Elder Liu was already at the lesser dining hall when the first clan members arrived for breakfast.
He hadn't slept. His robes from the previous night had been replaced, but nothing had replaced the memory of what he'd seen in the deep Blackwood. That impossible scale. Those ancient trees bending aside like grass. Whatever it was, it had made even the foundation establishment beasts flee.
He'd killed a dozen lesser beasts and fought off a foundation establishment beast that had ambushed him at a stream crossing. Three days in the Blackwood had stripped away his composure, left his face scratched and his hands unsteady beneath the table. But he'd survived. He always survived.
He picked at a bowl of rice porridge, his body still recovering. The other early risers gave him a wide berth. Word of his haggard return had already spread.
That suited him fine. He needed to listen, not talk.
The answer to his unasked questions came soon enough.
"Did you hear?" Two young clansmen at a nearby table spoke in excited whispers that carried easily. "Elder Wang Tian's back to his peak. Maybe even past it."
"Impossible. His meridians were destroyed."
"That's what everyone thought. But he demonstrated it in front of the whole council. His Spirit Fire is working again, and the Patriarch confirmed his cultivation is back to late-stage."
Elder Liu's hands didn't pause over his bowl. His face didn't change. But ice settled in his chest as he listened to their excited chatter.
Impossible. The damage had been permanent. He'd made certain of it, through careful substitution of herbs and patient sabotage of every treatment attempt over nine years.
He returned to his quarters with measured calm. Only then did he retrieve the communication talisman hidden in a false panel beneath his bed.
The communication talisman was a gift from his true masters in the Xue Clan, reusable and untraceable. His lifeline for reporting information.
He channeled qi into the talisman. "Wang Tian has recovered. Cultivation restored to peak, possibly beyond. His Spirit Fire is functional again. I don't know how this happened. He was crippled. The damage should have been permanent."
A long pause. Then the talisman vibrated with a response, the words forming directly in his mind.
Continue observation. Gather details on how he recovered. Do nothing to draw attention.
The talisman went dormant.
Elder Liu replaced it in its hiding spot and sat in meditation posture, arranging his features into weary relief. He was a loyal Wang Clan elder who had survived a dangerous scouting mission. Nothing more.
With that thing in the forest and Wang Tian's recovery, the pieces were moving in ways he hadn't anticipated.
He would need to be careful.
...
The training grounds buzzed with energy Wang Ben hadn't felt since the auction.
Cultivators filled the courtyard in ordered rows, their cultivation ranging from peak late-stage body refinement to mid-stage foundation establishment. Clan cultivators stood alongside retainer family warriors, the usual hierarchies temporarily suspended by the gravity of what was coming.
Wang Ben found a spot near the back, his eyes scanning the crowd. Near the front, Wang Liang stood with a cluster of younger cultivators, his chin raised and his back straight. He was one of the younger qi condensation cultivators, early-stage, and he carried himself like someone determined to prove he belonged there. A few spots down, a wiry cultivator named Peng Yun kept touching the cord bracelet on his wrist, turning it in small circles with his thumb. Wang Ben had seen him in the dining hall once, telling anyone who would listen that his younger sister had just been accepted into the clan's herb-gathering apprenticeship.
Wang Ben spotted Zhao Yu before the older boy saw him, noting with interest the subtle changes in his friend's bearing. More confident. More grounded.
Zhao Yu pushed through the crowd toward him, a grin breaking across his face.
"Wang Ben." He clasped Wang Ben's forearm in greeting. "I heard you'd been selected. Didn't believe it until now."
"They need bodies." Wang Ben returned the grip. "Even mid-stage body refinement bodies."
"You and me both." Zhao Yu's grin carried an edge that hadn't been there before the wolf attack. He moved differently now, more grounded, his weight settled low. "At least we're not the weakest ones out here."
Wang Ben studied his friend. The System confirmed what his eyes already told him, scrolling text at the edge of his awareness.
[CULTIVATION ASSESSMENT: mid-stage body refinement (based on observed movement patterns)]
[NOTE: Foundation stable. Integration complete.]
"My father nearly killed me when he found out I'd volunteered." Zhao Yu rubbed the back of his neck. "Then he spent three days straight forging me new armor. Said if I was going to be reckless, I'd at least be protected." His voice quieted. "I watched him work the last night. He kept testing the edge against his thumb, waiting for that exact moment when the metal was ready. He's done it ten thousand times, and he still waits. Never rushes it." Zhao Yu shrugged. "I used to think patience was just slowness. I don't anymore."
Before Wang Ben could respond, a presence swept across the training grounds. Not oppressive, but undeniable. The casual conversations died as cultivators turned toward the raised platform at the courtyard's northern end.
Wang Lei stood at its center.
The expedition commander was unremarkable at first glance. Average height, weathered features, a face that blended into crowds. But the crowd instinctively leaned back, and even the foundation establishment cultivators straightened their spines, told Wang Ben everything he needed to know. Core formation. The System confirmed it.
[CULTIVATION ESTIMATED: core formation (based on observed crowd response and behavioral markers)]
Wang Lei let his eyes pass over the assembled cultivators twice before speaking, as though confirming some count only he was keeping. "You know the situation," he said, his voice carrying without apparent effort. "Beast activity in the Blackwood has reached critical levels. Body refinement creatures are being spotted at the forest's edge, practically in sight of our walls. Qi condensation beasts are being pushed from their territories by something deeper in the forest."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Wang Lei let them fade before continuing.
"We're not waiting for the tide to reach us. This expedition will strike into the Blackwood, culling the lesser beast populations before they can mass into a force we can't control." His eyes swept the assembled cultivators. "You will be organized into teams of six. Each team answers to a squad commander. Each squad answers to me. I answer to the Patriarch."
He paused, letting the order of authority settle into their minds.
"Now. The reward structure."
Wang Ben felt the crowd's attention sharpen. This was what they'd really come to hear.
"All beast kills will be recovered by clan servants. Materials belong to the clan. We need them for formations, medicines, and trade." Wang Lei raised a hand to forestall the muttering. "But each of you will earn merit points based on your contributions. These points can be exchanged at the Clan Treasure Hall for cultivation resources."
He gestured, and a younger cultivator stepped forward carrying a wooden case. Wang Lei opened it, revealing rows of small jade tablets, each about the size of a palm.
"Merit tablets," Wang Lei explained. "Put a drop of blood on the surface to bind it to yourself. Once linked, the tablet connects to a tracking formation that will cover our entire hunting zone. When you kill a beast, the formation registers it and credits your account automatically. Your tablet will display your current point total in real time."
Wang Ben's interest sharpened. A formation-based tracking method. Elegant and practical, exactly the kind of innovation he'd expect from a clan that specialized in array work.
"The points scale by beast rank," Wang Lei continued. "Ten points for a Rank 1 kill. Fifty for Rank 2. Two hundred for Rank 3, though I don't expect any of you to encounter those."
"What about realm modifiers?" someone called from the crowd.
"Good question." Wang Lei nodded. "We don't want qi condensation cultivators hunting Rank 1 beasts for easy kills while body refinement cultivators struggle for scraps. If you kill below your major realm, you receive less than one-tenth of the base points. A qi condensation cultivator killing a Rank 1 beast earns one point, not ten."
Grumbles from some of the higher-realm cultivators. Wang Lei ignored them.
"But if you kill above your realm, you earn bonus rewards. A body refinement cultivator who takes down a Rank 2 beast alone earns seventy-five to one hundred fifty points, not fifty." His lips twitched. "Consider it incentive to challenge yourselves appropriately."
[NOTE: Merit structure favors kills above Host's realm]
Wang Ben noted this.
"One more thing." Wang Lei's voice cut through the crowd's calculations. "The formation doesn't just track kills. It monitors combat engagement, duration, and the cultivation levels of everyone involved. If you swoop in at the last moment to claim a beast you didn't fight, you'll get nothing. If you work together, the points divide equally among contributors. The formation knows the difference."
He let that warning sink in before his chin lifted, what looked almost like anticipation entering his weathered features.
"Now. The rewards."
Wang Lei stepped aside, and Wang Ben felt his heart skip as a familiar figure climbed onto the platform.
Wang Tian stood before the assembled cultivators, his bearing utterly transformed from the broken man Wang Ben had known his entire life. Shoulders straight. Eyes clear. He moved with the smooth confidence of a man restored, and the crowd's murmurs confirmed what Wang Ben already knew. His father was back.
"Some of you know me," Wang Tian said, his voice carrying the same effortless authority as Wang Lei's. "Most of you know what happened to me nine years ago."
Silence. Every eye fixed on the clan's fallen alchemist.
"That's over now." Wang Tian raised his hand, and his Spirit Fire answered readily, flames curling across his palm with controlled precision. "My Spirit Fire responds again. My meridians are restored. And I've spent the last three days doing what I should have been doing for the past decade."
He gestured, and servants carried forward several cases, opening them to reveal rows of pills laid out in neat lines.
"High-quality Grade 9 pills," Wang Tian said. "Low and mid-quality Grade 8 pills. More coming every day as I get back to full strength." His eyes swept the crowd. "These are your rewards. The Treasure Hall has weapons, talismans, manuals, and low-grade spirit stones for those who want them. But I suspect most of you are more interested in what's in these cases."
The energy in the courtyard shifted palpably. Grade 8 pills from a Wang Clan alchemist. Not purchased at premium prices from outside sources, but produced internally, available through merit alone.
"Fifty points for a high-quality Grade 9 pill," Wang Tian continued. "One hundred fifty for a low-quality Grade 8. Three hundred for mid-quality Grade 8." He paused. "And for those who truly distinguish themselves, five hundred points or more, I'll take personal requests. Custom refinements tailored to your specific cultivation needs."
Wang Ben watched the crowd's reaction with detached interest. Greed, hope, determination. The emotions played across faces like wind across water. His father had just transformed a dangerous culling expedition into an opportunity that every cultivator present desperately wanted.
Clever.
"One final note," Wang Lei said, reclaiming the platform. "The tracking formation also marks beast corpse locations for our collection teams. Make your kill, move on, and trust that nothing will be wasted." He began calling names from a list. "Team assignments are as follows..."
Wang Ben heard his own name in Team Seven, under Squad Leader Wang Hao. He didn't know Wang Hao, but others around him nodded with quiet approval at the name.
...
Wang Hao studied his assembled team with the patience of a man who'd seen a hundred expeditions come and go.
Six cultivators stood before him in a loose semicircle, their ages ranging from fifteen to thirty-four, their cultivation from mid-stage body refinement to his own peak late-stage qi condensation. A typical team composition, neither exceptional nor concerning.
But the youngest member nagged at him.
"I'm Wang Hao," he said, keeping his voice level. "Team leader. I've been hunting beasts in this forest since before most of you were born, and I haven't lost a team member yet. Follow my orders, watch each other's backs, and we all walk out of here."
He pointed to the nervous-looking man on his left. "Introductions. You first."
"Sun Bao." The man straightened, trying to project confidence. "Early-stage qi condensation. Outer branch, retainer family. I've hunted beasts in the Blackwood before. Three years experience. I handle support and ranged attacks." He paused, then added, "I talk when I'm nervous. Sorry in advance."
A few chuckles from the others. Wang Hao nodded and moved on.
"Wang Jun." The first of the twins stepped forward, broader in the shoulders than his sister. "Peak late-stage body refinement. I hit things hard."
"Wang Xiu." The second twin, leaner and sharper-featured. "Also peak late-stage body refinement. I hit things fast. Jun charges, I cut them off from the side. We've been fighting together since we could walk."
Wang Hao had seen their type before. Twins who'd developed complementary styles, each covering the other's weaknesses. Useful, if they could take direction.
"Zhao Yu." The next boy spoke with quiet intensity. "Mid-stage body refinement. I was senior on the patrol where the Jade Snow Wolf attacked. Wang Ben saved my life." He glanced at the youngest member. "I owe him."
Interesting. Wang Hao turned to the last team member.
"Wang Ben." The boy met his eyes directly, a flicker of nervousness quickly controlled. "Mid-stage body refinement. I know I'm the weakest here, but I'll pull my weight."
It was how he said it. Not false modesty, not insecurity. A simple statement of fact, delivered with the composure of someone much older.
Wang Hao had seen that look before. In veterans who'd survived impossible odds. In cultivators who'd faced death and come out changed.
Never in a fifteen-year-old.
"Right." Wang Hao distributed the merit tablets, watching each team member examine theirs. "The formation's already active. Your tablets will update as we make kills. Questions?"
Sun Bao raised his hand. "What's the signal if we need to retreat?"
"Two sharp whistles means regroup on me. Three means full retreat to the nearest checkpoint." Wang Hao's voice hardened. "And if I give the retreat signal, you run. No looking back, no trying to finish a kill. Anyone who puts points ahead of survival answers to me. Clear?"
Nods all around.
"Good. We move out shortly. Eastern sector, near the old streams. Mostly lesser beast territory, but expect qi condensation encounters closer to the water." He looked at each of them in turn. "Stay together. Call out movement. Don't be heroes."
His eyes lingered on Wang Ben just a beat longer than the others.
The boy noticed. Didn't react.
Interesting indeed.
...
The Blackwood Forest swallowed them within an hour.
Wang Ben found himself staring upward at the canopy, momentarily overwhelmed. The trees here were ancient, massive things that made the forests near Redstone City look like saplings. Shafts of green-gold light pierced the leaves far above, and the air itself felt thick with energy he couldn't name. Every breath tasted of damp earth and living wood, a richness that pressed against his skin like the forest was breathing back at him. Part of him, the part that was still fifteen and had never traveled beyond the city walls, wanted to stop and gape at everything.
He didn't. But his heart was beating faster than it should have been, and not just from exertion.
[Ambient elemental contamination detected. Source unidentified. Not consistent with standard spirit beast territory.]
He kept moving. The forest felt wrong in a way he couldn't put into words, a thickness in the air that went beyond humidity or old growth.
Wang Ben moved through the undergrowth with careful steps, his senses straining against their limitations. Body refinement meant no spiritual sense, no ability to feel the qi signatures of approaching beasts. He relied on sound, smell, the subtle wrongness that preceded an ambush.
And the System, analyzing what he observed.
Wang Hao held up a fist, and the team froze. Wang Ben's weight shifted before he thought about it, his back foot sliding wider, blade angling to cover his right side. The adjustment was smooth and automatic, and it wasn't his. He'd never been taught that stance.
He let it pass without examining it and focused forward.
The older cultivator's head tilted, his qi condensation senses picking up a disturbance the body refinement members couldn't detect.
He held up a fist. "Movement. Three Shadow Hares, northeast. Early-stage, based on their patterns."
Sun Bao's hands moved to his throwing knives. The Wang twins exchanged a glance, falling into their practiced formation without a word.
"Jun, Xiu, you're up front. Zhao Yu, left side. Wang Ben, right side with me. Sun Bao, stay back and throw." Wang Hao's orders came crisp and efficient. "Shadow Hares are fast but fragile. Don't let them scatter."
They moved.
Wang Ben kept pace on Wang Hao's right, watching the team leader's movements while watching his surroundings. The forest floor was soft with decades of fallen leaves, muffling their footsteps but also hiding potential obstacles.
The hares burst from cover thirty paces ahead.
Three streaks of dark fur, moving with supernatural speed, their cultivation granting them reflexes far beyond natural animals. Wang Jun charged to intercept, his bulk surprisingly quick, while Wang Xiu circled wide to cut off escape.
Two of the hares pivoted away from the twins, heading for the flanks.
Wang Ben was already moving.
The hare that came at him was fast, but he'd fought faster. The Jade Snow Wolf had been a blur of white death; this was merely quick. He read its trajectory, stepped into its path, and brought his sword down in a clean arc.
The beast died before it knew it was in danger.
To the left, Zhao Yu's blade caught the second escaping hare mid-leap. Wang Jun and Wang Xiu had already finished the third, their coordinated strike leaving the creature no chance.
Three beasts. Perhaps eight breaths from first sighting to last kill.
"Clean," Wang Hao said, surveying the results. "Tablets should be updating. Move on. The collection teams will handle the bodies."
Wang Ben checked his tablet. The jade surface glowed faintly, displaying "10" in clear characters. Simple and efficient.
Sun Bao was examining his own tablet with evident disappointment. "Zero. I provided covering fire and got nothing." He looked up at the others. "And even if I'd landed the kill myself, I'd only get one point. One point for a Rank 1 beast at early-stage qi condensation."
"Then find qi condensation beasts," Wang Xiu said, not unkindly. "That's where the real points are anyway."
They pressed deeper into the forest.
The morning passed in a rhythm of hunting, fighting, and moving on.
Wang Hao led them through their assigned territory with methodical care, his decades of experience evident in every decision. He found beast trails, predicted ambush points, positioned his team to maximize their advantages.
By midday, they'd killed eleven body refinement beasts. The twins had four kills each, Zhao Yu had two, and Wang Ben had one. Sun Bao had contributed range support to several kills but hadn't secured any himself, his tablet stubbornly displaying a meager three points from assists.
"Break," Wang Hao announced as they reached a stream crossing. "Eat, drink, check your equipment. We push into deeper territory after."
Wang Ben found a flat rock near the water and settled into stillness, letting his body recover while his mind processed. The System had been tracking everything: beast behaviors, the lay of the land, how the team worked together. It was building a picture of the state of things.
Wang Ben glanced toward the team leader. Wang Hao sat apart from the others, eating dried rations with practiced ease, but his eyes kept drifting back to Wang Ben.
He'd noticed. The question was what, and whether it mattered.
Zhao Yu dropped onto the rock beside him. "You're quiet."
"Conserving energy."
"You're always quiet." Zhao Yu pulled out his own rations. "The wolf attack, the auction, now this. You never seem... I don't know. Rattled."
Wang Ben turned the question over before answering. "Would being rattled help?"
"No. But most people our age would be anyway." Zhao Yu shook his head. "I'm not complaining. If you hadn't been calm during the wolf attack, I'd be dead. I just notice things now that I didn't before."
"The breakthrough changed your perception."
"Everything changed after almost dying." Zhao Yu's voice dropped. "I dream about it sometimes. The wolf's eyes. The moment I knew I was too slow. And then you were there, and it was over." He looked at Wang Ben directly. "How did you know what to do?"
"I saw an opening and took it." Wang Ben kept his voice level.
Zhao Yu's eyes were searching. "I've been training my whole life. I was stronger than you. And I froze."
"You didn't freeze. You fought. The wolf was just faster."
"You know what I mean."
Wang Ben did know. Zhao Yu had been there. He'd seen it. And now he was asking the question that had been sitting between them ever since.
He couldn't answer honestly. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
"Some people respond differently to pressure," Wang Ben said finally. "I don't know why I'm one of them. I just am."
Zhao Yu studied him, then nodded slowly. "Fair enough. Just... if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here. You saved my life. That means something."
"I know." Wang Ben allowed a small smile. "Now eat. Wang Hao's almost done, and deeper territory won't clear itself."
They found the Ironback Boar two hours into the afternoon.
The beast was massive, a qi condensation creature that outweighed any three of them combined. Its hide was the mottled gray-brown of iron ore, tough enough to turn glancing blows, and its tusks had an unnatural sheen that marked it as a creature beyond an ordinary animal.
Wang Ben's legs went weak for half a breath. His throat tightened and his hand found his sword hilt before conscious thought caught up. Then the analysis kicked in, the fear draining into a colder, more useful clarity. The clarity felt borrowed, like armor someone else had fitted to him rather than anything he had forged himself.
Wang Hao signaled a halt, his face grim.
"That's a big one," Sun Bao whispered. "Mid-stage at least, based on the size."
"Mid-stage," Wang Hao confirmed. "Maybe pushing into late. This is beyond training exercise territory." He looked at his team. "I can take it, but I'll need support. Jun, Xiu, you're distractions. Keep it turning, don't let it focus. Zhao Yu, Wang Ben, circle and look for openings in the hide. Sun Bao, blind it if you can. Go for the eyes."
The boar was grazing near a fallen log, its bulk making it confident in its territory. It hadn't noticed them yet.
Wang Ben kept his voice below the wind. "The rear legs."
Wang Hao looked at him sharply. "What?"
"The legs look weaker than the back. At the joints, I mean. If we can cripple it there first, it can't charge as hard." Wang Ben kept his voice level. "Just an idea."
A long pause. Wang Hao's eyes narrowed, but he nodded.
"Good eye. Jun, Xiu, go for the rear legs first, then keep it turning once it's hobbled." He drew his own blade. "On my signal."
They spread out, encircling the beast with practiced coordination. Wang Ben found his position on the left, blade ready, waiting.
Wang Hao's signal came as a sharp whistle.
The twins exploded from cover, Wang Jun bellowing a challenge that drew the boar's attention while Wang Xiu darted toward its hindquarters. The beast spun with surprising speed, tusks sweeping in an arc that would have disemboweled Wang Jun if he hadn't been expecting it.
Sun Bao's throwing knife flashed through the air, striking the boar's eye with precision. The beast screamed, head jerking sideways, and Wang Xiu's blade bit deep into its rear leg.
Blood sprayed. The boar's charge became a stumbling lunge. Sun Bao sent a second knife spinning into the beast's wounded flank, keeping it flinching, buying the others a breath of time.
Wang Hao moved in from the right, his peak late-stage qi condensation cultivation lending speed and power to his strikes. His blade found the gap Wang Ben had identified, severing tendons, crippling the beast's mobility further.
Wang Ben saw his opening.
The boar was focused on Wang Hao, its remaining good eye tracking the greater threat. Its flank was exposed, the hide rippling over ribs that weren't as armored as its back.
He moved without conscious thought, crossing the distance in a burst of speed that his body refinement cultivation barely supported. His blade found the gap between ribs, driving deep, and he twisted.
The boar's scream cut off abruptly. It swayed, stumbled, and crashed to the forest floor.
Silence.
Wang Ben pulled his blade free, breathing hard. The exertion had pushed his body to its limits. He could feel the tremor in his muscles, the deep ache of flesh pushed beyond what it was meant to endure.
"Well." Wang Hao's voice was flat. "That was unexpected."
The team leader was staring at Wang Ben. "How did you know where to hit it?"
"I didn't." Wang Ben pulled his blade free from the joint. "I saw the opening and took it."
Wang Hao held his gaze a beat longer than necessary, then looked away. The twins exchanged a glance. Sun Bao was staring. Only Zhao Yu looked unsurprised.
Finally, Wang Hao nodded once. He didn't ask Wang Ben to explain himself further, just weighed what he'd seen and let the facts stand on their own.
"Check your tablets. The formation should be marking the corpse location for collection." He turned away. His eyes lingered on Wang Ben a beat longer than felt natural, then he looked away and called the next order. "We continue hunting. Stay alert."
They moved on. But the team's dynamic had shifted.
Wang Hao was watching him now. Not with approval. With the careful attention of a man cataloguing a problem he hadn't been briefed on.
...
In the workshop that had witnessed his restoration, Wang Tian worked with a focus he hadn't touched in years.
The cauldron before him blazed with Spirit Fire, flames licking the vessel's sides with precisely controlled intensity. Inside, herbs dissolved and recombined, their essences merging according to patterns his hands remembered even after years of disuse.
Grade 8 refinement. The first batch of many.
Li Mei sat in the corner with Chen, watching her husband work. The baby was quiet today, his infant eyes tracking the dancing flames with an intensity that might have meant something or might have been simple fascination.
Wang Tian didn't let himself be distracted. The pills forming in his cauldron would be rewards for the expedition, resources that could mean life or death for cultivators fighting in the Blackwood. They deserved his full attention.
But beneath his focus, a pressure was building.
His cultivation had been strange since the restoration. The enhanced meridians drew spiritual energy with an efficiency that bordered on uncomfortable, his dantian filling faster than his body could process. He'd been suppressing the sensation, channeling the excess into his work.
Now it was becoming undeniable.
The pressure in his core had been building for hours. Not pain, exactly. More like a dam straining against flood waters. His cultivation wanted to advance again, to push deeper into late-stage qi condensation.
He'd only been restored for days. Before the procedure, he'd spent nine years trapped at mid-stage, his damaged meridians unable to support advancement. Before that, he'd spent decades at late-stage, convinced it was his ceiling.
Now his body was telling him that ceiling had been an illusion.
Wang Tian focused on the pills. One thing at a time. Finish this batch, set it to cool, and then...
The dam broke.
Spiritual energy surged through his meridians, not from outside but from within. His dantian, overfull and straining, finally released the pressure it had been building. Power flooded through channels that were wider and deeper than they'd ever been, finding new capacity where none had existed before.
Wang Tian gasped, hands leaving the cauldron as cultivation consumed his awareness.
The breakthrough was nothing like his advancement to late-stage forty years ago. That had been a gradual thing, months of preparation culminating in a controlled ascension. This was a flood, a transformation his enhanced meridians had been preparing without his conscious awareness.
Peak late-stage qi condensation.
He felt it lock into place, his cultivation stabilizing at a level he'd never reached before. The spiritual energy in his dantian settled into new patterns, denser and more refined than before.
When he opened his eyes, Li Mei was on her feet, Chen clutched to her chest, her face pale with worry.
"Tian..."
"I'm fine." His voice came out rough. "Better than fine. I just broke through."
"Broke through?" Her eyes widened. "Already?"
"Yes." Wang Tian looked at his hands, feeling the power thrumming through them. Not just restored. Elevated. "Whatever that technique did to my meridians, it's still working. Still refining. I didn't push for this. It just... happened."
Li Mei crossed to him, Chen gurgling between them. "Is that safe? Should we get a physician?"
"I don't think any physician in Redstone City would know what to make of me." Wang Tian pulled her close with one arm, careful of the baby. "I'm not in danger, Mei. I'm the opposite of in danger. For the first time in nine years, I'm actually becoming stronger."
He looked at the cauldron, where his pills were completing their formation without his guidance. The batch would be slightly irregular since breakthrough interruptions always affected refinement quality, but they would still be usable.
"I need to return to the expedition headquarters," he said. "Report my advancement. And check on Ben's progress."
"He's been out there all day." Li Mei's worry shifted targets. "With beasts. Fighting."
"He survived a Jade Snow Wolf. He found a technique that healed me. He knows what he's doing." Wang Tian kissed her forehead. "Our son is going to be fine."
He wished he was as certain as he sounded.
Evening found the expedition teams regrouping at the camp.
Wang Ben sat with his team near one of the cook fires, his body aching from a day of combat but his mind alert. The System had been working all day, recording beast patterns, the shape of the land, and something it couldn't explain.
A wrongness it couldn't yet name.
[OBSERVATION: Eastern Sector Beast Distribution]
[Observed density: Significantly below expectations]
[Pattern suggests: Displacement by superior predator]
[Estimated predator rank: Unknown, likely Rank 3 or above]
Wang Ben had noticed it during the afternoon hunting. Too few beasts in territory that should have been thick with them. Too many trails leading away from the deeper forest. The Ironback Boar had been the largest thing they'd encountered, but a larger predator had driven it to the edges of its territory.
Squad Commander Wang Daiyu was moving between teams, collecting reports. When she reached Wang Hao, her face was carefully composed, but Wang Ben caught the slight tension around her eyes.
"Team seven. Status?"
"Fourteen Rank 1 kills, one Rank 2." Wang Hao's voice was crisp. "No losses. All tablets updated and verified."
"The Rank 2?"
"Ironback Boar. Mid-stage qi condensation equivalent. Team effort, but the killing blow came from our body refinement member." Wang Hao nodded toward Wang Ben. "Wang Ben. Wang Tian's son."
Wang Daiyu's eyes shifted to Wang Ben, evaluating. "Mid-stage body refinement against a qi condensation-equivalent beast. Impressive."
"He identified the weakness and exploited it." Wang Hao's tone was neutral, but the words carried weight. "Showed good instincts throughout the day."
"Noted." Wang Daiyu made a mark on her tally sheet. "Anything else unusual?"
Wang Hao hesitated. "Beast density seemed low in our sector. Fewer Rank 1s than expected."
"Other teams reported the same." Wang Daiyu's mouth thinned. "Commander Wang Lei is aware. We'll adjust tomorrow's patrol patterns accordingly."
She moved on to the next team. Wang Ben watched her go, noting how her tension hadn't eased.
"She knows something's wrong," Zhao Yu said quietly. "You can see it in how she's carrying herself."
"The beasts are being pushed out of the deep forest," Wang Ben replied, equally quiet. "Something's driving them toward the edges."
"Something bigger?"
"Something they're more afraid of than us."
Zhao Yu was silent. "That's not reassuring."
"It's not meant to be."
The evening deepened around them. Teams ate, compared point totals, boasted about kills. The twins had racked up impressive numbers, their coordination earning them the day's highest individual scores. Sun Bao was more subdued, his meager tally of assist points a sore spot he was trying not to show.
Wang Ben checked his tablet. Thirty-five points. Modest for mid-stage body refinement, but the killing blow on the boar had earned him an enhanced share despite it being a group kill.
But his mind wasn't on points.
The System kept cycling through its analysis, piecing together a picture from scattered fragments. Something was in the deep forest. Something big enough to displace entire beast populations. Something that even the qi condensation and foundation establishment creatures fled from.
And the expedition was marching toward it.
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: Inconclusive]
[Insufficient data for predator identification]
Across the fire, Wang Hao sat cleaning his blade with slow, careful strokes. The older cultivator's eyes drifted to Wang Ben, held, then moved to the dark treeline beyond the camp's edge.
"Get some sleep," Wang Hao said, not looking up from his blade. "Tomorrow we push deeper. The forest gets harder from here."
His tone was even, matter-of-fact. But something in how he said harder carried a weight that had nothing to do with lesser beasts.
Wang Ben suspected it wasn't just the beasts Wang Hao was thinking about.