The fifth stretch brought the third entity.
Wang Ben sensed its arrival as a wrongness in the fundamental structure of reality, a place where logic stopped working and cause no longer led to effect. The Hundun didn't manifest visibly like the Wangliang's shadows or tangibly like the Taotie's hungry void. Instead, it existed as contradiction, as impossibility given form.
[ALERT: Third anomalous signature detected]
[Classification: Analyzing...]
[Pattern match: 81% correlation with Hundun manifestation signatures]
[Entity type: Chaos class - reality dissolution, logical corruption]
[Status: Probing array sector three]
"Another one," Wang Ben said, his voice steady despite the exhaustion settling into his bones. "The third type." The System's classification scrolled through his awareness: Hundun. Chaos entity. Reality dissolution. The last of the three he had designed against.
Wang Tian's qi flow into the secondary circuit had stabilized over the past stretch, providing enough support that Wang Ben could focus on the array's adaptive responses without depleting his own reserves. But three entities pressing simultaneously was pushing the design to its limits.
The chaos countermeasures activated automatically, establishing logical anchors around the meditation platform that the Hundun couldn't dissolve. Wang Ben watched the formation work strain against something that shouldn't exist, something that defied the very principles that made formation work possible.
[HUNDUN SUPPRESSION PROTOCOL: Active]
[Logical anchor deployment: Stable]
[Reality dissolution attempts: Redirected]
[Array integrity: 87.3%]
"All three," Wuyan said from across the chamber. His voice was soft, almost thoughtful. "You designed against all three protected types."
"I designed against what I could research."
"And they all came." The ancient cultivator's eyes hadn't left the array's central mechanisms since the voice began speaking. "Three entity types, testing your protection in sequence. Almost as if they were coordinating."
Wang Ben didn't respond. The implication was clear. Youming entities were supposed to be alien, incomprehensible, operating on instincts that mortals couldn't understand. But the assault on Ruoxi's breakthrough had followed a pattern. Testing. Learning. Adapting. Escalating.
As if something was directing them.
"You build beautiful walls."
The voice returned, resonating from nowhere and everywhere. It carried the same wrongness as before, the same impossible sensory qualities that made Wang Ben's mind itch.
"Three walls against three threats. Such careful preparation. Such admirable foresight."
Through the array's feedback, Wang Ben could see Ruoxi's spiritual projection blazing in whatever space existed beyond normal reality. She was still fighting, still struggling toward the nascent soul crystallization that would complete her transformation. But the three entities pressing against the array were keeping her occupied, preventing her from focusing entirely on breakthrough.
"But walls have gates. And gates can open."
The voice paused, and something in its tone shifted. Less philosophical confusion. More... anticipation.
"Did you think three would be all?"
The fourth entity arrived like silence given weight.
Wang Ben felt it first as absence of absence, a void that was somehow fuller than the hungry pull of the Taotie. It didn't press against the array's boundaries. Didn't probe for weaknesses. It simply appeared, already inside the outer perimeter, occupying space that the protection should have denied.
[CRITICAL ALERT: Unclassified entity manifestation within array boundary]
[Location: Interior perimeter, sector seven]
[Classification: FAILED - Pattern match below threshold]
[Entity type: UNKNOWN]
[Warning: Array countermeasures not configured for this manifestation type]
Wang Ben's blood went cold.
"Something's inside," he said. "Something I don't have countermeasures for."
Wang Tian's cultivation signature sharpened. "Inside? How?"
"I don't know. The array should have..." Wang Ben cut himself off, studying the feedback mechanisms with desperate intensity. The fourth entity wasn't triggering the defensive protocols because it wasn't matching any of the patterns he had designed against. It was something else. Something the Chen Database records hadn't included.
Or something he had failed to understand.
[EMERGENCY ANALYSIS: Unknown entity behavioral patterns]
[Observation: Entity not attempting consumption (not Taotie)]
[Observation: Entity not projecting deception (not Wangliang)]
[Observation: Entity not dissolving logic (not Hundun)]
[Observation: Entity appears to be... waiting]
[Pattern hypothesis: Entity may represent fourth Youming classification - identity corruption]
[Chen Database cross-reference: Fragmentary records mention "Tianma" - corruptor entities that attack values rather than form]
[Warning: Countermeasures not available. Improvisation required.]
Tianma. Wang Ben had seen the term in the fragments, had noted its absence from the complete records with unease but no solution. Now that absence had become a gap in his protection, and something was slipping through.
"She struggles so beautifully."
The new voice was different from the Wangliang's philosophical confusion. Smoother. More intimate. It spoke as if it already knew Shen Ruoxi, as if it had studied her for centuries and understood exactly what she wanted.
"Eight hundred years of wearing masks. Eight hundred years of being what others expected. The predator. The dangerous beauty. The ancient power that plays with lesser beings."
Through the array feedback, Wang Ben saw something happening to Ruoxi's spiritual projection. The blazing light was flickering, dimming in places, as if shadows were creeping into its core.
"But that's not who you are, is it? Not really. The mask is just protection. Armor against a world that would destroy you if it knew how tired you were."
The entity wasn't attacking her defenses. It was speaking to something beneath them.
"What is that?" Wuyan's voice had lost its careful control. For the first time since the breakthrough began, the ancient cultivator sounded genuinely alarmed. "What's happening to her?"
Wang Ben's hands moved over the array circuits, searching for any adaptation that might help. The System's analysis scrolled through his awareness: Tianma. Corruptor entity. Identity dissolution through value compromise. But he couldn't explain that, couldn't reveal what he knew. "Something got through. Something the array wasn't designed for. It's not trying to consume her or deceive her or dissolve her. It's..." He struggled for words that wouldn't betray impossible knowledge. "It's trying to change who she is."
"A corruptor." Wuyan's voice was barely a whisper, but Wang Ben heard something beneath the words. Not recognition, exactly. More like the dawning horror of someone encountering a threat they'd only heard whispered about in legends. "Something that attacks identity itself. I've heard stories, but I never thought..."
"The array can't stop it," Wang Ben said. "I didn't have enough information to design against this. Whatever it's doing, it's beneath the level of the protection."
"You could be so much more."
The Tianma's voice was impossibly gentle, impossibly understanding. It carried none of the alien confusion of the Wangliang. This entity knew exactly what it was doing.
"The predator doesn't have to be a mask. You could become it fully. Completely. No more exhaustion from pretending. No more fear of showing weakness. Just power, pure and absolute. Isn't that what you've always wanted?"
Through the array, Wang Ben could see Ruoxi's projection wavering. The light that represented her spiritual essence was being infiltrated by something darker, something that promised completion through surrender.
"I need to adapt the array," Wang Ben said. "I need to create countermeasures against something I don't understand."
"That's impossible," Wang Tian said. "You can't design against something you've never encountered."
"Then I'll improvise."
Wang Ben closed his eyes and reached for something he had never consciously accessed before. The System's analysis function was limited, its database incomplete. But somewhere in those fragmentary records were principles, patterns, structures that might apply to threats beyond their specific classifications.
[IMPROVISATION PROTOCOL: Initiating]
[Analyzing Tianma behavioral patterns through available data]
[Note: This exceeds standard operational parameters. Success probability: Unknown.]
The Chen Database hadn't contained complete records of Tianma entities. But it had contained principles. Resonance frequencies that disrupted external influence. Anchor patterns that maintained identity against corruption. The countermeasures Wang Ben had designed for the Wangliang weren't perfectly matched to this threat, but they shared underlying structures.
Identity preservation. Reality anchoring. Reminding the target of what was true.
"You've been so tired for so long."
The Tianma's voice was inside the array now, speaking directly to Ruoxi's projected consciousness. Wang Ben could feel it through the formation circuits, a presence that bypassed physical barriers entirely.
"Decades of waiting at the peak. Decades of watching lesser cultivators attempt breakthrough and fail. You told yourself you were preparing, but you were really just afraid. Afraid of change. Afraid of becoming something new."
Wang Ben worked frantically, adapting formation circuits in ways they had never been designed to work. The anti-deception protocols could disrupt false guidance, but could they preserve true identity? The logical anchors could maintain reality, but could they maintain self?
"Let go of the fear. Let go of the masks. Become what you were always meant to be."
Shen Wuyan moved.
The ancient cultivator had been still throughout the assault, watching without intervening, letting his sister face her own trial. But now he crossed the chamber in a single stride, his nascent soul cultivation finally unmasked, the weight of nearly three thousand years pressing against the meditation chamber's formation work.
"What are you doing?" Wang Ben asked, not looking up from his desperate adaptation.
"Preparing to intervene."
"You can't. If you disrupt the breakthrough now..."
"If that thing corrupts her, there will be nothing left to save." Wuyan's voice was ice. "I will not watch my sister become something else wearing her face."
"Give me time." Wang Ben's hands flew over the array circuits. "I can adapt the countermeasures. I can create something that might work."
"Might?"
"It's all I have."
For a heartbeat, Wuyan was silent. Then: "How long?"
"I don't know. However long Ruoxi can resist."
"Why do you resist?"
The Tianma's voice had shifted again. Less seductive now. More confused, the way the Wangliang had been confused when its help was rejected.
"I offer you completion. I offer you freedom from the exhaustion of pretending. Why do you cling to masks that make you tired?"
Through the array feedback, Wang Ben could see Ruoxi's projection stabilizing slightly. The infiltrating darkness was still there, still spreading, but it had slowed. She was fighting back, resisting the entity's corruption through sheer force of will.
[OBSERVATION: Subject Shen Ruoxi demonstrating active resistance to identity corruption]
[Resistance method: Unknown - beyond array monitoring capability]
[Assessment: Subject's will is buying time. Duration uncertain.]
"She's holding," Wang Ben reported. "Not winning, but holding."
"How long can she maintain that?"
"I don't know. But she's giving me the chance I need."
Wang Ben abandoned conventional formation theory and reached for something deeper. The Chen Database fragments contained more than just entity classifications. They contained philosophy, understanding of what the Youming fundamentally were and how they operated.
The entities weren't evil. They genuinely believed they were helping. The Taotie consumed because it thought absorption was union. The Wangliang deceived because it thought guidance was assistance. The Hundun dissolved logic because it thought chaos was freedom.
And the Tianma corrupted identity because it thought transformation was completion.
They were all offering gifts. They were all trying to help. And every gift came with a price that the giver couldn't comprehend.
[INSIGHT: Youming entities represent fundamental aspects of existence - Hunger, Deception, Chaos, Corruption]
[Insight: Their "gifts" are genuine from their perspective]
[Insight: Counter-measures must address the offering, not the threat]
[Improvisation: Create resonance pattern that reinforces target's existing identity as valuable]
[Conceptual framework: "You are already complete. Transformation is unnecessary."]
It was a desperate theory, assembled from fragments and intuition. But Wang Ben began adapting the formation circuits to broadcast something the Tianma hadn't expected.
Not rejection. Acceptance of self.
"You don't have to do this alone."
The Tianma's voice had become almost pleading. It didn't understand why Ruoxi was resisting, why she clung to masks that seemed to cause her pain.
"I can feel your exhaustion. Eight centuries of being something for other people. Don't you want to rest? Don't you want to finally be yourself?"
Wang Ben's adapted countermeasures came online, broadcasting a resonance pattern that had never been tested against anything. The formation work hummed with energy that felt different from the protective barriers, less defensive and more... affirming.
[IMPROVISED COUNTERMEASURE: Identity Affirmation Protocol]
[Resonance pattern: Broadcasting]
[Target: Subject's projected consciousness]
[Message content: "Your masks are yours. Your choices are yours. What you are is already complete."]
Through the array feedback, Wang Ben saw the effect ripple outward from the formation circuits. The darkness infiltrating Ruoxi's spiritual projection began to slow, then stop, then retreat as the affirmation resonance reached her.
"No."
The Tianma's voice shifted again, from confusion to something like anger.
"You don't understand. The masks aren't who she is. They're prison bars. I'm offering freedom."
"Freedom she doesn't want," Wang Ben said quietly. He didn't know if the entity could hear him. He said it anyway. "She chose her masks. She chose who to be. That's not imprisonment. That's identity."
"You can't know that. You're not inside her. You can't feel how tired she is."
"I don't have to be inside her. I just have to give her a choice."
The affirmation resonance strengthened, and through the array, Wang Ben watched Ruoxi's spiritual projection begin to blaze brighter again. The darkness wasn't gone, the Tianma was still there, still pressing, still offering its gift of corruption. But now there was something else, too. A reminder that she had chosen her path, chosen her masks, chosen to be the predator who played with lesser beings.
And if that choice made her tired, the exhaustion was still hers.
"She will fail eventually."
The Tianma's voice had gone cold. Petulant, almost. An entity that had offered a gift and been rejected.
"The masks will break. The exhaustion will win. And when it does, I will be waiting."
The darkness retreated from Ruoxi's projection, pulling back through the gap in the array that it had exploited. Wang Ben felt the moment it left the inner perimeter, felt the array's integrity stabilize as the uncovered threat withdrew.
[ENTITY WITHDRAWAL DETECTED]
[Tianma manifestation: Retreating to outer boundary]
[Array integrity: 84.1%]
[Improvised countermeasure: Holding]
[Warning: Countermeasure is temporary adaptation. Long-term effectiveness uncertain.]
Wang Ben allowed himself one breath of relief before the reality of the situation settled back in. The Tianma had retreated, but it hadn't left. None of them had left. Three entities pressing against the array's outer barriers, one waiting at the gap that Wang Ben's design hadn't covered.
And Ruoxi was still in breakthrough, still vulnerable, still fighting toward a transformation that might stretch across countless more cycles to complete.
"Your adaptation worked," Wuyan said. His voice had recovered some of its careful control, but his eyes remained fixed on his sister's motionless form. "Temporarily."
"I don't know how long it will hold."
"Long enough for her to complete breakthrough?"
"I hope so."
Wuyan was silent for a moment. Then: "You improvised countermeasures against a threat you had never encountered, using formation principles you shouldn't understand, in the time it took that thing to speak a few sentences." His gaze moved to Wang Ben, and there was something new in those ancient eyes. Something beyond suspicion.
Assessment.
"Where did you learn to do that, little formation master?"
Wang Ben met the nascent soul cultivator's stare without flinching. "I learned from fragments. Incomplete records. I extrapolated from what I knew and hoped it would be enough."
"You extrapolated formation theory that addresses the fundamental nature of this corruption."
"I got lucky."
"No." Wuyan's voice was absolute. "You didn't. What you just did requires knowledge that doesn't exist in any archive I've ever encountered. Knowledge about what these things are and how they think. Knowledge that would take centuries to develop, if it could be developed at all."
The ancient cultivator stepped closer, his presence filling the meditation chamber with power that made Wang Ben's qi condensation cultivation feel like a candle beside a bonfire.
"I don't know what you are, Wang Ben. I don't know where your knowledge comes from. But I'm going to find out."
Before Wang Ben could respond, the array's warning systems flared again.
[ALERT: Coordinated assault intensifying]
[All four entity types pressing simultaneously]
[Array integrity declining: 84.1% → 81.7%]
[Subject breakthrough status: Critical phase approaching]
[Estimated time to completion: Unknown]
The entities hadn't given up. They were regrouping, adapting, preparing for another assault. And somewhere in the space beyond the array's protection, Shen Ruoxi was reaching for transcendence while things that wanted to help her die pressed against every barrier Wang Ben had built.
He turned away from Wuyan's dangerous attention and focused on what mattered.
Keeping the walls standing.
For however long it took.
END OF CHAPTER 82