Chapter 291 – Disappointment, Hope, and Seething
The next qi-rich material, a rank eleven Ice aspected beast core, came up on the block next, and Benton leaned forward on his seat. With his trade for Ice Lotus with Elder Feng of the Poison Claw Sect and the earlier purchase of the rock steeped in the qi of an Ice cave, that core would complete the set of three that Benton needed to create a qi source for Yang Xiu.
He had to have that beast core, no matter the cost. Sitting on a bit over one point three million greater spirit coins he'd netted from the auction thus far plus several hundred thousand that he'd started with, he was ready to spend every single coin to acquire it.
As per usual, the bidding quickly reached fifty thousand. Also as normal, the bids slowed down, increasing by only one thousand each until he held the highest bid at fifty-seven thousand. That was when the auction took an unexpected turn.
There were no more bids.
Benton won the core for fifty-seven thousand greater spirit coins. Not a hundred and fifty-seven. Not one million five hundred seventy thousand. Just fifty-seven thousand.
That was slightly less than the Fire beast core would have gone for if not for his foil's interference despite being one rank higher. Which tracked. Ice was not nearly as popular with cultivators as Fire. Nor was it as commonly found in disciple's aspects.
Benton was quite grateful for the room's privacy arrays as he burst out laughing. He knew that making his foil overpay for the Fire beast core had probably been damaging to that person, but it must have burned them more than he'd thought if they were giving up already.
Of course, maybe they were just taking a break so as to be more unpredictable, but either way, he'd take the win.
Next, the first talismans of the auction made an appearance, and though Benton wasn't interested in buying any, the sale reminded him of their existence. He'd barely thought about the devices since his encounter with that creep who stalked Yang Xiu. The unfortunate nature of his introduction to them aside, they were actually quite handy, allowing anyone, even a mortal, to command the power of whatever cultivator had created the talisman simply by tearing a piece of paper.
If he were looking to provide protection for his sect members—which he definitely was!—what better way was there than to give them all multiple talismans that he created with Nascent Soul level attacks and defenses? He made a mental note to buy the necessary skills in time to prepare plenty of talismans for the tournament.
As he was deep into consideration of which of his techniques would be best to imbue into talismans, one of his swords came up—the Space Blade. Benton actually had high hopes for that one as the attack was a special one that he called Spatial Tear. It essentially opened an infinitesimally small tear in space, which had very interesting properties.
For one thing, it was nearly invisible, and while a cultivator who had trained their spiritual sense and was paying close attention could detect where the qi from the sword landed, the tear itself did not emit qi once it was established. Basically, one's opponent would have a brief moment where they could possibly note that qi from the blade was doing something in a specific area. Unless that opponent happened to use a Spatial element, though, they wouldn't see or sense the tear itself.
Of course, neither would the sword's user. Benton hoped the person who won the sword took that into account because anyone that came into contact with that tear would have a very bad day. Basically, the thickness of the line created was on the order of magnitude of molecules, and anything that touched it would be instantly split asunder.
Obviously, he'd included an additional array on the sword that would clear an area by fixing all the nearby tears. Otherwise, they'd become a permanent danger by lying in wait for the next unsuspecting person or beast to come by.
Hmm. Invisible, persistent death traps. Maybe crafting that particular sword was a bad idea.
By the time he had that thought, though, the blade had sold—one million one hundred twenty-one thousand greater spirit coins. Apparently, the bidders present understood the weapon's destructive power as much as Benton did.
The next interesting item up for bid was a Water aspected sapling, which caused Benton to freeze momentarily in indecision. He hadn't planned on creating a Water qi source, but he did have some sect members in Fatty Ren's branch who used that element. And he was sitting on a ridiculous number of greater spirit coins.
Really, what other use did he have for the money?
He sighed. "As long as it doesn't go for more than sixty, I'll buy it."
Resolution made, he bid just like he had for all the other qi-rich materials, winning it for sixty-five thousand greater spirit coins.
When he realized that he'd passed his self-imposed limit, he said to himself, "Maybe Evelyn had a point about me not attending auctions."
The next item was just as consternating—a Lightning aspected rose. He frowned. Lightning just so happened to be Kang Lin's element. And the grandfather of his disciple was attending the auction.
Coincidence? Maybe. After all, there had just been a Water aspected material on the block. But Benton thought not.
Still, the contrast between the paltry sums the materials were selling for versus how sky high the values his were raking in meant that he almost had to buy everything that wasn't a duplicate of something he had.
Ah, who was he kidding? It was for Kang Lin. He would have bought it even if it ate into his funds greatly.
The element turned out to be a bit more popular than some of the others, with him having to pay seventy-seven thousand for the item. It was very much worth it to him, though, especially considering that he still had literally millions left in his account and another of his swords was up next, the Soul Blade.
Benton sighed. Of all his blades, he regretted that one the most. He'd been concerned about releasing a weapon out into the world that utilized an attack that, for most cultivators, couldn't be defended against and inflicted damage that couldn't be healed, so he'd wimped out. Instead of harming the opponent's Soul as he had originally intended, the blade fed energy from qi attacks into the user's Soul, making it permanently stronger.
If there was one permanent effect he was willing to let get out, it was definitely one that improved one's Soul.
The bidders didn't exactly show disdain for the weapon and its relatively weak effect, but neither were they terribly enthusiastic. It went for a comparatively paltry three hundred sixty-five thousand.
After more talismans and other miscellaneous goods, a rank thirteen Time aspected beast core hit the block. Either that element was particularly popular or the other bidders liked that the core was rank thirteen or his foil returned because the bidding quickly crossed the one hundred thousand mark and even shot over two hundred thousand.
Benton had no choice but to keep bidding, though. He had such high hopes for Peng Zhen's son, little Peng Hanying, the Time aspected cultivator. Two hundred sixty-one thousand greater spirit coins was a small price to pay for advancing such an interesting sect member.
The next interesting item was quite unexpected—Benton's Training Blade. Considering that there were still two swords that used mythical elements left to be auctioned, Benton didn't understand why that particular one was introduced at that point. Jia Xueqin really hyped up the benefits, though. Apparently, he and his team had done extensive testing in the short amount of time they'd had possession of the sword and came away impressed. He announced that all the juniors who practiced with the blade even briefly made great strides in comprehending sword basics.
Benton sometimes wondered if the big sects really cared all that much about training their juniors, but some of them must have because the bidding was fast and furious, topping out at one million greater spirit coins exactly. That result was much higher than he'd thought it would be.
No other materials appeared before the Void Blade went up for sale, earning Benton a cool eight hundred seventy-three thousand coins before the auction fees were subtracted. He thought the bidders vastly underestimated the destructive power of Void compared to the other blades and felt that the winner got a comparative bargain.
Finally, the next material came up for bid, and Benton again leaned forward in his seat, only to be disappointed that it was quite similar to one of his plant kernels with the difference being that it was Wood aspected instead of Nature. He let it pass without bidding.
With the auction almost three quarters complete, what had started so promising was beginning to disappoint. Sure, he'd made a ton of money, but without something to spend those gains on, what was the point?
Jia Xueqin had a few mixed emotions about the auction. Overall, he was definitely heading toward a record-breaking event, and it was all due to Chao Su's swords. It was rare for anything other than a truly heavens-defying pill to go for more than one million greater spirit coins, and two of the blades had already hit that mark.
There were some sour notes, however. The Swift Blizzard Sect's attempt to drive up the prices of the qi-rich materials had ended, and that had been Jia Xueqin's fault for doing that one small favor. Still, at most, Chao Su would have spent an extra one and a half million greater spirit coins over the course of the auction, and that was assuming that he didn't either decide to quit bidding in disgust or find another way to end the Swift Blizzard's interference.
While a huge amount, that extra paled in comparison to how much Chao Su's merchandise was generating. One of the first rules that Jia Xueqin had been taught on his journey to becoming an auction manager was to resist becoming too greedy. Some ambition was a good thing. Too much, though, led to ruin, especially when dealing with cultivators who could crush you like a bug.
The other minor disappointments were the severely depressed selling price for the Soul Blade and the slightly lower winning bid for the Void Blade. Those reductions were overall trivial compared to how much the others went for.
None of those losses would matter, anyway, if the Time Blade did as well as he expected. Like with the Time aspected material earlier, most cultivators considered the element to be supreme compared to all the others. The belief was akin to a superstition, and it was one he was happy to exploit. He and all the other auction managers typically estimated an upcharge of two to five times the base price when it came to Time aspected merchandise.
If that rule of thumb applied to the sword that was next up, he could be looking at a one million coin fee. Everyone in the auction house would be getting a fantastic bonus if that happened.
Mao Biya seethed in silence as she watched the dreadful auction continue. Even as she kept telling herself she should just leave, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She had to see, to witness her greatest defeat as it happened.
The plan had been for Chao Su to skulk out of the auction house at the end, his swords bringing in a fraction of what they should have and him unable to afford but a few of the materials he was so desperate for. Instead, it would be her who couldn't show her face as she rushed out of the building trying to avoid her peers.
She kept hoping for something to go wrong for the man. To lose a bidding war on an important item. For one of his swords to just bomb. Anything.
So far, the worst thing to happen to him was that one of his elite creations went for less than a half million coins. Oh, the tragedy. He was surely crying in his tea over that debacle.
On the stage below her, that horrid auction manager introduced yet another sword, that one Time aspected.
Great. Just fantastic.
He described the blade's attack. The user's opponent would become briefly trapped in a bubble in which Time moved more slowly than the rest of the world. Sure, any attack that penetrated the bubble would automatically pop it, but that attack would come at the person trapped inside with so much relative speed that it would be almost impossible to dodge or parry.
Worse, the blade's attacks could be chained for as long as the user's qi held out. Death by a thousand cuts, if that many were needed.
That ability was, frankly, ridiculous.
If anyone else would have made such a weapon, it would have been severely limited by the need to supply it with Time aspected spirit coins, which were obviously quite rare and expensive in and of themselves. Since Chao Su's blades could somehow convert any cultivator's qi into Time qi, no coins were required, making the attacks unlimited.
Ridiculous.
The auction manager established the bidding at one million greater spirit coins. Mao Biya prayed to the heavens that no one would take him up on that start.
No such luck.
He advanced in increments of a quarter of a million, and she, for the sake of her sanity, stopped paying attention, only looking up when he finally announced, "Sold!"
Over ten million greater spirit coins. Ten million.
Ridiculous
Chapter 292 – Mutually Beneficial
After the sale of the Time Blade, Benton really didn't have to worry about having enough money, not that he'd been all that concerned previously. The sword had gone for over ten million greater spirit coins. Ten million! Crazy!
Even after the auction house took its generous twenty percent, he'd still clear over eight million on the deal.
That sum was quite ridiculous. His spirit coin creation technique, since it was supplied by the System, was likely head and shoulders better than anything other cultivators had access to, and it would take him over thirty-six days working nonstop to make that many greater spirit coins. And it wasn't just one person who'd valued his creation that highly. It had taken multiple bidders to get the total that high.
It was quite gratifying to have one's work appreciated at that level.
For the rest of the auction, he barely paid any attention to how much he either bid or won. Much more important was what he won.
There were a total of twelve more lots of qi-rich materials. Of those, five were duplicates of categories he already had, some that he'd purchased that night. Three more were elements that he wasn't nearly as interested in, a piece of Metal ore, a rank fourteen Illusion beast core, and a rank ten Wind aspected beast core. He bought them anyway just because he had the money and couldn't think of a reason not to.
Benton still hadn't one hundred percent decided to pursue creating a Lightning qi source, but when a rank eleven core of that element came up, he bought it, giving him two out of the three materials he needed.
The highlight of the end of the auction, in his mind, were the three materials he purchased that were on his initial list—a very weird looking ivy that was steeped in Shadow qi, a petrified rock filled with the Nature element, and a sparkly piece of quartz loaded with Momentum qi of all things.
He was almost positive that the auction manager had found that last one and included it just for Benton. It was good to be a Big Deal.
The acquisitions left him in really good shape, much better than he had figured on. Once he received the delivery of the Fire kernel from the Poison Claw Sect elder, he'd have everything he needed for four of the six qi sources with Ice, Nature, and Shadow being the other completed elements. All he had left to find was a Momentum aspected beast core and a plant packed with a bunch of Time qi.
And if he so chose, a rock that contained Lightning.
He couldn't wait to get back to the sect and start crafting. The only thing stopping him from instantly teleporting back as soon as the auction ended was that he hadn't actually received any of the merchandise he'd purchased. Or the surplus coins, but those were a much smaller consideration.
Before he even had a chance to request an attendant so that he could ask about the process of getting his stuff, one knocked on the door.
"Greetings, Esteemed Sect Leader," the young lady said with a smile, "the Esteemed Auction Manager wishes to know if you would be willing to meet with him before you leave. If you are unavailable now, this Attendant can set up an appointment for a future time instead?"
Benton thought about it for a moment. The auction had been both fruitful in attaining the materials he needed and profitable for selling his swords, and the manager had done him at least two favors during the course of the event. There was certainly no harm in hearing what the man had to say. Besides, maybe he'd have an idea about how to acquire the two items he needed.
"I can stick around for a while," Benton said.
"Excellent." The young lady cupped her hands. "Gratitude, Esteemed Sect Leader." She pulled a ring out of a pocket of her robe and held it out to him. "The Esteemed Sect Leader's winnings and spirit coins are stored within."
"Gratitude." He returned the gesture, cupping his hands, before taking the ring.
As she'd stated, he discovered all the materials he'd purchased plus a little over fifteen million greater spirit coins inside the ring. He was about to transfer the contents to his own storage device, but the attendant speaking stopped him.
"The ring is, of course, a gift to the Esteemed Sect Leader."
He cupped his hands again. "Gratitude."
Spatial rings, even small ones, weren't cheap, so giving him one was a nice gesture. With a dozen cubic yards of volume, it was far from the low end of what was available for purchase, instead being firmly in the middle.
Hmm. As a Formations Master with a Concept for Spatial qi, making similar devices would be trivial for him. In fact, there had to be things he could do to improve the standard design. For example, what if he created a ring that preserved Momentum?
He could just picture it. An opponent shot an arrow at one of his members. Instead of hitting his sect member or even bouncing off their shield, the arrow instead disappeared into their ring. But only for an instant. Soon, it was on its way again but with a new target—the archer.
The image in his head made him want to laugh, but he hid his mirth, not wanting the attendant to think him too eccentric.
Wait. Eccentric was an Earth thing. If one was poor, one was simply crazy. If one was crazy and rich, one was called eccentric. On the cultivation planet, neither applied. If powerful enough, one was simply unfathomable, which was a good thing.
He shouldn't have stifled his laughter.
After she made her exit, he again checked out his purchases, examining each of the items before focusing on the huge pile of money inside. It occurred to him that he'd no longer have to perform the boring task of making the stupid things any longer.
But he soon realized that wasn't the case. Almost all the coins were common elements or some of the most frequently encountered sub-elements. There were certainly no Time aspected ones inside, and considering that he was about to be creating multiple Time chambers for his sect members, he would need a lot of those. A lot. A lot a lot.
Ugh. More greater spirit coin creation for him. He resolved to get Peng Hanying to Golden Core as soon as possible to hand off some of that chore to him.
Making Time aspected coins probably wasn't his best use of time at that moment, though. Or Time. He chuckled.
Instead, he sat back to think about what he should be doing.
"Ah. I know." He created a message and sent it to Kang Ya-Ting, grinning the entire time he was writing.
It turned out that Benton didn't actually have to wait all that long as Jia Xueqin knocked on his door a few minutes later.
After the two of them exchanged pleasantries, the auction manager said, "This lowly one has never seen a product sell like your swords did tonight. Over ten million for a single item is a record for a non-pill item, and very few alchemical products have reached anywhere close to that high. Is there anything this lowly one can do to have the Esteemed Sect Leader contribute items to the auction on a regular basis?"
Instead of immediately refusing, Benton considered the matter. He honestly enjoyed crafting, and the auction house seemed like a fairly powerful entity. It was nice to make friends instead of enemies.
"What exactly are we talking about?" Benton said. "I'm a busy man. Making those swords was an enormous effort that took a lot of time."
"No, no, no," Jia Xueqin said. "This lowly one would never presume to ask for so much effort. We have major auctions twice a year. One sword per auction would be more than satisfactory."
Two swords a year. That was certainly doable. But he feared he might run out of interesting ideas.
"Must it be a sword?" Benton said.
"As long as the quality and originality displayed is similar to what this lowly one saw today, anything the Esteemed Sect Leader wishes to create would be appreciated."
"What can you do for me in return?"
The man would not only be earning quite a few coins with his twenty percent fee but would also draw more interest in his auctions in general, inflating the prices of all his sales.
"The Premiere Jade Treasures Auction House has a simply enormous network. If there are any special materials or resources the Esteemed Sect Leader seeks, this lowly one can find them if anyone can. This lowly one would, of course, waive the fee for that service."
"Let's do a trial run," Benton said. "I'll send you a list of merchandise that I need, some quite mundane and some much more exotic. If you successfully acquire all the items for me at cost, I'll provide at least one item for the next auction when I return to the city for the tournament."
"Of course, Esteemed Sect Leader. This lowly one looks forward to a profitable and mutually beneficial relationship."
After the auction manager exited, Benton immediately teleported back to his office. It had been a good day. Fun. Exciting. Profitable.
Who could ask for anything more?
Kang Ya-Ting was about to leave his sect's private viewing room at the auction house when an origami dragon appeared in front of him.
"What is that?" Elder Dai said.
"One of Choa Su's messages."
"How did it get in here?" she said.
"It's a Spatial technique."
"His message technique has the ability to teleport?"
"Over short distances, yes."
She shook her head. Kang Ya-Ting knew how she felt. The man kept doing one impossible thing after another. Defeating two Nascent Souls at once. Displaying skill as a Master of both Formations and Blacksmithing. All those heavens-defying abilities that those swords of his could accomplish.
Kang Ya-Ting was frankly growing numb to it all. He opened the message.
Friend Kang,
It was probably simply an amazing coincidence that there were not one, but two Lightning aspected materials up for sale in the auction. I bought them with the intention of eventually using them for Kang Lin's benefit.
There is a problem, though. I need one more element to complete the necessary crafting—some form of mineral that contains the equivalent amount of qi as a rank 10 beast core.
Perhaps my good friend, Kang, would be interested in contributing to the benefit of his granddaughter?
Once I receive the final Lightning aspected material that I need, crafting the tool that will so benefit her will be one of my top priorities.
Your friend and Master of your granddaughter,
Chao Su
Kang Ya-Ting had little doubt that, since whatever Chao Su was making was sure to be of great help to his other disciples and sect members, he would surely do the same for Kang Lin. On the other hand, the man had paid for two out of the three items he needed, and all those spirit coins went into the Poison Claw Sect's coffers. The request for Kang Ya-Ting to provide a portion of the resources needed was not out of line.
Lightning aspected materials were typically quite expensive as the element was popular and somewhat rare. As shown in the auction that night, such things could easily go for seventy thousand greater spirit coins and up. Even with calling in favors, Kang Ya-Ting was likely to need to spend at least sixty.
That amount was quite high for him. His becoming an elder in the sect had greatly elevated the entire family with no one else having reached nearly as high as him. Though well-regarded, they were neither powerful nor rich.
Before becoming attached to Chao Su, his granddaughter was on track to be another elder, but she wasn't the star of her generation, not even as far as the family was concerned. The amount of resources available to be given to her was limited.
Now, though?
If she married one of the heirs to a sect that was likely to become as important as the Rising Tide, there was no limit to how far she could go. Providing the material that Chao Su requested meant other promising scions would have their resources reduced, but Kang Lin's success was the priority.
"Looks like I'll have to access my private vault when we return to the sect branch," Kang Ya-Ting said.
Chapter 293 - Procurement
With all the necessary materials in hand to create four of the now seven qi sources, Benton was pretty eager to get started crafting. Life experience was good for many things, and one of the hard lessons he'd learned over the years was that beginning a new project while fatigued was a bad idea. He'd put in a lot of work prior to the auction, and the event itself had been quite mentally stimulating.
No matter how much he wanted to throw himself into conquering the next item on his To Do List, he felt he'd be better off taking the rest of the evening and the night off. So that was what he did, even spending a few hours actually sleeping.
The next morning, his first action was to check in with Sun Hua. The girl seemed to be doing fine, and systems were nominal as far as the sect went. It was a big relief to know he had qualified subordinates to run things when needed.
His next task was to create the list of needed materials for Jia Xueqin to procure. Which promised to be a fun activity. First of all, the procurement was part of a mutually beneficial exchange, not at all like asking a favor of Kang Ya-Ting. Not only did Benton expect that whatever was on the list would be acquired at a reasonable price with no markup, but there was no social imbalance being created.
He was free to request anything he could think up.
At the same time, he had millions of greater spirit coins burning a hole in his spatial ring, so unless he started dreaming up really rare items, he could afford to buy anything and everything he wanted and/or needed for his sect.
Obviously, the two materials he lacked for the qi sources, not counting the one that Kang Ya-Ting would be finding and paying for, went at the top of the list with a star next to each one. After that, though, Benton decided his best bet was to go systematically through each pavilion, determining what merchandise might be beneficial.
First up was the Martial Pavilion, and figuring out the needs for that one was easy. They needed more training weapons. Benton would take care of all the sect's needs for Foundation Establishment and higher—at least until Xun Wu and the other blacksmiths became proficient enough to take over—but his Qi Gathering sect members tended to go through common weapons pretty quickly.
He grinned. Weird that wailing on each other with bodies enhanced with additional strength and toughness from Body Cultivation would be so rough on the weapons.
They weren't at the point of running out any time soon, but the current circumstances presented the perfect opportunity to acquire more spears, bows, arrows, daggers, hammers, and swords. Heck, why not throw in polearms and battle fans and gauntlets and a bunch of more exotic weapons, too. And for every weapon listed, he might as well request a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes, construction, and weights.
Considering that he could always simply put up a new building designated as the armory, they had plenty of space. Might as well buy enough to last them for decades.
His mind flashed back to when it had been Su, selecting a weapon from his sect's armory, how neat it was to see all those choices and be given the opportunity to select whichever one he wanted. Benton had long dreamed of providing the same experience to his recruits, and that goal would soon become a reality.
The next pavilion was Alchemy, and at the top of the list were cauldrons. They actually only had a few that the current members were sharing, and while Benton would gladly craft new ones for them when they hit Foundation Establishment, there was no reason to spend his time for the comparatively low tech, so to speak, ones that would suffice for each of them at Qi Gathering.
The members also needed more knives—field blades that could be used for both harvesting and defense, kitchen knives for chopping herbs, specialty knives for de-veining certain types of herbs. That kind of thing. If a type of blade existed and alchemists somewhere thought it was useful, might as well buy one … or a dozen.
The pavilion also obviously needed herbs. With the weird Nature qi infusion of plants growing near the village, basic, untainted herbs were needed for the sect members to practice with. They'd also start transitioning into the next major realm soon enough and would be able to make basic healing pills and the like. They'd need all the standard herbs to practice with.
It would be on him to provide his sect with much of the pills they needed for quite some time, though, which meant he needed herbs as well. He listed all the ingredients he needed for all the pills he expected to create for the immediate future.
All that focus on herbs, though, made him realize that his sect really needed to grow their own. With his formation skill, there was no reason he couldn't create fields that sped growth while keeping out extraneous Nature qi and infusing the herbs with whatever type he preferred instead. That thought led him to place an order for large quantities of seeds and seedlings.
For the Formations Pavilion, they mainly needed more inscribing tools and basic plates to practice on. Benton ordered a wide variety of each. The way a tool felt in an individual's hand didn't just depend on the size of the tool relative to the fingers. Instead, a lot of subjective personal preferences went into the decision.
For the Blacksmith Pavilion, the main item was easy—metal. The more ingots, the better. Benton started out by listing basic metals like iron, steel, copper, silver, etc. After a bit of thought, he added a note asking for any metals sects liked their junior members to practice with to get used to forging qi-sensitive materials. He also made a request of lots of starsteel—as that was rapidly becoming his favorite—as well as several ingots of any more exotic metals that Jia Xueqin believed might enhance the value of weapons to be sold in the auction.
For the remaining three pavilions—Healing, Punishment, and Woodworking—he really had no idea what they needed and wasn't sure even the respective members could tell him. Instead, he asked the auction house to obtain any basic Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment level tools and materials commonly needed for such pavilions in sufficient quantities to last a decade or so.
He was actually quite pleased with himself on that one. If there were actual stuff out there that other sects believed were standard for the pavilions, the auction house would supply it, making him look like a genius for thinking of it to his sect members. And if Jia Xueqin failed to come up with anything, Benton could put on a vaguely displeased expression, saving any loss of face.
At that thought, he shook his head. Loss of face. Apparently, cultivation culture was insidious if one lived with it continuously.
Next, Benton had some ideas for other pavilions that, like the Herb Pavilion, he hadn't officially established yet. The first of those was a Talismans Pavilion. Since he would be creating a bunch of those for his sect members prior to the tournament, he might as well try to find some people interested in the art to start teaching them to do the same. After all, while the craft wasn't quite as important to sects as the big four of Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Formations, and Martial, it was a quite popular way to provide an extra measure of protection for talented juniors.
Another common use of talismans was to allow a fighter to use an attack or defense of a qi element that differed from their aspect. Though expensive and one-use, such a talisman utilized at the right time could turn the tide of a battle.
For the techniques Benton wanted to imbue in talismans, he needed top-tier paper and ink capable of channeling Golden Core and Nascent Soul level attacks and shields, which were sure to be expensive. He shrugged. Not like he couldn't afford it after his success at the auction.
Much less expensive, even buying in quantities in the thousands, were the beginner level papers and inks. Those were so common that one could almost pick them up for taels instead of spirit coins for the lowest tiers.
The other new pavilion was one he'd never actually established though he'd discussed it—the Beast Pavilion. The goal was to combine three important functions into a single command—research of beasts to include strengths and weaknesses and where nearby ones were to be found, how to process corpses and uses for the parts, and taming. Each of the three had a completely different emphasis, but he thought he could get by with combining them into a single organization because they all dealt with beasts. As his sect expanded beyond somewhere in the ten to fifty thousand member range, he'd have to determine if splitting it into multiple pavilions would be beneficial.
There wasn't a lot he could think of that a Beast Pavilion needed, though, so he did like he did for the others he wasn't sure about—basically described the functions and asked for common materials and tools that would help the members.
The final pavilion on his list wasn't a pavilion at all, but it was something he'd wanted to create from the beginning—a sect library. While he could produce any cultivation method or technique he wanted, the Sect Menu didn't include any tabs for manuals or reference materials. He noted for Jia Xueqin to obtain a copy of any book that might be useful for any pavilion that any sect found to be useful as well as basic books on cultivation, philosophy, history, mathematics, and any other subject that anyone might possibly be interested in reading.
Oh, and also novels. Benton's personal supply was running low, and he'd already re-read his favorites multiple times. Instead of listing specific genres, he simply asked the auction manager to procure ten thousand fiction books in a wide variety of types.
"There," Benton said as he re-read the list. "That a better use for the spirit coins that I earned than having them sit in my ring."
He channeled a bit of qi into the special paper he'd used, and it folded itself into the form of a dragon and launched itself. Perfect. With that task accomplished, he could work on the thing he was most excited about—creating qi sources.
Chapter 294 – The First Source
Benton had the necessary materials for four of the seven qi sources he planned to create. Kind of. He'd agreed in principle to the terms of the trade for the last Fire material, but it wouldn't arrive at his sect for another little more than two weeks. That left him with the ability to make Ice, Nature, or Shadow immediately.
Hmm. Ice and Shadow only helped one of his disciples each, while Nature had the potential of speeding the cultivation of a large number of sect members. On the other hand, Yang Xiu and Zou Tian were, quite honestly, more important than all the regular members put together.
Benton sighed. He hated to think of the relative worth of people like that, but his decision required him to be honest. The rank-and-file Nature aspected sect members were, in aggregate, crucial to his sect. They would eventually all reach at least Foundation Establishment and contribute in ways big and small, filling the Pavilions and creating resources and fighting battles.
The sect would absolutely be nothing without them.
But they were also easy to replace. Literally more than ninety-nine point nine percent of the billions and billions of people on the planet could take the place of his current sect members and achieve the same results.
Not only that, but sects weren't judged by their workhorses for a reason. A single Golden Core could decimate those junior members. Well, such a high-ranked cultivator could easily destroy more than just one in ten juniors, but the point still stood.
The old man who came from Earth still bristled at that way of thinking, but honestly, his prior planet wasn't really all that different. Fans cheered for the star of the team not the benchwarmer. Celebrities were adored. Trash collectors weren't.
At the end of the day, all his sect members deserved respect, courtesy, and common decency. The top members simply deserved more. Which left Benton needing to determine which of the two possible disciples got the qi source first.
Yang Xiu possessed phenomenal talent and was pretty much destined to end up astride the cultivator world. She had a real chance of finishing near the top, if not at the top, of whichever bracket she ended up competing in at the tournament. And she was the one most likely to be disappointed if Benton didn't make the source for her aspect first.
Zou Tian's spiritual roots weren't nearly as impressive, but he was probably the smartest disciple. More importantly, he'd recently increased his already strong affinity with Shadow. His enhanced natural ability to hide from spiritual sense was second only to a System given perk.
Most importantly, with his intelligence, stealthiness, and new Knowledge of Spycraft technique, he might actually provide important information about the Jade Chameleon Sect's plans. He might save lives.
Benton was well aware that he played favorites with his designated heirs, but there was no contest regarding who to give the first source to. Zou Tian's mission to save his fellow sect members' lives was orders of magnitude more important than Yang Xiu's placement in the tournament.
Besides, if things worked out okay, it wouldn't be long before Benton had the other two qi sources made, anyway.
Time to get to work.
Of the five steps required to create a qi source, Benton had only completed the first—acquiring the materials. Second was extracting the essence from those materials in a cauldron and then combining and infusing them with origin qi for the third step. The fourth was using his skills as a Master Blacksmith to create the container.
He frowned. It made no sense to him to leave the mass of mixed qi-rich materials in a lump while he forged the holder. Logically, it seemed like having the container ready first just made sense.
The thing about cultivation methods and knowledge was that it wasn't always straightforward, and that problem even extended to System-produced techniques. Something that seemed one way on the first read often turned out to be different later. It was like the technique's creators took a certain poetic license, leaving their works open to interpretation.
The most probable explanation was simply that the genre of technical cultivation literature utilized its own style. After all, business writing on Earth tended to use buzzwords and be carefully crafted so that the reader couldn't possibly draw a negative connotation of the actions of the writer. Technical writing, on the other hand, emphasized a straightforward and logical recitation of the facts. And writing fiction, which strove to entertain the reader, required skills that were foreign to the other two types.
Cultivator writing was its own thing, consisting of a lot of flowery language. The author left figuring out the often misleading prose as an exercise for the reader.
All that to say that the manual listing steps in a certain order absolutely did not mean that there was an intention to have the reader perform the steps in that order. Even knowing that, though, Benton hoped he was right about the sequence being optional. Otherwise, he might be about to make a really expensive mistake.
Having made the decision, his first stop was the Blacksmith Pavilion, his favorite forge in particular. Not being a complete idiot, he'd already acquired several dozen ingots of celestial duralumin. When he'd asked around for the best qi-inert material to use in crafting, celestial aluminum was the clear winner, but there was a problem. The material's strength was lackluster compared to other cultivator materials.
Benton thought about using the metal to create the housing, anyway. After all, the qi sources were presumably just going to sit in a room. It wasn't like he was building a weapon or structural support out of the stuff.
The counterpoint to that way of thinking was that qi sources were so rare as to be practically mythical. No one could make the things. Acquiring the materials was easy enough, as was making a container. The formation required to finish it, however, was unknown to anyone besides him as far as Benton knew, and a literal Master Alchemist was required to perform the initial mixing. Another hurdle any other cultivator would have was finding a source of origin qi, which was simply much rarer than any other element.
Basically, no one knew how to make these things, and Benton didn't have much to go on as far as details went. It might be that the molten mixture he created would exert a weight or metaphysical force that was too strong for the celestial aluminum to handle.
Since there was a solution available, an alloy of celestial aluminum that was just as inert but had a higher strength, there was no reason for him not to acquire that instead. So that was what he had done.
With his first ingot of celestial duralumin, he simply played with it, getting used to how the material responded to the heat of the forge and being shaped. It didn't take long for him to get a good feel for it, and he threw the resulting flattened lump on the scrap metal pile. He didn't want to risk imperfections caused by re-working the metal, and his practice materials wouldn't go to waste, serving as a great training tool for the blacksmiths when they graduated to working more complex materials.
Benton's next choice was the shape of the vessel. His first thought was to use part of the sect's crest, but the boat was too indicative of Water. And he wanted each qi source to represent the element visually. After a lot of thought, he decided on a Yin-Yang symbol. Which wasn't great. But really, how the heck does one symbolize Shadow as an element with a single color?
It was then that Benton hit a snag. How big should the housing be? Though he knew the dimensions of each of the three materials that would make up the mixture, weird things happened in alchemy. There was no guarantee that he wouldn't end up getting rid of ninety percent of the mass of each piece when he extracted the essences. For that matter, it was just as likely that the total volume would end up far greater than the sum of the component parts. Which made no sense but that was just the way things worked with qi.
Alchemy didn't feel constrained by the laws of physics. Benton wasn't even sure that the craft even treated what were considered to be the fundamental rules of nature on Earth as suggestions. Instead, it just did what it wanted.
Basically, though, Benton was left with an unsolvable problem. With no way to determine the necessary final volume, he couldn't forge the housing in advance.
Well, heck. That was probably why the step was listed fourth.
Benton let the fire in the forge die and cleaned up after himself before teleporting to his designated room in the Alchemy Pavilion. Step two it was!
Extracting the essences from the three materials actually went pretty well. He simply chunked each of them respectively into his new cauldron and added heat. The vessel was so well made that he barely even had to make any adjustments to the qi to keep things even, and there was a formation that kept stray ambient qi from intruding into the bottom where the material was melting, eliminating a major source of contamination.
The process was fairly time consuming as the procedure was a bit more complicated than, "Put it on high heat and stir occasionally." Instead, he had to use very low heat, meaning it took hours to melt each three materials.
Complicating matters was the fact that he had to store each of the essences in an inert container while keeping them heated so as to remain in a liquid state. Which meant he needed two more cauldrons.
Luckily, the pavilion members didn't practice their craft continuously, devoting most of their day to cultivating, so he borrowed the necessary equipment.
He still performed the actual melting in his own cauldron, though, because the superior craftsmanship eliminated a lot of the potential for introducing impurities into the resulting product. That meant he had to melt the materials consecutively instead of concurrently, though.
Finally, after hours and hours of tedious waiting and stirring and monitoring, all three of the materials had been melted, the essences pulled out, and the leftover sludge disposed of.
Benton was ready to proceed to step three—combining the three essences together and infusing the mixture with origin qi. That process was much less time consuming than the second step, and eventually, he had a perfect fusion of three Shadow essences with, as far as he could tell, no impurities.
As he suspected, the addition of the origin qi had caused the blend to swell somewhat. There really had been no way for him to predict the final volume.
Since the instructions told him to forge the housing next, he assumed that the mixture would remain stable with little oversight needed from him, but if that hypothesis were incorrect, the result would end up being an expensive setback. Thus, Benton stowed the mixture, cauldron and all, into his spatial storage, hoping the stasis effect would solve any potential degradation issues.
To further mitigate that possibility, he maxed out his Time Aura while forging the housing, even going so far as to take off his ring and leave it outside the time bubble.
There was actually nothing super complicated about the forging process. The need for a Master Blacksmith came into play simply because working with qi inert cultivation materials was quite tricky. Benton had enough experience by that point, though, that creating the vessel was quite easy, and after a couple of hours of subjective time, he was finished.
The final step was to inscribe a formation to activate the qi source, which wasn't exactly a huge issue for a Formations Master. Unfortunately, though, he couldn't just inscribe the array on the vessel prior to pouring in the liquid.
That would have been way too easy, apparently.
Instead, the formation had to exactly account for certain physical and metaphysical properties of the liquid, which meant that he had to add the mixture to the housing and then perform the inscription.
Luckily, his Body Cultivation was so high that the heat from the molten metal didn't bother him at all. The array was complex, however, and took many subjective hours to create. Finally, though, he finished.
Holding his breath and metaphorically crossing his fingers, he channeled a bit of Shadow qi into the activation formation. The qi flowed smoothly through the channels, and the entire mixture and vessel glowed. Over the course of a few seconds, the liquid cooled into a smooth solid, and Benton sensed Shadow qi emanating from it.
Yes. He'd done it.
The first source was ready for use.
Chapter 295 – A New … Pavilion?
Benton felt elated at his success in crafting the Shadow qi source. It wasn't that he had doubts about his ability exactly, but the route to get to that point had been long and difficult. He'd had to raise his craftsmanship level in three major areas all the way to master and acquire various difficult to find, expensive materials.
The harder the goal, the greater the sense of accomplishment when achieved.
More than simply being proud of himself, he was happy for very practical reasons. His ability to craft the sources was integral to his plan to speed his sect's advancement. And the faster he added more Golden Cores to his sect's defenses, the safer he'd feel.
Judging from the amount and quality of qi being emitted from the source, Benton estimated that cultivating near it would speed Zou Tian's cultivation by a factor of anywhere from two point one to two point three Times, the exact rate depending on too many variables to accurately predict. Which was a little bit better than Benton had told the kids.
What he hadn't told the kids was his true plan.
He grinned. It wasn't that he believed in protecting the sect's secrets at all costs or anything like that. Nor was he truly worried that he wouldn't be able to deliver on his promises. No, the reason for keeping the real details from them was much simpler—he truly looked forward to the looks on their faces when they found out the truth.
That moment would be so much fun!
In reality, he intended to stick the qi sources in a room with an array that made Time run faster inside. The formation he'd designed could accelerate Time by a factor of ten. Thus, one hour passing outside the room would give the person inside ten hours to cultivate. And since the qi source would improve the efficiency of cultivation by approximately an average of two point two Times, an hour outside actually equaled the equivalent of twenty-two hours of progress.
If Benton allowed Zou Tian to stay inside for a full day outside, he'd come out having cultivated a full twenty-two days.
Of course, someone at Zou Tian's level couldn't handle sessions anywhere close to that long. He was pushing it going for twelve to fourteen hours straight, and considering the increased qi levels provided by the source, Benton was far more comfortable limiting it to only ten at a Time for all those in the Qi gathering realm.
Maybe the Foundation Establishment level disciples could handle more. Up to fifteen? He'd have to monitor their cultivation pretty regularly to make sure they didn't suffer any ill effects and base his final decision on how their channels and meridians handled the stress.
Still, that didn't mean Zou Tian would be limited to a single session in a day. He could remain in the room to rest for, say, ten hours to make the math easy before cultivating again. Thus, out of a full objective day, Zou Tian could spend half of it progressing, meaning advancing his cultivation a full eleven days.
Currently, he was more than three months away from reaching minor realm eight, meaning there was no way for him to achieve Foundation Establishment prior to needing to leave for his mission in Sixth Flawless Flowing City. Without using the Time dilation room and the qi source, that was. With those two elements and a pill to get him to minor realm nine, he could reach that next major realm in a little over three weeks.
Benton laughed. A cheating cheater who cheats indeed!
Still, he'd only completed half of what he needed to accomplish for Zou Tian to accelerate his cultivation. Next up was creating the Time bubble room.
Benton didn't want to use any of the existing buildings for the task. For one thing, he liked each of his sect buildings to have a separate function. For another, the new one would provide an advantage to his sect on the order of the Trial Pagoda's benefit. Such an important role deserved its own space.
The final reason he wanted to house the room in a separate structure was that he could envision constructing a lot of Time dilation rooms. Sure, he could only create three qi sources at the moment with four more to come, but eventually it was possible that every conceivable element that one of his sect members used would have its own chamber.
Hmm.
Honestly, Time dilation wasn't just good for cultivation. There was no reason that his sect members couldn't use the rooms for practicing techniques as well. Those would be even easier to build as no qi source would be required.
What a fantastic idea!
Benton teleported to the grounds of the former Righteous Rain Sect and quickly selected a five story building. Each floor was divided into up to twenty sparring rooms, apparently mainly for Qi Gathering realm cultivators judging from the fact that the formations were not very robust.
The structure was perfect for Benton's purposes. There were over eighty rooms all told, and the scant arrays didn't matter because he would have to create all the ones from scratch, anyway.
He quickly stowed it in his ring and teleported back to his sect.
His next decision was placement. Since the new building was to be such an important part of his sect, he didn't want to put it behind one of the other buildings, meaning that it belonged on the main road. That determination made picking the ultimate location easy. It had to go at the end of one of the rows, and the one on the left was somewhat shorter given the size of the amphitheater on the opposite side.
Thus, the new yet to be named Time building would be placed next to the Healing Pavilion.
Considering all his techniques and abilities as a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, digging a foundation and placing the building was a trivial exercise, and soon the Rising Tide Sect had a new … pavilion? Was it a pavilion? He didn't really know. They definitely had a new building, though.
The first floor had the typical open spaces of the lobby and a large area for lectures, leaving only four sectioned off rooms. One of those was clearly intended to be an office, another a library, and another a storage room. He honestly couldn't discern the purpose of the fourth. It was just an empty space approximately twelve feet square.
He decided to leave that floor for administrative purposes as it appeared to have been intended. The second floor would be Time dilation rooms for technique training, meaning Zou Tian's Shadow room would go on the third floor.
Benton chose a room across from the entrance to the right stairwell and got to work. First, he got rid of the padded flooring designed for sparring and replaced it with stylish bamboo planks, making the room feel much more homey. He added a few decorations from his ring—a few paintings, a couple of small tables with decorative vases, an incense burner—and, of course, a nice cultivation mat.
Perfect.
With the form finished, he just needed to nail down the function portion. The first step in that regard was completely removing all the existing arrays. Even the useful ones like the array for temperature control had to be demoed because it was tied to a central system. Since each room was to be separated from the rest of the building in terms of Time, the formations had to be isolated as well.
With his skill, power, and speed, the demo went quickly, leading to the next step. Adding new formations, obviously, was a much more complicated and labor intensive project than ripping the old one out.
The main array needed was obviously the one that provided the Time dilation, but there were so many more that were needed, starting with the necessities for living in the room for subjective months at a Time such as lighting, temperature control, a stasis unit for storing food, water supply, and sanitary disposal. Then came the ones that became necessary due to the fact that the room would be so isolated. For example, air supply.
In general, there was little chance of a regular room running out of fresh air. Since the Time dilated ones would be completely cut off from the outside, though, that fear was real. The person inside could easily use up all the oxygen simply by breathing over the course of a month or more.
Thus, Benton had to add one array that created fresh air from Wind on one side of the room and another that fed stale air to the Void on the other side, balancing the two so as to create a small, constant flow.
Other specialized arrays included an isolation barrier that prevented qi from entering or leaving, an emergency stop button that immediately popped the Time bubble, a communications function that would allow messages to be sent to and from the bubble, and two clocks, one that displayed the objective Time outside the room and the other that counted Time passage inside.
The final step was to create a coin slot device, which required quick trip to the forge. Not only did it have a place to insert each of the types of greater spirit coins needed—Wind, Water, Void, and Time—but it also held storage for each of those types of coins and indicator lights and warning alarms for when the slotted coins were nearly out.
By the Time everything was inscribed and tested, it was deep into the night, and Zou Tian—and most of the rest of the council—were sound asleep. Despite how excited Benton was to show off his new creation, he wasn't so selfish as to wake up sleeping teenagers. The big reveal could wait until morning.
His first thought about what to do with his remaining Time was to create Yang Xiu's Ice element source. The part of him that had spend a good chunk of his life actually raising children instead of spoiling them as a grandparent felt that it would probably do the girl good not to be the first person to benefit from his new creation, and surprisingly, the rest of him listened. Not that she was truly spoiled, per se, but he could see how she could get that way if he kept indulging her.
Instead, he spent the rest of the night planning out the Time dilation rooms on the second floor. Out of the twenty rooms, he set up two with cauldrons for alchemy, two with small forges and anvils for training blacksmiths, four with mats and larger air exchangers and other utilities to facilitate sparring, four with combat dummies, and the final eight fairly generically with tables and chairs for whatever other crafts sect members wanted to practice.
By the Time everyone started to wake, he'd completed about half of the rooms, a really good start. After all the work he'd put in already, he was really looking forward to showing off his progress, positive that Kang Lin, at the very least, would have a great reaction.
He grinned. Time to call the kids.
Chapter 296 – A New Goal
No sooner had Zou Tian opened his eyes than a blue paper dragon appeared in his room. He quickly grabbed it and, after it unfurled itself, read the words on the page.
Council meeting in the new building, 3rdFloor off right stairwell, in two hours.
Neither the fact that he'd received the message nor its contents surprised him. After all, Master had been busy the entire previous day, having been observed in both his forge and his room in the Alchemy Pavilion. And late in the afternoon, a new building had appeared, an uncommon occurrence even for the Rising Tide Sect.
Obviously, something big was going on, so naturally Zou Tian expected the summons to hear the explanation. The only moderately unusual part was that the meeting time had been pushed out long enough to give everyone time to wake and get breakfast, a considerate gesture on Master's part.
So Zou Tian did just that, escorting Wan Ai and Bai Xinyi to the cafeteria. Most of the other council members ended up joining them there, and they all walked together to the new building when the meeting start approached.
There was nothing special about it from the outside—a simple five story structure of the same color and architectural style as the other sect buildings. From slight variations in the outer design, Zou Tian's guess was that it had served as a part of the Righteous Rain Sect's Martial Pavilion, a hypothesis that was confirmed when he observed sparring rooms on the second floor as he rounded the steps to go up to the next level.
Master and the council members who hadn't joined the rest for breakfast were already waiting, and the sect leader's eyes lit up when the group arrived. He seemed excited, meaning whatever announcement he had was sure to be interesting.
"Last night, I completed the first of the qi sources." Master pointed to a room behind him. "Behold the Shadow room."
For the first time that day, Zou Tian was a bit shocked. Shadow? The first qi source had been made for him?
Master went on to explain about the effectiveness of the source, but Zou Tian could barely concentrate, suddenly eager to try it for himself.
"The real innovation, however," Master said, "is the Time dilation."
That detail got Zou Tian's attention. The Rising Tide Sect was a trifling concern for the most part compared to rival sects. Master was extraordinary, of course, but the rest of the sect consisted of one Golden Core, a handful of Foundation Establishments, and a comparatively small number of Qi Gathering members, most of whom possessed quite inferior talent.
It would be many decades, maybe even centuries, before the sect could advance enough members to compete with the other factions.
Or it should have taken that long.
Zou Tian knew that Master often sped Time in a bubble to complete tasks faster, a feat that was well beyond the abilities of even the Nascent Souls of other sects. And the power obviously conferred huge benefits in both combat and in being able to complete projects much faster than any other master craftsman could.
If he could convey that advantage to his sect members, the gains would be huge. Techniques could be mastered much quicker in objective time. Cultivation materials could be produced faster. Advancements could be pushed forward.
The Rising Tide Sect might just catch up to their contemporaries in a much shorter time span than anticipated.
"While one hour passes outside the room," Master said, "ten hours pass inside."
Zou Tian's eyes went wide. Combined with the effectiveness of the qi source, one hour of cultivation would be the equivalent of more than twenty hours. Of course, the person inside would still experience ten of those, but the important part was that, compared to other sects, the Rising Tide Sect members should be able to advance at a phenomenal rate.
He looked around. Of the others, only Yuan Yaozu and Kang Lin appeared suitably impressed. The others mostly seemed to take Master's miraculous revelation as a matter of course, seeming happy but otherwise unflustered. Only Yang Xiu was frowning.
"When will the Ice qi source be ready, Master?" she said.
"Later today."
That answer meant that Master had everything he needed to create the source for Yang Xiu but had chosen to create the Shadow one first. Zou Tian suddenly felt very warm inside. He knew logically that the decision had probably been made due to the importance of his mission, but it still gave him a sense of being valued that he was having trouble internalizing.
"We will need to establish procedures, obviously," Master said. "We'll start with a single objective hour with me monitoring cultivation status after literally every session. No one is to proceed to another session without seeing me first and obtaining my explicit permission. Understand?"
"Yes, Sect Leader."
Master went on to explain the importance of the spirit coins supplying qi to the formations inside the room. While Water running out would result only in a potential minor inconvenience, the others had more serious implications. The Time coins powered the dilation, so it running out would make the room revert back to normal, which negated most of the benefit of the room. Wind and, to a lesser extent, Void were even more crucial. Apparently, the air inside the room could grow bad without fresh air being added, possibly leading to loss of consciousness or even death. Hopefully, the user's cultivation level would protect them somewhat from those negative effects, but it was best not to take any chances.
Fortunately, there was an easy fix. The room's user simply needed to check the status of the spirit coins in the supply device prior to each session. The feeder for each type contained five coins that would advance when one was used up, so it was a simple matter to confirm that each slot was full and, if not, fill it.
Master went on to explain that there were currently ten more rooms up and running on the second floor but that these did not have a qi source. Instead, they were designed for practicing techniques.
That garnered some excitement as everyone realized the connection to the need to get as many techniques to Mastery as possible prior to the tournament.
Master turned to Peng Zhen. "Use of the Time dilation rooms will eventually cost Contribution Points, so I think it's best if you, or rather your family, took control of administration of the building. Maybe Peng Lirong?"
"Of course, Sect Leader. This one is sure that his lovely wife would be happy to take on the responsibility."
"Good. For now, there is no cost, but priority for use goes to sect members preparing for the tournament. Please instruct Peng Lirong to work with the pavilion leaders and Yang Xiu to determine who uses what room when."
The Contribution Points Shop leader cupped his hands. "Yes, Sect Leader."
After that exchange, Master led them all into the room and showed them everything he'd just told them about, emphasizing again the importance of both checking the spirit coins prior to each session as he wasn't sure how fast they'd be used up and of the Emergency Stop Button, which would instantly collapse the Time bubble and allow the person inside to get out. That last was made particularly important because, short of running out of spirit coins, it was the only way for the person inside the room to stop the Time formation from running, making it essentially an Exit button.
With the tour complete, Master dismissed everyone except Zou Tian.
"Excited to try it?"
"Yes, Master." And Zou Tian wasn't lying at all. If anything, he was way understating his enthusiasm. The wonders contained within the new building offered a way for him to advance both his cultivation and his techniques to a level high enough to make it much more likely that his mission would be a success.
"I'm limiting you to one session of a single objective hour. Set the alarm on the subjective clock for ten hours and exit immediately when it goes off. Understood?"
"Yes, Master."
One key to successfully challenging the heavens was knowing when to take risks and when to proceed with caution. Cultivation deviations were a real thing, and they were dangerous. The quality of methods that Master gave reduced the likelihood of catastrophic consequences, but it made no sense to risk going too far down a wrong path when a bit of caution could prevent problems entirely.
"If all goes well," Master said, "tomorrow I'll allow you to do one session of cultivation followed by resting followed by a second session."
"Yes, Master."
With his final instructions given, Master soon left, leaving Zou Tian alone in the room. He took stock of the situation. As commanded, his first step was to check the spirit coin box even though no qi had been used since Master had shown him the full slots several minutes prior.
He opened it, and to his immense surprise, there were no coins in it. But how? All the slots had been full!
Master appeared before him and sighed. "You ruined my fun, Zou Tian."
Huh?
"You were supposed to try to start the formations and have them fail," Master said. "Then, I was going to pop in and show you that the coins were missing. And you would say that we just checked them as a group and they were full. And then I'd reply, all smugly, that you are supposed to always check to box first. Which was why I surreptitiously took all the coins."
Zou Tian cupped his hands. "Apologies, Master."
"No, don't apologize. That was a fantastic job of following instructions. Even though, from your standpoint, it must have seemed pointless to check, you did it anyway. Great job." Master handed over a stack of coins.
Zou Tian got that warm feeling inside again, and he failed to come up with a response before Master teleported away again.
Refilling the coin box only took Zou Tian a moment, and he moved on to examining the rest of the room. The food stasis box was empty, but that was okay. The plan was to only be inside for ten hours, and he'd just had breakfast. He made a mental note to stock that box prior to starting his sessions tomorrow, though. While ten hours without food was no problem, thirty hours would be a bit of an inconvenience.
All in all, the room wasn't very big, but it was comfortable. Which was good because Zou Tian would be spending a lot of subjective time in it over the coming months. More important than the comfort, though, was the quality of the qi, and that was absolutely superb. Thick and rich, it called to him.
He'd never cultivated in a room full of only Shadow qi before, and his aspect was practically demanding that he start. Immediately.
Zou Tian flipped on each of the formations in the order prescribed by Master before sinking into a lotus position on the cultivation mat. His new goal was to achieve Foundation Establishment before he had to depart for his mission.
Chapter 297 – A Really Big Unhatched Chicken
Benton had many tasks on his To Do List for the day, the biggest of which was crafting the Ice qi source. Which would take a lot more than the hour he had available. A lot more than that objective hour stretched to the maximum with his Time Aura as well. But he could get started at least, so that was what he did, completing several of the major steps before it was time for Zou Tian to finish his dilated session.
The boy had just emerged from the room when Benton Teleported to the corridor outside.
"How'd it go?" Benton said.
"Much like cultivating in the Wood, Master, only with the qi more concentrated and having a Shadow aspect. I feel good." Knowing what was coming next, Zou Tian held out his hand.
Benton touched a finger and checked Zou Tian's cultivation with Analysis. "I don't detect any issues, which is a very good sign. One test does not an experiment make, however. We'll stay cautious for a while, slowly increasing the amount of time you spend inside each day. For today, no more cultivating and do not use any of the dilation chambers set up for learning techniques, either."
"Yes, Master."
Benton gave his best wizened old master tinged with caring parental figure smile and Teleported away, wishing he'd had a mirror to see himself. He was positive he'd managed the exact right facial expression to convey his feelings, something only a grandfather as experienced as himself could pull off.
Overall, he was super happy with how the first session of using a Time dilation room with a qi source had gone. It was bit soon to count those unhatched chickens, but not detecting any immediate problems was a boon. Tomorrow, he'd let Zou Tian do two sessions, effectively cultivating for twenty hours with an efficiency more than twice normal. Four days worth of growth in one. After that, Benton would allow three sessions, which would be the equivalent of six days. By the time he capped it at ten, Zou Tian would be effectively cultivating more than twenty times faster than normal.
With the use of a Qi Condensing Pill to go from the eighth minor realm to the ninth almost instantly, the boy needed around three hundred normal days to break through to Foundation Establishment. If he instead cheated by using the Time dilation room, he'd finish in about fifteen.
Crazy.
That particular unhatched chicken was just too exciting, really emphasizing the advantages Benton could obtain by crafting and making him excited to get back to it. He quickly knocked out the Ice Source and set up another dilation room, essentially for Yang Xiu solely until they inducted another Ice aspected sect member.
Just as he prepared to send her a message, he had a thought—what were the chances she'd be waiting in the corridor outside?
Pretty darn high, it turned out.
"You understand the rules?" Benton said.
"Yes, Master. Only once today, a session that will last absolutely no longer than ten hours because I'll use the clock inside to monitor it. As soon as I finish, I'll have you check my cultivation. If things go well, we'll expand the number of sessions tomorrow."
"Perfect. Carry on."
The scamp grinned as she practically ran into the room.
It struck Benton once again how different dealing with these teenagers was from ones back on Earth. Giving a cultivator access to a treasure like the Time dilation room was like giving a fifteen year old boy the keys to a Ferrari. No matter how much he'd trusted his kids, he'd never have considered tempting them with such a thing.
His sect members were a completely different story. They could and would make mistakes, of course. In fact, Benton was actually surprised that there hadn't been more made. But to disobey a direct order from the Sect Leader was absolutely out of the question. He had absolute confidence that none of his core leaders would even think about going a single second over the allotted time.
He remembered one time when his oldest had snuck out while grounded, an uncharacteristic act of rebellion. The reason for the infraction? Belief that the original rule was stupid and the punishment was too harsh.
Benton and Evelyn were ruining the boy's life by being unfair. The horror!
In contrast, none of the sect members even thought to question Benton's rules about using the Time dilation rooms. Which was good because he honestly felt he was being a bit overcautious. Theoretically, the process presented no danger. He probably would have been fine to let Zou Tian and Yang Xiu just go for it, cultivating ten objective hours a day.
They were cultivators, though, and that calling meant putting their lives on the line with startling frequency. That need to push themselves was unfortunate, and Benton hated that they had to do so. But not challenging themselves would likely bring worse consequences in the future.
In a world where danger was sometimes a necessity, it seemed to make sense to be extra careful when the opportunity presented itself.
Right?
Enough woolgathering, though. He still had things to do. Next on his list was to coordinate with Yang Ru about the Martial Pavilion's tournament participants. Or more precisely, a certain several of the pavilion's potential participants.
Naturally, Benton found the boy sparring with Kang Lin.
Benton shook his head as he watched the two. The girl had a serious, almost stern look on her face, and he suspected that her expression had nothing to do with concentrating on the fight. Yang Ru obviously noticed her mood but just as obviously had no idea what to do about it.
Trouble had descended in paradise.
For a moment, Benton considered interceding, but that impulse was stupid. You can lead a horse to water, but you'd have a much easier time getting that horse to drink than you would of having a teenager actually heed dating advice. Besides, he suspected that the situation might just work itself out given a bit more time.
He shook his head again when Yang Ru quite clearly threw the match, letting Kang Lin win.
Yikes. Speaking of stupid…
The girl stormed out of the room, barely pausing to cup her hands at Benton.
He sighed and turned to Yang Ru, waiting a moment to give the boy a chance to ask for help. No such plea was forthcoming, of course. Instead, the boy simply cupped his hands, gave a brief bow, and waited for whatever was to come.
Benton sighed again. "Let's talk about getting the martial members ready for the tournament. What are your plans?"
"Sparring, mainly, Master, and the Trials Pagoda if permissible."
"That's fine for Ye—" Damn. Benton had been about to refer to Ye Zan. That was a bit of a gut punch out of the blue.
He cleared his throat. "That's fine for Huang Yimun's people who want to participate, but I'm worried about Zi Delan and his crew."
Yang Ru grunted agreement.
"It would do them a world of good to participate, but they're simply not ready," Benton said. "I'm not sure that continuing to follow their current training methodology will get them where they need to be in time."
"Agreed, Master. They need experience. The beast tide helped, but…" The boy shrugged.
"So what can we do?"
The boy grunted his version of, "I don't know."
"Well, hmm. You said the fighting beasts helped, right?"
"Yes, Master. But the tide is over."
Benton was fairly sure that the thing with Kang Lin weighed heavily on the boy's mind. Otherwise, he would have already figured out where the conversation was leading.
"If only we had another source of beasts to fight," Benton said.
The light finally went on in Yang Ru's eyes. "Of course, Master. Sorry. An expedition is a great idea. It might not work, of course, but it will give them an opportunity."
"Exactly. The question, then, is—who goes and who doesn't?"
"Jin LiJuan and Ganzou, obviously, Master, as she needs both the experience and the cores. Zi Delan and his team. A couple of guards for protection."
Benton didn't respond.
"No guards, Master?"
Benton seriously felt like grunting, but that would have ruined the air of mystique he was building. Instead, he simply remained silent and waited. It was best, after all, for students to figure things out on their own to the greatest extent possible.
"The guards will make it feel too safe, Master. They need to think their lives are at risk."
"Exactly. They won't really be in any danger, of course. Between Ganzou and supplying all of them with contingency rings, they'll be fine." Benton paused. "The mountain can be treacherous, though. Hmm."
Upon reflection, it did seem a mite too dangerous to send so many low level cultivators without any protection other than a single rank four wolf. It wouldn't be crazy for them to run across a higher tier beast. What he needed was protection that didn't feel like protection.
"How about Pan Jiang and whichever of his Poison Claw Sect mates want to go?" Benton said. "They'd surely consider the opportunity a reward, and I'd feel better with having some more experienced members along."
Yang Ru grunted.
Perfect. It was decided.
"I'll let you tell them the good news," Benton said. That also means you're in charge of making sure they're ready for the journey. Take tomorrow to get them prepared."
Yang Ru cupped his hands.
With any luck, at least Zi Delan and one or two of his crew would benefit from the trip enough to have a chance at qualifying for the tournament. If not, well, at least Benton had tried.
The coordination with Yang Ru didn't take quite an hour, so Benton Teleported back to his office to take care of a few routine matters while waiting for Yang Xiu to finish cultivating.
As expected, she emerged right on time. Such a good kid. And just a good, her cultivation hadn't suffered at all either from the use of the source or from the Time dilation.
So far, so good.
Man, it was getting harder and harder not to count that unhatched chicken.