Chapter 138 - 273-278

Chapter 273 – Refusing an Invitation

Zou Tian had come to a difficult decision. He'd been invited to explore the nearby qi-rich mountain, and he wanted to accept. The opportunity was a great one for many reasons, such as being able to practice Hide Presence against beasts of a higher realm and serving the sect by scouting for the other expedition members. Both activities would give him good, practical experience in areas that he intended to perfect in coming years.

Unfortunately, Zou Tian would have to refuse. He simply had too much to do to get ready for his mission to Sixth Flawless Flowing City. Even though it would be months before he left, the list of things he needed to accomplish was so long that he feared not being able to get to them all.

Over the last week, he'd done a lot of thinking, and he'd had multiple sessions with Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu, though it felt weird to call a Nascent Soul level cultivator Senior Brother. But no other title fit. He wasn't officially an elder of either sect, and Zou Tian already had a master.

The conclusion the two of them had drawn was that his best chance of fulfilling his mission was to avoid notice. There were a couple of problems, though. One, people in the city knew him and knew he had left with Master.

Two, all cultivators emitted a qi signature that signaled one's realm to anyone with a spiritual sense. While Zou Tian's high affinity with his Shadow aspect combined with his hiding technique minimized his qi signature, minimizing was not the same as eliminating. A Foundation Establishment cultivator like Senior Sister did not have a sense strong enough or experienced enough to detect him, but most Golden Cores could if they happened to notice him. And he'd stand out like a sore thumb to any Nascent Soul.

If he couldn't figure out a way to completely eliminate the telltale signs of him being a cultivator, the mission would be far too dangerous for him, so his first goal was to make it so that not even Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu could detect him.

The other thing the two of them had discussed were his techniques. Zou Tian had both Hide Presence and Foundation Dagger Essentials at Mastery, and Shadow Perception was at Large Success. If he worked hard, there was no reason he couldn't get that perception technique to Mastery, without even using the Trial Pagoda, before he left to travel to the city. That was goal number two.

Skills for hiding, sensing, and a weapon were a great foundation for what he needed to accomplish, but there was always room for improvement. So the third goal they had come up with was for him to pick up a new technique to aid in the mission. Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu was convinced that Master could provide literally any technique that they could think up, leading them to discuss a lot of options.

The main category of ideas they considered was general knowledge of specific spying abilities, like how to blend in, how sects hid secrets, how to discern the truth of rumors, etc. The problem was that every single one of them sounded like something he absolutely needed, but he only had time to learn one. Barely. He'd probably need to use the pagoda even to get the technique to Large Success.

At his urging, they also discussed the possibility of trying to advance him quickly to Foundation Establishment so that he could pick up really useful techniques. He was at least a year away from making that transition, though, and rushing his cultivation that much might have severe repercussions for the future. Even though he was willing to try it, Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu correctly noted that Master would doubtlessly object.

Since Zou Tian couldn't learn any skills that used external qi, they really couldn't come up with any techniques that taught him an actual ability that would help as much as knowledge would. In the end, he decided that the best thing that could help him immediately was a technique to teach him a general overview of spycraft, something that sacrificed depth in any one useful subject in order to give him a foundation in all the areas he needed to know.

Which meant that, prior to his departure for his mission, he needed to get one technique from Large Success to Mastery and learn another and get it all the way to at least Large Success. To do that, he might even have to skimp a bit on his cultivation in order to spend more time practicing.

That realization led him to the inescapable conclusion that, as much as he wanted to go on the expedition, he just couldn't.

When Senior Brother, Senior Sister, Kang Lin, Jin LiJuan, and Ganzou met with Master as scheduled at dawn outside the Administration Hall, Zou Tian joined them and asked Master for a private conversation. The sect leader immediately agreed to the request and teleported both of them to his office.

"So what's up?" Master said.

Zou Tian cupped his hands. "I'm afraid that I must decline your invitation to go to the mountain, Master." And he explained why.

"I see. We'll miss you, of course, but your reasoning appears sound. If it helps, I'm sure there will be other expeditions, and I'm proud of you for prioritizing needs over wants."

Being barely able to remember his parents, Zou Tian was self-aware enough to realize that he'd latched onto Master as a father figure, and the man expressing how proud he was really meant something. Zou Tian paused a moment to gather himself before continuing with the conversation.

"Gratitude, Master. Before you go, there are two things that I need."

"Okay. Tell me."

Zou Tian explained his and Yuan Yaozu's idea for a knowledge technique that would convey an overview of spycraft. The sect leader easily granted that request, handing over a jade slip after a few moments' thought.

"The second idea is a bit more problematic, Master. I'm not even sure if it can be done."

"This should be interesting. Shoot."

"One of the trials the pagoda offers is to Add or Modify Qi Aspect."

"Yeah. Xun Wu has already done that," Master said. "It works just fine. Are you trying to add a qi element?"

"No, Master. I need to be able to hide my cultivation better, and my theory is that, if I could increase my affinity with Shadow even higher, it might just give me the boost I need."

Master rubbed his chin. "You know, you got me there. I honestly don't know if that will work or not. I see why it might as, in a way, that is a modification of your aspect. On the other hand, I equally see how the pagoda might be ultra pedantic about what it allows. Either way, though, you have my permission to give it a shot."

Zou Tian cupped his hands again. "Gratitude, Master."

His first obstacle—the easiest one, really, consisting of getting Master's approval—was accomplished, but Zou Tian still had a lot to do. Best get to it.

Kang Lin had no idea what to expect from the expedition that Master had planned. The mountain had been the source of the beast tide, and when he and the twins had first encountered it, they'd given it a wide berth. The wood harvesters who'd been associate members of the Righteous Rain Sect had heard rumors about missions that sect had organized to take advantage of the natural treasures in the area, but they didn't know any actual details.

Basically, the entire place was surrounded in mystery. The only thing everyone agreed upon was that, the closer one got to the base of the mountain and then the higher one climbed, the more dangerous the environment and the beasts became. That fact actually didn't worry her too much, mainly because she had grown to trust her abilities and the battle prowess of her companions.

Oh, and she was almost positive that Master wouldn't drop them off in an area that was too dangerous for them. That helped her confidence a lot, too. And the contingency ring she wore on her finger.

Whatever they would be doing on their journey, they'd definitely be working with a safety net.

There was a slight delay as Zou Tian, who had told the rest of them in advance that he wasn't going and that he would be requesting a moment of Master's time, disappeared with Master. When they returned, Zou Tian looked pleased, so his requests must have been granted.

They all said their goodbyes to the boy, and he went off to do whatever activities had him so occupied. The Rising Tide Sect didn't keep many secrets, especially from members of the council, so the fact that no one knew exactly what had him so busy was a source of endless speculation. Contrary to what Yang Xiu guessed, Kang Lin was positive those activities had little or nothing to do with his girlfriend.

Soon, though, she put thoughts of the scout out of her mind as she had something infinitely more exciting to consider as they soon left the sect grounds behind. The journey was interesting with all four of the Foundation Establishment cultivators having their own gliders. Jin LiJuan's even had a small platform just for Ganzou.

Kang Lin definitely saw the convenience of the devices. Master didn't have to pull them on a sled like other elders would have had to do. And she loved the autonomy it gave her. The four of them could use the gliders to retreat or to gain altitude to evade a threat or to scout for dangers or treasures. When her cousins and her friends back in the Poison Claw Sect found out about the device, they would turn green with envy.

It seemed like barely any time at all before they neared the start of the valley leading to the mountain. Shortly after it came into view, Master led them to descend all the way to the ground at an outcrop overlooking it.

"I'll leave you here," Master said. "The quantity of beasts is still greatly diminished, and you won't find anything above a rank two anywhere near. On the other side of the valley near the base of the mountain, you'll start hitting a few rank fours, with rank threes ranging in between. Consider it an exercise for the student to determine how far you should go and how fast you should try to get there. If you get into trouble, don't hesitate to trigger your ring."

"Yes, Master," the four of them chorused.

And with that, he was off, leaving her with three cultivators still in the first minor realm of Foundation Establishment just like she was. Master had previously killed a Nascent Soul equivalent beast, a rank ten, near where they were. It occurred to her that most other sects, including her own, probably wouldn't have let the four of them, all relatively junior cultivators, anywhere near such a dangerous location.

If nothing else, life with the Rising Tide Sect sure was interesting.

Chapter 274 – It's a Ford. It's an Acrobatic US Air Force Squadron. It's a 

Benton wasn't too worried about leaving the kids behind at the mouth of the valley. If it were just Yang Xiu or Jin LiJuan, he'd have been a bit concerned, but Yang Ru and Kang Lin had good heads on their shoulders. Besides, the four Foundation Establishment cultivators plus Ganzou represented a nice little fighting force, definitely head and shoulders above anything his spiritual sense had detected short of the mountain.

Speaking of that particular detection ability, however, he frowned as he turned his attention to the rapidly approaching peak. Normally, he was well pleased with his ability in that regard as it allowed him to determine more information at greater range than most cultivators. In his current circumstances, however, there was a problem.

The entire mountain lit up like a Christmas tree, showing qi everywhere. Just about everything from trees to rocks to water to the very air was saturated, so much so that it was difficult to determine details. That issue was going to make separating the wheat from the chaff nearly impossible.

Though he'd somewhat expected that result from his previous times being in the area, he had hoped that advancing to Nascent Soul might have given him an extra level of discernment.

No such luck.

There was one thing that stood out as he drew close—a cave near the highest peak. He sensed Thunder qi inside and a lot of it, coming from a living source. If he had to guess, he would have to say that the cavity housed a beast higher in cultivation than him.

Benton sighed. Confronting such a creature wasn't ideal. He really had no desire to fight, and he had no moral authority to barge in making demands. After all, he was the interloper on the mountain, intruding on the beast's area.

Not only did he not want to face the beast due to ethical concerns, but his recent experience had taught him to be wary of entities at a higher realm than him. He found it quite tempting to simply turn back. The auction hadn't even taken place yet. Maybe he'd find everything he needed there.

No need to disturb a beast at the equivalent of the Nihility realm.

The problem was that every instinct Benton had told him that such a creature wasn't just a threat to him but to his sect and to the entire region. As a sect leader, it wasn't something he could ignore.

He sighed. Sometimes, it really sucked to be an adult.

Not wanting to spook whatever was inside, Benton descended slowly toward the cave. The entrance was large, over fifteen feet high and half again as wide. He waited for a moment after he touched down, giving whatever was inside plenty of time to get used to his presence, and when he started forward, he moved at a slow, consistent pace.

A corridor led off the opening, and it remained the same large size, running at least fifty yards straight back before hitting a bend. As Benton approached that curve, the feeling of the beast's presence grew stronger and stronger, and when as soon as he rounded it, he saw the creature.

The cave opened into a large cavern, easily a hundred yards long and at least half that wide with a height matching the width. At the very end perched on a rock outcrop was a bird. It wasn't just a bird, though. The thing was massive, easily fifteen feet tall. And its feathers were iridescent. As Benton approached, its color shifted from blue to silver to gold.

His sense placed its cultivation at the equivalent of the mid realm of Nihility, so a rank fourteen beast. He was tempted for a moment to use Analyze on it, but most high realmed cultivators could detect such techniques being used on them. And some of them would take exception to such an act, thinking it rude.

There was no reason to risk upsetting the beast for a little addition information. If things went south, he could always manipulate time to give him a moment to Analyze it before the fight truly got started.

Benton prepared himself for anything to happen.

Well, really he prepared himself for an attack because, in his experience thus far in dealing with spirit beasts, that was the most likely outcome of an encounter.

What actually happened when he reached about a dozen yards away took him completely by surprise. The beast spoke.

"Greetings, Cultivator. Do you abide by the agreement?"

Waves of Thunder qi rolled off the creature, and even if Benton hadn't been able to sense that element so clearly, the deep rumble of its voice gave ample evidence of its aspect. It was actually quite nice, though. Kind of like James Earl Jones but more rumbly. If Benton ever got his planned movie studio off the ground and he established a good relationship with the bird, he'd have to ask it about doing voiceover work.

The surprise wasn't the niceness of its voice or the fact that it spoke at all—the cyclops had possessed the ability, however rudimentary its vocabulary and intelligence might have been. No, the surprise was the overall politeness and relative eloquence contained in the words and, moreover, the reference to an agreement.

"To be honest with you, Honored Beast." Benton floundered a bit after saying that as he wasn't sure if referring to a beast as a beast was offensive or not. "While I have no aversion to abiding by agreements in general, I must confess that I have no knowledge of the specific one you seem to be referring to."

Benton decided that he might want to consider buying a technique to help him with interspecies diplomacy because that was … yikes.

"Are you not a member of the Righteous Rain Sect, Cultivator? It's been quite some time since I've seen one of your kind, but the hue of your robes seems similar."

Ah. That old sect did wear blue robes as well.

"No, Honored Beast. This one is the sect leader for the Rising Tide Sect, a recently formed organization. Unfortunately, the Righteous Rain Sect is no more, having been destroyed by demonic cultivators some twenty years ago."

"Gratitude for this knowledge, Sect Leader. It explains much. Part of the agreement was that the sect would perform a culling of lesser beasts in intervals no greater than five years. Several were missed, leading to the formation of a tide recently."

Benton had guessed that the destruction of the sect had led to the tide, but it was interesting to have that supposition confirmed. Having now been to the mountain and seeing firsthand the infusion of qi, he easily understood how such a place would produce spirit beasts in excess of what the land could support.

"What else was contained within the agreement, Honored Beast?"

"The Righteous Rain Sect agreed not to overhunt and to honor myself with gifts, Sect Leader. In return, they were allowed to take a reasonable amount of resources from the mountain."

Translation—give the creature a bribe, and Benton would have permission to take away any materials that he needed should he find them. Even better, his sect members would have hunting grounds for the future.

"My sect is but a small one, Honored Beast, but if you would agree, we would like to take up the mantle abandoned with the destruction of the Righteous Rain Sect."

The creature's beak moved, and Benton wondered if that was its version of a smile.

"This offer is worthy of consideration. What does the sect leader have in mind for a gift?"

"May this one Analyze you, Honored Beast?"

"You may, Sect Leader."

Benton used his technique, and a status popped up.

Type:Greater ThunderbirdRank:14Title:Lord and Protector of the Eternal Celestial PeakQi Element:ThunderYeesh. Benton had been hoping that Analyze would provide him some hint as to what to gift the bird, but if such a clue were contained within the results, it eluded him. There were a couple of bits of interesting information contained in it, though

First of all, it was nice to know what type of bird it was, a mythical thunderbird. Other than that there was a car of that name on Earth as well as an Air Force squadron that did air shows, the name didn't tell Benton a lot about the creature.

Another interesting factoid was that the bird was both the Lord and Protector of the mountain, but those positions were made somewhat evident given the nature of the agreement it was willing to enter into with nearby sects.

The final interesting tidbit was the name of the mountain, Eternal Celestial Peak. Though somewhat pretentious, it was better than calling it "the mountain."

The long and the short of the situation was, though, that Benton was on his own to come up with a gift for the creature. Whatever he gave it, he definitely didn't want to skimp. Considering the treasures abounding all over the peak and the experience fighting beasts of the appropriate level could give his members, the agreement could be a very good thing for the future of his sect.

On the other hand, he didn't want to provide it with a powerful offensive or defensive treasure just in case the thing turned hostile toward humans.

Hmm.

Then the thought hit him—hands. It looked like the beast spent a lot of its time in the cave, and its wings weren't exactly equivalent to human arms. The only thing it could use for grasping things were its talons, which also served as its feet. Obviously, as a Nihility equivalent realm beast, it could use its will to manipulate its environment, but that wasn't the same as being able to, say, scratch its back. How freaking convenient would it be if it could manipulate items like a human could?

"I have an idea for a token of the esteem our sect will hold for the Honored Beast. As a Master craftsman, it will take me but a short time to create it. May I be excused for a moment?"

"Of course, Sect Leader."

Benton cupped his hands. "Gratitude, Honored Beast."

He immediately activated his Time Aura and teleported back to the main sect branch directly to his favorite forge. His idea was to create bracers that would go around the base of the bird's legs. Each would accept Thunder qi as an input. The output was the complicated part. Benton wanted to form a tangible arm, complete with a hand and opposable thumbs.

Honestly, he wasn't sure he would have been able to accomplish such a thing without his new Soul Material Manipulation technique. That skill's entire purpose was to allow him to mold organic matter into a new body for himself.

That purpose wasn't exactly what Benton was trying to do, but the knowledge the technique granted him was invaluable as he inscribed arrays that used Gravity, Force, and Earth to meld rocks and dirt into an arm and hand, one for each bracer.

Using the thing well would take some practice, but he was positive that a Nihility level existence could do so with ease. Benton just hoped the creation was as useful as he thought it might be.

He finished the bracers off by adding self-repair and durability arrays before teleporting back to the cave.

"You're back already, Sect Leader? No more than several blinks have passed."

"This one can manipulate Time, Honored Beast, and as I said, I am a master craftsman, able to forge, inscribe formations, and create pills at the highest level known to humanity. At such levels, experience translates to both speed and creativity."

"I see. The sect leader is truly formidable. Let's see what you came up with."

From the tone, Benton would have imagined that, if it were human, it would have been rubbing its hands together gleefully in anticipation.

"Of course, Honored Beast." Benton held up his arms and wiggled his fingers. "I've always thought that these were one of humanity's greatest conveniences. We take being able to easily grab things or scratch our backs or use weapons for granted. I hope my reasoning isn't too human centric, but I thought that maybe you'd like the experience of being able to use them as well."

He removed the bracers from his spatial ring and floated them with his will toward the thunderbird. When they reached about the halfway point, they were taken over by the bird's will.

A thin stream of qi entered one of the bracers from the bird, and nearby rocks and debris were drawn to the device and molded into an arm about eight feet long. Jerkily at first but becoming smoother by the second, the arm and fingers moved and flexed.

"Interesting, Sect Leader. The former sect who participated in the agreement brought me only trinkets and treats. None formed something as magnificent as this gift. You have truly showed your respect today, Sect Leader. I will gladly enter into an agreement with you."

Yes. How awesome was it when a person—or being—actually appreciates your thoughtfulness in choosing a gift? Benton thought that the occasion just might be the start of a beautiful friendship. Now if only he could find at least a few of the materials he needed.

Chapter 275 – Love Being a Cultivator

Benton had confidence that one pressing issue had been resolved. Having come to an agreement with the Lord and Protector of the mountain, a rank fourteen thunderbird, he didn't think he'd have any problems with being attacked by anything more powerful than him.

Which meant he could focus on finding the materials that he required in order to make qi sources. In theory, such materials, being rich in qi, would stand out to his spiritual sense. And in reality, they probably did.

The problem was that, while his sense was fantastic at picking out a needle in the middle of a dessert, it wasn't nearly so great at picking out a particular needle on a peak that was filled with the things. Everything in front of, below, and around him was steeped in qi. Every rock. Every blade of grass. Every tree. Every fallen twig. Everything.

For two days, he did everything he could think of. Flew far above the mountain trying to sense only the biggest sources. It worked to find him fantastically great treasures. Probably. But not the treasures he needed.

He tried flying really close to the ground and checking everything in detail. It took him hours to cover a couple of yards, and the mountain was simply ginormous.

Eventually, he hit on the idea of sorting for the qi elements that he needed, Shadow for example. From high above the mountain, unfortunately, even his advanced spiritual sense wasn't good enough to detect a small speck of Shadow in the ocean of light. Moving closer to the ground yielded the same problem as before—it took forever to cover much ground. At least he could actually find sources of Shadow qi that were nearby, but none of them turned out to be what he needed. Mostly because they were too weak and a couple because the materials were contaminated with other elements.

And an additional problem reared its head—he easily could be passing up, say, an Ice treasure while fruitlessly searching for a Shadow one. And switching back and forth between all five that he was still searching for—having everything he needed for Fire either in hand or en route to the sect—slowed him down even further.

Needless to say, it was a frustrating two days, especially since he had gotten so accustomed to manipulating time. Because he was interacting with the world, sensing qi emanations from the surroundings, he couldn't use either his Aura or his technique when far from the source of the qi. And it turned out that trying to include only part of the ground in his time bubble was possible if he got close enough, but it drained qi fast. Really fast. And even with the agreement with the thunderbird in place, he thought it would be incredibly idiotic to leave himself vulnerable by running his qi pool too low.

Basically, he spent most of those two days in real time, which made things even more irritating. Finally, though, Benton remembered something important—he was a cheating cheater who cheats.

"System," he said internally, fearing the thunderbird might be able to hear him anywhere on the mountain, "can I make a Detect Treasure technique that fine tunes my spiritual sense to seek out only a specific thing that I tell it to?"

Host may create such a technique. At Foundation Establishment level, however, it probably will not be strong enough to filter out the strong interference from the ambient qi in Host's current environment.Well, that answer wasn't a no. It just meant that the System was trying to get more points out of him. Benton could live with that outcome.

"System, what would I need to do to create a technique powerful enough to filter out the strong interference around me?"

Host should associate the Foundation Establishment level technique with a Concept specifically created to empower the technique.Honestly, Benton should have figured that out by himself. Obviously, the technique needed to be stronger, and he had the roadmap from previous experience on how to power it up. Self-recriminations didn't help, though. Better to focus his attention on figuring out a good Concept.

So what qi element would help with filtering out qi emanations from so many sources? Obviously, the correct qi element to use was…

Or maybe…

How about…

Ugh. He couldn't come up with a single thing that would help. His mind just went blank.

Benton tended to think of qi elements like they were energy types from Pokemon Go, which he'd played a bit with his grandkids. Electricity, Rock, Metal, those kinds of things. Though he knew intellectually that a qi element could be pretty much anything he could imagine, it was difficult for his old brain to break out of the mold and get creative. It seemed like the current situation might be one of those times when he would have to do just that.

"System, I would like to purchase the Concept of Treasure to Mastery. My idea for the qi element is to define a treasure as any substance, be it animal, vegetable, or mineral, that I am interested in finding at any particular time."

And that worked. The System charged him his normal sixteen points for the Concept to go with the eight for the technique, and just like that, he had a way to detect treasures.

He really, truly did love being a cultivator. There he was floating several football fields above a mountain using his will alone to hold him aloft while cheating the heck out of the circumstances to find the treasure he needed.

Too sweet.

Yang Xiu really, truly did love being a cultivator. There she was traipsing through a valley with her brother, her best friend in the world, and a sweet but intense kid and that kid's wolf while hunting spirit beasts and using the fights to practice her techniques. And they even had the possibility of discovering treasure. Too sweet.

Honestly, though the thought of finding valuable resources was appealing, Yang Xiu wanted for nothing. When she was hungry, she ate at the cafeteria for free. When she needed a resource to advance her cultivation, Master provided it, mostly kind of for free. She did sometimes have to pay Contribution Points, but those were nebulous at best. And her supply always outstripped her needs.

Combined with having friends she liked and could count on, her brother by her side, and being able to pursue her dream of being a cultivator, there was nothing she could possibly want. Nothing that was attainable at any rate. Not even Master could bring her parents back.

She shook off her suddenly morose thoughts and concentrated on the game trail they were following. Not much time passed before Kang Lin spoke.

"Incoming. Rank two. Yang Ru, you're up."

For the past two days, they'd developed a system of taking turns. With four of them, humans anyway, they alternated which one kept their spiritual sense active to detect beasts and which different person got to fight any beasts they found solo. When it was Jin LiJuan's turn to keep watch, one of the other three surreptitiously also took an extra turn. The little girl was diligent and really tried hard, but she just wasn't experienced enough yet.

Of course, Ganzou was better than all of them. A wild beast had yet to get close to the group without the wolf detecting it well in advance.

"You want it, Jin LiJuan?" Yang Ru said.

The little girl cupped her hands. "Gratitude, Senior Brother."

Giving all the rank twos to her had become their practice as well. The weak creatures really did nothing for the three of them, but Jin LiJuan's techniques needed so much work than even the small amount of challenge represented by beasts almost a full major realm below her helped a lot.

The thing was that the girl was being quite persistent in her practice. When they were at the sect, she spent more time in the pavilion working against the combat dummies than literally anyone else, often with Pan Jiang mentoring her. Still, though, her sword technique wasn't even close to Large Success, and despite weeks of effort, she hadn't gotten her Nature technique to Small Success yet, either.

Confused by the lack of progress, Yang Xiu had asked Kang Lin about it, obviously out of earshot of the girl or the wolf. It turns out that talent doesn't just impact cultivation speed, but the time it takes to learn techniques as well. Not only was Jin LiJuan the least talented member of the sect, but her pathways were still really messed up. Kang Lin thought it a miracle that the girl was making any advancement at all.

That was a bit of a shame because, in all other respects, Jin LiJuan had crazy advantages. All she had to do to advance was to feed Ganzou spirit beast cores, and considering the plethora of them available given the recent tide, her way to Golden Core was clear. If Master hadn't insisted that she take the time to shore up her techniques and obtain her own cores, the girl would have already made it to that realm.

It also appeared that she could use any technique. Any element. She could channel her qi into one of Kang Lin's techniques and use Lightning. Pick up one of Yang Ru's and produce Momentum. If Yang Xiu hadn't herself felt so incredibly privileged, she would have wept at the unfairness.

Rustling sounded ahead of them, and Yang Xiu turned her attention to the approaching beast. The valley was quite lush with trees and bushes and tall grasses. If not for the group's spiritual senses, they would have been ambushed several times already.

The approaching creature obviously didn't rely on stealth, however. It crashed through bushes and small saplings, avoiding only large trees, and soon, it appeared on the trail a dozen yards ahead of them. A badger.

Ugh. Yang Xiu couldn't help but recall the Shadow aspected one that gave them so much trouble during the tide. If not for Zou Tian, they might have lost a lot of people to that beast.

She didn't expect the one in front of them to present nearly as big a challenge. To her, Kang Lin, Yang Ru, or Ganzou anyway. Jin LiJuan was another matter entirely.

Chapter 276 – Success!

Fresh off a new round of cheating, Benton obviously needed to try out his new technique. He elevated high over the peak so that he could see the entire mountain at once, and triggering an old school memory of the Wonder Twins from the Superfriends, kind of, he said internally, "Detect Treasure activate. Form of an … Ice aspected beast core, rank ten or higher."

He waited a moment, staring at what he imagined as specks of light representing qi below him. They were so numerous that they literally all blended together into one big light. Surely something would happen. Something would pop out for him to notice, maybe shining brighter than all others.

Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

"Detect Treasure activate. Form of a … rock emitting lots of Ice qi."

Still nothing.

Same for a Momentum aspected beast core. Honestly, he was starting to think that the technique was a dud, though that would have been a first. Still, it had required the use of a Concept. Maybe he'd messed that part up somehow.

Or maybe the mountain didn't happen to have the exact materials he needed for every qi aspect handy. Those things were supposed to be rare after all.

"Detect Treasure activate. Form of a … plant emitting lots of Momentum qi."

That time, something did happen. Almost all the qi specks blanked out. All save one, actually. That tiny little pinprick burned as bright as the sun, drawing him to it.

Suddenly bereft of his ability to sense spirit beasts and other dangers while under the influence of his skill, he let himself drift slowly downward until he could make out the plant in question.

"Cancel technique," he said internally.

The enormous flood of information returned to his thankfully enhanced brain, and he checked for any beasts that might have taken the opportunity to set up an ambush. None of them were apparently that stupid, though.

Even diverting his attention away from the plant for a moment, he had no problem locating it, having used one of the four instances his mind was capable of splitting into to keep focus on it.

Benton actually didn't know a whole lot about plants. Herbs were a different story. His techniques had given him encyclopedic knowledge of anything that could be used for alchemy. If it wasn't part of that group of catalogued flora, though, he couldn't tell you much about the things.

A group of dozens of unfamiliar plants with long stalks with bulbous ends were growing near an outcrop overlooking a canyon. Winds naturally whipped through that canyon and up the wall before being funneled onto the outcrop where it blew the tips all around.

In the qi rich environment of the mountain, the tips naturally absorbed much of it and took on an aspect dictated by their surroundings. As one might expect, most of those tips acquired a Wind aspect. Several, and one in particular, had instead taken on a Momentum aspect as they were whirled around.

Analyze told him that Detect Treasure was absolutely correct. That particular plant had grown saturated enough with Momentum qi to fulfill the needs of the qi source he was trying to create.

Perfect.

He left the others in place and made a mental note of the location. Given enough time, it was quite possible that the three other plants would absorb enough as well.

With his new technique, scouring the mountain for the rest of the materials he wanted took very little time. Most simply didn't exist, which made sense. It took much time and an unusual confluence of circumstances to make a material purely aspected with a single qi element of the strength that he required.

The Eternal Celestial Peak was quite an unusual place, however, and he located two more materials, both rocks—one with the Shadow element and one with the Time element.

All in all, Benton was quite pleased. With the results. With the mountain as a source of cultivation treasures. And most of all, with his continued ability to cheat his way through any situation that arose.

Since his job was finished, he decided to spend the rest of the week spying on the kids' progress, a task that was sure to be interesting, fun, and educational.

Jin LiJuan purely hated spirit beasts. Most spirit beasts anyway. Despite herself, Ganzou was starting to grow on her.

Regardless, whatever she felt for the wolf didn't have much of an effect on her feelings for the badger approaching her. She hated everything about it.

Its stout, flattened body. Its short legs. That ludicrous white strip that ran down the center of its ugly face.

Mostly, though, she hated that it would likely be so hard to kill. For her anyway. Any of the others, including Ganzou, would surely destroy it with a single swipe.

She steadied herself. It didn't matter what they could do. What mattered was that she needed to learn, to advance, to grow. Master and Ganzou had given her a tremendous advantage in being able to ascend realms at ridiculous speeds and to be able to use any qi aspect.

There was a catch, though. She had to attain Mastery of techniques to maximize those advantages. Once she did, she'd be unstoppable, second only to Master in terms of strength in the sect, passing even Town Lord Fatty Ren.

First, she had to work hard. But that was okay. She'd never been scared of hard work.

Jin LiJuan set her jaw and settled into her combat stance, her jian held in the ready position.

Her goal for the trip was to advance just two of her techniques to their respective next ranks—the Strong Oak Sword technique to Large Success and Ensnarl to Small Success.

Both goals seemed so tiny, eclipsed by the wonder that was advancing all the way to Foundation Establishment. But neither was easy. She had to fight tooth and nail for each minor improvement. Even with how easy Master said Ensnarl was or with how much help Senior Brother Pan Jiang had been with the blade, she just couldn't seem to make big gains.

That was why she would be forever grateful to her fellow disciples accompanying her on the hunt. Not only was she able to concentrate fully on improving her technique since she could trust any one of them to save her if she truly got into trouble, but they were giving her all their turns.

Oh, she did understand that the rank two creatures she fought weren't a challenge for any of them, but to hear Pan Jiang talk, it wasn't unusual at all for a cultivator to take what was theirs by right whether it actually benefited them or not. She was glad that her sect and her fellow disciples weren't like that. Though she felt that she really didn't know any of the three of them that well at all—they were, after all, three of the most important people at the sect and she was several years their junior—but she also knew that each of them would do everything in their power to help her.

Jin LiJuan vowed right then and there to follow their example to the best of her ability. She'd been given great gifts and, as soon as she gained Mastery of enough techniques, would become one of the most powerful members of the sect. Her responsibility was to help others as they were helping her.

The badger was almost upon her, though, so it was time to put away errant thoughts.

It waddled toward her with an awkward but powerful gait.

"The claws on the front feet and its teeth are its main weapons," Kang Lin yelled. "It will be deceptively fast in a straight line, but with your agility, you should be able to flank it relatively easily."

The eldest of the group, the girl seemed to know a lot about just about everything. Jin LiJuan nodded, both as thanks for the information and recognition that such knowledge was a type of power in its own right.

She truly hated sitting and reading, preferring to practice her sword or other techniques, but as she was expected to eventually be one of the leaders of a new Beast Pavilion—she mentally shook her head at the thought—it would be good for her to learn more about them.

The badger hesitated at the yell, surely realizing it had no hope at five against one with all its opponents at a higher realm than it. Jin LiJuan, however, was quite some distance ahead of the others, and none of them made a move to get closer.

Apparently coming to the conclusion that it was worth the risk—either that or it let its natural aggression get the better of it—the badger darted forward with a snarl.

Jin LiJuan thanked the heavens for Kang Lin's warning. The thing was fast. Really fast. Way faster than Jin LiJuan would have expected given the beast's awkward gait and its overall pudgy appearance.

Without having been told to be on the lookout, she might have been taken by surprise. Instead, she dashed to the right just as the badger began its burst. And as expected, the beast wasn't able to turn in time, dashing right past her.

Jin LiJuan was ready. She slashed at the creature's flank. Wind Whipping the Branch added both power and speed. Her blade fell, slashing the badger just in front of its tail.

It yelped.

The cut was deep, and blood flowed from it.

That was good. An improvement. The beast was only a rank two, but it was strong and fast for its rank. And she'd hit it on her first try, an attack made after a successful dodge.

Pan Jiang would be so proud when he learned of her actions.

The badger, on the other hand, didn't like being struck. It tried to flee, obviously in the direction opposite her group.

Ganzou, at rank four, was much faster than the badger. The wolf also know that the kill wasn't his to make, so he instead used his speed and the threat of his teeth to herd the badger.

The bloodied beast was driven, hissing and snarling, back to Jin LiJuan, and by the time it reached her, it was too agitated to do anything other than strike out blindly. She saw the attack coming almost before it made it.

Her footwork felt perfect as she stepped to the left.

The badger's teeth missed her by inches, but she barely noticed. She'd already started her next move, a backward thrust with her jian.

Root Seeks Water.

The metal of her root found liquid as intended, blood taking the place of water. The blade sliced between the ribs and found the beast's heart, killing it.

She'd won.

More importantly, she felt something change in her understanding of her sword technique. She'd done it.

Large Success.

Yes!

"Jin LiJuan?" a voice said from behind her. Kang Lin.

"Yes, Senior Sister?" Jin LiJuan had been so wrapped up in the excitement of advancing her technique that she hadn't heard the others approach.

Pan Jiang would be disappointed in what he called her situation awareness.

"Why didn't you use your plant technique to hold the beast in place?" Kang Lin said.

"Uh…"

Chapter 277 – Creepy Crawlies

Zou Tian sighed. In the five days since the expedition had departed, he'd been hard at work preparing for his eventual mission. Cultivating. Working on his Shadow Perception technique. Getting his Knowledge of Spycraft technique to Small Success. Sparring with his dagger.

Everything but entering the Trial Pagoda.

Brother Peng Zhen had given Zou Tian permission to use it any day he wanted. He just needed to run by the Contribution Points Shop first thing in the morning and make the reservation.

For three days, he'd tried to psych himself up for the trial but unfortunately ended up psyching himself out—one of Master's phrases—instead.

His fear wasn't exactly the same as last time. Before he'd generally been afraid of failure just because he didn't want to be the first to be put in that position.

Instead, his current fear was much better grounded. The mission was important to him and to the sect, and he didn't think he could achieve what he needed to accomplish without upgrading his affinity with his aspect.

Of course, he could try again if he failed. And he would try again. It was just that he felt that the lack of success might destroy all his confidence, making the next try that much more difficult.

He sighed again. Regardless, he had to try at some point. Soon. He needed to know.

Tomorrow. He'd do it tomorrow.

Yang Ru had spent the previous five days watching Jin LiJuan slowly, very slowly, improve her techniques, finally getting her plant manipulation ability to Small Success the previous afternoon. Due to her being assigned to his processing group after the beast tide, he'd spent more time with her than his sister or Kang Lin had. He'd actually been there when Jin LiJuan had found the wolf pup that would become Ganzou.

It was really ironic how embracing the thing she hated most—a beast—had become the path to power she so desired. Yang Xiu had gushed about it being like something out of one of the novels she read. Yang Ru didn't say anything, but his opinion was that an author who came up with such a stupid plot device must not be very good.

He had to admit, albeit begrudgingly, that he envied Jin LiJuan's easy advancements. She hardly cultivated at all, instead only having to feed Ganzou spirit beast cores. But he didn't feel that he had any right to complain. Kang Lin told him all the time that her fellow sect members would weep blood to hear someone with his talent whine about someone else's advantages.

Which was quite true. But it was still difficult not to be envious.

Not that he didn't like Jin LiJuan or bore her any ill will, however. In fact, he'd do anything in his power to support her.

The girl reminded him a lot of himself. They both had a similar background in that they'd lost parents to violence. If anything, she'd had it even rougher than him, losing her parents at a younger age and witnessing the event. It was a miracle that the beasts hadn't taken her as well.

While he'd focused inwardly, though, blaming himself for not being strong enough to protect his family, she'd directed her anger toward the creatures that had killed hers. Toward revenge.

Watching her fight to get that hate under control reminded him of his early struggles with his desire to protect Yang Xiu. Even though he'd recognized that his focus on that particular goal was unhealthy and unreasonable, he had a hard time getting past it. Even to the current day, it was still hard for him to admit that, if she couldn't save herself, there were only isolated situations where he could do anything to help.

Meeting Kang Lin helped a lot with overcoming that mindset, though. He felt like his thoughts were turning more toward the future instead of the past, allowing him to focus more on steady growth and stability for himself instead of being concerned about protecting his capable sister.

Yang Ru felt like he'd come a long way from the boy he'd been less than a year ago when he'd first encountered Master.

Returning his attention to his surroundings, he sighed. They'd moved out of the territory mainly populated by rank twos and into the area near the base of the mountain, which was filled with rank threes and the occasional rank four. The three older disciples in the group still gave up their turns at the lower ranked beasts to Jin LiJuan, as Yang Xiu had done several minutes ago.

The younger girl was not doing well with the more powerful beasts. For one thing, they were faster. And stronger. Using Ensnarl to hinder them with plants accomplished only the briefest of delays, and while one of her seniors would have been fast enough and skilled enough to take advantage of the opportunity that distraction gave, she … wasn't. And therein laid the real problem. She simply needed more experience.

Jin LiJuan was progressing. It was just that the pace was so slow compared to everyone else.

Still, if Master asked for a recommendation, Yang Ru would firmly advocate for the girl to be allowed to hunt in the valley on her own. Could she handle all the challenges present? No. Definitely not. Could Ganzou? Absolutely. And the two of them worked well enough together for him not to worry overly much about them, especially as she had a contingency ring.

She was currently fighting a giant centipede, easily as long as she was tall. The thing was just nasty, a creepy crawly if he ever saw one. Nothing that big should have that many legs. Thankfully, it wasn't very fast, but it made up for its lack of speed with extra toughness.

Though Jin LiJuan had gotten in several strikes with her sword, she'd yet to break through the beast's chitin exoskeleton to do any real damage.

Kang Lin, whose current job was to watch the surroundings instead of the fight, suddenly spoke. "Incoming. Rank four."

Yang Ru grinned. His turn.

Trusting his sister, Ganzou, and his likely future fiancé to watch Jin LiJuan, he reached out with his spiritual sense, immediately spotting the quickly approaching ball of qi.

Their group was approaching the mountain from the northwest, and the beast rapidly making its way to them came from the east. The forest was too thick to see it, though, and the dense underbrush also impacted his ability to build up Momentum.

That was okay, though. It was only a rank four, the equivalent of his level. Fighting using different methods from his normal tried and true was good practice, and the situation gave him to perfect opportunity to do just that. Rather than using Inevitability and Momentum Transfer, he'd go with his original skills—spear combat and Stone Skin.

The fact that it felt weird for him not to be rushing toward the beast told him he was becoming too set in his ways. It was good to discover that fact while in a low danger situation rather than against rival cultivators.

Soon, the beast broke through the cover of the brush, coming into view less than ten yards away. A spider.

If there was one type of creature under the heavens that Yang Ru despised, it was a spider. The hay at his uncle's farm was simply infested with arachnids, and he couldn't even count the number of times one had fallen on him from above, crawled inside his shirt, and bit him.

Yang Ru felt his heart start to race, tainted by anger and disgust, so he took a deep breath, calming himself. Losing himself to his emotions would do him no good.

Not for the first time, he considered how weird it was that he preferred being cool and calm, a trait associated with Ice, while his twin preferred emotion and excitement, much more Fire aspected characteristics. What the fact that they portrayed a mentality associated with their sibling's aspect meant, he had no idea.

Meanwhile, the spider, instead of charging or attacking, simply turned back the way it had come. For a moment, Yang Ru was disappointed, thinking it was running just from the sight of him.

It turned out that wasn't what it was doing.

There was one thing most beasts that he fought lacked—a ranged attack. Which worked out great for him since he rarely used the bow he stowed in his ring. With his skill still at Small Success, he'd be lucky to even hit a moving target, much less strike it somewhere critical enough to actually hurt it.

The spider, though, proved to be an exception to not having the ability to strike at range. Its first move was to shoot a web at him.

Though he could move at incredible speeds when he got going, he wasn't quick. His acceleration was slow, steady, and Inevitable. There was no way he could dodge the mass of sticky web coming at him.

Well, so much for using only his spear skills and Stone Skin to fight the beast.

Yang Ru had not been lax about continuing to practice and learning new uses for his signature abilities after reaching Mastery. In fact, he'd recently achieved a breakthrough that he thought of as a real gamechanger.

The only problem was that he needed something connected to his body to serve as a conduit for his qi, and he definitely didn't want his spear to touch that sticky webbing.

His previous thoughts about the bow probably influenced his decision to pull a single arrow from his ring.

Perfect.

He held it out toward the incoming webbing, and as it neared, he triggered his Momentum Transfer technique. Instead of transferring his own Momentum to a target, though, he stole the web's motion and transferred it to himself.

Two things happened simultaneously. One, the web collapsed to the ground, its forward progress simply halted. Two, he accelerated instantly.

Since the web didn't weigh nearly as much as he did, the Momentum imparted actually wasn't all that great, but the spider was at a huge disadvantage. Shooting the web at him had required it to turn its backside toward him.

By the time the beast realized that he was not enmeshed in its trap, he was more than halfway to it. All it had time to do before he reached it was to make a halfhearted stab with one of its many legs.

Yang Ru didn't even bother to block it, trusting his shield to handle the blow. Which it did with aplomb.

His strength as a Foundation Establishment cultivator was decent but not really in excess of the similarly ranked spider. The additional strength provided by reaching the second minor realm of Silver Body Cultivation, however, eclipsed the arachnid by at least a degree of magnitude.

He thrust his spear with perfect technique and all his considerably enhanced muscles driving the blow. The spider's abdomen practically exploded, leaving him covered in the spider's blood.

The good news? His opponent was dead. The bad news? Kang Lin was absolutely going to insist that he find a place to bathe before he was allowed within twenty yards of her.

He sighed again.

Chapter 278 – Competitive Advantage

Yang Xiu was having a bit of trouble with the rank four beast she was fighting, an armadillo. More like an armor-dillo. The thing was encased in a thick, qi-enhanced bone shell that her arrowheads simply could not penetrate. Even its eyes were armored, and while not fast, it was quick enough to be able to move its head so that her shots hit the armored eyelids instead of the eyes as she intended.

Obviously, she could have used any of the arrows Master had created for her to solve the situation, but using a limited resource to defeat such a relatively low level creature would have been a waste. The special munitions gave her great power and versatility, but they took Master's precious time to create and should be used for actual emergencies.

Her lack of power frustrated her, especially after seeing her brother execute the new use of his technique in actual combat. He still wasn't fast enough with it to counter her arrows, but that was only a matter of practice and experience. She could easily see how powerful that tactic would make him in the future.

Between that addition to his skillset and his overall build favoring strength and toughness, he was sure to go far in the tournament. In contrast, her Body Cultivation helped in those two areas, but it mainly enhanced her speed.

Which was fantastic. With each new minor realm in Silver that she achieved, she felt like a part of her had been freed, like she had always been meant to move that fast and the baths just unlocked it. The advancement felt right.

Adding too much strength and toughness would have conflicted with her aspect, a matter that, after much research and meditation, she much more thoroughly understood. Any improvement that ran counter to who she was at core was no improvement at all.

She was, "Perfectly smooth ice balanced on the razor edge of freezing and thawing." Adding, say, "with lightning" at the end of that sentence wouldn't give her the ability to use Lightning qi. Instead, it would almost definitely create a horrible feedback loop where the Ice and Lightning conflicted with each other, severely messing up her cultivation.

Still, she needed a way to increase her personal power and had been thinking of the best solution ever since she'd first approached Master about changing her aspect. After watching Yang Ru the previous day, her resolve regarding finding that solution firmed.

Not for the first time, she repeated the phrase in her mind as she shot more arrows at the armadillo, keeping it away from her as she literally ran circles around it.

Perfectly smooth ice was fine. Not anything to be messed with. Her entire cultivation and combat style was based on those three words.

And therein laid the problem. She didn't use the rest of the phrase, the majority, nine words, at all. And there was a lot in there.

For example, Balance. Depending on how she fixed the meaning of that word in her mind, there could be some interesting applications for it. The element could definitely enhance her movement techniques, making it more difficult for her to fall. It could also be used offensively, like making her opponent lose their balance. Or more esoterically, she could creatively bring a fight more in balance. If her opponent were stronger, she could balance her and their respective strength.

The possibilities were basically endless.

Maybe in the future, Balance would be an option for her to explore, but it didn't feel right to her at the moment.

Freezing seemed to have some potential. Having her arrows cause a Freezing effect on hitting gave some more oomph to her hits. But not really as much as she wanted. She needed damage, for her opponent's health to suffer. Injuries. In her mind, Freezing meant being stuck in place. A useful effect but not the damaging one that she wanted.

Presumably, cold could cause damage. Frostbite, etc. Still, it just didn't feel like the solution to her problem of not hitting hard enough.

Over the last month and a half, she'd considered those same options and more over and over again. The downside of having nearly infinite ways of looking at each word was that it made it hard for her to narrow the list to a small number that she could select from. The issue was made worse in that she also had the possibility of adding a few words or modifying a small portion of the phrase.

That path, however, involved a Trial and adding or modifying a core piece of who she was naturally carried much more risk than simply shifting her focus to a part of it that already existed.

Still, the more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself that the potential gains outweighed the dangers.

Two words that already existing in her aspect really stood out as being exactly what she was looking for—razor edge. Sharpness. But it was buried in the phrase in such a way that it didn't quite mean what she needed it to mean, and no amount of mental contortions on her part could get her to that meaning without changing the phrase.

Her understanding was that, if one were to modify their aspect, the slighter the rewording, the better. She'd come up with—perfectly smooth ice balanced between freezing and thawing, its edge a razor.

Before her intensive study about aspects, she wouldn't have even registered the difference in the wording, much less understood how profound those small changes would be.

The new phrase would definitely add what she wanted—an idea of cutting using the sharpness of the razor.

There was a downside, though. In the original version, "balance on the razor edge of freezing and thawing" represented when ice was at its absolute slipperiest. The new wording still contained that balance but gave it less prevalence. She'd definitely lose a hopefully only very small amount of her ability to create purely slippery ice. That change would lower the effectiveness of her Slippery Arrow technique, her movement technique, and even her shield.

Of course, those impacts were likely to be too small to be seen while she was in the lowest minor realm of Foundation Establishment, so she was more robbing her potential in that category instead of making herself actually weaker.

The gain, though, would be significant. A qi element associated with Sharpness, with Razor, added to all of her arrows… Giving up the potential of a bit of speed in exchange for the ability to slice into her target seemed worth it. She'd have to discuss it with Master.

During the time she'd been thinking about her qi aspect, she'd continuously circled the armadillo and had kept hitting it with arrow after arrow. But she hadn't been hitting it at random. No, every arrow had hit the beast within a tiny fraction of an inch of the same spot.

Its qi shield in that location had failed long ago, withering under the constant barrage. So, too, had the bone armor eventually wore down.

For the next shot, she used every ounce of her strength to maximize the bow's pull. Doing so lessened her accuracy, of course, but she only needed to hit the weakened spot, around the size of a silver tael, at a distance of around fifteen yards. She could accomplish such a feat while blindfolded and dizzy like she was playing a child's game. If she couldn't, she should have her bow taken away from her.

Twang!

The arrow launched from the bowstring with all the speed and power her muscles could impart to it and further enhanced by her Slippery Arrow technique.

As it neared its target, the moment of truth approached. All her other arrows had bounced off the armadillo's thick bone shell.

Thunk!

Not that one.

It stuck. And not only did it stick, but it sank into the beast's tender flesh underneath that armor so that only about half the shaft was sticking out of it.

The armadillo let out a loud, pained wheezy grunt that told her it regretted ever attacking her.

Since she was so much faster than the beast, it was quite trivial for her to choose where to hit it, and she'd chosen the middle of its chest, where Kang Lin had told her the beast's heart was located. Of course, given that its head hung down over that part of its body, Yang Xiu had to wait for the perfect time to loose in order to hit the gap correctly, which was why she'd occasionally been off by a tiny fraction of an inch.

She actually appreciated the extra challenge, otherwise the fight would have been too easy.

Seeing as how the armadillo was not dead yet, though, she'd apparently missed the heart. Which was okay. She didn't know exactly where it was after all. A good portion of the bone shell in that area appeared to be compromised, though, she figured a few more chances would be appropriate.

She loosed again. The arrow again penetrated, but the beast still didn't die. It did try to flee, though, meaning she had to run to keep ahead of it.

Neither the next arrow nor the one after that caused it to fall over. Finally, the fifth arrow that penetrated seemed to hit something vital as the armadillo let out an awful caterwauling and fell over.

A minute or two later, it was dead.

She frowned. How much quicker would she have been able to kill it if her arrows had been imbued with Razor Edge Sharpness?

Yang Ru was built to fight solo against other cultivators. He had the toughness needed to go toe to toe with probably anyone in the same minor realm and the strength to do the damage needed to take his opponents out.

Yang Xiu had some advantages. Her speed should stand out among her peers, and it would definitely be hard for them to beat someone they couldn't hit. And her accuracy and rate of release for her arrows was, according to Kang Lin, outstanding.

Those strengths would make Yang Xiu a difficult out for anyone in the tournament, even Yang Ru. But they wouldn't make her a favorite. To have a chance to win, she needed a competitive advantage. An extra edge. A Razor Edge.

Recaps

Recap for Sect Leader System Book 1

Benton, a nice old man nearing retirement from a corporate career but who displayed a bit of steel in his spine when his proteges were threatened, died attempting to save the life of a man he'd mentored. Because of the circumstances of Benton's death, he was given a choice of where to reincarnate. He picked a world with a System.

Upon arriving, he was slightly dismayed to discover he'd landed on a cultivation world but forged ahead regardless. He chose the Sect Leader System as the one that best suited his personality, and two of his selected perks were an Auspicious Encounter and an Advantageous Starting Location.

The first of those perks led him to twins Yang Xiu and Yang Ru, orphaned peasants with great cultivation potential. They soon became his first disciples, and he trained them prior to beginning a journey to his starting location, which passed through dangerous lands with prowling spirit beasts. Benton was very pleased to have found two such amazing prospects, planning to have them advance far and fast as cultivators and handle most of the fighting for him.

They eventually arrived at the Prosperous Gray Forest Village and found inhabitants who were nearly starved due to being beset by spirit beasts. Benton supported the local orphanage, taking on its mistress, Zhong Wen, and a promising future alchemist, Wan Ai, as disciples. He also met a cute but intense girl, Jin LiJuan, who was desperate to become a cultivator.

Benton and the twins embarked on a mission to Sixth Flawless Flowing City to sell the precious resource, Orange Vigor Spirit Wood, and use the proceeds to purchase food and other necessary supplies.

That part of the mission went great as they ticked item after item off Benton's To Do List. They even found two great recruits—Zou Tian, a heavily Shadow aspected young gang member sent to spy on them, and Shi Long, a talented store clerk whose aspect pulled him toward being a blacksmith.

They faced some obstacles such as an encounter with a local cultivator gang, but their main concern was to slip under the radar of the Big Three Sects that govern the continent. Things got complicated when they encountered an arrogant young master, Pan Jiang, leading to meeting his Master—Elder Kang Ya-Ting of the Poison Claw Sect.

Since the elder couldn't sense Benton's cultivation—another of his perks—he had to treat the unknown with caution and arranged an official match, one in which Yang Ru thoroughly humiliated the Poison Claw Sect scion. Benton was gracious in victory, however, gifting the young man with an impressive sword technique.

The technique turned out to be top heaven grade, much nicer than anything the Poison Claw Sect possessed, and led to the sect befriending Benton, even helping him with his errands.

He left the city with Zou Tian, Shi Long, guards, and drivers for all their wagons. During the trip, a member of the Jade Chameleon Sect, another Big Three Sect, tried to rob Benton, who ended up killing the man. Further along the journey, they stopped at a small village, and Benton recruited the local blacksmith, Xun Wu—a man with high ranked spirit roots.

Bored, Benton rushed ahead to Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town, the former location of the destroyed Righteous Rain Sect. Led by one of the few surviving members of that sect, Fatty Ren, the town was experiencing hard times. Benton uncovered corruption by the Town Manager and brought it to Fatty Ren, who had the man executed.

Benton arranged for the local orphanage to be funded and recruited a few of its members to bring with him to join his new sect. He also found Zi Delan, a street smart gang leader, and recruited him along with his gang.

The caravan caught up to Benton, and the entire group traveled toward the village. Along the way, he realized that the true role of a sect leader was to be so powerful that no one would dare mess with his sect members, so he planned his ultimate combat build.

They eventually reached the village and turned over all the supplies, surprising and impressing the mayor. One bad thing happened in the village while Benton was away, though—the little girl, Jin LiJuan, ate spirit beast meat left behind for the orphans who had become cultivators, and the meat damaged her mortal body, leaving her in bad shape and unlikely to ever cultivate.

Benton told the mayor about wanting to found a sect, and the mayor granted land for that purpose. With the final condition for creating the sect fulfilled, Benton finally did just that, promising to strive to have each of his sect members reach at least Foundation Establishment. The heavens sent lightning, signifying that his vow has been witnessed.

Recap for Sect Leader System Book 2—Rising Tide

With the Rising Tide Sect officially founded, the System expanded in functionality. For one thing, Benton could now use and create cultivation methods for the Mind and Soul. One concern, though, was the fact that his personal advancement in cultivation was tied to meeting certain metrics such as the number of sect members and his Average Loyalty Rating. An even more concerning thing was that the System gave him a new quest—Survive the Beast Tide.

Benton immediately got the sect focused on preparing for the tide, including producing wood for a wall around the sect grounds and having his alchemist, Wan Ai, learn how to prepare Body Cultivation baths. As he was relaying his orders, a cultivator showed up. It was Kang Lin, Elder Kang Ya-Ting's granddaughter, there to deliver a message.

The cultivator that Benton killed was the son of Teng Jian, a Golden Core cultivator for the Jade Chameleon Sect. Everyone believed that Teng Jian would come after Benton for revenge. Benton replied that he would hold the sect blameless as long as he were the only one targeted but would be greatly angered if the juniors were affected.

On a whim, Benton also suggested that maybe Kang Lin and his disciple, Yang Ru, would make a good match. After Kang Lin departed to deliver the response, Benton assigned Zou Tian to help Wan Ai get the alchemy program running, which turned out to be unexpectedly effective. Wan Ai was extremely introverted and didn't like being around most people. Zou Tian's presence was lessened greatly due to his Shadow aspect, making her much more comfortable around him.

Benton went about building his sect, creating techniques and methods as needed and inducting members from the village. One thing he was conflicted about was the little girl, Jin LiJuan. He decided that the responsible thing to do would be not to heal her since it would cost the sect resources with very little chance of those being returned. When he goes to tell her that, though, her suffering broke his heart, and he couldn't refuse her.

His actions with Jin LiJuan and in saving a little boy from a spirit beast and then giving him a valuable healing pill went a long way in convincing the villagers that he was a good person, which helped his Average Loyalty Rating.

Benton and the sect kept advancing, and he eventually hit Golden Core, growing more powerful by adding Concepts. That power was needed because the beasts around the village grew stronger and more numerous.

He faced a quandary, though, as he had promised to visit the orphanage in Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town and needed to pick up supplies there to help with the beast tide. The problem was that going meant he'd have to leave his sect members alone for hours.

Benton eventually decided to go. While there, he greeted the Town Lord, Fatty Ren, and discovered that Kang Lin, Pan Jiang, and other juniors from the Poison Claw Sect were visiting. They wanted to go to the village to help with the tide, but traveling there was dangerous. Kang Lin, however, was on the verge of breaking through. He gave her a pill to help with that so that, as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, she'd be powerful enough to protect her sect mates on the trip.

Back in the village, a strong raven attacked. The twins and the other sect members held it off for a little while, but one wrong move would mean that all of them were killed. Benton showed up in the nick of time and saved them.

Just before Kang Lin and her sect mates were scheduled to arrive at the village, Benton told Yang Ru about the message to her grandfather, making the boy very nervous about her visit. He was so distracted that his twin sister, Yang Xiu, pulled ahead of him, reaching Foundation Establishment first. She and Kang Lin started hanging out together, making him even more nervous.

After Benton called Yang Ru out for being distracted, he threw himself into cultivation, soon advancing to Foundation Establishment and working on two techniques that needed to be triggered at once. It took a while for him to get those techniques working together, and the girls appeared to outpace him. When he finally got it, though, his power increased dramatically, which he showed off to them by solo killing a rank six beast while they still struggled with rank fours. He and Kang Lin walked and talked and ended up enjoying each other's company.

The beasts eventually retreated, a common occurrence for beast tides that portended the calm before the storm. Benton knew time was short before the tide began, and he kicked preparations into high gear, crafting many items for his sect members and inscribing the village's wall with an array that will prevent beasts from entering.

The first several waves of the beast tide were handled by the sect juniors, with many getting good combat experience and advancing. However, the tides came fast and furious, making Benton nervous. He realized that fighting the really high level beasts near the village might be dangerous for everyone, so he left to hunt the Big Boss, trying to catch all the other waves before they made it to the village.

One high rank badger that used Shadow to conceal itself escaped Benton's notice, and it discovered that the village's shield didn't extend below the wall. It burrowed inside. Zou Tian, due to his strong affinity to Shadow, sensed the beast. The combination of him, the twins, and the guards fought the beast off, and Kang Lin finally got the kill.

Benton found the Big Boss, a rank ten cyclops—a creature at the equivalent of the Nascent Soul realm, higher than Benton. The fight was tough, but Benton eventually realized he could use Gravity to keep out of the creature's range and pelted him from the sky.

When all was said and done, no one died, and the System granted Benton the highest possible rewards for the quest. Those included, primarily, a Trials Pagoda and increased spiritual roots for all his sect members and disciples.

That last reward angered the heavens, though, and Benton faced a tribulation. He quickly bought an Anti-Tribulation Concept and easily shook off the lightning bolts, greatly impressing his sect members.

Recap for Sect Leader System Book 3—Courting Death

With the beast tide finally behind Benton, he prepared the sect grounds for moving in, including placing buildings he got from the old Righteous Rain Sect grounds, fixing all the arrays, and building streets. Meanwhile, he sent his three Foundation Establishment disciples out with teams to process the beast carcasses that he left behind for them.

Jin LiJuan, now somewhat healed from eating beast meat as a mortal in that she could at least kind of cultivate, turned out to be one of the better sect members at the task of breaking down the materials. While working on a wolf carcass, its stomach started moving, and she discovered a cub inside. Her first instinct was to kill it, but she'd promised Benton that she'd try not to hate. She ended up accidentally bonding the beast to increase her power.

While the teams were away from the sect, Teng Jian, of the Jade Chameleon Sect, showed up with two sect members—all in the Golden Core realm—seeking vengeance. Benton defeated all three but not before one of them killed Ye Zan, the guard captain Benton had hired.

Beyond livid, Benton rushed to Sixth Flawless Flowing City intent on destroying the entire Jade Chameleon branch sect there. Along the way, he calmed down. There were surely innocents there as well as the ones deserving of punishment. On the other hand, Ye Zan deserved vengenance.

As a compromise, he announced that he'd destroy the entire grounds and anyone there when he returned, giving them time to evacuate. He next visited Elder Kang Ya-Ting for advice on how best to proceed. Understanding the need to keep the other factions on his side or at least neutral, Benton sent a gift of a technique to the Swift Blizzard Sect and a letter of explanation to the City Lord.

With the time Benton gave for evacuation up, he returned to the Jade Chameleon branch sect with Kang Ya-Ting and the Poison Claw branch sect's leader, Elder Dai, following. Fifteen Golden Core cultivators waited for them, but at least, they'd evacuated all their juniors.

Benton allowed his opponents first shot, and his shield handled the barrage without issue. Then, it was his turn, and he absolutely destroyed the Jade Chameleons one by one. The final three surrendered, and he let them live, destroying their cultivation instead.

Before heading back to his sect, he stopped by Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town and recruited Fatty Ren and the four other former Righteous Rain Sect members, discovering that the four had Soul damage from the demonic cultivator attack that destroyed their sect.

Fatty Ren, who has been bottlenecked at the peak of Foundation Establishment for more than a decade, became the first to break through using the Trials Pagoda. A subsequent mission to the city for Benton revealed the pagoda's potential to Kang Ya-Ting. The news eventually spread, igniting avarice in the Jade Chameleon Sect. They'd lost close to half of their Golden Cores and much face. They decided to send two Nascent Souls after Benton.

The Poison Claw Sect knew such an attack was probably coming and told Benton, who had a choice to make—rush his sect's growth so he can advance to Nascent Soul or value steady growth instead. He chose a middle ground. Thinking he had plenty of time before the Nascent Souls left secluded cultivation, Benton increased the pace of induction.

The Rising Tide Sect members finally moved onto the main sect grounds—with the help of Benton's efficient assistant, Sun Hua—and Benton turned his focus to defense, building towers capable of killing a Nascent Soul, a wall, and a Grand Defensive Formation. With the exception of actually advancing to Nascent Soul, he was as ready as he could be for the attack.

Benton discovered that the twins had had a birthday and was dismayed to find out that his new culture didn't celebrate the occasion. He threw a big party and designed flying gliders as their gift.

He also came up with a new idea to speed the advancement of his disciple—qi sources. Cultivating in a room with one of the treasures doubled the effectiveness. The only problem was that the materials needed were expensive and hard to find. Benton sent the twins and Kang Lin to the city in search of them.

While in the city, the twins were attacked by five Jade Chameleon juniors, whom they easily defeated. The Golden Core cultivator leading the five grew very angry and almost attacked. The twins weren't too worried because Benton had given them contingency rings to summon him, but Kang Lin shamed the man into not attacking. He left with a warning not to let him see any of their faces again.

After their safe return to the sect, Kang Ya-Ting showed up with another Poison Claw Sect Golden Core, Yuan Yaozu. He would guard the sect for a century if he were to be allowed to use the Trials Pagoda to break his bottleneck. Benton agreed, though he almost reneged when he discovered the cost was five hundred Sect Points.

While Yuan Yaozu attempted his trial, the two Jade Chameleon Sect Nascent Souls attacked. All went well until Benton made a mistake and almost died. He took the fight much more seriously after that point and pushed one of the Nascent Souls into a trap that allowed the towers to kill her.

That left him one on one against a Nascent Soul. Based on his fight with the cyclops to end the beast tide, Benton believed that the encounter should be easy. His experience in almost dying taught him how wrong he was.

He finally got two good hits on the Nascent Soul, sending him to the ground, but Benton lost his right arm and shoulder in the process, disconnecting him from his spatial ring.

Yuan Yaozu exited the Trials Pagoda as a Nascent Soul, surprised to see Benton still alive and the enemy Nascent Soul near death. At Benton's command, he chased away some onlookers, leaving Benton to finish off the remaining Nascent Soul.

Recap for Sect Leader System Book 4—The Quinquennial Tournament (Working Title)

(Note: No spoilers for chapters not published on RR. Recap only goes through C278.)

Benton killed the remaining Nascent Soul who had attacked and went to check on his sect members, admitting to them that he'd been arrogant and underestimated his enemies. He came to an agreement with Kang Ya-Ting to let one more Poison Claw Sect Golden Core use the Trials Pagoda in return for three qi source materials and a formal alliance. Intent on advancing to Nascent Soul as quickly as possible, Benton sent the elder away.

Yuan Yaozu asked to be accepted as a disciple, partly for the sweet heaven grade techniques and partly because it helped fulfill his oath, and Benton eventually accepted. The discipleship triggered another quest, which earned him a very valuable Perk Point.

Benton inducted three hundred sect members from the village and ordered Fatty Ren to induct another one hundred immediately, fulfilling the System's requirements for Benton to advance to Nascent Soul. He wasted no time doing so, choosing to turn his Concept of Gravity into an Aura.

The advancement resulted in a massive powerup as Benton also advanced all his other cultivation types and chose Regeneration with his Perk Point. The requirements to get to the next realm, Nihility, were much more difficult as it depended on having specific quantities of members at each of the lower realms, including five Nascent Souls and twenty-five Golden Cores.

That could take a while.

Benton prepared to destroy the entire Jade Chameleon Sect, but Yuan Yaozu talked him out of it, mainly by asking if that was the example Benton wanted to set for the juniors. He could not be talked out of sending a warning to the other factions, though. That way, if any of them attacked, he would have at least done what he could to dissuade them. The Swift Blizzard Sect, however, took the message as a threat, leading to the exact opposite result than what Benton intended.

As always, several initiatives drew Benton's attention—helping his floundering Formations Pavilion get on track, creating defenses for his branch sect, learning Alchemy to save Shop points, and crafting weapons for the upcoming auction to afford to buy more qi source materials.

In preparation for making those qi sources and in order to build weapons for the auction, Benton became a Master in Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Formations, and Swordsmithing. With his new skills, he created twenty-five swords for the auction.

Meanwhile, his enemies came up with a plot. Since it was too dangerous to fight a Formations Master on prepared ground, they needed to draw him to them, so they invited the Rising Tide Sect to the Quinquennial Tournament. Benton and his allies realized the trap, but there were definite advantages to going. He left the decision up to his council of elders, and they decided to participate.

For the next week, Benton knocked items off his To Do List. Zou Tian was given a mission to spy in the city in an attempt to determine their enemy's plans. Benton finished up various crafting projects. Most importantly, though, he created the Grand Defensive Formation for the branch sect and rebuilt the towers protecting the main grounds.

Benton took his Foundation Establishment disciples on an expedition to the mountain, leaving them to gain experience fighting spirit beasts while he explored for qi materials. The first thing that drew his attention, though, was a powerful beast. He approached it cautiously, but instead of an attack, it spoke to him. After he gave it a crafted gift that provided it with hands, the rank fourteen Thunderbird renewed the agreement it had with the Righteous Rain Sect. Benton was then free to find three of the materials he sought, and the kids advanced their skills and techniques as planned.