The first stretch passed in silence.
Wang Ben maintained his position at the edge of the meditation chamber, feeding a steady stream of qi into the array circuits while monitoring every fluctuation in the protective formations. The golden light held stable around Shen Ruoxi's motionless form, barriers against threats that hadn't yet materialized.
Her body sat perfectly still on the meditation platform. Breathing slow. Heartbeat measured. Eyes closed beneath lids that hadn't flickered since she began the projection. To an outside observer, she might have been sleeping, or dead, or something in between that had no name in ordinary language.
But Wang Ben could see the array's feedback mechanisms, and they told a different story.
[BREAKTHROUGH STATUS: Hour 1]
[Subject spiritual projection: Stable, expanding]
[Consciousness location: Transitional space between mortal shedding and nascent soul]
[Physical body: Autonomous maintenance only]
[Array integrity: 100%]
[External threat detection: Elevated but unspecified]
The elevated detection bothered him. Something was out there, probing the boundaries of his protection, but the System couldn't identify what. The anomalous signature from the previous hour had stabilized into a persistent presence at the edge of perception, watching without approaching.
Wang Tian stood beside him, his foundation establishment cultivation providing a stabilizing anchor. His father's face was calm, but Wang Ben had learned to read the subtle tensions that betrayed concern. The slight tightness around his eyes. The way his hands remained loose but ready.
Across the chamber, Shen Wuyan occupied space without seeming to take up any. The ancient cultivator's attention remained divided between his sister and Wang Ben, his expression carrying nothing that could be read. He hadn't spoken since the breakthrough began.
The silence stretched.
The second stretch brought the first sign.
Wang Ben felt it before the System registered the change, a wrongness in the way light fell through the eastern windows. The dawn had progressed normally, pale gold becoming bright morning, but now something was different. The shadows in the corners of the chamber were too deep. Too present. As if darkness itself had developed weight and intention.
[ALERT: Array boundary contact detected]
[Classification attempt: Analyzing...]
[Pattern match: 73% correlation with Wangliang manifestation signatures]
[Entity type: Deception class - false guidance, reality distortion]
[Status: Testing defensive perimeter]
"Something's touching the array," Wang Ben said quietly.
Wang Tian's cultivation signature sharpened. "What kind of something?"
"I'm not sure exactly." Wang Ben kept his voice level, but his pulse had quickened. The System's classification scrolled through his awareness: Wangliang. Deception-type entity. He had designed countermeasures against this specific threat. Had studied the Chen Database records until he could recite them from memory. But theory and practice were different things. "The array's outer defenses are responding. That's what they're designed for."
"Can your array stop it?"
"It's supposed to."
The shadows in the corners began to move.
Not dramatically. Not in ways that demanded attention. They simply... shifted, as if the geometry of the room was slightly wrong and the darkness was finding its proper place. Wang Ben watched a shadow stretch from beneath the meditation platform, reaching toward Ruoxi's motionless form with fingers that existed only as absence.
The array flared.
Golden light intensified around the shadow's point of contact, and the reaching darkness recoiled. The Wangliang countermeasures were working, disrupting the entity's attempt to establish false patterns in the space around the breakthrough.
[DEFENSIVE RESPONSE: Successful]
[Wangliang manifestation repelled at boundary]
[Array integrity: 98.7%]
[Warning: Entity has not withdrawn. Testing continues.]
"The first probe failed," Wang Ben reported. "But it's still there."
Wuyan's voice came from across the chamber, soft and cold. "Describe what you're seeing."
Wang Ben hesitated. The ancient cultivator's expression hadn't changed, but something in his tone suggested this was more than idle curiosity. "Shadows moving wrong. Reaching for Ruoxi. The array's holding them back."
"Shadows." Wuyan's eyes moved to the corners of the room, and for the first time, Wang Ben saw something flicker across that ancient face. Not fear, exactly. But recognition. The ancient cultivator said nothing more, his attention shifting between the darkness in the corners and the golden light of the array.
"Show me how it works."
The request felt like a test. Wang Ben gestured toward the array's monitoring mechanisms, the flow of energy that made visible what should have been imperceptible. He let the formations speak for themselves, the golden light pulsing in response to the shadow's probing. How to explain without explaining too much? "The inner layer maintains stability. It creates... resistance. To external influence."
Wuyan studied the formation work with eyes that had seen centuries, watching the way the array responded to each probe, the specific frequencies it used to repel the darkness.
"You designed countermeasures against this. Specifically." He turned to look at Wang Ben with new intensity. "Against something that attacks through shadow and false guidance. How did you know to prepare for this?"
"I designed against threats that might appear during breakthrough." Wang Ben kept his voice steady. "The array responds to what comes."
"That's not an answer." But Wuyan didn't press further. Not yet. His attention returned to the formation work, reading secrets in its structure that Wang Ben's vague words had tried to hide.
The shadows tried again.
By the third stretch, the testing had become relentless.
Wang Ben fed more qi into the array as the Wangliang probed from different angles, different intensities, different approaches. Sometimes the shadows were subtle, barely perceptible shifts in the chamber's lighting. Other times they were aggressive, darkness surging against the golden barriers like waves against a breakwater.
Each attack failed. Each failure seemed to teach the entity something new to try.
[DEFENSIVE LOG: Hour 3]
[Wangliang manifestation attempts: 23]
[Successful repulsions: 23]
[Array integrity: 94.2%]
[Power consumption: Elevated - recommend monitoring qi reserves]
[Note: Entity behavior suggests adaptive intelligence. Learning from failures.]
"It's learning," Wang Ben said. "Each time the array stops it, it tries something different."
Wang Tian's expression was grim. "How much longer can you maintain this?"
"The array can run for days on my current qi output." Wang Ben paused, checking his internal reserves. "I can sustain it through the night before I need to rest."
"And if more than one comes?"
Before Wang Ben could answer, the air in the chamber changed.
Not the shadows this time. Something else. A pressure that had nothing to do with cultivation, a weight that pressed against his thoughts rather than his body. The meditation chamber felt suddenly smaller, as if the walls had moved closer without actually moving.
[ALERT: Second anomalous signature detected]
[Classification: Analyzing...]
[Pattern match: 67% correlation with Taotie manifestation signatures]
[Entity type: Hunger class - consumption, absorption]
[Warning: Multiple entity presence confirmed]
The Taotie didn't manifest visibly the way the Wangliang had. Instead, Wang Ben felt it as absence, as a void that wanted to be filled. The air near the array's outer boundary seemed to thin, spiritual energy draining toward something that existed just beyond perception.
His hunger countermeasures activated automatically.
[TAOTIE SUPPRESSION PROTOCOL: Active]
[Resonance pattern: Establishing satiation feedback]
[Entity response: Disrupted. Consumption attempt redirected.]
The hungry void recoiled, and Wang Ben allowed himself a breath of relief. Two entity types now, both held at bay by his design. The array was working.
"Two of them now," he said quietly. "Different approaches. Different... appetites."
Wuyan's attention had sharpened further. "Deception and hunger. You designed against both."
"Against three types that I could find information on." Wang Ben kept his explanation vague, let Wuyan fill in what he would. "There may be more I couldn't account for."
"Three out of how many?" The ancient cultivator's voice carried an edge that suggested he already knew the answer.
"I don't know. The information I found wasn't complete."
Something flickered in Wuyan's expression. Interest, perhaps. Or suspicion that had found new ground to grow. "Convenient incompleteness."
Before Wang Ben could respond, the voice spoke.
It didn't come from anywhere.
That was the first thing Wang Ben noticed, the impossible directionlessness of the sound. It wasn't inside his head, wasn't outside in the chamber, wasn't anywhere that sound should originate. It simply existed, present in the same way that light was present, filling the space without having a source.
"Why do you build walls?"
The words were wrong. Not the meaning, which was clear enough. The words themselves, the way they assembled in his awareness, carried qualities that language shouldn't possess. They tasted of old copper and felt like static electricity and smelled like something that had never been alive.
Wang Tian's sword was in his hand before Wang Ben could react. "What was that?"
"We only want to help you become."
[ALERT: Direct communication attempt from external entity]
[Source classification: Wangliang manifestation, vocal projection]
[Warning: Entity attempting psychological engagement. Do not respond.]
Wang Ben forced his breathing to remain steady. The System's warning made sense. Wangliang were deception entities, and what better deception than making their targets believe communication was possible? Any response would give the entity information, pathways into a mind that should remain closed.
But the voice continued.
"She struggles so beautifully. So much effort to transform what she already is. We could ease her passage. Remove the pain of becoming."
Through the array's feedback, Wang Ben could see Ruoxi's spiritual projection as a distant glow in whatever space existed beyond normal reality. She was moving, fighting, engaged with something he couldn't perceive directly. The countermeasures were protecting her body and anchoring her consciousness, but they couldn't fight her battles for her.
"Why do you protect her from our help? What do you fear we might give her?"
Wang Tian's knuckles were white on his sword hilt. "It's talking about helping. That's not what these things do."
"It believes it's helping." Wang Ben kept his voice low, hoping the entity couldn't hear or didn't care. The System's analysis confirmed what the records had suggested: these entities didn't understand that their 'assistance' destroyed what they tried to assist. "It genuinely thinks it's offering something valuable."
"Destruction is transformation. Transformation is completion. Why do you call completion destruction?"
The voice carried something like hurt, like genuine confusion at being rejected. It made Wang Ben's skin crawl.
[WARNING: Psychological pressure increasing]
[Entity attempting to establish empathetic resonance]
[Recommendation: Maintain emotional distance. Do not engage with entity logic.]
"Ignore it," Wang Ben said. "The more we respond, even internally, the more it learns about us."
"We learn because we care. We care because you are unfinished. Let us help you finish."
The shadows in the corners of the room had grown deeper while the voice spoke, the Wangliang using the distraction to strengthen its presence. Wang Ben redirected array energy to compensate, pushing back the encroaching darkness.
"You build such beautiful walls. Such intricate defenses against becoming. Why do you fear completion so much?"
Across the chamber, Shen Wuyan had gone very still.
The ancient cultivator's composure had cracked.
Not dramatically. Not in ways that lesser observers would notice. But Wang Ben had been watching Wuyan as much as Wuyan had been watching him, and he saw the moment the voice changed something in those ancient eyes.
Wuyan had heard Youming before. That much was obvious from his recognition of the shadow movements, his unsurprised response to the multi-entity assault. But something about this voice, this direct communication, was different.
"You can hear it," Wang Ben said quietly.
Wuyan's eyes moved to him. "Everyone in this chamber can hear it."
"But you've heard them before. This is different somehow."
For a long moment, the ancient cultivator didn't respond. Then: "They don't usually speak. In my experience, they simply act. Consume, deceive, dissolve." His voice was careful, controlled. "Communication suggests... something else."
"Communication suggests care. We care about what you might become. Is that so terrible?"
The voice had heard them. Had understood and responded. Wang Ben felt ice settle in his stomach.
[ALERT: Entity demonstrating comprehension of mortal language and context]
[This exceeds standard Wangliang behavioral parameters]
[Analysis: Entity may possess individual awareness, not merely instinctual drive]
[Recommendation: Increase defensive priority. Entity is more dangerous than anticipated.]
"It's listening," Wang Ben said. "Actually listening and responding to what we say."
"Of course we listen. How else could we help?"
Wang Tian had moved to place himself between Wang Ben and the deepest concentration of shadows. "How do we make it stop?"
"We don't. Not directly." Wang Ben checked the array's integrity, found it holding at 91%. "The best we can do is maintain the barriers and let Ruoxi complete her breakthrough. Once she's through, the vulnerability window closes."
"She could complete so much faster with our assistance. Why make her struggle alone?"
Through the array feedback, Wang Ben watched Ruoxi's distant glow pulse and shift. She was fighting something. The countermeasures were helping, but she was still fighting. And whatever she faced was beyond anything the array could directly affect.
"How long?" Wuyan asked.
"For nascent soul?" Wang Ben shook his head. "The records I found were incomplete. It varies wildly depending on the cultivator's preparation and what they face during the attempt." He hesitated. "We could be here for hours. Or days."
"Three hours of beautiful struggle. Three hours of refusing what we offer. How much longer will she resist before she understands that we only want to help?"
The shadows pulsed. The hungry void pressed against the outer barriers. And somewhere beyond perception, a woman who had lived eight centuries faced something that claimed to offer completion.
Wang Ben strengthened the array and settled in to wait.
The fourth stretch brought escalation.
The Wangliang and Taotie were no longer probing independently. They had begun to coordinate, shadows pressing from one direction while the hungry void pulled from another, testing for weaknesses in the defensive coverage.
[COORDINATED ASSAULT DETECTED]
[Wangliang-Taotie synchronization: 78% temporal correlation]
[Array response: Adaptive countermeasure deployment]
[Power consumption: Critical elevation]
[Warning: Continued coordination may exceed single-operator sustainment capacity]
"They're working together," Wang Ben said. His qi reserves had dropped faster than expected, the dual-threat response demanding more power than he had planned for. "The array can handle it, but I need to conserve energy."
Wang Tian's hand touched his shoulder. "I can feed qi into the circuits. Show me where."
"The array's designed for my specific energy signature. Your qi conditioning is excellent for alchemy work, but this formation uses patterns you haven't trained with."
"Then guide me. I've fed energy into formation circuits before."
Wang Ben hesitated. His father was right. As a Grade 8 Alchemist, Wang Tian understood energy conditioning at a professional level. But supplying power to a complex Youming-defense array was different from standard formation support work.
"Father helps son. Son protects stranger. Stranger fights alone. Such beautiful, wasteful struggle."
"Shut up," Wang Tian said to the voice, though he knew it couldn't be silenced.
"We don't wish to be silent. Silence is incompletion. Words are becoming."
Wang Ben made his decision. "The secondary circuit, here." He guided his father's hand to a formation node. "Feed energy slowly. Let the array condition it through the filtering mechanisms. Don't try to force it."
Wang Tian's qi flowed into the circuit, rough but usable. The array's efficiency dropped slightly as it processed the less-refined energy, but Wang Ben's personal drain decreased enough to matter.
"Two now sustaining what one built. How long before three are needed? Four? How long before you understand that walls require more effort than acceptance?"
Wuyan hadn't moved. Hadn't spoken since noting the entity's communication capability. But his eyes had never left the array's central mechanisms, studying the way Wang Ben had designed protection against threats that most cultivators didn't believe existed.
Across the meditation chamber, Ruoxi's body remained perfectly still.
But through the array's feedback, Wang Ben could see her spiritual form blazing brighter than before. She was fighting. She was winning, at least for now.
And the voice in the dark had begun to sound almost... frustrated.
"Why do you resist so beautifully? Why do you make completion so difficult? We offer everything, and you choose struggle."
Wang Ben didn't answer. He had nothing to say that wouldn't give the entity more information, more pathways, more understanding of the minds it was trying to reach.
He simply maintained the walls.
And waited for the storm to break.
END OF CHAPTER 81