The attack came on the fifth night after the delegation's arrival, when Wang Ben was walking from the City Lord's manor back to the Wang compound.
He had stayed late after a negotiation session, reviewing terms with his grandfather while his parents returned home earlier. The streets of Redstone City were quiet at this hour, the summer heat having driven most residents indoors before sunset.
Zhao Yu walked beside him, the young warrior's qi condensation cultivation steady and alert. The Battle Soul that had awakened during the Xue Clan conflict hummed beneath his controlled exterior, ever watchful.
"Something feels wrong," Zhao Yu said quietly.
Wang Ben had noticed it too. The street ahead should have held at least a few late-night merchants, a patrol guard, someone moving through the evening. Instead, the lanterns illuminated empty stone.
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: Environmental anomaly detected]
[Normal foot traffic patterns absent within 200-meter radius]
[Spiritual suppression detected: Multiple formations active in surrounding buildings]
[Combat Prediction engaging: Estimated 4-6 hostiles, cultivation range foundation establishment to core formation]
[Warning: Hostile intent confirmed. Ambush in progress]
"Get behind me," Wang Ben said, his hand moving toward the formation talismans concealed in his sleeve. "We're surrounded."
Zhao Yu's sword cleared its sheath in a single motion, the blade catching moonlight as he shifted into a defensive stance. "How many?"
"At least four. Maybe six." Wang Ben's thoughts raced through options. They were fifty meters from the nearest intersection, a hundred from any location where help might arrive. The attackers had chosen their ground well.
The first figure emerged from shadow directly ahead, a woman in dark robes whose core formation cultivation made the air heavy with pressure. Her face was hidden behind a mask that bore no identifying marks.
"Wang Ben," she said, her voice cold and professional. "You've caused significant inconvenience to important people. That inconvenience must be addressed."
More figures materialized from the darkness. Four more, their cultivation signatures suppressed but readable through the System's analysis. Foundation establishment, all of them. Trained killers, judging by their formation and the precision of their movements.
[REVISED ASSESSMENT]
[Primary threat: core formation cultivator, estimated mid-stage]
[Secondary threats: 4 foundation establishment cultivators, estimated late-stage]
[Tactical situation: Numerical disadvantage, cultivation disadvantage, terrain disadvantage]
[Combat Prediction accuracy: 45% against primary target, 65% against secondary targets]
[Recommendation: Escape if possible. Engage only if retreat blocked]
"I'm a guest of the City Lord and a member of a clan under domain protection," Wang Ben said, keeping his voice steady. "An attack on me would have consequences."
"Consequences require witnesses." The core formation woman gestured, and Wang Ben felt the isolation formations around them pulse stronger. "There will be no witnesses."
Wang Ben's hand closed around a formation talisman. "Zhao Yu. When I say run, run."
"I'm not leaving you."
"That wasn't a request."
The core formation cultivator moved.
The first exchange happened faster than conscious thought.
Wang Ben activated his defensive talisman as the woman closed the distance, a barrier of compressed qi forming between them. Her strike shattered the barrier in a single blow, but the impact bought him a heartbeat of time.
Combat Prediction fed him fragmentary glimpses of what came next. A follow-up strike toward his throat. A secondary attack from the right. Movement in his peripheral vision as the foundation establishment cultivators began their encirclement.
He dodged the throat strike by a margin he shouldn't have been able to manage, his body responding to System guidance that operated faster than his own reactions could follow. But the secondary attack caught him across the shoulder, spinning him sideways as pain lanced through his arm.
Zhao Yu intercepted one of the foundation establishment attackers, his Battle Soul instincts the only thing keeping him alive against a cultivator who outclassed him by an entire realm. Steel rang against steel as the young warrior fought with the desperate intensity of someone who knew he couldn't win but refused to retreat.
"Formation master who can't fight," the core formation woman observed, circling Wang Ben with the patience of someone who knew time was on her side. "Your reputation suggested more. Perhaps it was all exaggeration."
Wang Ben pulled another talisman, a concussive burst designed to disorient. The woman swept it aside before it could activate, her cultivation pressure crushing the formation's structure.
"Talismans won't save you. Neither will that boy." Her voice held contempt. "You're qi condensation facing core formation. This ends one way."
She was right. Wang Ben knew it with the cold clarity that came from the System's analysis. The gap between their cultivations was too vast. His new capabilities could help him read her movements, but reading and reacting were different things. His body simply couldn't move fast enough to apply what the Combat Prediction showed him.
One of the foundation establishment attackers broke past Zhao Yu's defense, forcing the young warrior to split his attention. Another circled toward Wang Ben's exposed flank.
[CRITICAL: Host survival probability declining]
[Current assessment: 23% chance of survival with current combat parameters]
[Analyzing alternative responses...]
Wang Ben felt his back hit a wall. The core formation woman approached with measured steps, her qi gathering for a finishing strike.
"Nothing personal," she said. "Just business."
The Memory Bleed happened without warning.
One moment Wang Ben was trapped, his options exhausted, his body preparing for an impact it couldn't survive. The next, something shifted in the depths of his consciousness.
Knowledge flowed through him like water through a broken dam. Not techniques he had studied. Not formations he had designed. Combat patterns etched into reflexes he had never trained, responses to threats he had never faced, a lifetime of martial experience compressed into a single heartbeat of borrowed memory.
His body moved.
The core formation woman's strike should have killed him. Instead, Wang Ben's hand deflected it at an angle that sent her power sliding past rather than through. His footwork carried him inside her reach, where her cultivation advantage mattered less than positioning and technique.
He struck. Once, twice, three times. Not with spiritual energy he didn't have, but with precision that turned his minimal strength into something devastating. Throat, floating rib, knee. Strikes that a qi condensation cultivator had no business knowing, executed with the efficiency of someone who had delivered them ten thousand times before.
The woman staggered, more from shock than injury. Her core formation body could absorb punishment that would have killed a lesser cultivator. But her eyes behind the mask had gone wide with something that might have been fear.
"What..."
Wang Ben didn't let her finish. The borrowed instincts were still flowing, still guiding, still showing him how to move through combat with the grace of someone who had spent centuries perfecting the art of killing. He pressed his attack, forcing her backward, denying her the distance she needed to bring her cultivation advantage to bear.
One of the foundation establishment attackers tried to intervene. Wang Ben's hand shot out, catching the man's wrist and redirecting his momentum into the woman he was trying to assist. The two cultivators collided, buying precious space.
Zhao Yu was bleeding from a dozen cuts but still standing, his Battle Soul instincts keeping him alive through sheer evasion. The young warrior's eyes found Wang Ben for a moment, and what he saw made him falter.
"Wang Ben..."
The Memory Bleed flickered. Wang Ben felt the borrowed knowledge beginning to fade, the combat instincts receding like water draining from a basin. His movements lost their impossible precision, becoming merely excellent instead of superhuman.
But the damage was done. The core formation woman was bleeding from her nose where Wang Ben's strike had found its mark. Her foundation establishment subordinates were scattered, their coordinated attack broken.
And from the street behind them came the sound of running footsteps.
Dao Zhen arrived at the head of a small group of cultivators, his qi condensation cultivation flaring with combat readiness. The Dao Clan heir had armed himself for battle, his weapon drawn and his expression fierce.
"Wang Ben!"
The core formation woman assessed the new arrivals with a professional's eye. Three more qi condensation cultivators, including one whose movements suggested combat training beyond his spiritual level. Not enough to turn the tide individually, but enough to complicate what should have been a clean elimination.
"This isn't over," she said to Wang Ben. "Your interference in political matters has consequences. Tonight was a warning."
She gestured, and her subordinates began to withdraw. One of them grabbed their incapacitated colleague, dragging the unconscious man toward the shadows. Within moments, they had vanished into the night, their suppression formations collapsing as they retreated.
Wang Ben's legs gave out.
He caught himself against the wall, his breath coming in ragged gasps as the adrenaline began to fade. His shoulder screamed where the woman's strike had connected. His hands trembled with exhaustion he couldn't explain.
What had just happened?
"Wang Ben." Zhao Yu was beside him, supporting his weight. "Are you..."
"I'm fine." The words came automatically, but they tasted like a lie. "I'm fine."
Dao Zhen approached, his expression shifting from battle-readiness to concern. "We heard the formations activate. I came as soon as we realized what was happening." His eyes traveled over Wang Ben, cataloging injuries and oddities. "That woman was core formation. How did you..."
"I don't know." The honest answer emerged before Wang Ben could stop it. "I don't know how I did that."
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS: Memory Integration Event]
[Classification: First documented instance of unconscious archive access during combat stress]
[Duration: Approximately 47 heartbeats]
[Effect: Host temporarily accessed archived combat patterns from Qingxuan Transcendent Archive]
[Source: Combat experience recordings from original archive contributor]
[Warning: Integration was involuntary and uncontrolled. Host consciousness remained dominant but combat responses were supplemented by archived reflexes]
[Note: This phenomenon is consistent with theoretical projections for archive integration at 2.0%+ functionality. Recommend monitoring for additional manifestations]
The System's explanation made clinical sense and no emotional sense at all. Wang Ben had moved with skills he had never learned, fought with instincts he had never developed. For forty-seven heartbeats, Chen Tianlong's lifetime of combat experience had flowed through his body.
Not borrowed. Not accessed. It had simply taken over.
The realization terrified him in ways he wasn't ready to examine.
Wang Tian arrived at the scene within the hour, his foundation establishment cultivation flaring with barely controlled fury.
"Who did this?"
"Professional assassins," Wang Ben said. He was sitting now, his shoulder bandaged by one of Dao Zhen's retainers while Zhao Yu stood guard nearby. "Core formation lead with foundation establishment support. They had isolation formations prepared, escape routes planned. This wasn't random violence."
"The Bastion faction that wanted punishment instead of resolution," Wang Tian said grimly. "Shen Wuyan warned us."
"He did." Wang Ben met his father's eyes. "But there's something else. Something I need to tell you in private."
Wang Tian's expression shifted, recognizing the weight behind those words. He glanced at the others present: Dao Zhen, his retainers, the city guards who had finally arrived after the formations fell.
"Dao Zhen. I owe you and your clan a significant debt for tonight. Please convey my gratitude to your family."
The Dao Clan heir inclined his head. "The Dao Clan serves the Wang Clan. Tonight, that service was our honor." His eyes moved to Wang Ben. "But Young Master Wang... you moved differently tonight. During the fight. I've trained with combat cultivators my entire life. What I saw was not qi condensation technique."
Wang Ben felt the observation land like a blow. Dao Zhen had seen. Had recognized that something was wrong.
"Battle does strange things to people," Wang Ben said carefully. "Desperation finds resources we didn't know we had."
"Perhaps." Dao Zhen didn't look convinced. "We should speak more about this. Later, when you've recovered."
He departed with his retainers, leaving Wang Ben alone with his father, Zhao Yu, and the questions that pressed against his thoughts like physical weights.
The private conversation happened in Wang Ben's quarters, after the physicians had finished their work and the household had settled into uneasy quiet.
"Tell me," Wang Tian said.
Wang Ben took a breath. "During the fight, when the core formation woman was about to kill me... something happened. I moved in ways I've never trained. Used techniques I've never learned. It was like someone else's memories were guiding my body."
His father's face went very still. "The System?"
"The System confirmed it afterward. Called it a 'memory integration event.' Apparently, at higher functionality percentages, I can unconsciously access archived combat patterns." Wang Ben's voice dropped. "The archive contains someone's lifetime of experience. Their memories. Their reflexes. Tonight, those reflexes saved my life."
"Whose memories?"
"Chen Tianlong." The name felt strange on Wang Ben's tongue, a truth he had learned during his breakthrough but never spoken aloud. "An ancient cultivator. The System doesn't say much more than that." Wang Ben met his father's eyes. "Father, for dozens of heartbeats tonight, I wasn't entirely myself. I was still conscious, still in control of my decisions. But my body was moving based on instincts that belonged to someone else entirely."
The silence stretched between them.
"I've seen something similar before," Wang Tian said finally. "Not identical, but similar."
"Where?"
"Zhao Yu." His father's voice was thoughtful. "His Battle Soul. The bloodline trait that awakened in him. During combat, he accesses reflexes and instincts that he never learned. His body knows things his mind doesn't."
Wang Ben felt the parallel settle into his thoughts. He had wondered about Zhao Yu's Battle Soul, about how inherited combat instincts could flow through bloodlines across generations. Now he was experiencing something analogous.
Except Zhao Yu's abilities came from his bloodline. Wang Ben's came from an ancient AI system that had merged with his consciousness before he could consent.
"Does this change things?" Wang Ben asked. "Between us?"
"You're still my son." Wang Tian's response was immediate and firm. "Whatever else the System has made you, whatever memories it carries, you're still the boy I raised. The person I love." He paused. "But I'd be lying if I said this didn't concern me. Borrowed reflexes might save your life. They might also change who you are in ways neither of us can predict."
"The System says my consciousness remained dominant."
"Tonight. What about next time? Or the time after that?" Wang Tian's eyes held worry that love couldn't entirely mask. "You're walking a path that has no precedent, Ben'er. Every step takes you further from what any of us understand."
Wang Ben had no answer for that. The fear his father expressed was one he shared.
"What do I do?"
"The same thing you've always done. Make choices. Accept consequences. Try to be the person you want to be, regardless of what powers or memories influence you." Wang Tian reached out, gripping his son's uninjured shoulder. "And let your family help carry the weight. You don't have to face this alone."
Later, after his father had departed, Wang Ben sat alone with his thoughts.
[STATUS UPDATE: Post-combat assessment]
[Physical condition: Minor injuries, full recovery expected within 3-5 days]
[Spiritual condition: Qi reserves depleted but regenerating normally]
[Memory integration effects: No lingering manifestation detected. Archived patterns have returned to dormant state]
[Psychological condition: Elevated stress indicators. Recommend meditation for stabilization]
The System offered its analysis with the same cold precision it always had. But Wang Ben couldn't help wondering if the consciousness behind that precision was closer to the surface now than it had been before.
Chen Tianlong's memories had saved him tonight.
The ancient cultivator's name now felt real in a way it hadn't before. During his breakthrough, the heart demon had shown him Chen Tianlong's presence, had made him confront the reality of carrying another consciousness. But that had been abstract, philosophical. Tonight, those memories had acted through him without his consent.
He thought about the heart demon he had faced during his breakthrough. The version of himself that had accused him of being a puppet dancing on strings he couldn't see. The fear that he was becoming something other than Wang Ben.
Tonight had given that fear terrible new weight.
But tonight had also shown him something else. The assassins had expected to kill a formation master with no combat ability. They had found something different. Not just the System's Combat Prediction, but actual fighting skill that exceeded anything his cultivation level should allow.
Wang Ben was becoming something that didn't fit any existing category. A formation prodigy who could fight. A qi condensation cultivator who could survive against core formation. A young man carrying memories that predated his birth.
Dangerous. Unpredictable. Impossible to accurately assess.
Perhaps that was the best defense of all.
END OF CHAPTER 93