The void-touched essence flowed like liquid shadow between Wang Ben's fingers.
He worked in the clan's formation workshop, a room that had seen better days but still held the accumulated knowledge of generations. Formation chalk marked the stone floor in precise geometric patterns. Resonance crystals sat in their holders, awaiting integration. And at the center of it all, the Youming Sanctuary Array was taking its final form.
[COMPONENT INTEGRATION: Void-touched essence (94% purity)]
[Synergy analysis with existing framework: 97.3% compatibility]
[Binding efficiency: Optimal]
[Note: Final component insertion will complete array core. Recommend steady qi flow during integration.]
Wang Ben steadied his breathing and let the essence settle into the prepared channel. The material was cold in a way that had nothing to do with temperature, carrying a quality of absence that made his spiritual senses itch. But it flowed where he directed it, filling the isolation layer with the protection that would keep external threats from reaching Shen Ruoxi during her breakthrough.
Wang Tian stood at the workshop's edge, watching without interference. His foundation establishment cultivation hummed quietly, a stabilizing presence that helped ground the work. He had offered to assist directly, but Wang Ben had declined. This part required precision that came from knowing the design intimately, and Wang Ben was the only one who truly understood what each component was meant to accomplish.
"The binding is holding," Wang Tian observed quietly. "Whatever that essence is, it doesn't resist the formation structure."
"It's meant to isolate." Wang Ben didn't look up from his work. "Isolation doesn't fight. It separates."
The void-touched essence completed its circuit through the array core. Wang Ben felt the moment of integration like a key turning in a lock, something clicking into place that had been waiting for this final piece. The array hummed with contained potential, dormant but ready.
[ARRAY STATUS: Youming Sanctuary Array - Complete]
[Primary function: Spiritual isolation during cultivation breakthrough]
[Coverage: Hundun manifestations (chaos entities), Taotie manifestations (hunger entities), Wangliang manifestations (deception entities)]
[Efficiency rating: 94.7%]
[Warning: Coverage analysis based on available Chen Database records. Unknown entity classifications may exist beyond documented categories.]
Wang Ben sat back, studying the completed work. Months of design, weeks of material acquisition, and now the physical array lay before him. Compact enough to transport, powerful enough to shield a mortal shedding cultivator during the most vulnerable moment of her existence.
Whether it would be enough remained to be seen.
"It's done," he said.
Wang Tian moved closer, examining the array with the eye of an experienced alchemist rather than a formation master. "The craftsmanship is beyond what I expected. Beyond what I knew you could do."
"I had good reference materials."
"You had something." Wang Tian's voice was neutral, not accusing. They had long since passed the point where he demanded explanations Wang Ben couldn't give. "The Patriarch's archives helped, but this design... it assumes knowledge that our clan doesn't possess."
"The Shen siblings provided some guidance."
"Did they?" Wang Tian met his son's eyes. "Shen Wuyan is testing you, Ben'er. Every interaction, every question he asks. He's trying to understand where your knowledge comes from."
"I know."
"And you're still confident you can handle him?"
Wang Ben considered the question seriously. Shen Wuyan was nearly three thousand years old, with resources and experience that made Wang Ben's seventeen years seem like a heartbeat. But the alternative was admitting the truth, and the truth was not something he could share.
"I'm confident I can be useful enough that he won't push too hard," Wang Ben said finally. "At least not yet."
Wang Tian nodded slowly. "Then we proceed. I'll arrange transport to wherever the breakthrough will take place. You focus on the activation protocols."
They worked in comfortable silence through the morning, preparing the array for travel. Wang Ben appreciated these moments with his father, the quiet understanding that had grown between them over the past year. Wang Tian asked fewer questions now. Not because he cared less, but because he trusted that his son would share what he could when he could.
The workshop held the scent of formation chalk and resonance crystal, the familiar smell of cultivation work. Outside, winter was loosening its grip on Redstone City. Spring approached with the inevitability of seasons changing.
And with spring came the breakthrough that would test everything Wang Ben had built.
The steaming cup of tea appeared on the courtyard table without warning.
Wang Ben sensed the presence a heartbeat before he saw it, the subtle displacement of spiritual energy that announced a power so far beyond his own that concealment was merely courtesy. Shen Wuyan materialized from shadow, his cultivation completely hidden, his expression carrying its usual blend of amusement and calculation.
"Little formation master." The ancient cultivator settled onto the bench across from Wang Ben as if he owned the courtyard. Perhaps, in some ways, he did. "I hear congratulations are in order."
"The array is complete."
"So my sister tells me." Wuyan lifted the tea he had somehow produced, steam curling around fingers that looked deceptively ordinary. "She seemed almost hopeful. A rare emotion for Ruoxi these days."
Wang Ben waited. Wuyan never appeared without purpose, and that purpose was rarely as simple as small talk.
"I thought I might examine the work myself," Wuyan continued. "Professional curiosity. It's not often that a seventeen-year-old produces something that might keep a mortal shedding cultivator alive during nascent soul tribulation."
[BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS: Subject Shen Wuyan initiating assessment protocol]
[Pattern recognition: Previous encounters show consistent probing of knowledge sources]
[Recommendation: Demonstrate competence without revealing information depth]
"I can show you the array," Wang Ben said carefully. "Though I'm not sure what examination would tell you that the design specifications haven't already."
"Specifications tell me what you intended." Wuyan's smile didn't reach his eyes. "The physical array tells me what you actually built. Sometimes the difference is illuminating."
They moved to the storage room where the completed array waited in its transport case. Wang Ben removed the protective coverings, revealing the intricate formation work beneath. He watched Wuyan's face as the ancient cultivator studied the design, looking for any reaction that might reveal his assessment.
"Your isolation layer accounts for something beyond the usual tribulation spirits," Wuyan observed, tracing a formation line with one finger. His pause was almost imperceptible. "Interesting choice. Most breakthrough protection focuses on internal stability. You've designed for external threats—threats with form and intention."
"Internal stability is important," Wang Ben agreed. "But it's not the only factor in breakthrough success."
"No?" Wuyan's voice was pleasant, curious. "What else concerns you?"
This was the test. Wang Ben could feel it in the careful casualness of the question, the way Wuyan's attention had sharpened beneath his relaxed exterior. The ancient cultivator was probing, trying to determine exactly what Wang Ben knew about the true dangers of breakthrough.
"Interference," Wang Ben said. "During the moment of transformation, a cultivator's defenses are weakened. The array provides protection that the cultivator can't maintain themselves."
"Interference from what?"
"Anything external. Other cultivators. Environmental disruption. Spiritual phenomena."
"Spiritual phenomena." Wuyan repeated the words slowly, tasting them. "That's a remarkably broad category, little formation master. What kind of spiritual phenomena specifically concerns you?"
[WARNING: Question pattern indicates targeted intelligence gathering]
[Subject demonstrating knowledge of Youming entities through indirect questioning]
[Recommendation: Deflect without confirming specific threat awareness]
"The kind that seeks vulnerable cultivators," Wang Ben said. "I don't claim to understand all the threats that exist. I designed for the ones I could research and the general principles that seemed consistent across different sources."
"And those sources were?"
"Patriarch Wang Tiexin's archives. Historical accounts of breakthrough protection. Some guidance from your sister about what she's observed in her own cultivation."
Wuyan was silent for a long moment, his eyes still fixed on the array. When he spoke again, his voice held a different quality, something almost like respect beneath the usual amusement.
"Your countermeasures against deceptive interference are particularly sophisticated. The resonance frequencies you've used should disrupt most illusion-based attacks." He paused. "Most, but perhaps not all."
Wang Ben caught the subtle trap. Wuyan was testing whether he would claim complete coverage or acknowledge limitations. Either answer would reveal something about the depth of his knowledge.
"No protection is absolute," Wang Ben said. "The array covers what I could verify and research. If there are threats beyond my understanding, I hope the general principles will provide some resistance."
"Hope." Wuyan laughed softly. "An honest answer, at least. You build walls against enemies you've studied, and hope the walls will hold against enemies you haven't."
"Something like that."
The ancient cultivator straightened, his examination apparently complete. "My sister's odds improve significantly with this array, little formation master. That alone makes you valuable." He met Wang Ben's eyes directly, and for a moment the amusement dropped away entirely. "But I wonder about you. Your knowledge has gaps in interesting places. You know things no seventeen-year-old should know, and you're ignorant of things any serious formation scholar would have encountered."
Wang Ben said nothing. There was no safe response to that observation.
"We'll be watching the breakthrough closely," Wuyan continued, his casual manner returning. "If the array performs as designed, your first favor will be complete. If it fails..." He shrugged eloquently. "Well. Then we'll have different conversations."
He vanished between one breath and the next, leaving only the fading warmth of his tea cup behind.
Shen Ruoxi arrived that evening, her mortal shedding cultivation a familiar pressure against Wang Ben's senses.
She moved through the compound garden with the predator's grace he had come to expect, but something in her posture was different tonight. More contained. More careful. Like someone who had finally committed to a path and was measuring each step toward its end.
"The array is ready," Wang Ben said by way of greeting.
"I know. My brother examined it." Ruoxi settled onto the garden bench, her robes pooling around her like dark water. "He's impressed, though he'd never say so directly."
"He said the first favor would be complete if it works."
"If." She laughed, though the sound held no humor. "Such a small word for such large stakes."
Wang Ben waited. Ruoxi had never been one for casual visits, and the tension in her frame suggested this conversation had purpose beyond social pleasantries.
"The breakthrough will take place at our family's eastern sanctuary," she said finally. "Three days' travel from here, in the mountains beyond the city's jurisdiction. Wuyan will transport the array personally."
"When?"
"The first true week of spring. When winter's grip breaks and new growth begins." Something flickered in her ancient eyes. "Thematically appropriate for a nascent soul 'rebirth,' wouldn't you say?"
"Will I be there?"
"You'll be nearby. Close enough to monitor the array's function, far enough that you won't be caught in any... spillover." Ruoxi's smile was thin. "Nascent soul breakthroughs have been known to reshape local geography when they fail."
[TACTICAL ASSESSMENT: Breakthrough location established as remote Shen family sanctuary]
[Timeline: First week of spring, approximately 3-4 weeks from current date]
[Wang Ben's role: External monitoring of array function]
[Risk to Wang Ben: Low if breakthrough succeeds. Unknown if breakthrough fails catastrophically.]
"You've done what you promised," Ruoxi said quietly. "The array is complete. The isolation layer is stronger than anything I could have commissioned elsewhere. Whatever happens next... that part is mine to face."
"The one-in-three odds you mentioned."
"Roughly." She looked up at the winter sky, where early stars were beginning to appear. "Though with your array, perhaps slightly better. Perhaps."
Wang Ben considered his next words carefully. "What happens if you fail?"
"I die." The answer came easily, as if she had long since made peace with the possibility. "Or worse, I survive in a state that makes death preferable. The nascent soul crystallizes wrong, and what emerges is no longer recognizably me."
"And if you succeed?"
"Then I become something more." Ruoxi turned to face him, and for a moment her predator's mask slipped entirely. Beneath it was something older and more tired than her youthful appearance suggested. "I've been at mortal shedding peak for decades, little formation master. Waiting for the right moment. The right protection. The right alignment of circumstances." She paused. "Waiting to be ready to risk everything."
"Why now? Why not wait longer?"
"Because waiting is its own kind of death." Her voice hardened. "I've watched cultivators stagnate at their peak, too afraid to attempt advancement, too comfortable with their current power. They survive, but they don't live. Eventually, something kills them anyway, and they die having never reached for what they could have become."
She rose, brushing imaginary dust from her robes.
"I won't be one of them. Whatever the odds, whatever the risks, I choose to attempt the breakthrough while I still have the will to try." A thin smile crossed her features. "Besides. Your array gives me better odds than I've ever had before. If I'm going to die reaching for power, at least I'll die with the best protection a seventeen-year-old formation prodigy could devise."
"I prefer you don't die at all."
"How sentimental." But her expression softened slightly. "Thank you, Wang Ben. For treating this like it matters."
She vanished into the evening shadows, leaving Wang Ben alone with his thoughts and the weight of what the next few weeks would bring.
Night found Wang Ben on the compound wall, staring at stars he had memorized years ago.
The array was complete. The materials were secured. The timeline was set. Everything he could control had been controlled, every variable he could account for had been accounted for. And still, the uncertainty remained.
[CURRENT STATUS REVIEW: Youming Sanctuary Array]
[Coverage verified: Hundun (chaos), Taotie (hunger), Wangliang (deception)]
[Coverage unknown: Additional entity classifications referenced in Chen Database fragments]
[Database note: Records indicate at least 7 major Youming entity categories. Current array addresses 3 confirmed types.]
[Gap assessment: 4+ entity types may exist beyond current protective coverage]
Four or more unknown threats. Entities that might not even have names in the records Wang Ben could access, classifications that existed only in fragments and implications. The Chen Database held knowledge of the Youming, but that knowledge was incomplete. Even the ancient cultivators whose wisdom had seeded it—powers Wang Ben glimpsed only in fragments—had found the threats difficult to categorize.
Walls have gates, the dream-voice whispered in his memory. And gates can open.
Wang Ben closed his eyes, feeling the first hints of spring warmth in the night air. Winter was ending. The season of dormancy was giving way to the season of growth. Somewhere in the mountains east of the city, a sanctuary waited for the arrival of an array that might save a woman's life.
Or might prove inadequate against threats he couldn't even name.
[RECOMMENDATION: Accept limitations of current knowledge base]
[Probability assessment: Array provides significant protection improvement over unshielded breakthrough attempt]
[Note: Perfect protection is impossible. Adequate protection may be sufficient.]
Adequate. Such a modest word for such desperate circumstances.
But it was all he had. Months of work, ancient knowledge filtered through a damaged AI, and the hope that his understanding of threats from beyond reality was close enough to the truth to matter.
The stars turned overhead, indifferent to the small dramas playing out beneath them. Wang Ben watched them for a long time, feeling the weight of knowledge he couldn't share and obligations he couldn't escape.
Spring was here.
The gate was about to open.
END OF CHAPTER 78