The command center was chaos barely contained.
Wang Ben arrived to find senior officers gathered around the central table, their voices overlapping in urgent debate. Commander Feng Zhaoyang stood at the head, his Fire-aspected presence burning with controlled intensity as he absorbed the reports flooding in from the southwest.
"Confirmed?" His voice cut through the noise.
"Confirmed, Commander." The intelligence officer's face was ashen. "Iron Gate Domain fell three days ago. The enemy broke through the southwestern walls after a sustained assault. Garrison Commander Zhou and his senior staff... no survivors reported from the command structure."
The words landed with the finality of an executioner's blade. Iron Gate was not just any fortress. It was a symbol, a bulwark that had stood unbroken for two hundred years. If Iron Gate could fall...
"How?" Vice Commander Chen demanded. "Iron Gate's formations were among the strongest in the kingdom. They had three core formation masters maintaining their defensive arrays."
"The intelligence is still fragmentary." The officer consulted his reports. "But preliminary analysis suggests the formations failed. Not from direct assault, but from systemic degradation."
"Degradation?"
"Their Metal-aspected spirit stone reserves ran dry. The supply convoys that should have resupplied them... they never arrived." The officer's voice grew quieter. "Without proper materials, the formation masters couldn't maintain array integrity. The defensive structures weakened over weeks until the enemy could overwhelm them."
Wang Ben felt the implications settling into his mind like ice. Lin Suyin's lesson about elemental economics, the vulnerability of formations that depended on specific spirit stone types. Iron Gate had fallen not to superior force, but to strategic strangulation.
[STRATEGIC ANALYSIS: Iron Gate Domain fall]
[Cause: Formation failure due to spirit stone depletion]
[Method: Enemy interdiction of supply lines over extended period]
[Implication: Frozen Jade Kingdom has shifted to attrition strategy]
[Risk assessment: Azure Dragon Fortress faces similar vulnerability in Metal-deficient sectors]
[Note: Pattern matches Lin Suyin's warning about elemental economics as strategic lever]
"The dead?" Commander Feng asked, his voice controlled but heavy.
"Estimated three thousand. Defenders, support personnel, civilian contractors." The intelligence officer's hands trembled slightly as he read the figures. "Survivors are scattered. Some escaped through emergency routes. Most... most are presumed captured or killed."
Three thousand.
Wang Ben's stomach dropped. His hands gripped the edge of his seat, knuckles going white. Four hundred names on the memorial wall had felt crushing. Three thousand was too vast to comprehend—not data, but catastrophe.
He realized he was holding his breath and forced himself to exhale slowly.
"How long do we have?" Commander Feng turned to his formation officers. "If the enemy applies the same strategy here, how long before our arrays fail?"
The Formation Commander, a late-stage core formation cultivator named Wei Jian, stepped forward with grim professionalism. "Our Metal-deficient sectors have been reinforced, but we're still vulnerable. With current supply rates, we could maintain critical formations for approximately eight weeks. After that, degradation becomes inevitable."
"Eight weeks." Commander Feng's jaw tightened. "And the enemy knows this now. Iron Gate's fall taught them what works."
The room fell silent, the gravity of that assessment pressing down on everyone present.
The war council continued through the night.
Wang Ben sat in the observers' section, his tactical analysis training keeping him present even as his mind struggled to absorb the scale of what had happened. The senior officers debated supply routes, defensive priorities, contingency plans. Every discussion carried an undertone of desperation that hadn't been there before.
"Our southwestern flank is exposed now," Battle Commander Xu said, indicating the strategic map. "Iron Gate anchored our defensive line. Without it, the enemy can approach Azure Dragon from two directions simultaneously."
"Which is exactly what they'll do." Vice Commander Chen traced the likely approaches. "The force that took Iron Gate will redeploy. We should expect coordinated attack within weeks."
"Then we prepare." Commander Feng's voice cut through the discussion with authority. "Double shifts on formation repair. Priority allocation for Metal spirit stones. Every supply convoy gets maximum escort protection."
"We don't have the personnel for double shifts," someone objected. "Our formation corps is already stretched thin."
"Then we stretch them thinner." Commander Feng's Fire presence flared briefly. "I will not watch this fortress fall the way Iron Gate did. Not while I command it."
The meeting broke into smaller discussions, officers clustering to address specific concerns. Wang Ben found himself approached by Captain Liu Yanran, her expression carrying the same controlled tension that permeated the room.
"Your analysis skills." Her voice was low enough to avoid carrying. "Commander Feng wants a full pattern assessment. What indicators should we have seen? What warnings did Iron Gate miss that we might be missing here?"
"I'll need access to the intelligence reports."
"You'll have them. Priority clearance, effective immediately." Captain Liu handed him a sealed document case. "Work fast. The commander wants preliminary findings by morning."
Wang Ben accepted the case, feeling its weight as both burden and responsibility. Somewhere in these reports were patterns that could save lives. Or patterns that would reveal how little could be saved.
The analysis took all night.
Wang Ben spread the intelligence reports across his desk, reading through accounts of Iron Gate's fall with the meticulous attention that his enhanced System provided. The picture that emerged was both clear and horrifying.
[INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS: Iron Gate Domain fall - Pattern reconstruction]
[Timeline:]
[Week -12: Supply convoy interdiction begins. Minor delays, attributed to enemy activity]
[Week -8: Metal spirit stone reserves at 60%. Formation efficiency declining]
[Week -6: Multiple convoy losses. Garrison Commander Zhou requests emergency resupply]
[Week -4: Reserves at 30%. Critical formations showing degradation. Request for reinforcement denied due to "allocation constraints"]
[Week -2: Reserves at 15%. Emergency protocols activated. Defensive capability compromised]
[Week 0: Enemy assault overwhelms weakened formations. Fortress falls in 18 hours]
[Pattern indicators:]
[- Gradual supply line disruption over months]
[- Ignored warning signs at command level]
[- No contingency for elemental-specific depletion]
[- Strategic blindness to attrition warfare]
[Risk assessment for Azure Dragon: Multiple parallel indicators present]
The patterns were damning. Iron Gate's commanders had seen the warning signs but failed to act decisively. They had trusted in the fortress's historical invincibility, had assumed that supply problems were temporary inconveniences rather than existential threats.
They had been wrong. Three thousand people had paid for that error.
Wang Ben compiled his analysis into a formal report, documenting the timeline, the indicators, and the lessons that Azure Dragon needed to learn. The work was clinical, detached. It had to be. If he let himself feel the full magnitude of what he was documenting, he would be unable to function.
Three thousand, his mind kept repeating. Three thousand names that would fill walls and walls of memorial space.
He finished the report as dawn light began to filter through his window. His body was exhausted, but his mind remained sharp. The System's enhanced analysis had helped him see patterns that might otherwise have taken days to identify.
Now he had to present them to people who might not want to hear them.
Commander Feng received the report in his private office.
The Fire-aspected mortal shedding cultivator read through Wang Ben's analysis in silence, his expression growing more severe with each page. When he finished, he set the documents down with careful deliberation.
"You're saying we're on the same path."
"The indicators are present, Commander." Wang Ben kept his voice level despite his fatigue. "Our Metal-deficient sectors show similar vulnerability patterns. Our supply lines face comparable interdiction pressure. The main difference is awareness. We know what happened to Iron Gate. They didn't have that warning."
"Awareness doesn't prevent starvation." Commander Feng rose and walked to his window, looking out at the fortress walls he was sworn to defend. "If the supply convoys can't get through, knowing the problem exists doesn't solve it."
"No, sir. But it changes our response options." Wang Ben stepped forward, indicating specific points in his analysis. "Iron Gate's commanders requested help through normal channels. Their requests were denied or delayed by bureaucratic process. We can't afford that approach."
"What do you suggest?"
"Immediate escalation to the Crimson Bastion command. Direct communication with the lord's strategic council. Make them understand that this fortress is the next target, and that our fall would open the entire Blackwood Domain to enemy advance."
"Political pressure." Commander Feng's voice was thoughtful. "Using Iron Gate's fall as leverage."
"Using reality as leverage, Commander. The strategic situation has changed. Iron Gate's fall proves that the enemy has found a tactic that works. They will use it again."
The commander was silent for a long moment, his Fire presence flickering with internal debate. Then he turned back to face Wang Ben directly.
"Your analysis is sound. Your recommendations are... aggressive, but appropriate given the circumstances." He picked up the report. "This goes to the lord's council today. With my endorsement."
"Thank you, Commander."
"Don't thank me yet." Commander Feng's expression held no comfort. "We're fighting for survival now. Understanding the threat is only the first step. Surviving it... that's where the real work begins."
The fortress mood shifted over the following days.
News of Iron Gate's fall spread through the garrison with the inevitability of water finding cracks. What had been routine tension became something darker, heavier. Cultivators who had faced daily combat with stoic professionalism now moved through their duties with the shadow of mortality weighing on their shoulders.
Wang Ben felt it everywhere. In the formation teams that worked longer hours with fewer breaks. In the medical corps that quietly inventoried supplies for mass casualty scenarios. In the memorial wall, where someone had added a small section labeled "Iron Gate" with space for names that would never be fully known.
He visited the wall on the third day after the fall, standing before the empty section while the fortress stirred around him.
"You're thinking about them." Liu Feng appeared beside him, carrying two cups of tea. It had become their ritual. "The ones we'll never be able to name."
"Three thousand." Wang Ben accepted the tea, its warmth a small comfort. "I've been reading the survivor accounts. Some of them knew people at Iron Gate. Colleagues, family members, cultivators they had trained alongside."
"And now those people are gone." Liu Feng's voice held the acceptance of someone who had learned this particular truth long ago. "War doesn't care about connections. It takes who it takes."
"It shouldn't be this way."
"No. It shouldn't." Liu Feng was quiet for a moment. "But it is. And the only thing we can do is make sure our names don't end up on walls like this one. And that the names of those we can save never get added."
Wang Ben looked at the empty Iron Gate section, imagining it filled with three thousand names. Each one a person with family somewhere, with hopes and fears and the simple desire to survive another day.
This is why the efficiency matters, he thought. This is why power matters. Because without it, you end up on walls like this.
His cultivation session that evening carried the weight of that understanding.
[CULTIVATION SESSION: Hour 3]
[Qi absorbed: 412 motes]
[Qi retained: 45 motes]
[Retention efficiency: 11.0%]
[Elemental composition:]
[- Earth: 19 motes (42.2%)]
[- Metal: 12 motes (26.7%)]
[- Fire: 8 motes (17.8%)]
[- Wood: 4 motes (8.9%)]
[- Dark: 2 motes (4.4%)]
[Environment: Azure Dragon Fortress (Crisis alert status)]
[Note: Emotional stress not significantly impacting cultivation efficiency. Host's mental discipline remains stable despite external pressures]
Eleven percent. Another step forward on a path that felt both too slow and too fast simultaneously. He was growing stronger, his efficiency climbing toward thresholds that would eventually make him formidable.
But three thousand cultivators at Iron Gate had been formidable too. It hadn't saved them.
...
Commander Feng's announcement came on the fifth day.
The entire garrison assembled in the main courtyard, thousands of cultivators standing in formation as their commander addressed them from the raised platform that served for such occasions.
"You know what happened at Iron Gate." His voice carried across the assembled masses, Fire-aspected power amplifying his words. "Three thousand of our brothers and sisters, dead or captured. A fortress that stood for two centuries, fallen in eighteen hours."
The silence was absolute. Every cultivator present felt the weight of those words.
"The enemy will come for us next. They have found a strategy that works, and they will apply it here. We face not just assault, but strangulation. Not just combat, but attrition."
Commander Feng's presence flared, his Fire signature casting warmth across the courtyard.
"But we are not Iron Gate. We know what's coming. We have time to prepare, resources to marshal, determination that will not waver." His voice rose. "From this moment, the fortress operates under heightened alert. All leave is cancelled. All personnel report to duty stations at maximum readiness. Every formation team doubles their repair schedule. Every supply officer inventories their materials. Every warrior prepares for the fight of their life."
The assembled cultivators stirred, the magnitude of the moment settling into their bones.
"We will not fall." Commander Feng's words rang like a bell. "We will not break. We will stand, and we will fight, and when the enemy comes for us, they will find walls that do not crumble and defenders who do not flee. This fortress is our home. Our purpose. Our sacred trust."
He raised his fist, Fire qi blazing around his hand.
"For Azure Dragon. For the kingdom. For everyone who depends on us to hold this line."
The response came from thousands of throats, a roar of defiance that shook the courtyard walls.
"FOR AZURE DRAGON!"
Wang Ben's voice joined the cry, his own determination crystallizing in that moment of shared purpose. The war had changed. The stakes had risen. But they were not beaten yet.
They would fight. They would endure.
And maybe, if they were strong enough and smart enough and lucky enough, they would survive.