The City Treasure Hall had never seen crowds like this.
Wang Ben stood near the entrance, watching cultivators push and jostle toward the redemption counters. The expedition survivors had descended on the city's central trading hall like locusts, their jade merit tablets clutched in white-knuckled grips. Everyone wanted pills. Everyone wanted talismans. Everyone wanted whatever edge they could buy before the tide hit.
"Sixty points for a Grade 9 healing pill? That's robbery!"
"Take it or leave it. There's a line behind you."
"I need something for my nephew. He's only early-stage body refinement. He won't survive without..."
"Next!"
The desperation in the air was thick enough to taste. Wang Ben had seen fear before, in the eyes of patrol members facing beasts beyond their strength, in the moments before combat when the body understood what the mind refused to accept. This was different. This was an entire city realizing that walls and formations might not be enough.
He moved deeper into the hall, observing the chaos with cold detachment. The Wang Clan contingent had claimed a section near the eastern counters, coordinating their purchases as a group. Elder Wang Feng stood at their center, his scarred face impassive as he directed the distribution of resources among clan members.
Nearby, the Huo Clan was buying in bulk: healing pills, defensive talismans, anything that could keep their people alive through extended combat. Their losses during the expedition had hit them hard, and now they were spending everything they had to prevent worse.
The Xue Clan's approach was different. More calculated. Wang Ben noticed their representatives focusing on offensive items: weapon enhancement oils, attack talismans, pills that boosted combat power at the cost of recovery time. They were preparing to kill, not just survive.
[OBSERVATION: Clan purchasing patterns reveal long-term priorities]
[Wang Clan: Balanced defensive/offensive approach]
[Huo Clan: Survival-focused, high healing item ratio]
[Xue Clan: Aggressive posture, minimal defensive purchases]
[Dao Clan: Reduced presence following elder's death]
[Assessment: Resource allocation will favor higher-cultivation purchasers]
[Note: Body refinement cultivators are being deprioritized across all clans]
"Wang Ben!"
Zhao Yu pushed through the crowd, his father following in his wake. Zhao Daniu was a broad man with the scarred hands of a lifelong forger, his mid-stage qi condensation cultivation lending him enough presence to part the crowd without effort. Both of them wore the practical clothes of craftsmen rather than the formal robes of main family cultivators.
"We were hoping to find you here," Zhao Yu said, clasping Wang Ben's forearm. "Father's been wanting to meet you properly since I got back."
"The famous Wang Ben." Zhao Daniu's voice was gruff but warm. "My son hasn't stopped talking about you since the wolf attack. Wang Ben this, Wang Ben that. I was starting to think he'd invented you."
"Father," Zhao Yu muttered, embarrassed.
"What? It's true." Zhao Daniu stepped closer. "So you're the one who kept my son alive out there."
"We saved each other," Wang Ben said. "The wolf would have killed us both if either of us had been alone."
"That's not what Zhao Yu tells me. That's not what Wang Hao's report says either." Zhao Daniu's eyes were sharp despite his friendly tone. "My son says you kept your head out there. That matters more than cultivation in a crisis."
Wang Ben swallowed. "I wouldn't be here without him."
"That's what he says too." Zhao Daniu nodded, approval warming his weathered face. "Good. That's the kind of man I want watching my son's back."
"This isn't the place for proper conversation," Zhao Daniu continued, glancing around the chaotic hall. "Too many ears, too much desperation. Come to our home after the tide passes, assuming we all survive it. I'll make tea, we'll talk properly, and I'll show you the forge."
"I'd like that."
"Good." Zhao Daniu reached into his belt pouch and pressed a small forged clasp into Wang Ben's hand, the metal still carrying a trace of forge heat. "For your sword belt. My work." His grip on Wang Ben's shoulder was firm and calloused. "And I meant what I said earlier. If you ever need equipment forged, weapons, armor, tools, anything, you come to me. I'll give you the same rates I give family. Better, if the work warrants it. That's not charity. That's a debt paid in iron."
"That's generous, Elder Zhao. Thank you."
"It's not generous. It's owed." Zhao Daniu released him and nodded toward the exit. "Zhao Yu, say your goodbyes. We have work to do before the tide hits. The city guard ordered three hundred spearheads, and they're not going to forge themselves."
Zhao Yu lingered as his father moved toward the exit. "He likes you. He doesn't like many people."
"He seems... direct."
"That's one word for it." Zhao Yu's smile dropped. "Listen, I don't know what you're planning for the tide, but whatever it is, be careful. The reports from the northern scouts are bad. Worse than anyone's saying publicly. They're talking about foundation establishment beasts in numbers we've never seen before."
"I'll be careful."
"You'd better be. I still owe you a life." Zhao Yu clasped his forearm one more time. "See you on the walls, Wang Ben. Try not to die before I can repay what I owe."
Wang Ben watched them go, then turned his attention back to the crowd. The Treasure Hall's supplies were dwindling visibly, shelves emptying faster than attendants could restock them. By tomorrow, there would be nothing left worth buying.
He didn't need what they were selling. His father had something better in mind.
...
Spirit Fire light flickered beneath the workshop door before Wang Ben opened it.
Wang Ben entered to find his father already at work, Spirit Fire dancing beneath a secondary cauldron while the primary vessel sat cooling on its stand. The flames cast dancing shadows across the walls, turning the workshop into a place that felt sacred. Shelves lined every wall, packed with ingredients in jars and boxes, their labels written in his father's precise hand.
"Close the door," Wang Tian said without turning. "I don't want interruptions."
Wang Ben obeyed, then moved to the preparation table where ingredients had been laid out in neat rows. He recognized most of them from his studies: spirit grass for base binding, ironwood bark for structural integrity, three different varieties of medicinal flowers whose names he couldn't immediately recall.
"You wanted to see me."
"I need an assistant." Wang Tian finally turned, his eyes hollowed by too many sleepless hours. Dark circles had formed beneath them, and his robes were wrinkled from continuous work. "The clan needs more pills than I can produce alone. Your mother would help if she could, but her cultivation isn't suited to the work. That leaves you."
"I only know what you've shown me so far."
"That's enough for what I need." Wang Tian gestured to the ingredients. "Preparation, measurement, timing. Following precise instructions without deviation. Can you do that?"
Wang Ben studied the array of materials. The System was already sorting through them, comparing them against its records of cultivation knowledge.
[INGREDIENT ANALYSIS: Initiating]
[CROSS-REFERENCING KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE]
[Spirit Grass (Grade 9): Binding agent, low toxicity]
[Ironwood Bark (Grade 8): Structural stabilizer, fire-resistant]
[Moonpetal Flower (Grade 8): Qi enhancement, handle with clean instruments]
[Crimson Lotus Stamen (Grade 8): Blood purification, volatile if over-processed]
[Azure Dewdrop (Grade 9): Cooling agent, must remain sealed until use]
"I can follow instructions," Wang Ben said.
"Good. We'll start with the basic preparations while I finish this batch." Wang Tian nodded toward a mortar and pestle carved from what looked like white jade. "The spirit grass needs to be ground to fine powder. Not too fine; you want visible granules, about the size of sand grains. Grind it too much and it loses potency. Too little and it won't bind properly."
Wang Ben took up the mortar and began working. The spirit grass resisted at first, its dried stalks tougher than they appeared, but he found the rhythm quickly. Pressure, rotation, lift. Pressure, rotation, lift. The System counted rotations automatically, tracking the changing consistency of the powder.
His father worked in silence for a time, adjusting the Spirit Fire's intensity with subtle manipulations of his qi. The flames responded like living things, brightening and dimming according to patterns Wang Ben couldn't quite follow. Deep orange shifting toward gold, then back again, each change accompanied by subtle shifts in the cauldron's bubbling.
The workshop felt different from how Wang Ben remembered it. During his childhood, this space had been a place of disappointment: his father attempting refinements that always failed, the Spirit Fire flickering weakly, the smell of ruined batches hanging in the air. Now it hummed with purpose. With power.
"One hundred fifty rotations," Wang Tian said without looking up. "Check the consistency."
Wang Ben examined the powder. The System confirmed what his eyes told him: the granules were still too coarse. He continued grinding, maintaining the same pressure and rhythm, until the texture matched what his father had described.
"Done."
Wang Tian glanced over, nodded once, and returned to his work. "Set it aside. The ironwood bark needs to be cut into strips, thumb-width, no thicker. Use the silver knife, not the steel one. Steel reacts poorly with the bark's essence."
The afternoon continued in this fashion. Wang Tian issued instructions; Wang Ben followed them precisely. The rhythm was meditative, almost peaceful, despite the urgency underlying everything they did.
Midway through preparing the Crimson Lotus stamens, Wang Tian spoke again.
"You've been drawing attention."
"You mentioned that last night."
"I'm mentioning it again because it matters." Wang Tian didn't look up from his cauldron. "Wang Hao submitted his official report this morning. The Patriarch read it personally. Your name appears seven times. Seven. In a report about a ten-day expedition with nearly fifty deaths."
Wang Ben kept working, separating the delicate stamens from their stems with careful precision. "I did what was necessary to survive."
"You did more than that." Wang Tian's voice was carefully neutral. "You did things out there that I won't pretend to understand."
The workshop fell silent except for the crackle of Spirit Fire and the soft sounds of preparation work.
"I learn quickly," Wang Ben said.
"No one learns that quickly." Wang Tian finally turned to face him. "And we both know it."
Wang Ben's hands went still on the stamens. The words rose in his throat, all of them, the truth about the System, the Archive, the borrowed knowledge of a dead world. He could feel the shape of the confession pressing against his teeth. His father had earned it. Had bled for it. Had spent three days drowning in ice on the strength of trust alone.
He opened his mouth.
And nothing came out. Not because he chose silence, but because there were no words in any language he knew that could make it sound like anything other than madness.
Wang Tian watched him struggle, and his face changed. Not the patient acceptance of their earlier exchanges. This time his jaw tightened, and he looked away first.
"The beast tide is coming," he said roughly. "When it hits, people will die. Good people, strong people, people who've been cultivating for decades. And when the chaos reaches its peak, no one will be watching you closely." His eyes found Wang Ben's again. "Whatever advantages you have, whatever you can't tell me, that's when you use them. Survival first."
Wang Ben's throat ached. "I understand."
"I know you do." Wang Tian held his eyes a beat longer, then turned back to his cauldron. His shoulders were tight. "Finish the stamens. We have a long night ahead."
...
Li Mei brought food at sunset, Chen bundled in a carrying wrap against her chest.
The baby was awake, his eyes tracking the dancing Spirit Fire with unusual focus. At nearly two months old, he shouldn't have been able to follow movement so precisely, but there was no denying how his eyes locked onto the flames and stayed there.
"He does that every time I bring him near the workshop," Li Mei said, noticing Wang Ben's attention. "Your father thinks it's the spiritual energy in the flames. Says babies who'll be strong cultivators are drawn to it even before they can walk."
"He's growing fast," Wang Ben observed. The baby did look larger than he remembered from even a week ago, his features more defined, his movements more coordinated.
"Too fast, some might say." Li Mei set a tray of food on an empty section of workbench, careful not to disturb any ingredients. "But I'm not complaining. Strong children survive. That's all that matters now."
She lingered in the doorway, watching her husband and eldest son work side by side. Her face softened, a warmth cutting through the worry she'd been carrying for days.
"You look like him," she said quietly. "When you concentrate like that. The same focus. The same intensity."
Wang Tian glanced up, a rare smile crossing his tired features. "He has your stubbornness. Won't stop until the work is done."
"That's not stubbornness. That's sense." Li Mei adjusted Chen in his wrap as the baby made a soft sound. "Eat. Both of you. The city won't fall tonight, and starving yourselves won't help anyone."
Wang Ben reached over to brush a finger across Chen's cheek. The baby's hand shot out and caught his finger, gripping with surprising strength, and didn't let go. Wang Ben tugged gently. Chen held on, his dark eyes fixed on his brother's face with an intensity that had nothing to do with infant reflexes. Wang Ben had to pry his finger free.
They ate quickly, efficiently, the food disappearing with the mechanical precision of people who had more important things on their minds. Wang Ben tasted little of it: simple rice and vegetables, sustenance rather than pleasure. His attention kept drifting to the corner of the workshop where a small wooden box sat waiting.
The wolf core.
They'd discussed it in the days after his father's recovery, worked through the approach together. But talking about a body tempering pill and actually refining one were different things.
Wang Tian noticed where he was looking. "Tonight," he said. "I'm ready."
"I do." Wang Tian rose, crossing to retrieve the box. He set it on the workbench between them and lifted the lid.
The core sat on a bed of preservation cloth, a sphere of crystallized essence about the size of a chicken egg. Its surface was pale blue, the natural color of a Jade Snow Wolf's spiritual energy, but dark veins ran through it like cracks in ice. The serpent venom, fused into the core during the attack that had driven the wolf from its pack.
Wang Tian picked up the core, turning it in his fingers. "I've been working through the approach since we talked. The refinement is trickier than I expected. The venom fights the binding at every stage." He set it down. "But I think I can do it."
Wang Ben looked at the core. The dark veins pulsed faintly in the Spirit Fire's light.
"What would happen if it works?"
"Your body refinement would accelerate. Dramatically." Wang Tian paused. "I've been studying this core since we first talked about it. The essence is pure despite the venom. With the right refinement..."
He trailed off, then met Wang Ben's eyes directly.
"If I do this correctly, the pill could carry you all the way to peak late-stage body refinement. Not immediately; the process would take days, perhaps weeks. But the medicinal power would continue working until your body reached its natural limit for this realm."
The absolute ceiling before qi condensation.
"And if it doesn't work?"
"If the refinement is poor, the poison overwhelms the medicine. Your body can't process it." Wang Tian met his eyes. "But I won't let that happen. My meridians are better than they've ever been, and I know this core inside out by now. The danger is real, but it's manageable."
"When would you do it?" Wang Ben asked.
"Tonight. If you agree." Wang Tian gestured to the workshop around them. "I have everything I need. The refinement will take four to six hours. You'd take the pill before dawn, give your body time to begin absorbing it before the tide hits."
"And during the tide?"
"You'll be in pain. Significant pain, as your body fights to process the medicinal power. But you'll also be growing stronger, even as you fight." Wang Tian's eyes hardened. "It's a gamble. I won't force it on you."
Wang Ben considered the core, the workshop, his father's tired face. The beast tide was coming. People would die. His father had said so himself. Mid-stage body refinement might not be enough to survive what was approaching.
But the absolute limit of this realm might be.
"Do it," he said.
Wang Tian didn't look surprised. "You didn't even ask about the side effects."
"Would knowing change whether I should take it?"
A ghost of a smile crossed his father's face. "No. It wouldn't." He picked up the core again, his eyes sharpening back to alchemist's focus. "Then let's begin. I'll need your help with the preparation. This won't be an ordinary refinement. I'm going to push for the highest quality I can achieve. Peak Grade 8 if I can manage it. Anything less might not be sufficient for what we're attempting."
The refinement took six hours.
Wang Ben watched his father work with a focus that bordered on reverence. This was not the broken man he'd known for nine years, the alchemist who'd lost his fire and barely managed low-quality pills. This was Wang Tian as he'd been meant to be: a Grade 8 alchemist working at the height of his craft, pushing himself toward true excellence.
The Spirit Fire blazed brighter than Wang Ben had ever seen it, burning with an intensity that pulsed in rhythm with Wang Tian's heartbeat. His father's hands moved in complex patterns, guiding the flames with qi manipulation so precise that even the System struggled to fully analyze it.
[REFINEMENT OBSERVATION]
[Technique complexity: Surpasses standard Grade 8 expectations]
[Spirit Fire intensity: Well above standard]
[NOTE: Enhanced meridians may be contributing to improved performance]
The wolf core dissolved slowly, its essence merging with the supporting ingredients in patterns that seemed to shift between order and chaos. One moment the mixture in the cauldron appeared stable; the next, dark tendrils of poison would surge toward the surface, threatening to corrupt the entire batch. Each time, Wang Tian's flames would intensify, forcing the toxins back into submission.
"More moonpetal essence," Wang Tian said, his voice strained with concentration. "Three drops, no more."
Wang Ben measured the pearlescent liquid with exacting care, releasing exactly three drops into a prepared channel that fed into the cauldron. The mixture shuddered, then settled into a new balance.
"Good. Now we wait."
The second hour was worse than the first. The poison in the core seemed to sense what was happening, fighting against its own integration with increasing desperation. Twice Wang Tian had to physically restrain the mixture with qi barriers, his face sheening with sweat from the effort.
By the third hour, the balance shifted.
The chaos in the cauldron began to organize itself. The dark veins of poison stopped fighting and started weaving, threading through the blue essence of the wolf core in patterns that looked almost intentional. Wang Tian's flames gentled, no longer forcing compliance but encouraging transformation.
"It's working," Wang Tian breathed. "The toxins are integrating instead of corrupting. I wasn't sure it was possible."
[REFINEMENT OBSERVATION]
[Core essence integration: Progressing steadily]
[Toxin binding: Stable]
[Quality assessment: High Grade 8, possibly approaching peak]
Wang Ben watched, transfixed, as his father guided the process through its final stages. The mixture in the cauldron condensed, its volume shrinking as spiritual essence concentrated into denser and denser forms. Colors shifted: pale blue darkening toward sapphire, the purple veins of poison taking on a luminous quality.
The fourth hour brought the pill formation stage. This was where most refinements succeeded or failed, Wang Tian explained in terse fragments between adjustments. The condensed essence had to be shaped, compressed, sealed into a form that could survive ingestion and release its power gradually. Push too hard and the pill shattered. Too gentle and it never formed at all.
Wang Tian pushed.
His Spirit Fire roared to intensities that made Wang Ben step back despite himself, the heat palpable even from across the workshop. The mixture in the cauldron screamed, there was no other word for it, as it was forced into a shape it resisted with every fiber of its being.
"Come on," Wang Tian growled through gritted teeth. "Come on, you stubborn..."
The resistance broke.
The Spirit Fire dimmed suddenly, its fury spent. And floating at the center of the cauldron, rotating slowly in the residual heat, was a pill unlike anything Wang Ben had ever seen.
It was the size of his thumbnail, perfectly spherical, its surface a deep sapphire blue that seemed to contain its own light. Purple veins traced patterns across it like lightning frozen in ice, and the whole thing pulsed with a slow rhythm that matched Wang Ben's heartbeat.
"Peak Grade 8," Wang Tian said, his voice cracked with exhaustion and what might have been wonder. "I've never... in all my years of refinement, I've never achieved a peak-quality pill before. Not once."
He looked at his hands as if seeing them for the first time. "Before the injury, I couldn't have managed this. The new meridian pathways, the restored cultivation... they're better than what I had. More precise."
He retrieved the pill with trembling hands, setting it on a jade dish to cool. Up close, Wang Ben could see light playing across its surface, the purple veins glowing faintly from within.
"I could feel it during the refinement," Wang Tian continued, murmuring to the flame. "The fire responding to things I was only thinking, not directing. Precision I've never had before. As if the technique gave me channels specifically built for this kind of work."
He shook his head, setting aside the mystery for later contemplation.
"Rest for an hour. Let the pill stabilize. Then we'll proceed."
Dawn was still two hours away when Wang Ben swallowed the Body Tempering Pill.
The taste was bitter and cold, like frozen medicine left too long on the tongue. It slid down his throat with a weight that seemed wrong for something so small, settling into his stomach with an almost audible impact.
Nothing happened.
Then the heat began.
It started in his core, a spreading warmth that might have been pleasant if it hadn't grown so quickly. In moments, the warmth became fire, racing through his body along paths he couldn't see but could definitely feel. His muscles seized. His bones ached. His skin flushed with blood rushing to places blood wasn't meant to rush.
Wang Ben gritted his teeth against the pain. It wasn't unbearable. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he already knew what real suffering felt like, knew it as a dreamer knows a place they've never visited, and that buried awareness included catastrophes that made this feel like a mild inconvenience. But it was persistent, waves of heat and pressure rolling through him in cycles that refused to end.
His muscles burned. Literally burned, the medicinal power forcing them to break down and rebuild in accelerated cycles. He could feel the fibers tearing, restructuring, becoming denser and more powerful with each cycle. The pain was the price of that growth.
When the first wave finally ebbed enough to think, he reached for the System's analysis.
[BODY TEMPERING PILL: Activated]
[Quality: Peak Grade 8]
[Medicinal potency: Far above standard Grade 8]
[Absorption initiated]
[Physical stress levels: Elevated but manageable]
"The first hour is the worst," Wang Tian said from somewhere nearby. His voice seemed distant, separated from Wang Ben by layers of physical sensation. "Your body is fighting the foreign essence. Once it starts adapting instead of resisting, the pain will diminish."
Wang Ben managed a nod. Speaking was too much effort.
The System continued tracking the process, its cold observations a strange comfort amid the physical chaos.
[Absorption: Proceeding]
[Physical indicators: Muscle and bone density increasing]
[Toxin integration: Normal]
[No signs of organ rejection]
Time became difficult to track. The pain ebbed and flowed, sometimes spiking so sharply that Wang Ben's vision went white, sometimes receding enough that he could almost think clearly. His father remained nearby, watching his condition with the attention of a man who understood exactly how close to disaster they were walking.
"Your heart rate is stable," Wang Tian reported during a relatively calm period. "Breathing is strained but not dangerous. The pill is working exactly as it should."
Wang Ben focused on the System's reports, using the cold facts to ground himself against the physical storm.
[Absorption: Continuing. Pain levels decreasing as adaptation progresses.]
Eventually, gradually, the worst of it passed.
Wang Ben opened eyes he didn't remember closing. The workshop had lightened with pre-dawn gray, the Spirit Fire now banked to embers. His body ached in ways he'd never experienced, a deep soreness that reached into muscles he hadn't known existed.
But beneath the soreness, there was more.
Strength. Growing strength, like a tide rising within him.
He flexed his hands experimentally. The response was faster than he expected, the muscles tighter, more controlled. He could feel the difference in how his body moved, not dramatically transformed, not yet, but noticeably improved.
[Absorption: Continuing. Physical capabilities notably improved and increasing steadily.]
"How do you feel?" Wang Tian asked.
Wang Ben rose to his feet, testing his balance. Everything felt more stable, more grounded, as if someone had packed solid muscle onto his frame without the bulk to show for it. "Like I'm being rebuilt from the inside out."
"That's exactly what's happening." Wang Tian handed him a cup of water. "The pain will come and go over the next several days as the pill continues working. Each wave will be less intense than the last. And with every wave that passes, you'll be stronger."
Wang Ben drank deeply, the cool water a relief against his overheated throat. "You said peak late-stage body refinement."
"If the pill performs as it should, and given its quality, I see no reason it won't, you'll reach the absolute limit of body refinement within a week." Wang Tian's hands stilled on the jade dish, pride and concern and worry all competing in his face. "That's three full stages of advancement. Normally that would take months. Years, for some cultivators."
"The beast tide will hit before then."
"Yes. You'll be fighting while the pill is still working, still changing you." Wang Tian paused. "The pain during combat will be... significant. But so will your strength. You'll be stronger than any mid-stage body refinement cultivator has any right to be, and you'll keep getting stronger as the battle continues."
Wang Ben turned this over in his mind. Fighting through transformation. Growing stronger even as he bled and struggled. It was a strange kind of advantage, painful and dangerous, but undeniable.
Wang Tian crossed his arms, studying his son for a long moment. Then he gripped Wang Ben's shoulder once, firmly, and let go.
"I've experienced worse."
The words slipped out before Wang Ben could stop them. For a moment he didn't know where they had come from. Not from anything that had happened to him in fifteen years. Not from the wolf or the expedition or any pain he could name. It was a borrowed certainty, deep and settled, like a memory of a place he had never been. A flicker of vertigo passed through him, brief and cold, and then it was gone, stored alongside a dozen other moments he hadn't yet learned to explain.
Wang Tian's eyes sharpened, questions forming that he chose not to voice. It was not the first time his mouth had known things before his mind caught up, and the pattern was becoming harder to dismiss as instinct.
"Get some rest," he said instead. "Real rest, in a bed, not meditating. The pill works faster when the body is relaxed." He moved toward the workshop door, exhaustion evident in every step. "The clan council meets at noon to finalize defense assignments. You'll be expected to attend."
"The tide?"
"Tomorrow, most likely. Maybe the day after." Wang Tian paused at the threshold. "Your friend Zhao Yu wasn't wrong about those northern scouts. It's worse than even he knows. Foundation establishment beasts in numbers we've never seen. Something drove them out of the deep forest, and now they're coming here."
He left without elaborating.
Wang Ben sat alone in the workshop, feeling the pill's power pulse through him with every heartbeat. The pain was still there, a constant pressure beneath his skin, but it was manageable now. The price of growing stronger.
His body was changing. Strengthening. Preparing for what was to come.
[OBSERVATION: Host physical condition improving steadily]
[NOTE: Absorption rate appears to accelerate during physical exertion]
Wang Ben closed his eyes, letting exhaustion claim him. Tomorrow, or the day after, the beasts would come. The walls would be tested. People would die.
But he would be ready.
Whatever strength he could earn before then, he would earn it. At peak late-stage, he would be able to hold a guard position that currently broke his stance within a breath, sustain the full-body tension required for a deflection against a qi condensation beast's charge without his arms giving out, and move through vertical terrain with control rather than scrambling. These were not abstract improvements. He had felt their absence in every fight during the expedition. He would feel their presence in the one coming.
Peak late-stage body refinement.
The pill pulsed once more, deep in his bones, and his fingers curled against the workbench as a fresh wave of heat crawled through his joints. He breathed through it. When it passed, his hands felt steadier than they had before.