Chapter 260 – Pedal to the Metal
With all the pills he needed for the immediate future created, Benton turned his attention to creating the qi sources. He wanted to make one for each of six elements—Fire, Ice, Momentum, Nature, Shadow, and Time. And each required three separate types of materials—beast, plant, and mineral.
Eighteen materials total.
He currently had in his possession three of the eighteen—the Fire aspected core from the Cyclops, the Fire stones Kang Ya-Ting traded, and Nature kernels from the Orange Vigor Spirit Wood. Even better, Benton was expecting delivery of a Fire-aspected plant in a little more than a month, which he'd receive in exchange for letting one of the Poison Claw Sect elders use the Trial Pagoda.
Normally, he might have questioned if the material was worth the five hundred Sect Points the usage would cost, but gaining that Fire aspected plant would complete the set of three, allowing him to actually create the Fire qi source.
He couldn't wait!
Besides, the qi sources were the key to his plan for building his sect to the level high enough for all of them to be truly safe. No cost was too high.
The Poison Claw Sect elders had offered two more materials for trade—an Ice aspected plant and a Shadow aspected core. Step one of hopefully acquiring those items was to use his crafting abilities to create products to sell at the auction. If he could make treasures that were extraordinary enough, they would be so in demand that he'd have no problem completing a trade for the materials he needed, even if he had to find a third party to make things work out.
Still, out of eighteen separate materials, he only knew of six. One out of every three he needed. One third. Thirty-three percent.
By any measure, that wasn't a lot.
Finding more wasn't out of the realm of possibility, though. After all, he'd barely even begun to search. His only real effort thus far had been to send the kids to the city and have them ask around. And that seriously minimal effort had born a decent amount of fruit.
Benton even had two very good potential places to search—the upcoming auction and the mountain. Just because he was currently focused on the auction as a way to trade with the elders, that didn't mean he wouldn't find materials for sale there. Which meant it was even more important that he produce as many treasures as he could and make them as desirable as possible.
Even easier was exploring the mountain. As far as he could tell, the closer to the mountain one got, the stronger the beasts. Then, upon reaching the slope, the higher up you reached, the stronger the beasts. His spiritual senses indicated that the cyclops wasn't anywhere near the apex predator there, so as a mere Golden Core, Benton had been extremely reluctant to take a look around.
Besides, he'd been pretty darn busy taking care of the sect, and it hadn't been safe to leave the kids unguarded.
With his advancement to Nascent Soul, the recruitment of Yuan Yaozu, and the construction of the Grand Defensive Formation, all that had changed. He was more than powerful enough to take care of himself while searching for hidden treasure, and the kids would be just fine if he took off for a few days, especially with all the contingency rings he'd distributed.
Thus, Benton came up with his plan.
His first step, the one he was itching to do, was creating treasures for the auction. Crafting them involved letting his imagination go wild and inventing the best, most interesting and powerful treasures he could think up using all the advantages the System gave him.
That sounded like so much fun.
Of course, like with so many important tasks, there was a precursor activity. Taking treasures crafted by an Expert alchemist or a Formations Expert to the auction would be impressive. Kind of. People would definitely be interested in what he had to sell. But it wouldn't generate the kind of buzz he needed.
No, if he wanted to trade for the materials necessary to make the qi sources, only masterworks would do, which meant that his prerequisite to beginning was to buy the necessary techniques to raise his level for each type of crafting.
Once he had the trade goods made, the next activity that seemed like the most fun was exploring the mountain. He'd been on the planet for almost a year and felt like he'd done little, if any, actual adventuring. Right after recruiting the twins, he'd followed the System's nudging to find the village, and from there, he'd journeyed to Sixth Flawless Flowing City and back.
So there had been a decent amount of travel, especially compared to peasants who might never go more than a dozen miles from where they were born. But travel wasn't adventure. It wasn't exploring. Flying to the mountain to search for hidden treasures while dodging spirit beasts that might be above even him in cultivation was an adventure!
He couldn't wait.
Unfortunately, as a responsible adult, he had to eat his veggies before chowing down on dessert. As long as the palace in Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town was relatively unprotected, he couldn't justify taking off into the woods and playing Indiana Jones.
Benton gave himself a week to work on the trade goods. If he finished before that deadline, he'd teleport to the town and complete his work there. Even if he wasn't finished with his crafting when the deadline came around, he'd teleport to the town at that time regardless.
There. Decision made. Benton had a full week, guilt free, to dive into thinking up and making awesome toys. He rubbed his hands together gleefully.
First phase, personal enhancement. Benton used three Foundation Establishment level skills for alchemy—Alchemy Knowledge, Herb Preparation, and Pill Creation. Each had three ranks, Mastery of which brought him to the peak of the Expert Level. To become a Master alchemist, he needed to purchase the rank four technique for each. Which he did.
At eight points each, he spent twenty-four Sect Points.
To create formations at an Expert Level, he used one Qi Gathering level technique and three at the Foundation Establishment realm—Knowledge of Formations, Formation Construction, Formation Construction Acceleration, and Inscription. He'd already bought the first three ranks for all of them. To increase his level to Master, he needed to purchase the fourth rank of each.
He hesitated a moment before purchasing the fourth rank of one of the techniques, however. Acceleration was not technically a requirement. That skill basically let him design and produce arrays at a faster pace, an essential boon for the massive amounts of inscribing that walls and Grand Defensive Formations took. The question was whether he really needed it for Master level work.
Then again, why was he quibbling over a measly eight points when he was raking them in by the hundreds?
He spent the twenty-eight points required to increase the rank of all four techniques.
Blacksmithing was much more problematic than the other two crafts. Benton had cheaped out when buying his initial technique, purchasing only one of them at basically the first rank. He barely had enough ability to properly be called an Apprentice.
To get to Master, he'd need three additional ranks of Blacksmithing, four ranks of Blacksmithing Knowledge, and four ranks of Forging. That was an additional seventy-two points, twenty more than advancing the other two types of crafts combined.
Still, it wasn't like he had a choice. Pills that were as in demand as he needed required herbs that were as rare as the qi materials that he was trying to obtain, and it wasn't possible to sell his services as a Formations Master given the current political environment. No, he needed to use those two skills to augment his weapon creation, a craft that required blacksmithing.
After dithering about it for a while, Benton finally pulled the trigger and made the purchase. Even with buying all those techniques, though, he was still well above his thousand point floor, so he tried not to let the expenditures bother him.
In fact, as he thought about how to maximize the value of the trade goods he planned to produce, he realized that specializing in a particular type of weapon would be better than making a bunch of different kinds, and since cultivators loved their swords…
He purchased four ranks of a Qi Gathering level technique on the knowledge of sword construction. It was worth the sixteen additional points to become a Master swordsmith.
His first sword needed to be something easy so that he could practice his skill. After a bit of consideration, he decided that a simple, well-built sword imbued with one of the five common elements would be perfect. The idea of the weapon being that a Fire aspected cultivator could more easily channel qi through the weapon if it were already imbued with Fire qi. In fact, if Benton added a simple array, the amount of qi channeled through the sword could actually be multiplied and also made to be more destructive.
Benton liked that idea. An array for self-repair and another to keep the blade always sharp would add to the value.
Yeah. Simple but valuable. Exactly what he needed. Five such swords, one for each common element, would be a good start for his trade goods.
He had a Concept for Metal, which would serve him well in adding self-repair. The problem was that he didn't have a Concept for Sharpness. Of course, he didn't actually need a Concept simply to imbue Sharpness into metal, but the array would be a lot more efficient and effective if he did.
Hmm.
Benton would probably be making a lot of swords to sell and, eventually, other weapons, particularly spears, for his sect. He couldn't imagine not wanting both the self-repair and the Sharpness arrays for all of them.
Besides, a more efficient and effective Sharpness array meant more valuable, which was the whole point of the exercise.
There went another sixteen Sect Points.
He still had two sample ingots of the ten different metals the kids had purchased from Kang Ya-Ting, so Benton used Analyze to study each of them. None of the metals were top tier materials, but they had the benefit of all being easily available from the Poison Claw Sect at a reasonable, if high, price.
In theory, a Master Blacksmith could turn the roughest trash iron into a weapon that any sect would treasure, but in practice, the type of metal did impact the final price. If he would have had access to better materials, he would have used them in a heartbeat, but he could definitely work with what was in front of him.
After his examination, he chose starsteel to work with. The metal possessed a good combination of strength and durability while still maintaining a healthy degree of flexibility. Importantly, it would also easily hold a sharp edge, accept the three arrays he planned to inscribe, and conduct qi efficiently.
Honestly, most of the metals possessed similar properties. One might be a little stronger or more durable or conduct qi better or what have you, but Benton liked the starsteel's overall combination the best. Of course, it was also the most expensive at one hundred seventy-five greater spirit coins per ingot.
Counting waste, he'd need about one and a quarter ingots per sword, so six and a quarter for the five swords he was definitely planning on making. He wasn't sure how many swords other than those five he would make, though.
Hmm.
No more than twenty, right? Yeah. That sounded reasonable. So call it thirty-two ingots. Round that up to thirty-five. Perfect.
Assuming a ten percent service fee for Kang Ya-Ting, the ingots should cost him about sixty-eight hundred greater spirit coins all in. Not exactly pocket change, but those were easy enough for him to produce.
He fired off a message to the Poison Claw Sect elder.
Friend Kang,
I need another 35 ingots of starsteel. Will 6,800 greater spirit coins work (a number that should already include your fee, btw!)?
Any preference on the qi element on the coins?
Also, do you think it's safe for your most excellent granddaughter to fly back and forth to the city solo to pick up the metal? If you think there's any danger at all, I'd rather not risk it and could instead come myself.
Gratitude,
Friend Su
It didn't take long to get the response back.
Friend Su,
I suppose this nearly destitute old man can accept the measly sum of 6,800 greater spirit coins for the metal, my time spent arranging the purchase of the metal, and the use of my very own granddaughter for transportation.
As for our preference on the qi element, any of the five common ones are always easy to trade. If you also had some Poison or Venom aspected ones lying around, their inclusion would certainly be appreciated.
Considering that Kang Lin's sect robes should provide adequate protection all on their own along with the fact that she possesses one of the contingency rings you created, I have absolutely no fear of her not having a completely safe and boring journey.
Send her along tomorrow, and I'll have the ingots waiting for her.
With Respect,
Friend Kang
Perfect. Tomorrow he'd have all the materials he needed. Today, he'd use the sample ingots to practice.
Chapter 261 – Incredible Generosity
Kang Lin reminisced as she flew on her glider, as Master called it. She still enjoyed the experience of flying, but with her Foundation Establishment level body control and reflexes, simply staying over the trees as she made her way to Sixth Flawless Flowing City didn't require much of her attention. The easy flight was nothing like playing what Yang Xiu called sky tag.
Now that game made Kang Lin concentrate solely on flying.
As it was, though, her mind wandered. First, she considered the gliders themselves. The construction and arrays weren't anything all that special, and the only part that would make it difficult to replicate was the inclusion of Gravity qi, not an element that many cultivators used. Still, she'd never heard of a sect that produced anything like the device.
She couldn't help but wonder why.
The device allowed Foundation Establishment cultivators to get from place to place much faster than any movement technique available at their level. Considering that the majority of the hard labor performed in a sect was done by cultivators of that level, it seemed like improving their efficiency would be something worth doing.
On the negative side, the devices were only good for a couple of years at most for the most talented of sect members, and sects weren't known for giving expensive gifts to untalented members. Maybe they just didn't think it was worth the effort to produce.
The Rising Tide Sect was different in that they had very, very few high realmed members, only Master and Town Lord Ren. They had a growing number of Foundation Establishment Cultivators, though. The twins and, as of recently, Jin LiJuan were just the start. Master had promised that every Qi Gathering cultivator in the sect, even those with only F talent, would reach the second major realm if they were diligent enough, and Kang Lin believed him.
The benefit provided by his top heaven grade cultivation methods could not be overstated. Combine those with that crazy Trial Pagoda, and there was no reason the entire sect wouldn't eventually reach even Golden Core. Or higher.
She had personally witnessed one man use the pagoda to go from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core and another from Golden Core to Nascent Soul. Nascent Soul! And both men had been stuck for a long time at the peaks of their respective realms. The Trial Pagoda was solely responsible for their advancement.
Kang Lin trembled, and she didn't know if the reaction was from fear or excitement. Probably both but more the former.
Within two to three years, it would not be surprising if the Rising Tide Sect had a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators. Which wasn't a big thing. The Poison Claw Sect had treble that number. But even selecting only highly talented recruits, more than half the inductees never even reached that high.
To ensure that no recruit, no matter how untalented, failed was unfathomable. What would the Rising Tide Sect be in a century? A millennium?
Even if the Poison Claw Sect had a dozen Nascent Souls by then, it would probably end up a subsidiary of Master's sect. The future of the Rising Tide Sect was bright indeed.
If.
A big if.
If no one came along and destroyed what Master was trying to build.
Kang Lin wasn't stupid, and she'd been educated in the ways of sects. The Rising Tide Sect was about to go through a tribulation, one originating from its fellow sects instead of from the heavens. And there were only two outcomes. Either Master would reign supreme or he and all his disciples would be dead.
Trying to shake off her morose thoughts, she stared ahead. The city walls were just coming into view.
Her grandfather had gotten her permission to fly over the gate directly to the Poison Claw Sect, so the guards should have been expecting her. She lowered her speed and altitude to just above the height of the wall and waved at one of them. He waved back.
As she crossed the threshold into the city, she was well aware that, at that moment, she was almost definitely the only Foundation Establishment cultivator flying solo above the city. Being the only cultivator of her realm performing such a highly visible activity wasn't necessarily a good thing. Spotting several figures on flying swords in the sky, she realized how vulnerable she was and that she had nearly seven thousand of Master's greater spirit coins in her storage ring. Keeping her speed high, she lowered her height to the minimum needed to clear the surrounding buildings and headed straight for her sect's branch grounds.
The closer she got to her grandfather's study, the more anxious she became. She barely even knew why, but a deep feeling of unease came over her.
"Grandfather!" she said as soon as she was invited in.
"Kang Lin? Are you okay?"
"How bad is it, Grandfather? Will my friends be killed? Will Master?"
His shoulders slumped. "I don't know. With Yuan Yaozu's advancement, our sect is strongly allied with him now, more strongly than we've been with any other sect ever. We are also now the strongest faction with five, soon to be six, Nascent Souls." He chuckled, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "The way it's going, this old man will soon join those lofty ranks."
Kang Lin plastered a grin on her face even though she didn't feel at all amused. "The world will be a better place with you watching over it at such a high realm."
Her belief in that sentiment, at least, she didn't have to fake.
"Trust in your master, Granddaughter. He is a wise and powerful cultivator."
She frowned. "Those two Nascent Souls nearly killed him. How will he stand against what is sure to come next?"
Her grandfather did something that she had never seen nor could even fathom. He shrugged. "What I don't know about that man is far more extensive than what I do know. All I can say is that I have the utmost confidence that anyone who comes against him will die. Period. Just like all the others before them. Your master may have looked like he was on the verge of losing, but who is standing and who doesn't have enough of their bodies remaining for a decent burial?"
"I've never seen him act like he did afterward. He was angry, which I have seen, but more than that, he appeared defeated."
"That wasn't a man who admitted defeat, my granddaughter. That was a man who admitted making a mistake. He clearly underestimated his foes and almost paid for it." He shrugged again. "It happens to the best of us."
"You really think that is all it was, Grandfather?"
"I do."
"And you think he has the power to defend his sect?" Kang Lin said. "That Trial Pagoda? I'm right about what's coming, aren't I?"
"You are, and I do. There is much more to this world than you or I have seen. I heard of a man once who could advance his cultivation by restricting his realm while in combat. The trick of it was that, once limited, it couldn't be changed until the fight was over. So if he made a miscalculation, he'd die, but when he got it right, his cultivation shot forward at ridiculous speed."
"Is that what's going on with Master?"
Her grandfather chuckled. "I doubt it, but there is something very unusual about your master. This old man hasn't lived long enough to understand what he's using for a source of power, but I guarantee you that he is not so simple. I would bet you all the spirit coins you have on you at ten to one odds that, if he were to come up against those two Nascent Souls today, he'd obliterate them without expending any effort at all. If I didn't believe in his ability, there is no way I'd let you go back to that sect with what will be coming his way."
Kang Lin cupped her hands. "Gratitude, Grandfather."
Once they'd done their business, exchanging Master's coins for the metal ingots, Kang Lin took her leave, feeling much lighter of heart than when she'd arrived. Her flight back out of the city was more enjoyable, too, as she noted all the people who pointed to the girl flying on the strange device.
She waved and had fun with the attention until she spotted a man wearing the gray robes of the Jade Chameleon Sect. From his age and the fact that she couldn't sense him, he was surely a Golden Core but not one that she recognized. Not that she knew many on sight.
Instead of him being angry, he smiled and waved back at her, and at first, she thought he meant it as a peace offering to her and her sect. Then, she met his eyes. They were cold and calculating, standing in bright contrast to his expression and body language.
That man was a snake, and she'd best avoid him at all costs. She pretended to wave at someone else as she increased her speed away from him. When she finally passed over the wall and didn't spot anyone behind her, she breathed out a huge sigh of relief.
Still, she kept her glider at maximum velocity all the way back to the Rising Tide Sect, swearing to herself that she would plead with Master to make her device faster.
Obviously, then, when she landed, she went straight to the Administration Hall and climbed the stairs to Master's office.
"Ah, Kang Lin," he said. "Welcome back. I'm so glad to see you made it safely. Any problems?"
She almost mentioned the Jade Chameleon that she saw, but as nothing had actually happened with the man, there wasn't anything to tell. "No, Master. I went straight there and back, only taking a brief time to visit with my grandfather."
"So diligent. You are a credit to your sect."
She cupped her hands, holding her storage ring in her palm. "Your ingots, Master."
"Perfect!" He took the ring, extracted the ingots into the air and had them hover there for a moment as he examined them before, presumably, storing them in his ring. "Exactly what I requested. This will do nicely." Master floated her ring back to her.
Since she thought that their business was concluded, she was about to ask about making the gliders faster when he spoke again.
"I've got something for you. A small gift."
A gift? For her? Another one? He'd already given her the glider. She couldn't help but get a bit excited.
"It's nothing big or all that impressive." He paused. "Here, let me just show you."
A sword, a jian, appeared floating in the air in front of her, confusing her to no end. Why would he give her a sword? She was a spear user.
"The metal you retrieved for me will be made into swords for the upcoming auction," Master said, "and the ones that I sell there will need to be perfect. Even a master like me sometimes needs to rough out a project before starting on the real thing. This is my proof of concept."
Okay. That explained why he had that sword but not why he was giving it to her.
"My problem was twofold," he said. "One, I knew that sword was neither going to be good enough for the auction or for any of my disciples, few of which could get any use of a blade anyway. Two, I knew that sword was good enough to be of use to someone somewhere, and I hate being wasteful. If someone can use it, I want it to be used, you know?"
"Yes, Master." She did understand. Resources for cultivators were precious. Even if the resource wasn't perfect, it would be valuable to someone.
"I was thinking that my excellent disciple, Kang Lin, who was off doing me a favor, was spending an awful lot of time at my sect, which is not hers. Then, I got to thinking, if she's here, how's she earning any contribution points at home? So I made this sword Poison aspected. I figure you can sell it for points. If you want to. You can give it to a friend or whatever you might prefer. I just thought it might be helpful."
She cupped her hands again, wondering again at the fact that Master was so thoughtful. Of all the adjectives that she would have used to describe sect leaders before meeting him, that one would not have appeared on the list. "Gratitude, Master."
"I honestly don't know what you can get for it," he said. "It's not that great, not even top or heaven grade."
"What grade is it, Master?"
"High Earth."
Kang Lin resisted shaking her head. Of course her Master would create a trash practice sword better than ninety percent of all the weapons used by her entire sect. "Gratitude again, Master. I'm sure I can get something for it in trade."
"Good! The arrays turned out okay, at least, so that should help the value."
"Arrays, Master?"
"Yeah. The sword will self-repair when damaged. You can feed it qi to speed that process or let it absorb slowly from the atmosphere."
She nodded. That array was very popular, and he was right about it increasing the value. Maybe not doubling it exactly but close to it.
"The edge has an array to increase sharpness as well. I'm not quite happy with my inscribing on that one, though. It'll only increase the cutting power by about five times."
"Only five times!" Kang Lin couldn't help herself. Swords were made for cutting. Any array that helped make it sharper would greatly increase its worth, and she'd never heard of an array giving a multiple higher than three.
"Yeah. I know. Not up to my normal standards, but I did tell you this one was for practice. With what I learned, though, the ones for the auction should reach at least ten times."
She opened and closed her mouth a few times, unintentionally doing her best imitation of a fish. "A high Earth sword, Poison aspected, with those two arrays will be quite valuable, Master. Are you sure you want to give it to me?"
"I have no use for it," he said. "It makes me happy that you'll find it a good home. But don't forget about the third array, the final one."
Pavilions tended to have healthy rivalries in most sects, meaning they didn't often work together unless commanded by the council of elders or by the sect leader, meaning that swords with any arrays at all were unusual. The more arrays a blade had, the more unusual and, thus, the more valuable it became, especially when the arrays were well thought of.
She waited a moment for him to tell her what the array did, but he said nothing. Clearly he wanted her to ask. So she did.
"Oh," he said, "it converts and amplifies raw poison qi into an attack that penetrates the enemy's body upon any cut."
"Amplifies, Master? By how much?"
"Again, about five times. I'm hoping to double that for the real thing."
As far as Kang Lin could figure, the trash sword he'd given her was worth more than all the greater spirit coins she'd just transferred to her grandfather. Stunned by her master's incredible generosity, she stumbled out of his office after saying her goodbyes and thanking Master once again. It wasn't until later that she realized she'd completely forgotten to ask him about the glider.
Chapter 262 – Swords!
Benton absolutely loved Kang Lin's reactions. The twins and the rest of his kids just didn't have enough knowledge to know how crazy some of the things he provided them were. She, on the other hand, was very aware of the items' unusual nature and acted accordingly in the most amusing ways.
The look on her face when she realized just how valuable that sword was!
He chuckled. Really, he had no other use for the thing. Sure, he could have gotten a few spirit coins had he sold it, but he was trying to build up a reputation as a master craftsman. High earth grade just didn't cut it, even if it did have a sharpness array.
Benton chuckled again, that time at his little pun. Then he sighed. Too bad there was no one around to appreciate it.
Anyway, with enough ingots in hand to make twenty-five swords, it was time to get to work. His first step was obviously to create the masterwork versions of the one he'd gifted to Kang Lin. Though he used his Time Aura to speed the process, he actually took things slowly inside the bubble. The key to perfection was to give each task his full attention so as not to make any mistakes.
From the forging to inscribing three arrays to making and attaching the hilts, Benton took his time, sweating over every detail. His patience paid off. At the end of nearly a full subjective day's worth of work, he had five top heaven grade swords, one for each of the common elements.
Five down, twenty to go.
Even being a Nascent Soul at an equivalent realm of Mind Cultivation didn't prevent him from getting fatigued after intensely concentrating on something for that long, so he needed a break after he finished. During that time, he thought about the next set of swords.
His first five blades required the wielder to be able to channel similarly aspected qi into the weapon. Which reduced the target audience for each of those swords. He was almost positive, however, that the demand would still be high because there were a lot of cultivators aspected to the five most common elements.
Benton thought a weapon that gave a cultivator the ability to use a rare and powerful element not of their aspect would be even more valuable. The question was how to make that happen.
He was definitely a cheating cheater who cheats, but he didn't need the System that time. As an actual Formations Master, he possessed more than enough knowledge to design such an array himself.
Thus, his next set of swords would be similar to the first set—possessing arrays for self-repair, sharpness, and amplification of input qi resulting in an attack—but would add another array that converted whatever qi was input into the blade into the type of qi used by the attack.
There was an issue, however. He didn't mind rival formation experts being able to reverse engineer his first three arrays as they were all common knowledge. That last array, though…
Currently, if a cultivator wanted to use a qi type that didn't correspond to their aspect, they had limited choices. The easiest and cheapest was a single use talisman. The maker would imbue the device with a qi type and technique, and tearing the talisman would trigger usage of the stored ability.
The other option was something like the bracelet the Water aspected Nascent Soul had used. When its qi was used up, it could be recharged with a spirit coin of the proper aspect. A lot of Benton's defensive arrays were of that type.
To the best of his knowledge, it was highly unusual, and maybe even actually unheard of, for a device to convert one qi type into another. He definitely didn't want to spread the array around for two reasons. One, he didn't want something so potentially powerful being used against his sect. And two, he wanted to keep a monopoly on it to keep the value high.
It was good that he was a master at both Blacksmithing and Formations because the only solution he could think of was to hide the array inside the sword's core. Which meant inscribing it during an interim stage of the forging process.
Not an easy thing to do but something that was definitely possible. And hopefully, the results would be worth it.
Of course, he doubted those creations would be a cultivator's primary weapon but rather something they could pull out of their spatial ring at a critical moment to change the circumstances of a fight. Which lowered the value somewhat. His hope was that the combination of the uniqueness of changing the input qi's type, the swords' quality, and the power and rarity of the qi elements used would escalate the value to the heights he needed.
It was an easy choice for him to use uncommon sub elements for some of the blades, choosing Force, Ice, Lightning, Magnetism, and Shadow. Each of those could create a powerful attack or an effect that could definitely impact a battle, from the simplicity of a Lightning strike to enveloping the wielder in a veil of Shadow.
If Benton's guess was right, those five swords would bring in decent returns. But he doubted they were special enough to compel auction goers to trade the materials he needed to him.
No, to provide that level of motivation, he needed more oomph. He needed Gravity, Soul, Space, Time, and Void.
The problem was that he wasn't sure he wanted to release weapons with that kind of power out into the wild. He'd hate it to the depths of his being if one of them were used to hurt one of his sect members.
Hmm.
An idea hit him—a hidden fifth array, one that prevented the sword's qi attack from activating against anyone who carried a Rising Tide Sect token.
Perfect.
Benton grinned. Obviously, he wouldn't be advertising that last feature.
The next two and a half subjective days were spent forging those ten swords and resting when necessary. At the end, he was ecstatic with the results as they all turned out perfect as well, leaving him with fifteen swords that all should fetch a pretty darn good price at the auction.
Ten to go.
For half of those, he wanted one-off, really unique effects, but he kind of liked how he had a theme for sets of five going. So what could he do for the next five?
Though he thought the ones he'd already created would be very popular, especially those last five, he was kind of bored with the whole basic setup of channel qi into the blade and have it launch an attack.
There had to be something more creative than that.
Hmm.
The point of the swords was to enhance its wielder's combat power. Was there a way to do that in a more literal sense? In addition to being a sharp, well-made weapon, could one of his blades actually make the cultivator a better fighter? Not in the sense of training but actually better. Stronger. Faster.
Enhanced stats basically.
That would be a cool feature, but how?
Well, as a Formations Master, Benton knew of arrays that could improve a cultivator's stats. Since they originated from the System, he doubted that anyone else nearby knew of them. Should be a valuable effect.
His first idea was for the cultivator to channel qi into the sword, and in return, the sword would make the cultivator stronger. That seemed … weak. Weakish, anyway.
Ah. In addition to self-repair and sharpness, what if the blade absorbed a portion of an opponent's attacks and channeled that qi into the array to temporarily boost the cultivator?
Yes. Now that sounded powerful, worthy of opening those stingy auction goer's pocketbooks.
Benton just had to figure out which stats. Strength was a no brainer, as was Speed. He really wanted five, though. Agility? Dexterity? Intelligence?
Hmm.
Available qi. Yeah. That would actually be easier than the other two. He'd just need formations to absorb qi from an attack, store it, and convert it to a form useable by the wielder. Actually, that last part was a bit complicated as he'd need another array to bond the blade to the wielder's aspect so that the other array would function properly.
Complicated was okay, though. Complicated meant rare. Rare meant valuable.
The idea of an opponent's attack adding to the wielder's qi pool led Benton to his next sword—one that converted qi from the opponent's attacks into health for the wielder.
Nice.
Benton's next idea was inspired by asking himself—what is the ultimate stat that could be increased? The answer was simple—cultivation. The ultimate sword would be one that took power from opponents' attacks to increase the wielder's cultivation.
But how?
Well, in a way, the formations were really similar to the ones used for increasing the wielder's available qi. The difference with the new sword would be that the qi output would need to be converted to aspected ambient qi like a qi source would produce instead of like a spirit coin would provide.
Of course, if Benton could do that, he wouldn't need the qi sources in the first place. Okay, so that one just wasn't going to work.
Bummer.
He couldn't think of anything nearly as cool as increased cultivation level and ended up settling for a relatively lame boost to perception. Oh well.
Another day was spent creating those five swords, and during his rest period, he considered his final five, the ones he planned to make as one-offs instead of all being alike in some way.
When Benton thought about weapons that provided a unique benefit, the first thing that came to mind was Mjolnir, Thor's hammer. Specifically, he liked how the hammer only allowed those who were worthy to use it.
Benton had no idea how to create an array to judge one's worth, but it was simple enough to develop an array and a process to bind the sword to a cultivator's soul, making it only useable by that person. Perfect.
For the next one, he really liked the sword he'd made that used qi from attacks to provide healing, but the effect was a bit passive in that it depended on the enemy's actions. It would be so much cooler if the wielder's every successful attack stole life or health or qi or something from the opponent and transferred it back to the wielder.
A life steal sword.
Well, it wouldn't actually steal life as, after a bit of thought, Benton couldn't quite figure out how to make that work. A healing array was easy, though, and it was fairly simple for a Formations Master to reverse the function of a given array, making the new one take healing from an opponent instead.
Awesome.
For the third of the set, his first idea was mind control, but even if he could figure out how to make that work, the ethical considerations made him pause. Imagine giving an arrogant young master that particular power.
Benton literally shuddered at the thought.
He also didn't want to give the blade an ability too similar to his Mind Stun as he wanted that technique to remain one of his trump cards. The idea, in general, was good, though, so he ended up having the sword put out a kind of flashbang disruptive blast of light and sound.
The effect wasn't exactly overpowered, but a distraction at the right time could easily mean the difference between life and death.
For the next one, he hit upon a completely different idea. What if the blade could help its wielder become better at using a sword? He could create a technique of the absolute most basic sword moves and use complex formations to have the blade guide the young cultivators in reproducing those moves correctly.
That one ended up being a pain in the buttocks to figure out the formations. Maybe it wasn't technically as complex as the Grand Defense Formation, but it was equally as difficult in a different way.
Benton honestly didn't know if the price he'd get for his teaching sword would be worth the effort, but he did know one thing for sure—he absolutely would create the spear version of the weapon for his sect members. One really good thing, though, was that, now that he'd figured out the formations, reproducing it would be easy, even for different weapons.
For the final sword, he decided the thing his weapons were missing was a lack of lethality. Which, okay, wasn't something that was a consideration for most people when thinking about swords. But building on the concept of a teaching blade, Benton thought that the functionality to "set phasers on stun" might be an interesting concept.
The arrays weren't all that difficult to figure out. Basically, it was similar to the second set of swords. Actually, it was almost exactly the Lightning sword but with an added array that allowed the wielder to dial down the intensity of the attack.
Benton spent another subjective day forging the five newest blades, adding the self-repair array to all of them and the sharpness array to all but the last two. All in all, the last set was … a bit lackluster. He liked some of the ideas, but they weren't nearly as powerful as he'd been hoping to come up with.
Still, between the twenty-five blades and all the greater spirit coins he'd make by the time the auction rolled around, he hoped to have plenty of resources to purchase anything he needed.
Chapter 263 – Testing
Benton had spent nearly a week in subjective time forging the twenty-five blades. In real time, less than a day had passed, meaning it was early morning of the next day. He had to admit that his Aura definitely saved Time.
Ugh.
Oh well. That one wasn't even funny to him. Too on the nose. That was the thing about comedy, though—no one succeeded with every joke.
Funny favored the bold.
He grinned. That was a good one.
Anyway, once he finished creating trade goods, his goal was to rebuild the towers before heading to Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town to create a new Grand Defensive Array for Fatty Ren's palace.
The problem was that he wasn't sure whether or not the swords he made were valuable enough to get him the materials he wanted. They seemed good to him, and his Analyze technique placed a very high value on them. But it was impossible to know what a cultivator would require in exchange for a treasure like the ones needed to create his qi sources.
Of course, the obvious solution was simply to ask Kang Ya-Ting. He was a man who understood cultivators and the value of cultivation treasures to a greater extent than Benton.
The issue there was that he had been getting a lot of aid from the man lately. It was fine to ask a friend for a favor every now and again, but becoming a burden was not okay. And honestly, that sentiment was as true on Earth as it was on a cultivation planet.
Benton needed to resolve that imbalance in their relationship. He would ask Kang Lin if there was anything her grandfather needed. A gift of a pill, a weapon, or even a cultivation method or technique would be a nice way to return the friendship to a more equal footing.
In the meantime, Benton would need to deal with the current situation more adroitly than he normally managed. Instead of straight up asking what the value of the swords were, he'd send Kang Ya-Ting a list of the blades with their associated arrays and traits and ask him to share his message with the two elders that had materials for trade. The elders could select one of the swords directly, request a custom weapon be forged for them with traits similar to one of the blades, or ask him to wait to see what might be available at the auction.
The response would tell him everything he needed to know. If either or both took one of the swords or requested that he forge something custom for them, it would be obvious that the blades were absolutely of the same order of magnitude of value as the materials. If neither did, though, he'd know that he likely hadn't gone big enough with his crafting and would have to hope that quantity made up for quality.
Benton fired off the message and sat down to make greater spirit coins as he waited for the reply. Several hours later, the return paper dragon popped into his office.
Friend Su,
The list you sent me is quite extraordinary, and this old man has absolutely no doubt that each is a masterwork that possesses traits exactly as you described. Unfortunately, Elders Dai and Feng have not established the same level of trust with you that I have. Would it be possible for you to have Yuan Yaozu examine the blades and verify the quality and features of each?
This old man would be pleased if you could treat this request as simply the paranoia of cultivators who have been burned before rather than an affront to your face.
Gratitude,
Friend Kang
Kang Ya-Ting was obviously worried about Benton being insulted by the request. In truth, he was anything but. He never expected any trade to be made without the quality of the blades being verified first. The thought that they'd just take his word for it was absurd on the face of it.
He dashed off a message to Yuan Yaozu.
The Rising Tide Sect was an interesting place. For one thing, it was much smaller than any sect that Yuan Yaozu had ever encountered. Then again, as a top tier talent, he'd never had much to do with smaller sects and especially not one that was just getting started.
That latter characteristic explained the average realm of the members. Of the over six hundred of them at the main sect grounds, all but three—four if one counted the sect leader—were in the Qi Gathering realm, and the ones that weren't were only at the very beginning of Foundation Establishment.
What was much more unusual than the average realm was the general talent level of the sect members. With the exception of some true standouts, his spiritual sense made it feel like almost everyone was similar in rank to what he'd expect for an average sect, but he'd been told that the vast majority of those members were all F and E ranked.
Both the idea of inducting such trash into a sect and the fact that they felt like normal sect members to his sense were both absurd. Of course, the latter basically justified the former but still. A sect made up mostly of talentless peasants?
Yuan Yaozu didn't know how he felt about that.
On one hand, he completely understood why they were all doing so well. The cultivation method that the sect leader had given him was beyond impressive. If he had similar ones throughout his life, he couldn't even imagine the heights to which he would have already ascended. The quality was simply amazing.
The thought of giving such methods and techniques to talentless trash made him want to scream at the affront, though. The Poison Claw Sect gave their best resources to the most talented cultivators. Period. And their best was not nearly as good as the worst the Rising Tide sect leader handed out.
A top talent could simply go further and achieve more than someone of lesser talent. Limited resources should be given to those who could make the best use of them.
On the other hand, Yuan Yaozu had seen no sign that the sect leader's resources were limited at all, and the talentless trash would probably go further in their journey using his cultivation methods than a top talent receiving the best from another sect. Maybe the Rising Tide Sect's way of doing things wasn't so crazy.
What was absolutely insane was watching the sect leader move around using his Time Aura. The man forged twenty-five swords in less than a day, cautiously and meticulously forming each one.
Yuan Yaozu wasn't a blacksmith, but over the course of nearly one thousand years of life, he'd picked up an appreciation for crafts. From what he could tell, the blades were probably extraordinary. He'd really like a chance to see them up close.
He debated for most of the afternoon going to the sect leader and asking for that permission. The request was a simple one that would likely be granted, but Yuan Yaozu so far had gotten a lot more from his discipleship than he'd returned. He was leery about pressing his luck.
The inverse of his reasoning was that the sect leader seemed like the kind of person who enjoyed showing off his accomplishments. And really, who didn't like exhibiting the fruits of one's labor? Asking to examine the blades might be as much a benefit to the sect leader as it was to Yuan Yaozu.
Late in the day, he received a summons to attend his Master and quickly hurried over to the Administration Hall, still dickering over whether to ask for permission.
"Thanks for coming so soon, but you didn't have to rush," the sect leader said. "For future reference, I'll tell you in the message if it's urgent."
"It's not a problem, Sect Leader. Truthfully, I didn't have anything else to do. I've been stuck so long without being able to advance that I'm no longer used to cultivating all day long. I'm working my way back to it."
For the last several hundred years, Yuan Yaozu had been at the peak of Golden Core, and the only times he'd actually cultivated was during the relatively brief periods when he tried to break through. He'd spent much of his lifetime in a lotus position cultivating, but hitting a bottleneck at the peak had forced him to stop. It was weird to think about it, but somewhere along the way, he'd lost his patience for the process.
"Do you need help with anything?" the sect leader said.
"It's purely a personal issue. I just need to re-acclimate my body and brain to the tedium. In several months or so, I should be back to normal."
"Okay. I know that you accepted me as Master mainly for certain benefits that I can provide and to assure me of keeping my secrets, but I am fairly knowledgeable about cultivation issues. Feel free to come to me if you need."
The sect leader was the most unusual cultivator that Yuan Yaozu had ever encountered. If he needed help, he wouldn't hesitate to ask for it if for no other reason than that the advice was likely to be something he never would have considered.
He cupped his hands. "Gratitude, Master."
"Anyway, here's the reason I asked you to stop by." The sect leader handed over two messages.
The first was a message from the sect leader to Elder Kang, and the second was the elder's reply. Yuan Yaozu almost laughed. The thing he'd been thinking about requesting was the thing that the sect leader needed him to do.
It was nice when life aligned with one's wishes like that.
"I'm happy to help, Sect Leader," Yuan Yaozu said.
The sect leader deposited twenty-five swords on a table.
From the list, Yuan Yaozu had an idea of what to expect, and to say he was excited was an understatement.
"May I take one of these to the forest to test the sharpness and self-repair arrays, Sect Leader?"
"Sure. Have at it."
Yuan Yaozu chose the Void attack blade. He'd seen firsthand the results of the sect leader using that element on a Nascent Soul and wanted to try it.
"You can use the window if you want," the sect leader said.
Yuan Yaozu cupped his hands again. "Gratitude."
The office was on the top floor of the building, but there was no access to the roof. He'd been using the front door and climbing the stairs. Which didn't cause him to exert himself, but it was an annoyance.
A quick flight found him in the forest swinging the sword. First, he tried the Void attack, and it worked as advertised. According to his spiritual sense, there was no qi present inside the blade, and he watched it as the formations converted his qi into Void qi.
That feature was amazing. No treasure that he knew of could do anything similar.
Almost as fascinating was the actual attack. A portion of the tree trunk he aimed it at just disappeared.
Yikes. He sincerely hoped the sect leader didn't make too many of those things. Yuan Yaozu really didn't want to face anyone using one in combat.
Next, he sliced another trunk without channeling the blade's attack. It sliced through the wood like butter.
Amazing.
Tree after tree went down without a mark on the metal. Which was good for confirming that the sword's sharpness array worked great. Not so much for testing the self-repair function.
He happened to have an ingot of cultivator-grade metal in his storage ring and used that as an additional test. It, too, was sliced through with no issues and left not a scratch.
Mildly chagrined, he returned to the sect leader's office and reported the failure to test the feature.
The sect leader laughed. "That's a problem. These swords will cut just about anything, including another blade that I made. Give me a moment." He pulled an ingot out of his ring and began inscribing.
"I put a durability array on the metal. It should hold up. Try it, now," he said, holding the ingot in his hand.
"Uh… If the array doesn't hold, the blade will cut your hand off, Sect Leader."
"Well, that'll be a good lesson for me to do a better job with my formations, then, won't it? Besides, worst case scenario, the hand will grow back."
"If you're sure…" Yuan Yaozu didn't bother waiting for an answer before swinging.
Clank.
The array held, and the blade finally met something it couldn't slice straight through.
Yuan Yaozu examined it. Sure enough, there was a small divot in the blade's previously pristine edge. He channeled some qi into the array, and the divot slowly repaired itself, leaving it once again perfect.
After that series of successful tests, he picked up a few of the others at random and checked their craftsmanship and functionality. Everything he found was up to the standards of the first.
"I'll report back to the elders that all these swords are the best I've ever seen and that they all absolutely do exactly what you said they do, Sect Leader."
"Gratitude." The sect leader paused. "Just out of curiosity, how do you think these will do at auction?"
"They'll create an absolute frenzy. I've seen weapons much inferior to these be fought over, and I honestly can't remember anything of this quality ever being sold there. The auction house will erect a statue in your honor after this sale is complete, Sect Leader."
Yuan Yaozu wasn't blowing smoke, either. From the craftsmanship to the ideas behind the swords to the functionality, the sects would all want to have these weapons.
He laughed imagining their reaction if they ever found out that the sect leader created all of them in a single day.
Chapter 264 - Lure
Teng Wuying was on his way to a meeting with the leader of the Swift Blizzard branch sect in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, Mao Biya, when he saw that Poison Claw Sect brat who was discipled to Chao Su fly overhead. The device she rode was actually quite fascinating. Not the construction or function but rather what it represented.
Chao Su actually cared for his whelps. Why else would he go through the effort of creating such a thing?
Teng Wuying couldn't believe he hadn't realized that fact before. The entire debacle with the destruction of his branch sect had been said to be caused due to the death of a trash Qi Gathering cultivator. At the time, he'd thought Chao Su had used the death as a ridiculous excuse.
But it wasn't. The man truly cared about his trash members!
Teng Wuying waved happily at the brat flying overhead as his mind whirled. What a weakness. Surely, there was a way to use that. He'd definitely figure out how to exploit the fool's caring nature.
If such exploitation was even needed in the first place. Sure, Chao Su beat two Nascent Souls at his sect when he had formations prepared, but the next encounter, an ambush, would be here in the city. And if Teng Wuying had his way, a lot more than two Nascent Souls would be attacking.
He grinned. All he had to do was convince Mao Biya to commit all four of her sect's highest realmed cultivators to the fight. That task, unfortunately, would not be easy due mainly to the fact that one of them was in secluded cultivation.
Whereas the Jade Chameleon Sect had almost no choice but to spend the lives of their oldest cultivators, the Swift Blizzard Sect had no such compulsion. They would be difficult to convince to make such an all-in stand.
The Big Three sects were conservative by nature, eschewing large, risky moves. Which made sense. An organization that didn't take chances in the beginning of their existence likely never rose, but an organization that took chances once they were finally established would likely fail as soon as one of those gambles blew up in their faces.
Teng Wuying sighed. It would have been so much better if he could have convinced the Emperor's faction to commit two Nascent Souls to the cause. Then, he could have advocated for equal representation for all three members of the conspiracy. The cowardly nobles wouldn't budge from their neutrality, though.
They made the conservative elders of the sects seem like radicals in comparison.
He mulled the issue over as he made his way to the Swift Blizzard branch, where he was promptly escorted to Mao Biya's study for his appointment.
Teng Wuying bowed lower than was strictly necessary to her. It was never a bad idea to get things started on the right foot by flattering your opponent. "Greetings, Elder Mao."
After returning his greetings, she said, "I've been thinking about it. Waiting until the tournament is too long. That man's disciples visited the auction house while they were in the city. It's likely that he will attend the one being held in less than three weeks. It's the perfect time and place for an ambush."
Her suggestion threw him for a loop. She was known to be a bit of a hothead, but that idea burned with too much heat even for her. The level of ardor was good, though. He needed to carefully dissuade her on the timetable without lowering her zeal too much.
"What prompted the change, Elder?" he said.
"That man! That arrogant asshole threatened my sect. Every day that he lives is an affront to the Swift Blizzard Sect's face."
Ah. He should have predicted the issue. Left to stew at the indignity proffered by Chao Su, she grew more and more impatient.
"Hmm," Teng Wuying said. "I should be able to get my two Nascent Souls ready by the auction. You can get all four of yours queued up in time?"
That statement was a straight up lie on his part. He hadn't even convinced the council of elders to overrule the sect leader yet, much less began making arrangements to get the Nascent Souls mobilized. But it would have been a huge mistake to refuse her or try to talk her down. It was important for her to come to the realization on her own.
Mao Biya winced. "Three weeks, huh? The logistics…"
He schooled his face, so it didn't break out into a grin. Just as he'd planned, she'd figured out the problem.
"Wait," she said, "Four? I never agreed to four."
"Apologies, Elder. I thought it was as important to you that Chao Su be killed as it was to me."
"It is! I refuse to let him get away with threatening my sect. He will be, must be, destroyed and his entire so-called sect with him."
"So… You agree that all four of your Nascent Souls are needed, Elder?"
"No. Why would we need six against one?"
"This man killed half our Golden Cores and half our Nascent Souls, Elder. It would be a mistake to underestimate him again, and he has allies, now. The Poison Claw Sect stands at five. Those plus him are six."
She scoffed. "If your ambush can't catch him alone, you're a fool, and I might as well go it alone."
Oops. He'd overplayed his hand a bit. Time to walk it back.
"Obviously, we wouldn't be so stupid to attack him when he had that much backup, Elder. What happens, though, if a perfect opportunity presents itself, and Yuan Yaozu is accompanying him?"
Mao Biya frowned. "Five is more than enough to take on Chao Su and one who has barely advanced to Nascent Soul."
"Is it, Elder? Ye Zhengsheng and Yan Mingxia were absolutely positive the two of them would have no problem killing him, either."
"They didn't know he was a Formations Master. No one did."
"The thing that bothers me, that keeps me up at night, that makes me want to do everything in my power to convince you to bring all four of your Nascent Souls to the ambush, Elder, is a single question—what else don't we know about Chao Su?"
Her expression fell, and he knew he had her. She was too riled up to agree that day in that conversation, but if he dropped the matter, he'd be able to convince her the next time they met.
"I've given my counsel, Elder. In the end, it's your call. Do what you will. Regarding the topic I came here today to discuss with you, what's our best move for getting the Rising Tide Sect invited to the tournament?"
"Do not refer to that man's collection of trash peasants as a sect in my presence!"
With that, the topic of conversation was officially changed. They went back and forth a little while. He would have greatly preferred to have her make the suggestion of sending the so-called sect an invitation when they met with the tournament's steering committee, but her animosity was simply too high. There was no way she could convincingly swallow her anger long enough to make the others buy it as a legitimate request.
Coming from him, the Poison Claw Sect, at the very least, was sure to suspect an ulterior motive, but he felt up to the task.
The next day, Teng Wuying, Mao Biya, Kang Ya-Ting, and Qiu ZhenKang, a representative from the City Lord, met to discuss plans for the tournament. The meeting went on and on and on, as such things tended to do. They discussed everything from prizes to the tournament format to the location of the event.
It was the Jade Chameleon's turn in the rotation to host the tournament, but someone had completely laid waste to their entire branch sect, nullifying their ability to put on the event. Even if Teng Wuying hadn't wanted to destroy the Rising Tide Sect in order to get the Trial Pagoda, he would have desired that outcome purely for payback.
That thought was something of a revelation to him as he thought himself above such unprofitable motivations as revenge. Huh.
After hours of discussing such matters, the meeting finally wound down, and Qiu ZhenKang, chosen to chair the steering committee due to his faction's neutrality, asked if there was any new business.
"Yes," Teng Wuying said, "I think that an invitation should be extended to the Rising Tide Sect."
Kang Ya-Ting reacted immediately. "No."
"Really?" Teng Wuying said. "You don't want your allies to participate?"
"I'm positive that you have only the worst of intentions for my friends so, as I stated, no."
"Of course, I have bad intentions. Their sect leader is the reason my sect isn't hosting the tournament and half our Golden Cores and Nascent Souls are dead. I want to see their sect members beaten into a bloody pulp by my sect members."
"Exactly," Kang Ya-Ting said. "No."
"Perfect. I'll put out a notice that the Poison Claw Sect has no confidence in the combat ability of the Rising Tide Sect members. The loss of face both you and your allies suffer will be even better than watching some whelps be beat up."
The Poison Claw elder frowned, obviously trying to figure a way out of the situation. He tried unsuccessfully to come up with something but, in the end, had to agree to the invitation.
And that was how one lured prey into a trap.
Chapter 265 – Trouble Brewing and Deal Making
Benton received an interesting message, the shortest one he'd gotten yet. It simply asked him if he would teleport to Kang Ya-Ting's study at noon the following day for a quick meeting.
That was it. No context. Nothing. There should have been some explanation as to the purpose of the summons, right?
The paper sent had been one commonly used by the Poison Claw Sect, not one of Benton's. Maybe that fact had something to do with the terseness.
Oh well.
Benton quickly sent a reply back, one even more succinct.
Sure.
Before sending it off, he re-read the single word and grinned. Even if no one else found it funny, he did.
A little while later, another message arrived, one from a source he didn't recognize.
Sect Leader Chao Su,
Be it known that the Council of Four, an organization founded to improve relations between the four major factions on the Five Provinces continent, is hosting its quinquennial tournament in Sixth Flawless Flowing City. Events will allow faction members in the Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment realms to compete in contests of martial ability, pill making, blacksmithing, and formations creation.
Let this notice serve as an official notice from the Council of Four that members of the Rising Tide Sect are invited to participate in these events. No entry fees are required for contestants, and as your sect is an honored guest, contribution to the prize pool is also not required.
Each of the four types of contests will be broken into four divisions corresponding to the participants' cultivation realm—Qi Gathering, low Foundation Establishment, mid Foundation Establishment, and high Foundation Establishment.
The tournament will take place in five months' time. A notice of intent to participate along with quantities of cultivators anticipated to participate in each contest and division must be submitted within four months after receipt of this invitation. A final list of names along with cultivation realm and contest(s) to be entered must be submitted no later than one week prior to the commencement of the tournament.
Yours in the Spirit of Cooperation,
Qiu ZhenKang
Assistant to City Lord Luo Quan
Interesting. If Benton had to guess, he'd say that invitation was the reason for Kang Ya-Ting's missive.
Hmm.
On the face of it, the invite didn't pass the smell test. Though there were only three major sects on the continent, there were umpteen small ones. Benton seriously doubted that any of them had been invited to the tournament, but he could be wrong on that score.
He mentally shrugged. There was no reason for him to make a decision, or even really waste much time worrying about it, until after talking to his allies the next day.
If he did decide to let the kids take part, though, they would definitely need better equipment. If only he knew a master blacksmith. Oh wait…
Seriously, there was no reason he couldn't whip up something for all the kids who would be going. Again, though, he should wait to get anything like that started until after finding out more information.
Related to the subject of better equipment, though, he had promised to provide a weapon to all his members who reached Foundation Establishment, and his efforts on that front had been a bit lackluster. Yang Xiu and Yang Ru were still using the weapons provided by the System, which were high quality and all but had no formations giving them that special something the weapons for auction had. And Kang Lin just had the standard sect spear, which, again, was better than what most kids her realm on the continent had to work with. Better just wasn't good enough for his disciples, though. Poor Jin LiJuan didn't even have that. He'd just handed her a random sword from his ring that he'd picked up somewhere.
Yeah, those four definitely could stand an upgrade.
Benton scanned the sect grounds. All cultivators stood out as little blobs of qi to his spiritual sense, and since he knew the quantity plus some hard to define quality about the qi each of his members possessed, he could quickly identify where everyone was.
Yang Ru and Kang Lin were in the Martial Pavilion, outside one of the sparring areas that held Yang Xiu and Zou Tian. Jin LiJuan was in a separate part of that building with Pan Jiang.
Benton teleported to Yang Ru and Kang Lin. Before they had a chance to even cup their hands or greet him, he said, "If you could use an attack of any element other than one associated with your aspect, what element would it be?" He held out two pieces of message paper.
They each took one of the pages, their expressions showing confusion.
"Think about it carefully and get me your answer before dinner," he said, teleporting out before they could say a word.
He appeared in a sparring room with Jin LiJuan and repeated the conversation he'd had with the other two before leaving just as quickly.
Benton had to say that moments like those were some of his favorite things about coming to a cultivation world. The combination of being able to do such supercool superhuman things like teleporting and using that ability to flummox his disciples was just too much fun.
After leaving them, he popped over to the forge to begin implementing some of his plans. Luckily, it didn't take long for the messages to start coming in. Jin LiJuan's came first, choosing Void as her element.
He nodded as he probably could have guessed that result. She was focused on destruction, and there wasn't a much better element for that purpose than the one she picked.
The selections from Yang Ru and Kang Lin followed fairly soon after that, and Benton found those decisions to be quite interesting. Besides outliers like Void, Tribulation, and Time, most sub elements were strong and weak against common elements. Yang Ru's aspect, Momentum, was great against Water but not so much against Wood. His fighting style involved lots of close up melee attacks and was all about power.
In a similar manner, Kang Lin's Lightning beat Wood but lost to Earth. Her style was also melee, but she focused on speed. She chose Gravity for her attack element, which represented a great addition to her repertoire. It served the dual purpose of giving her an AoE option and a way to pin down an opponent.
The choice was a good one.
Yang Ru's showed a different way of thinking. Maybe. He picked Water. Which on the face of it didn't make a lot of sense. Water was okay for ranged attacks, which would give him needed options in a fight. But there were better elements he could have picked if that were his concern.
If, however, he planned on fighting often with Kang Lin at his side, the choice got really interesting. She would struggle most against an Earth user, and Water was strong against Earth.
Could the choice be a sign that things were heating up between the two of them? Enquiring minds wanted to know.
Benton shrugged off his thoughts of a gossipy nature and got back to work, soon finishing up all his tasks in the forge and stowing the results in his ring. He expected that, after his meeting at the Poison Claw Sect the next day, he'd want to meet with his council to discuss the tournament. That would be a perfect time to distribute the results of his crafting.
He ended up taking it relatively easy the rest of the night and the next morning, spending an hour here and there making spirit coins but otherwise just napping, watching the kids spar, and re-reading a novel he'd particularly enjoyed.
At the appointed time, he teleported into Kang Ya-Ting's study.
In addition to the elder, the leader of the branch sect, Dai Shuren, and an older Golden Core cultivator, who wore the Poison Claw Sect's robes and who Benton hadn't met, were also present. They all exchanged greetings, and the new man was introduced as Elder Feng, the gentleman who had the Ice Lotus that Benton needed available for trade.
Interesting. Benton had assumed the meeting would be about the tournament, but both the people who had materials available for trade were present. It made sense that the sect branch leader would be at the meeting regardless of which purpose was to be discussed but not necessarily for the other guy. Surely, they hadn't summoned him so urgently just for a bit of business.
"I'm sure you are curious as to why we requested your presence, Friend Su."
"I am."
Kang Ya-Ting sighed. "The truth of the matter is that I got tricked." He went on to describe his experience with the committee organizing the tournament and how the Jade Chameleon Sect elder connived his way into pushing through an invite for the Rising Tide Sect.
"It's a trap," Benton said, almost unintentionally inflecting his voice like a certain alien in a certain movie.
"I fear so," Kang Ya-Ting said, "and a well laid one. He's offering the carrot of official acknowledgement of your sect as bait. The tournament is for the four factions and is not generally open to anyone else. Occasionally a smaller, unaffiliated sect is invited, and when that happens, everyone understands that the council is giving them great face. It's an important statement."
Benton nodded. "And if I refuse, the loss of face will be equal to or greater than the gain I get from accepting."
"Exactly," Elder Dai said. "Even as our official ally, it may be centuries or never before your sect is offered an opportunity like this one. You cannot refuse it lightly."
Benton felt he had a good handle on the political aspects of the situation, so he cut to the heart of the matter. "Will my kids be in danger?"
Kang Ya-Ting grimaced. "The Jade Chameleon and maybe the Swift Blizzards will be targeting them."
"Targeting as in possible ambushes outside the arena or solely in the ring?" Benton said.
"Oh. It's extremely unlikely that there will be any attacks on youngsters outside the confines of the tournament, Friend Su. The loss of face would be severe, and almost as importantly, it would draw in the Emperor's faction on our side. They enforce the peace during the entire event, meaning that any attack would impugn their honor."
"I'm assuming there are formations in place to prevent permanent injuries and death during the actual matches?" Benton said.
After all, if his recycled sect buildings had such formations as standard, surely an important tournament would as well.
"Of course, Sect Leader," Elder Dai said. "And anyone who wants to, including you, will be offered the chance to examine them. If any of the arrays aren't to your satisfaction, reasonable accommodations will be arranged."
Hmm. Given the quality of the techniques his kids had access to, he'd put them one on one against anybody the sects had to offer. If the only danger was inside the ring and the damage would be healed at the end of the fight, he had no issues putting the kids in that situation. Even if they got beaten up, it could be a good learning experience for them.
One glaring problem stood out, though.
"We don't know what we don't know," Benton said.
"You understand the problem," the new guy, Elder Feng, said. "The truth is that the Jade Chameleons must have a reason for inviting your sect, and I seriously doubt that reason is a prelude to an offer of peace. They've either got something to gain or think you have something to lose or both. And no one outside their circle knows what that reason might be."
"I think I now have a sufficient understanding of the situation. Gratitude." Benton cupped his hands and inclined his head toward each of the three elders.
He needed time to process what he'd learned and consider the risk versus gain. There was also his council to consider. It would be good to get their input.
"There is time before the ultimate decision must be made," Benton said. "I have much thinking to do before reaching a conclusion."
"Yes, Sect Leader," Elder Dai said. "We appreciate the careful consideration you're giving this matter. As your allied sect, we felt it important to convey all the information we had to inform your choice."
After that, the conversation turned to more mundane matters. It turned out that Elders Dai and Feng did want to do a bit of horse trading and had hoped Benton had brought the swords he'd made.
He had.
After a few tests, each of the elders was convinced of the value.
"You're willing to take requests for a custom weapon in exchange for what we offered, Sect Leader?" Elder Dai said.
After Benton nodded, she continued. "As your ally, I feel that it's important to let you know the value of your weapon exceeds that of the materials you want, especially for the ones that convert the wielder's qi to a different type."
Benton was actually taken aback by her straightforward honesty. "A product is worth what a customer is willing to pay, Elder Dai, and at the moment, I value the materials more than the time and effort it takes to craft the swords."
"I believe we have a deal, then, Sect Leader. Provide me with a sword that converts my qi into Poison, and the Shadow beast core is yours."
That request was easy enough for Benton to handle, but after his testing with Yuan Yaozu, the fact that his blades didn't have a durability array just annoyed the crap out of Benton. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought to add one.
Honestly, he was fine with selling the ones he'd already made at auction. After all, the bidders would know exactly what they were getting, and the blades might end up in the hands of his enemies. Having a glaring weakness like being relatively easy to destroy was fine. For an ally, though?
He explained the situation to Elder Dai, and she was ecstatic that her custom sword would be getting that extra feature.
Elder Feng had apparently always wanted the power to wield Lightning and was overjoyed at the opportunity. He would have been willing to accept the available sword, but his weapon of choice was the glaive.
Benton easily agreed to make the polearm with the same formations, including the added durability array.
All in all, both sides walked away extremely pleased with the deal.