Legge's translation of the fifth line is brief: the fifth nine, undivided, shows the resolute tread of its subject, and though he be firm and correct, there will be peril. Unlike the earlier lines, no external image, tiger, cart, or otherwise, accompanies this statement; the danger named is attached directly to the manner of treading itself, resolute and unbending, rather than to any creature or obstacle met along the way.
Nine in the fifth place is both central and correctly seated, the ruling position of Qian, the upper trigram, and by every ordinary measure of position it is the strongest place a line can occupy in the hexagram. Yet Legge's text attaches peril to it regardless, suggesting that resolve carried to this height, however correct in itself, still meets danger simply because supreme strength, resolutely applied, leaves no room left for the give and take that safer conduct elsewhere in the hexagram has relied on.
Set against the fourth line's survival through apprehension, the fifth line's peril despite firmness and correctness reads as a caution against mistaking rightful strength for safety. Position and virtue together are not enough; the line still names risk, and Legge offers no resolution beyond naming it plainly.