awareness that this wasn't really an ending at all.
The demonic cultivator had retreated on a signal. Someone had given that order. Someone had decided Xue Feng was expendable.
The real enemy was still out there.
The aftermath came in fragments.
Physician Luo emerged from his clinic, pale and shaking, to tend the wounded. The surviving guard had a deep gash across his chest that would scar. The other guard was dead, killed in the initial assault when the demonic cultivators had tried to break through to Li Mei.
Li Mei herself was unharmed, but her hands wouldn't stop trembling as she held Wang Chen. When Wang Ben finally climbed the stairs to reach her, she pulled him into an embrace so fierce it made his wounds ache.
"Ben'er." Her voice broke on his name. "Ben'er, I thought..."
"I'm fine." He wasn't, but she didn't need to hear that. "You're safe. Wang Chen is safe. That's what matters."
"That boy..." Li Mei looked past him, toward where Xue Feng's body still lay in the street. "He was the one from the Xue Clan? The one who..."
"He's dead now." Wang Ben gently extracted himself from her grip. "It's over."
But it wasn't. He could feel the watchers in the distance, the observation patterns that hadn't changed despite the battle. The Crimson Bastion scouts. The unknown factions. Everyone who had been monitoring the Wang Clan compound was still there, still watching, still calculating.
[TACTICAL ASSESSMENT: Demonic faction withdrawal confirms external command structure]
[Analysis: Retreat signal indicates live communication with handlers. Likely observers present within 2-kilometer radius.]
[Implication: Today's attack was not the primary objective. Information gathering and asset testing more probable.]
Asset testing. Xue Feng hadn't been an ally to the demonic faction. He'd been a test. A way to probe the Wang Clan's defenses, to see what resources they would deploy, to gauge their reaction times and capabilities.
And now whoever was behind this knew exactly what they were dealing with.
Zhao Yu appeared at the top of the stairs, his sword finally sheathed. His face was pale, and his hands were shaking slightly.
"I don't..." He paused, struggling to find words. "During the fight, something happened. I could see what they were going to do before they did it. I don't know how to explain it."
"You don't have to explain it right now." Wang Ben clasped his friend's shoulder. "Whatever it was, it saved my family's lives. Thank you."
"It felt..." Zhao Yu shook his head. "It felt like someone else was moving my body. Like I was watching myself from outside."
Wang Ben filed that away for later consideration. The Battle Soul manifestation was becoming more pronounced, more undeniable. But that was a problem for another day.
Right now, there were bodies in the street and witnesses gathering at the edges of the scene. City Lord Huo Zhenyang would have questions. The other clans would have opinions. The political fallout from open combat in the physician's district would ripple through Redstone City for weeks.
And somewhere in the shadows, the people who had orchestrated this attack were already planning their next move.
The City Lord's guards arrived before noon, along with a formal representative who asked questions Wang Ben answered with careful truth. Yes, the attackers had been demonic cultivators. Yes, they had targeted the Wang Clan specifically. Yes, Xue Feng had been among them.
No, Wang Ben didn't know who had backed them. But he had suspicions.
The bodies were removed. The street was cleaned. Life in the physician's quarter slowly returned to normal, merchants reopening their shops and servants resuming their errands, as if young masters dying in the road was just another inconvenience to work around.
Wang Ben sat in Physician Luo's receiving room, letting the old man dress his wounds properly. The cuts from earlier were reopening, the healing process disrupted by too much activity too soon.
"You should rest." Luo's voice was gentle but firm. "Your body has limits, young master. Even with healing pills, you need time."
"I know." Wang Ben watched his mother through the doorway. She was sitting with Wang Chen, rocking him gently, her eyes fixed on nothing. The terror hadn't fully left her face. "But rest will have to wait."
His father was on his way. The Patriarch had been informed. By evening, the Wang Clan would be in full crisis mode, analyzing what had happened and preparing for what might come next.
But Wang Ben's mind was elsewhere.
Xue Feng's words echoed in his memory. We were children together. A connection he hadn't known existed. A shared history he couldn't remember.
And the demonic cultivator's cold dismissal: You've served your purpose.
Xue Feng had been a weapon. A test. A distraction. His hatred had been real, his suffering genuine, but to the forces using him, none of that mattered. He was just a tool, discarded the moment he stopped being useful.
Wang Ben looked at his own hands, still trembling slightly from exhaustion and adrenaline. The System hummed quietly at the edge of his awareness, processing data, analyzing patterns, preparing for whatever came next.
Was he any different? The Shen siblings had called him an investment. The System saw him as a host. His family loved him, but even that love came with expectations, obligations, duties he hadn't asked for but couldn't escape.
The difference, he decided, was choice.
Xue Feng had chosen revenge. Had chosen demonic power. Had chosen to burn rather than rebuild.
Wang Ben had chosen family. Had chosen protection. Had chosen to fight for something instead of against everything.
It didn't make him a hero. It didn't make his path right and Xue Feng's wrong. But it was the choice he'd made, and he would live with its consequences.
All of them.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: Combat data integrated. Threat analysis updated.]
[Note: Crimson Bastion coordination confirmed with 94% probability. Recommend enhanced surveillance protocols.]
[Additional note: Subject Zhao Yu displaying accelerating manifestation of latent capability. Monitoring recommended.]
Wang Ben closed his eyes and let the exhaustion wash over him.
Tomorrow, there would be politics. Questions. Consequences. The Crimson Bastion's plans would continue to unfold. The unknown watchers would keep watching. And somewhere in the city, the real architects of today's attack were already adjusting their strategies.
But for now, in this moment, his mother was safe. His brother was safe. And Xue Feng was finally at rest.
It wasn't victory.
But it was enough.
END OF CHAPTER 69