Chapter 298 – Ultimate Grandfather
After having advanced to Nascent Soul and beaten back the Jade Chameleon Sect, Benton felt a lot less pressure on him to work hard every single minute possible, so he took most of the night off. He napped for a couple of hours, vegged for a couple more, and feeling guilty, made Time aspected greater spirit coins for even more hours.
As morning approached, he made a mental list of what he most needed to get done that day. First up was obviously to craft the only remaining qi source that he had all the materials for—Nature. The thought of crafting led him to a bit of reminiscing.
Benton's favorite thing about being a grandfather back on Earth was, of course, spoiling his grandkids. Which usually meant buying them something expensive from a store. He never considered himself remotely rich, but he'd worked all his life and done well for himself. The family finances held enough discretionary funds that it wasn't hard for him to justify whatever cost was required to make whichever grandchild smile.
The situation in his new life was quite a bit different. As far as he could tell, he wasn't just well off; he was downright loaded. He could literally make money out of thin air, and considering how much a single one of his swords sold for, there was nothing he couldn't afford to buy for his disciples.
In a complete reversal from his previous life, though, nothing for sale was nearly as good as what he could make with his own two hands. Had he given one of his grandkids something he'd personally crafted in his backyard workshop, they would have politely thanked him, of course—all his kids had been taught proper manners—but at best, the object would hold sentimental value to them after he passed. The kid certainly wouldn't have been excited about the gift.
As a cheating cheater who cheats, however, everything he made was leagues better than anything else available. It was like the stores all stocked only the most lousy, knockoff gaming system possible, and he made the one that all the gamers camped out overnight simply for a chance of purchasing.
And while seeing how much strangers from other sects and organizations valued his handmade goods at the auction was gratifying, it was nothing compared to having his actual grandkids—well, not actual. Pseudo grandkids—show their sincere appreciation for receiving something he made.
Even better, he wasn't even really spoiling them all that much. Instead, those items were necessary, either to complete missions or for protection. Or, more likely, both.
With all the cool stuff he could create for them, he was basically the ultimate grandfather.
Benton liked that role. He liked it a lot.
By the time he'd finished the Nature source, Zou Tian and Yang Xiu were almost finished with their morning sessions, so he popped over to the new Time Hall for a brief wait. Having started a few minutes before, Zou Tian exited first, and they both waited for Yang Xiu to finish.
Benton again checked their cultivation and found no problems. If anything, they were each flourishing under the intense concentration of appropriately aspected qi.
"Still looking good," Benton said. "Wait ten hours, no cultivation or use of the other dilation rooms, before returning. Do one final hour, and after that, we'll have a council meeting. I'll inform the others."
Since the initial results from the rooms were extremely promising, they all needed to talk about how best to utilize the resource. He decided to wait to assign anyone to the Nature room until after the council met.
The two cupped their hands and departed to do whatever was most pressing for each of them. Whatever they each decided was sure to be something productive. Out of the core personnel of the Rising Tide Sect, he was definitely the one with the most tendency to be a layabout.
There was no opportunity for laziness at that moment, however. Next on his list was a mental inventory of sources.
The remaining material for the Fire source would arrive in about two weeks with the Poison Claw Sect elder who wished to use the Trial Pagoda. With any luck, they'd add another Nascent Soul to their alliance when she arrived. Even if she failed, however, he'd still get the Fire aspected plant, and bonus, the troupe he wanted for his special project would also arrive with her.
The other three materials were on a much more nebulous schedule. Who knew when or if Kang Ya-Ting would provide the missing piece of the puzzle for Lightning. The same applied to Auction Manager Jia Xueqin's acquisition of the final Time and Momentum components.
Benton would need to message each of them to determine when to expect the goods. An even better idea struck him—he should have Kang Lin send the note to her grandfather just to ratchet up the guilt on the old man. The trick was to apply the appropriate amount of pressure while preserving the surprise, but Benton was sure he could manage such a simple trick. Besides, telling her about it would ruin the surprise.
As he pulled out a piece of paper and was about to draft his query to Jia Xueqin, he paused. The list Benton had given the Auction Manager to acquire had been somewhat rushed. Taking a few minutes to make sure he didn't want anything else seemed prudent.
What more did Benton need?
Additional qi sources were a long-term concern as he only had a single component for each of them—Illusion, Metal, Water, and Wind. With no dire need to complete those, there was no sense in asking about them.
There was one thing the sect and village was getting low on, however—food. By supplementing with additional purchases from Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town and with hunting providing a lot of the needs of the sect members, the stock Benton had purchased in Sixth Flawless Flowing City five months prior still hadn't completely run out. It wouldn't last much longer, though. Might as well see what the Auction Manager could provide when tasked with provisioning over a thousand people for, say, three months.
Figuring out additional items for the list required Benton to spend a few moments considering what crafted goods he planned to create in the near future. The obvious start was a way for the second mountain expedition to travel. He didn't want the group to waste too much time traveling there and back. Just as important, however, was that they do everything on their own, so Teleporting them would set a bad precedent.
Jin LiJuan could fly with the glider, of course, but he wasn't about to make those for Qi Gathering cultivators. One, it would be dangerous for the much more fragile cultivators of that realm. Two, the gliders were a reward for reaching Foundation Establishment.
What he needed was some kind of safe craft that the others could pile into that could be towed by a glider. Perfect. He should have everything he needed to make that, however.
What else?
Zou Tian would need a lot of gear for his mission. His spy mission. Which meant he needed spy gear.
Sweet. Benton got to be Q. Visions of an Aston Martin DBS with machine guns in the front and both an oil slick and smoke cloud in the back filled his head, including an ejector seat. And shoes with suction cups to walk up a wall. Chewing gum that was actually an explosive. A wristwatch that featured a built in laser.
Unfortunately, none of that stuff fit a cultivation world, but Benton could still have fun coming up with cool gadgets. That was a project for the future, though, and he doubted he needed much in the way of additional supplies. Between the fabrication capabilities of the blacksmiths and woodworkers and Benton's own expertise in alchemy and formations, there wasn't much the sect couldn't create on their own.
As big a concern was outfitting all the sect members journeying to the tournament with protective gear. Talismans would definitely make up a big part of that supply, but he'd already asked the Auction Manager to supply everything necessary on that front.
What he needed was armor. The kids wouldn't be allowed to use it during the actual tournament, of course—the rules prohibited almost all items that the participant didn't personally create—but they could certainly wear it to and from the venue. The issue was that whatever they wore couldn't look like armor as he didn't want to take a chance in alerting their enemies to any of the sect's preparations.
Benton needed something subtle. Something hidden.
Ah! Formations sewed into the robes. Perfect. He could make his sect members impervious to qi attacks below Golden Core level and pretty darn tough against anything up to Nascent Soul. Physical protection was a bit more difficult without upgrading the actual fabric with metal or special materials. Formations would provide force dampening, of course, but there was no way to make garments truly penetration proof against high realm cultivators.
Hmm. Physical protection.
The thought made him recall an old idea—a ring that captured objects targeting the wearer. Yeah. Better still would be if it preserved the Momentum and allowed the wearer to fire the weapon at an enemy.
Cool.
Benton would have to figure out how to do all that, of course, as it wasn't something he believed anyone else had available, but what good was being a cheating cheater who cheats if you didn't go all out for your kids?
Again, though, he didn't need any special materials for that. Probably.
That just really left the sewing, for which he'd need more fabric, cultivator quality sewing supplies, and the proper techniques. Jia Xueqin could easily provide the first two of those.
Benton quickly composed the note to the Auction Manager and sent the origami dragon flying. He followed that up with notes to each of the council members about the meeting that evening. Then he remembered that he'd appointed Peng Lirong to head the new Time Hall and decided that position merited a position on the council as well. Another blue dragon was quickly launched.
He spent the rest of the day tinkering with the flying cart, whipping up a new batch of contingency rings, and making Time aspected spirit coins. Almost before he knew it, his two experiment subjects—uh, disciples—were finished with their respective second sessions. Both their cultivations still looked great, so he Teleported them to his office where the rest of the council had already gathered.
Benton started the meeting by having everyone welcome Peng Lirong. She seemed embarrassed by the attention, but her husband, Peng Zhen, beamed. Next came updating everyone on the Zou Tian's and Yang Xiu's progress and Benton's observations that they were so far seeing no ill effects from the sped up cultivation. "In fact, they're seeing a benefit, if anything."
There were a lot of smiles at that announcement.
"The qi source cuts the cultivation time required by about half," Benton said, "but it's important to note that using the actual dilation effect is not a shortcut. Zou Tian and Yang Xiu are still putting in a lot of cycles. It's just that the time is shortened from the perspective of the outside."
"What is the benefit of the rooms, then, Master?" the mayor said. "You're providing a great number of coins to power them."
Benton had been hoping someone would ask just that question. "The benefit is twofold. One, the lesser concern by far, is the tournament. The room will allow the user to advance to the peak of one of the four categories, giving that person a definite benefit over someone in the lesser minor realms.
"Two, our sect is new. Besides myself, we have borrowed power in the form of Yuan Yaozu for the next one hundred years, exactly one Golden Core member who has only recently advanced, and four Foundation Establishment members."
Kang Lin raised her eyebrows.
"The fourth being Ganzou, obviously," Benton said.
She nodded.
"There's a saying where I come from," Benton said. "Quantity has a quality of its own. Our sect members have the potential to dominate all other sects due to the quality of our techniques and cultivation methods, but at the moment, we're severely lacking the quality granted by quantity. I'll feel a lot better about the long-term safety of the sect once we have a lot more members in the upper cultivation realms."
The mayor cupped his hands, a thoughtful look on his face.
Benton paused for a moment to make sure everyone fully understood the import of what he'd said. "In the short term, encompassing the next several decades at least, my intention is to have enough different qi sources that each of our members can use at least one. That benefit combined with the dilation rooms will be an absolute game changer for raising our members up. Once we have the needed quantity of members in high realms, the importance of the rooms will drop significantly. Until then, though, they are a resource that needs to be utilized to the fullest extent.
"Which brings us to the topic of today's meeting—how should we best take advantage?" He quickly filled them in on what he knew of the status of the other sources, with the exception of Lightning. "So should there be a sect-wide imperative that dictates each member advance as quickly as possible, or do we allow individual choice, letting factors such as the tournament weigh on decisions?"
When put like that, Benton knew which he'd choose, but it was important to see how his council members thought of such things.
"My short-term goal is to reach Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible, Master," Zou Tian said. "After that, I'd prefer to focus on techniques and mission preparation. That path will benefit the sect more than prioritizing advancement at all costs."
Yang Xiu appeared uncharacteristically conflicted. "I believe in doing what is best for the sect, Master, and gaining power is always a positive. But I really want to win at the tournament."
Benton almost barked out a laugh but kept his face impassive as he turned his gaze to Wan Ai, silently requesting that she speak.
"Reaching Foundation Establishment quickly, for me and the most experienced in my pavilion, would be a huge boon both personally and for the sect, Master," she said with no further urging on his part. "You should not be responsible for providing the entire supply of medicine and cultivation aids. But advancing further than that before we master new techniques seems … bad."
That she said so much with so little prompting showed her passion for her stance.
"I think you three all have the right of it," Benton said. "With this opportunity as with all things cultivation related, you must balance what is best for you in the short term versus long and what is best for you personally versus the sect. As a member of the Rising Tide Sect, you always have the right to choose, and there is no expectation that you put the sect above yourself. Actually, putting yourself first most of the time is what is best for the sect.
"I only ask that, whatever your decision, you consider all factors carefully and act with deliberation."
"Yes, Master."
He turned to Peng Lirong. "For the moment, we'll have to arrange the room schedule on a case-by-case basis. Just try to be as fair as possible while prioritizing those who have a legitimate need. Come to me if you have any issues."
She cupped her hands. "Yes, Master."
"Gratitude, all," Benton said. "Kang Lin, Sun Hua, and Wan Ai, please remain behind for a moment. The rest of you are dismissed."
Chapter 299 – Being a Grandfather Wasn't Easy
Kang Lin fumed as Master instructed her to message her grandfather about the qi sources and the Time dilation rooms.
"It's not top secret," he said, "but the information is sensitive. After debating with myself back and forth a few times, I decided it was better that he hear the straight scoop from you instead of relying on rumors. Use one of my dragons to send it, though. They're faster and more secure than what you normally use."
It wasn't that she thought the task was too menial for her or anything. There was almost no price he could ask of her that was too much to repay all he had done for her. The problem was that the subject was a bit of a sore one for her.
Yang Ru would already surpass her in every way simply due to the massive gulf in their talent levels, but she'd had a hope, albeit a slim one, that she could find some way to keep up. The use of the qi sources and Time dilation rooms rendered even that tiny prospect impossible.
Master forcing her to inform Grandfather about it felt too much like fate rubbing her face in her failure.
But such a reasonable request from Master simply wasn't something she could refuse. If Grandfather—or anyone from the Poison Claw Sect really—found out she balked at such a thing, they'd send her to the Punishment Hall. Truly. Many disciples had performed far more unpleasant tasks for their masters. She knew of one boy who'd been forced to spend ten straight days from before sunup to after sundown scrubbing alchemy cauldrons with hardly a break for meals, and he'd done it with a smile on his face.
Maybe she was spoiled. She'd never thought of herself as spoiled.
"Of course, Master. Right away, Master."
She pulled a brush and ink from her ring and got to work.
Grandfather,
Master asked me to inform you that he has successfully created two Dilation Rooms that accelerate Time by a factor of ten. A qi source in each room provides aspected qi matched to the disciple.
So far, Zou Tian and Yang Xiu have both begun the process. Master is being careful by slowly increasing their number of sessions, but if they continue to show no ill effects, he expects them to peak at a rate of an effective two hundred hours of cultivation per day.
On an unrelated note, this one plans on remaining with the Rising Tide Sect until the tournament and returning home after the event.
Your Granddaughter,
Kang Lin
She handed the message to Master, who quickly read it.
"That's perfect." He cupped her hands toward her. "It's exactly what I wanted."
Her eyes started to water. He was the Sect Leader. She had no right to expect him to care one way or the other if she stayed with them or returned home, but some part of her obviously had hoped he would have asked her to stay.
But he didn't. Obviously, it didn't matter to him.
It wouldn't likely matter to Yang Ru, either.
"May I go now, Master?"
"Of course. Gratitude."
Sun Hua didn't understand the why of Master's instructions, but the what was completely clear. Which was a great relief. All too often, she was left with making decisions she felt were way above her station.
The current task he'd set her on was actually one that was wholely appropriate for her position as his assistant, which was a refreshing change. First, she was to determine who made the current robes that all the sect members wore, whether they'd been inducted into the sect, and if so, their status.
Easy. The mayor supplied the names of the three seamstresses, and Sun Hua kept detailed records on every sect member. She found that the leader of the three, Xiang Peizhi, had been in the first set of villagers inducted as part of the mayor's selection of village leads. As such, she was in the fifth minor realm of Qi Gathering. The other two were more recent inductees, having only a short time ago advanced to Qi Gathering minor realm four.
The second part of Master's orders had been potentially more problematic, at least as it related to Xiang Peizhi. Sun Hua was to have all seamstresses become part of the Formations Pavilion.
For the latter two, such a switch was easy enough. One had joined the Alchemy Pavilion and another was still in the Martial Pavilion as she tried to decide if another one would be a better fit. Once they found out that Master wished for them to change, they were of course all for it, and Wan Ai had no issues with letting one of her recently joined juniors migrate elsewhere. The pavilion leaders had been instructed to allow sect members to try different professions after all.
Xiang Peizhi, on the other hand, had been specifically assigned to the mayor, and his agreement with the Sect Leader made the individuals selected in that manner fall outside the normal sect procedures. Luckily, the mayor realized that particular status was a byproduct of a time when the sect and the village had not been so well integrated. He expressed only happiness that Xiang Peizhi would not only be allowed to pursue her chosen profession but also backed by sect resources in doing so.
The most problematic portion of Sun Hua's assignment turned out to be the meeting with the pavilion head, Xiang Da. She'd approached him like she would have any of the other heads when discussing a transfer, expecting a routine conversation to follow.
Not confusion.
"They wish to join the Formations Pavilion?" he said. "Are you sure, Honorable Assistant?"
"Yes, Honorable Pavilion Head."
"Are they good at math, Honorable Assistant?"
"Apologies, Honorable Pavilion Head, the sect leader requested this transfer. He wishes for a sub-pavilion for seamstresses to be formed as part of the Formations Pavilion."
"Seamstresses?"
"Yes, Honorable Pavilion Head. This Assistant only knows what Master instructed, that the ladies are to be taught only the basic structure of formations and are not to be used for repairing buildings. Master will supply a technique once they acquire basic competence in what you teach them."
"I don't understand. No one has joined my pavilion." Xiang Da paused. "That being the case, I guess it makes sense that the Sect Leader would assign people to us. But seamstresses?" He sighed. "Well, I guess the reason doesn't really matter. This old man will happily do whatever the sect leader commands to the best of my ability." He cupped his hands. "Gratitude, Honorable Assistant."
Wan Ai preferred to be left on her own to cultivate and practice alchemy. Well, and spend time with Zou Tian, of course.
On several occasions, Master had appeared at a time of great need and placed the weight of the sect on her shoulders. The responsibility had been quite hard on her, and she'd grown to dread such assignments.
Then, she'd felt guilty about her reaction. Which made things even more difficult for her. Which she resented. Which made her feel even more guilty. Which...
It was a vicious circle.
Her current task was to use the Nature aspected Time dilation room, and there was no weight and no guilt. She felt the exact opposite. Excitement. Exhilaration.
When she'd successfully made her first pill, a vitamin for mortals that almost all novice alchemists learned at the very beginning of their journey since it was so easy, she'd been so proud of herself. She'd thought herself a true alchemist.
As she continued to study, however, she realized she'd achieved nothing yet. The journey to becoming an alchemist began at Foundation Establishment. She needed to advance and learn real techniques involving external qi maniuplation before she could produce anything of actual use to the sect.
That wasn't to say that the vitamin pills were worthless. There were malnourished villagers scattered throughout the world who were too poor or who lived in an area that didn't allow the growth of proper vegetables. To ones such as them, the pills would be a literal lifesaver.
Wan Ai hoped that, when the sect grew larger, it would start a program of distributing those pills to the needy. She even envisioned creating a healing pill for mortals that was cheaper to make than the ones used by cultivators. If anyone could advise her on how to do such a thing, it was Master.
Before any of those dreams could be actualized, though, she had to become a true alchemist. And the Time dilation room would speed that process. She was excited to begin.
But Master had informed her of a problem. Of the three disciples allowed to use the rooms, she was the only one who expected to use two aspects for her cultivation and techniques.
Zou Tian was obviously highly invested in Shadow and Shadow only. Similarly, though Yang Xiu incorporated other aspects in small ways, Ice was her focus.
Wan Ai was different. Most alchemists possessed either an aspect that allowed them to add energy to a mixture, the most common of which was Fire, or one that allowed them to sense the characteristics of ingredients, such as Plant, Wood, or … Nature. The best alchemists had access to both.
Her specific aspect was Dry leaves ignited by a wildfire, which incorporated both Fire and Nature. Which was fantastic for her chosen profession.
A problem arose, however, with the current circumstances. Of the two aspects, the Rising Tide Sect only currently had a qi source for one. Master believed that cultivating too much with a Nature source and ignoring Fire would result in potential issues with qi deviation down the line.
Luckily, Master anticipated acquiring a Fire source in about two weeks. At that point, he'd guide her in keeping the two aspects balanced. In the meantime, she had to be more careful than her single aspected sect mates and definitely wouldn't be allowed to use the room as much as they would.
Those conditions were fine, though. In fact, it warmed her heart that Master cared so much about her to take a personal interest in making sure her cultivation went perfectly. And not just for her, either. He took such good care of all of them.
She sighed. It really would be better for her to embrace the assignments he gave her. If only they weren't typically so stressful!
Benton was doing a terrible job of taking care of his disciples. One disciple, anyway.
He felt like a failure of a—well, not a sect leader really. He actually felt pretty good about that role.—grandfather. Yeah. He couldn't help but feel that all the kids really were his, and he hated it when one of them was in pain.
Kang Lin was hurting. That was all there was to it. She felt like everyone and everything was against her. Moreso, that no one cared what she was going through. And he'd let her down.
Having the experience of a full life of work and parenting didn't mean he always knew what to do or made the right choices. And he honestly didn't know if he'd completely flubbed it with her earlier.
It felt like it, sure, but feelings weren't always accurate. He was well aware that he let his emotions rule his actions more than was probably appropriate.
If he would have asked Kang Lin what the issue was, she would have said something about not being able to keep up with Yang Ru and about how the qi source would exacerbate that issue. Which Benton could have solved just by revealing that he planned to make a Lightning source for her.
That would have been great—if he believed that what she would state the problem was and the actual problem were the same thing.
In actuality, Kang Lin was convinced that she wasn't worthy of Yang Ru, and giving her access to a Lightning source wouldn't solve that insecurity. It was something she had to overcome on her own.
Still, Benton worried that he'd handled things badly, that a kind word or two would have helped her not feel so bad.
Being a grandfather wasn't easy.
Chapter 300 – A Question of Leadership
Benton looked over the small assemblage gathered before him—Jin LiJuan and Ganzou, Zi Delan and the five that had made up his former gang, and Pan Jiang and four other Poison Claw Sect members—and unfortunately didn't see experienced, powerful cultivators.
They were all so, so young!
Of course, Pan Jiang was an important scion in his sect and seemed to mature and grow more responsible by the day. And though Zi Delan had yet to fully develop into his role as a council member, the boy had street smarts that couldn't be taught. Best of all, Ganzou was a powerful beast with excellent senses. He'd be a right terror for any cultivator or beast of a comparable realm.
Jin LiJuan, on the other hand… Well, she was trying. Not only was she quite diligent in practicing her techniques, but she also had made great strides in furthering her bond with her beast. And her power was greater than any of the other humans simply by virtue of having ascended to Foundation Establishment.
Benton blew out a breath. He had a decision to make.
"Greetings all," he said. "Welcome to the start of the Rising Tide Sect's second great expedition to the Eternal Celestial Peak."
He had to suppress a chuckle at the fact that he was sending a dozen kids hunting at a nearby mountain and referring to it as a great expedition, but a certain amount of pretentiousness was expected when dealing with cultivators.
Well, that was a convenient excuse, anyway. If truth be told, he simply found it amusing.
"To begin with, we have a minor problem of preeminence and precedent." He smiled—speaking of pretentiousness, his speech so far was a bit over the top. "Jin LiJuan, a Foundation Establishment cultivator who is our sect's fourth most powerful member not counting myself, and Zi Delan, an august member of this sect's council of elders but who is still in the Qi Gathering realm, will both be embarking on this journey. So who leads?
"Our sect is newly formed and lacking in rules and traditions, so as we go forward, we naturally seek to govern future situations based on the examples we set now. It makes sense for a sect to have the strongest member present on a mission lead. It also makes sense that a member who is a Pavilion head or otherwise sits on the council should be the leader.
"Today, the precedent I set when the two spheres of influence conflict is that leadership will be decided on a case-by-case basis."
Benton paused a moment to make sure no one objected. Not that anyone would speak up, obviously, but if anyone exhibited body language that indicated disagreement, he would have sought to get that person's opinion, but everyone simply nodded along.
"Let me say that I would trust either of these individuals to lead the mission, so do not take my choice an aspersion in any way for the one not chosen." Benton could hardly countenance the words coming out of his mouth. Both of the kids were kids. Back on Earth, he wouldn't necessarily have trusted them to clean their rooms without constant supervision.
On the other hand, he didn't feel like the trip would be all that hazardous, and Ganzou was the main protection against threats they couldn't otherwise handle.
"Jin LiJuan," he said, "you are the most powerful cultivator on the expedition. You are the only one going who was present for the first expedition. Thus, I will trust you with ensuring the mission's success. Understand?"
Her eyes went wide. "Yes, Master."
"Though you're in charge and any final decision is yours alone, I expect you to weigh the counsel of Zi Delan heavily. Additionally, Pan Jiang is an experienced and knowledgeable member of a powerful allied sect. I expect you to listen to his wisdom as well."
She cupped her hands.
"Any expedition should have goals," he said. "Your first and foremost priority is safety. You have healing pills which can solve almost any problem. You have Ganzou, who is stronger than most threats you should meet and who can sense higher ranked beasts at a significant distance. Do not let anyone die. Do not get careless. That goes for everyone. Protect and support your fellow expedition goers."
He paused to meet the eyes of each person going on the trip just to emphasize the point.
"To that end, I've prepared a life-saving device." He held up a contingency ring and, after explaining the purpose and how it worked, distributed one to each of the people present who didn't already have one.
"The second goal is simply to gain practical, real world experience. Fighting. Camping. Surviving. Learn lessons and consolidate gains," he said. "For those of you from my sect who want to attend the tournament, this is your chance to gain much needed practice that you can't get in the sparring rooms. Make good use of this valuable opportunity."
"Yes, Master," his seven sect members chorused.
"An important note to remember about the mountain. Our sect has an agreement with the Lord of the Eternal Celestial Peak. We provide him with the occasional gift and cull beasts before they erupt into a tide, and he allows us to collect a reasonable amount of valuable materials. If you sense a presence so great that you immediately collapse to your knees, that's probably the Lord." Benton had spent part of the previous evening creating one hundred Thunder aspected greater spirit coins. He pulled the satchel he'd stowed those in from his ring and handed it to Jin LiJuan. "Give him the bag. Otherwise, return it to me when you get back."
"Gratitude, Master," she said.
"We'll be departing for Sixth Flawless Flowing City in about three months, so the internal tournaments will be conducted a few weeks before that," he said. "Doing the math gives a deadline of about nine weeks before those start. I want you back in plenty of time to prepare, so under no circumstances should the expedition return later than six weeks from today."
"Yes, Master."
Though they'd all answered like they had no issues with the timeline, several of them bore confused looks.
"You're probably thinking, 'That darn mountain is a long way from here. How the heck can we even get there and back in six weeks, much less get in some good hunting.'" Benton sighed. "Well, good point. I guess you're kind of screwed. Never mind about the expedition, I guess."
With the exception of Pan Jiang and Jin LiJuan, all of them looked at Benton like he'd lost his mind. He barely stopped himself from laughing.
"Or you could use this." He pulled his newest invention, the Skycart, from his ring. "What do you think?"
Jin LiJuan honestly didn't know what to think. Instead of one of the obvious choices such as Zi Delan or Pan Jiang, Master had named her as leader of the expedition.
As an orphan who had never led anything more important than perhaps a game of tag, she was forced to question Master's decision making. How could it be that she was responsible for the lives of eleven other people?
Sure, her goal in life was to protect innocents so no one else had to grow up without parents like she did, but all the cultivators going were adults—or close enough, older than her, anyway. No kids younger than her were going.
She sighed. On the other hand, they all had loved ones who cared about them. Siblings. Parents. Friends. Someone.
They were just as worthy of protection as a mother or a father.
And if one of them died, it would be all her fault.
Jin LiJuan had come a long way toward achieving her goal of being a strong cultivator. She'd bonded a beast and reached Foundation Establishment. But she just didn't feel like she was ready, yet. Not nearly. She didn't know what to do.
At her feet, Ganzou whined, the sound he made when he wanted her to pick him up, a feat that had gotten much easier as she'd increased in both Spiritual and Body Cultivation realms. So that was what she did. Instead of snuggling next to her like he normally did, though, he brought his face near hers.
Not to lick her, though. He knew she hated that. Instead, he stared into her eyes.
While listening to Master talk about the goals for the trip and answering his questions when required, she tried to figure out what Ganzou was trying to do. The moment stretched as she engaged in a staring contest with him.
Suddenly a word popped into her mind—Protect. Which wasn't all that weird since she'd just been thinking about the weight of her responsibility. What was strange was that the word, somehow, felt like it didn't come from her.
Protect.
She stared at Ganzou. Could it be?
"Are you talking to me?" she said quietly. "You can speak?"
He nodded. Protect.
"You'll protect me?"
Protect. Pack.
Ah. Wow. That actually … helped.
Though she was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, she knew exactly how weak she was. All three of her techniques were only at Small Success, and none anywhere close to reaching the next stage. Worse, one, Quiet Mind, didn't really help her in combat. And her sword technique was only in the Qi Gathering realm, not giving her any ability to project her qi. Her only real cultivator combat technique, Ensnarl, had about the weakest possible effect she could imagine, allowing her to manipulate existing plants to momentarily distract an enemy.
And even if all three of those were better and she were farther advanced with them, she still had a hard time making the right moves in a fight at the right time, a skill that everyone kept telling her would come with experience.
Ganzou, though, was strong. Powerful. His attacks were fast and instinctual. He was a strong protector.
She pulled him into a tight hug. "Gratitude, Ganzou."
He sent no further words into her mind, but she got the distinct impression that he was pleased. And a little smug.
Master was staring at her expectantly, though, apparently wanting her to look at the large metal rectangular box he had deposited on the ground. It kind of looked like a carriage that had the top chopped off, with six rows of padded bench seats that all had a door on each side.
Obviously, the purpose had to be to transport the rest of the expedition goers. Which made sense. She had a glider, but none of the others did.
The device had no wheels, though. Nor wings. She had no idea how it was supposed to move. Other than the doors and a bar sticking out from the front, it was simply a box with no other obvious features.
"Jin LiJuan," Master said, "please bring out your glider."
As ordered, she quickly removed it from her ring. "Yes, Master."
He did something at the back of the glider, and when he moved his hands away, she saw that he'd fastened a metal ring to the craft, which he then attached to the bar at the front of the metal box.
"Behold the Skycart!" he said.
Everyone just kind of looked at each other, not knowing how to reply or exactly what was supposed to happen.
"Take it up and see how it performs," Master said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
She and Ganzou hopped onto the glider, and she slowly accelerated while easing off the ground. Honestly, she expected the big box that was many multiples the size of her device to hold her back, but she barely noticed any change in performance. Maybe she had to press a little harder to go faster, but she wasn't sure that wasn't just her imagination.
She circled high overhead, testing the performance, and discovered no issues.
"Push just a little qi into the circle I just installed," Master said.
The voice sounded like it came from just beside her ear, but when she looked around, Master was still way down below her.
He truly was unfathomable.
All she could do was obey. Though it wasn't easy. None of her techniques let her do such a thing, and it wasn't nearly as simple as manipulating qi internally. Both Senior Brother and Pan Jiang had insisted on her spending time to train going through the process, though, claiming that it would help her when it came time to learn proper techniques.
After a bit of effort, she succeeded and immediately wished she hadn't.
The circle opened, releasing Master's Skycart!
She must have done something wrong. Since she had been towing the thing, it would surely drop to the ground and crash. Master's hard work would be ruined. And it was all her fault.
Jin LiJuan quickly circled around to try to catch it somehow and … found it floating gently downward. She followed it, landing next to it.
Master brought the rest of the group over to the Skycart. "I know this device doesn't look like much, definitely not as stylish as the gliders, but the formations are actually much, much more impressive.
"First of all, it's highly stable no matter what the glider pilot does. You could have Yang Xiu pulling you and still not have to worry about her flipping you upside down and having all of you fall out. Of course, you can't actually fall out, anyway. There's a formation preventing that.
"And as you can see, it floats safely and gently down to the ground under its own power upon being released, even to the extent of avoiding obstacles and finding a clear spot to land. That's actually the recommended landing procedure. Not to worry, though. If the pilot forgets to release you, you'll still land as softly as if on a bed of feathers.
"You won't exactly be traveling in style, but I've got safety and comfort handled!"
Those announcements got some wows from the crowd, which clearly pleased Master.
"Go ahead and load up," he said. "It's time for you to get going!"
As the other expedition goers climbed into the Skycart, Master pulled Jin LiJuan away from the others and did something with his qi. She looked at him questioningly.
"Silencing array. No need for others to hear what I'm about to give you." He handed her two jade slips. "Upgrades for your techniques, both based on the ones you're already using, so getting them up to Small Success should take a trivial amount of time. The sword technique teaches Wood based sword fundamentals exactly like your current one, but also allows you to add sharp thorns of Wood qi to the blade, and at Mastery, you can shoot those thorns as a ranged attack."
That was so perfect. Exactly what she needed.
"The other is a direct upgrade of Ensnarl called Entangle," he said. "It allows you to reinforce existing plants with qi to strengthen them and to create vines and branches solely out of qi."
"Gratitude, Master," she said.
And she was grateful. Very grateful. He was providing her with the tools she needed to actually perform like a cultivator. But she was quite confused about one thing.
Her face must have shown that confusion because he said, "You're wondering why the techniques are Wood and Nature aspected when you can use any aspect."
She cupped her hands. "I love these!"
"But you are still curious, and I bet you were hoping for something Void or Lightning aspected."
She paused, not wanting to seem ungrateful. She couldn't lie to him, though. "Yes, Master."
"Let everyone think you're aspect is along the lines of Wood or Nature. Then, when you pull out Void and Lightning and Time and Space and Gravity techniques, you'll have surprise on your side." He grinned.
She couldn't help it. She grinned, too.
Chapter 301 – The Price of Greatness
The Skycart wasn't as bad as Zi Delan had feared. The ride was smooth, and its formations deflected most of the wind, leaving only enough for a pleasant breeze. And the bench seats, as the sect leader called them, were more comfortable than anything Zi Delan had ever sat on.
Yes, it was definitely a pleasant ride.
Until Jin LiJuan detached the Skycart from her glider.
Even though he'd seen the device's safety demonstrated, his head associated flying through the air with being pulled by her. Once she let go, the obvious result was that they'd plummet to the ground.
Only that, of course, wasn't what happened. Instead, the Skycart was just as smooth as it floated down as it had been in flight, and it landed without so much as a bump.
In fact, the fall was so slow that Jin LiJuan and Ganzou made it to the ground before them and stood waiting for them to get out. As soon as the Skycart settled in its landing position, the occupants quickly exited and gathered before her.
"We're at a border between zones." Jin LiJuan pointed back the way they came. "If you go that way, you'll run into mostly rank two beasts. Threes are in the direction of the mountain. Ganzou will patrol for anything rank four and above and deal with them before they reach you.
"The density of beasts is medium, nothing like near the village prior to the tide. I recommend groups of three to give you enough safety to handle the dangers while still giving everyone a chance to fight. We'll camp here tonight, so you have the rest of the daylight hours to hunt. I will give each group a whistle before you depart."
Zi Delan was actually quite impressed with the intense girl so far. The choice of location and the orders she gave both seemed quite competent. He was quite glad that Master had selected her as the expedition leader.
The transition from street rat to respected cultivator was a jarring one for Zi Delan. It had been hard enough feeling accountable for his small gang, and all he'd really had to worry about there was finding enough food to keep them from starving and to keep them from drawing attention from the enforcers. There was no way he was ready to have the lives of a dozen people fighting monstrous spirit beasts be his responsibility.
The glider and Skycart had flown fast enough after an early start to leave many hours before sundown, plenty of time to hunt, and since everyone was eager to get started, the groups quickly split up.
Zhong Kun and Han Huian stayed with Zi Delan, while the rest of his former gang went off on their own. For the Poison Claw Sect members, four of them led by Deng Meixiang separated from Pan Jiang, who wanted to remain with Jin LiJuan.
She went to the leader of each of the other three teams and gave out a whistle, one that Master had supplied to the sect members prior to the tide, and a spatial ring to store beast parts.
"These are loans," she said. "Return them to Sun Hua after we return."
With that, she turned and headed into the brush toward the rank threes, Pan Jiang and Ganzou behind her.
Intense. Definitely intense.
Zi Delan and the members of his former gang were all at Qi Gathering minor realm six and didn't expect to advance further before the expedition was over. That cultivation put them at the equivalent of a peak rank two, meaning they each should be able to fight a beast of that level solo. As a team, however, it was likely they could handle rank threes.
"Solo or team?" he said.
"Team," Zhong Kun said.
At the same time, Han Huian said, "Solo."
The vote left Zi Delan as the tiebreaker. Since their goal was to prepare for the tournament, experience with solo fights made sense. On the other hand, the rank threes, even as a team, would probably be more challenging. Difficult fights usually translated into more gains.
Of course, he doubted Zhong Kun viewed the situation the same way. He'd been hurt fairly severely during the beast tide and might have died had not he been rescued and fed a healing pill. Likely, he simply felt safer with all of them working together.
"Let's go solo today," Zi Delan said. "You can pass up your turn if you want, Zhong Kun."
"I'm fine. Let's go."
The four Poison Claw Sect members had gone toward the rank threes while the other former gang members chose the same as Zi Delan's group. They all headed in different directions, however, so as not to interfere with each other's hunting.
It didn't take long before they could no longer hear other teams, leaving them feeling quite isolated in an area known to be teeming with dangerous beasts. Which should have been no issue considering that they'd been hunting such creatures almost since the time they joined with Master. The further away Zi Delan's team traveled from the Skycart, though, the more agitated Zhong Kun got.
Zi Delan thought about saying something but didn't want to embarrass his friend. Besides, he just needed to get a strike or two in against a beast, and he'd snap right out of it. Probably.
The terrain was rocky with many dusty trails around islands of bushes and trees. About a half hour from the landing site, rustling in the brush ahead drew their attention, and they quickly halted.
"I've got this one," Zhong Kun said.
Zi Delan and Han Huian shared a glance. She shrugged. He shrugged back.
"It's yours," Zi Delan said.
All six former gang members carried both a spear and a bow. Their plan was to primarily work with the former during the expedition, but cross-training, as Master called it, was also important. The three in the small group had previously decided that one of the two backups would ready an arrow while the other stood close by with the spear and the third fought.
Han Huian quickly strung her bow as Zhong Kun prepared himself. Before she finished, a red fox emerged from under a bush.
One of the major disadvantages of being in the Qi Gathering realm was not having access to spiritual sense. They had no way of knowing the rank of the beast. Given the lack of Ganzou appearing to protect them, though, they were pretty sure it was a three or below.
The lack of information meant they had to treat every encounter as potentially deadly, which, in Zi Delan's opinion, was a great habit to form regardless. He tightened his hands on his spear, ready to jump in if needed while Han Huian finished stringing her bow and nocked an arrow.
The creature didn't make a sound when it spotted the three cultivators and went immediately on the attack, darting at Zhong Kun. Who froze. He stood there completely motionless.
"Attack, damn it!" Zi Delan yelled, already moving.
Han Huian was faster, loosing an arrow that struck the fox in the side. The tip penetrated, giving evidence that the beast definitely wasn't a rank four. In fact, by the depth of the wound, it was probably only a rank two.
Even though Zhong Kun was still frozen, even taking a bite or a claw or two shouldn't hurt him too badly given his Body Cultivation.
It turned out that the protection wasn't needed. The hit had drawn the fox's attention to the one who injured it, and as it dashed toward Han Huian, Zi Delan got in a lunge that penetrated deeply into its side.
Another arrow finished it off.
"Are you okay?" Zi Delan said.
"I'm fine," Zhong Kun said tersely.
"What happened?"
"What do you mean? It's dead. We won."
Zi Delan sighed. "I mean you didn't do much."
"Well, how was I supposed to? I knew nothing about the creature, whether it was a rank one or a rank twenty. No one told us a thing. It's all that little girl's fault."
Disregarding the other nonsense for the moment, Zi Delan tilted his head, trying to understand what little girl his friend was talking about and how anyone else could possibly be to blame. "Little girl?"
"The one the sect leader put in charge instead of you. It ain't right. If you'd been chosen, this wouldn't have happened."
Zi Delan hadn't always been the leader of their gang. He'd earned the position—not that he'd particularly wanted it—by being smart and making good decisions that kept them mostly fed and out of trouble. Unlike rival gang leaders, he wasn't very forceful and rarely corrected his members.
In the current situation, he held a lot of empathy for his friend, who had obviously been more affected by the injuries during the beast tide than anyone realized. But the statement that had just been made could not be allowed to stand. Not only was it wrongheaded, but it was dangerous.
"Do not ever let me hear you say a single negative word about anyone put in charge of you. Ever," Zi Delan said. "Do you understand?"
Zhong Kun appeared flummoxed by the reaction. Even Han Huian was clearly taken aback.
"I need an answer. Do you understand?"
"What are you talking about? Why?"
"Do you not see how far up we've moved in the world? Did you like being street trash, barely surviving on crumbs from the trash heap, fearing the enforcers could come and kill you at any time? Don't you think it's much better to be a cultivator, to have people look up to us, to be powerful, to have all the food we want to eat and new clothes, a house beyond what I could have even dreamed of, and an avenue to become more wealthy than we ever imagined?"
"What does that have to do with that weird little girl?" Zhong Kun said. "Just because the sect leader treats her like she's his kid or something doesn't mean she should be able to order us around."
"You really don't understand? Let me draw you a picture with three facts. Fact one, we owe the sect leader a debt. Yeah, we were surviving in Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town but barely. If just a few things went wrong for us, we could have gone hungry for days or a week, becoming too drained to find any more food. We'd have wasted away with no chance of saving ourselves.
"Or maybe we could have chosen the wrong target, one who had money to bribe the Town Manager. The enforcers could have killed us without breaking a sweat.
"How many old street rats do you know? Not many.
"The sect leader probably saved our lives. Period. Whatever he wants us to do, I'll do."
"But—"
"No. No, but," Zi Delan said. "Fact two, all that is asked of us is to follow a few simple rules. Now, I'll admit that I was a little worried during the beast tide. I thought maybe he'd throw us out there in front of the wall to be fodder.
"But that wasn't what happened. You had a bit of bad luck, but Master managed the situation as safely as he could. Nobody died. You didn't die."
Zi Delan fingered his contingency ring. "Heck, right now I bet he's busy doing something of vital importance, but if I broke this ring, he'd appear instantly to save us.
"I've talked to the Poison Claw Sect members. That's not how sect leaders behave. We have something special here, and one of the few things that is asked of us is to follow the hierarchy and respect those put in charge of us.
"Is that too much to ask of you? Back on the streets, if someone had told you they'd give you a place to live that was nicer than where the richest people in town lived with all the food you could eat and all you had to do was follow the orders of some kid, would you have done it?"
Zhong Kun at least had the decency to appear chagrined.
"And fact three, that same hierarchy benefits us as much as anyone. We're disciples and founding members of the sect. Do you realize how high up we are? The sect now has over a thousand members, and we were in the first hundred. As it grows to ten thousand or a hundred thousand, we'll still be in that first hundred.
"That kind of status means something in a sect. Just about everyone in the village already refers to us Senior, and the number of people showing us respect will only grow.
"So what if a kid was put in charge of us today? Tomorrow, we might be put in charge of dozens. We should be doing everything in our power to protect the hierarchy, to enforce it. Because, in the end, I guarantee it will be much more to our benefit than any perceived indignity of having to obey someone else."
"Fine," Zhong Kun said. "I got it. You won't hear another bad word from me about her or anyone else."
"Good."
And the fact that he agreed really was a good thing. If Senior Sister or Senior Brother had heard a sect member saying something negative about the expedition leader like that, it would not have gone over well. Zhong Kun was much safer from reprisals if he held to the commitment he just made.
There was still the problem with him freezing up, though. That wasn't normal, and neither was his defensiveness. If the situation didn't improve soon, Zi Delan would have to find some way to fix it.
He sighed. There was no getting around responsibility, paying the price for greatness.
Chapter 302 – An Interesting Opportunity
Feeling frustrated, Zou Tian walked through the village. If he used Hide Presence, no one could see him, but the perception of random people walking about was so low that it would do nothing to train his technique. Trying to use his spycraft knowledge to blend in would be equally fruitless as everyone knew him by sight. He couldn't walk ten feet without someone greeting him.
There was simply no way for him to train either of the techniques in the village. He needed a test run before reaching Sixth Flawless Flowing City, somewhere safe but where he wasn't well known.
The obvious solution was Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town.
That training wasn't his primary goal, though. With the introduction of the Shadow Time dilation room, his first objective was to advance to Foundation Establishment. Master had originally said it would take Zou Tian fifteen days to reach that realm, but the calculation hadn't taken into account the cautious, stair-stepped use of the room.
So far for the day, he'd completed two ten-hour sessions with one more to go before nightfall. Tomorrow, he'd extend that number to four, but he'd have to talk to Master about being allowed to sleep while inside the formation. Otherwise, he didn't know how he could handle a literal sixty-hour day.
Not to mention that the problem would grow worse when he reached ten hours of dilation—one hundred hours to him—per twenty-four-hour day. He couldn't survive on one sleep period per one hundred fourteen hours.
His thoughts were wandering, though. The important factor for his plans was that, assuming all went well and he was allowed to spend that maximum of ten objective hours on schedule, he'd reach Foundation Establishment after seventeen more days. After that, he'd need a day to consolidate.
There was no sense in reaching that realm if he didn't learn techniques to take advantage of the ability he'd gain to externally manipulate qi. After putting a lot of thought into the matter, he'd decided on three. The first would enhance his physical and spiritual sense. That one was dangerous, however. His Shadow aspect would hide his spiritual presence as a cultivator, but it wouldn't completely negate any sign of qi used outside his body. Hopefully, the technique would be okay to use in small amounts, but it would still be a risk.
Luckily, he had Senior Brother Yuan Yaozu to help him test it.
The second one would give him a qi based attack. He would never be as good a straight up fighter as the twins or the purely martial sect members, but he needed a way to get himself out of a pinch if he ran into trouble. Master loved the idea of something called Backstab, which would let Zou Tian do double damage when he attacked while hidden.
He had no idea how such a thing would work, but it fit his skills well.
His final decision came down either to defense or movement. He wanted both, but he would already be carrying a lot of unmastered skills. With his ability to hide both from physical and spiritual senses, a technique that allowed him to extricate himself from a bad situation was simply a more logical choice than a shield designed to help him in straight up fights.
With Time dilation, he believed he could get all three of those to Small Success over the course of two objective days.
Seventeen to increase his realm, one to consolidate gains, and two for training techniques. Doing the math told him he had twenty days before he could leave the village.
The great thing about reaching Foundation Establishment, though, was that he'd be gifted a glider and a storage device. The former would cut his travel time to a negligible amount instead of consuming months, and the latter would allow him to bring everything he needed with him.
He'd have a little over a hundred days between leaving the village and the tournament starting. Assuming around a month training in town, he'd have around about two and a half to determine the plans the sect's enemies were trying to hide.
That was tight. Too tight. But it would have to work.
He left the village to head back to the sect grounds. It was time to inform Master of his decisions.
Benton was continually impressed by his disciples. Each one of them was as diligent and as hard working as the best of his protégés back on Earth.
Take Zou Tian. The amount of time he was expected to cultivate was increasing by ten hours per day every day, and his only thought was, "What else could I be doing to improve myself and/or help the sect?"
Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, Kang Lin, and Wan Ai—really pretty much all the others, too—weren't any different.
Benton had approved the plan of spending one partial objective hour out of every three cultivation sessions for sleep. Honestly, it was something he should have thought of himself.
The three techniques also sounded fine, but discussions of Zou Tian potentially leaving so soon brought home how much Benton still needed to do. For one thing, he needed to master talismans to create powerful offensive and defensive measures for all the sect members who intended to go to the tournament. Second, all those sect members required clothing armored with formations, another skill he needed to master. Finally, Zou Tian could definitely use spy toys … uh, tools. Spy tools.
Which meant crafting.
Benton grinned. Coming up with cool inventions was one of the best parts of his new life.
He mentally reviewed his To Do List. The other big item, of course, was making the other qi sources, but it would likely be at least another week or two before he obtained any more of the necessary materials.
Perfect. He had that long to figure out talismans, sewing formations, and Zou Tian's … tools.
He Teleported to the part of the Administration Hall he'd designated as his craft area and prepared to query the System on what he needed to purchase to master talismans. Before he could get started, he sensed one of his message dragons rapidly approaching.
The only people who had those were Fatty Ren and Jin LiJuan, and from the direction, the sender was definitely the expedition. Which was interesting. Something sufficiently urgent to call to his attention had happened but not something that was enough of an emergency to use a contingency ring.
He snagged the origami device from the air the instant it appeared.
Master,
Senior Sister Jin LiJuan allowed me use of this message paper. This one hopes the use doesn't overstep any bounds, but she, Pan Jiang, and I are at a loss on how to proceed.
This one's friend, Zhong Kun, is not reacting well to encounters with spirit beasts. He freezes whenever one comes near and gets angry when his inaction is called out, blaming others instead of himself. Perhaps his injury during the beast tide has affected him somehow?
The problem seems to be worsening, and this one fears that he will become a danger to himself if he keeps hunting, but he refuses to quit, even going so far as to suggest insubordination if he is ordered to.
If Master has any ideas on how to solve the situation, this one would be eternally grateful.
Your Disciple,
Zi Delan
While Zi Delan's street smarts had been impressive enough to recruit him, Benton hadn't actually gained much of an impression of the boy since. The letter reminded him that all his disciples were their own unique people with their own talents, hopes, dreams, and problems.
It was good that the issue was brought to his attention.
With night having just fallen, Benton immediately Teleported to a location a few miles above the ground on the village side of the mountain. A quick flare of his spiritual sense located the expedition camp.
He had the spiritual signatures of all his sect members memorized to the extent that he could instantly determine if the person was one of his. For his council members and a lot of the more prominent members he dealt with often, he could match a signature to a person, but he hadn't bothered to do the same with every one of the more than one thousand sect members.
Zi Delan would surely know the location of the affected boy, though, so a second Teleport landed him right outside his tent.
"Master!" Zi Delan said, his eyes going wide. "You came!"
"Of course I did. Show me to Zhong Kun."
The boy led Benton to another tent, and soon, the occupant was summoned.
Benton cupped his hands. "Greetings, Zhong Kun."
"Sect Leader? Why are you here?" His expression grew agitated, and he wrung his hands. "What did they tell you? I'm fine. I can continue."
Benton wasn't exactly an expert on trauma, but it was obvious even to him that something was going on. He vividly recalled how wounded the young man had been, his throat having been ripped out by a jackal during the beast tide. At the time, it had seemed that healing him had made him good as new. Clearly, that wasn't the case.
The boy was trembling, and the temperature wasn't all that cold. Admittedly, it wasn't every day that most of the sect members had the sect leader show up at their tent, but there was still no reason for his reaction. Nor should he be freezing every time he encountered a spirit beast.
"I need your help, Zhong Kun," Benton said. "I'm experimenting with a technique, and I need a volunteer to test out how it works in the field. If you agree, I'll Teleport you back to the sect, have you use one of the Time dilation rooms for an hour or two, and then get you right back here."
"Why me?"
Benton wasn't one to enforce protocol much, but neither did his sect members typically respond so rudely. The boy was obviously suffering from a malady, however, so Benton chose to simply not answer. Zi Delan nudged the other boy.
Zhong Kun first appeared livid but soon shook his head, clearly understanding what he'd done wrong. "Apologies, Sect Leader. Of course, I'll help."
Benton cupped his hands again. "Gratitude."
It was quick work to Teleport both of them back to the sect and have Zhong Kun learn and practice the Quiet Mind Restoration technique, the same one that had helped Jin LiJuan so much. After twenty subjective hours, the boy surpassed Small Success and used an additional hour in the room to get a good sleep.
When he emerged, Zhong Kun said, "I've messed up, haven't I, Master? How much trouble am I in?"
"None. Why would you be?"
The boy seemed surprised.
"If anything, I owe you a profound apology. I should have followed up with you after the beast tide to make sure you were doing okay."
Zhong Kun went from surprised to uncomfortable.
"If it's any consolation, your suffering has helped the sect. While you were in the Time dilation room, I distributed a technique to the Healing Pavilion for the express purpose of diagnosing problems caused by stress and traumatic circumstances. From now on, all sect members will be required to get checked out after any kind of major incident or injury."
Yang Xiu was surely going to just love that, but she could put up with the annoyance. The price was low compared to not having the sect members suffer like Zhong Kun had.
"Truly? I'm not in trouble, Master?"
"Not at all. I advise you to keep practicing that technique and to let me know if you continue to have problems. I also want you to go to the Healing Pavilion when you return from the expedition just to get checked out."
"Of course, Master." The boy cupped his hands. "Gratitude."
There was no reason to extend the conversation, so Benton Teleported them back to the expedition's camp. Before he could return to his office, though, an Aura brushed up against him, one he recognized.
It wasn't an attack from the Lord and Protector of the Eternal Celestial Peak. Nor was it a simple greeting.
Benton hadn't experienced anyone using an Aura to send a message, so it took him several seconds to determine the meaning—a request for him to come to the Thunderbird's cave.
Sure. Why not? Benton even had several dozen Thunder aspected greater spirit coins in his ring.
He Teleported directly to the cave and cupped his hands. "Greetings, Lord Thunderbird. You called?"
Amusingly, the Thunderbird used the devices Benton had gifted it on his previous visit to cup its hands. "Gratitude for coming so quickly, Sect Leader. This one seeks a favor."
"Oh. Okay." The summons had been unexpected in the first place. Hearing that the bird wanted something was even more of a surprise. But it was actually a good thing. Benton really wanted to stay on its good side. "No problem. Let's hear it."
"Gratitude, again, Sect Leader. This one has a great-great-great-great-great-great grandson who is burning with desire to experience the world. He wishes to attend the Quinquennial Tournament."
Benton didn't know that the bird even knew about the tournament and really wondered how it would work for a spirit beast to attend. Taking responsibility for such a thing might turn into a disaster.
"This one of course refused on the grounds of attending simply being too dangerous," the Thunderbird said. "But recent events have presented an interesting opportunity, one that could help one of your sect members and my grandson."
The Thunderbird went on to describe how attendance was now a possibility, and Benton had to admit that the explanation made sense.
"I can't speak for my disciple," Benton said, "but I take no objection. I say we leave this to our juniors to decide."
"How wonderful!" the Thunderbird said. "Gratitude again, Sect Leader."
"Oh, before I forget, I do have something for you." Benton removed a bag of ten greater spirit coins from his ring and tossed it to the Lord.
"You do bring the most magnificent gifts, Sect Leader. Thunder aspected spirit coins. This one hasn't seen such a unique flavor for centuries. Gratitude."
It was always so nice to be appreciated.
Chapter 303 – Rising Tide Attacks! – a CCG
The next twelve days passed in relative peace. Benton checked up on the expedition kids periodically, Teleporting high in the air above them and hiding himself from their view using Invisibility. Not even Ganzou sensed him.
There were no further incidents with that group, and they all seemed to be proceeding nicely. Weirdly, the Thunderbird's interesting opportunity hadn't materialized yet. Oh well, maybe the grandson backed out, or maybe he was waiting for the exact right time.
Either way was fine with Benton.
He also received two missives over that period, both related to the qi sources. Kang Ya-Ting had promised the remaining Lightning material soon, and Jia Xueqin provided a delivery date for all the goods he'd procured. It would be at the sect that very evening, meaning that Benton had to wrap everything else up by then so he could devote his attention solely to crafting qi sources.
To achieve all he wanted with his projects before those materials arrived, though, he had needed the auction manager to provide some of the merchandise early. Luckily, everything Benton absolutely had to have was off the shelf type stuff, and a politely worded request got him a rush delivery about a week prior.
Since, he'd spent every spare moment working on his To Do List.
Four ranks of Fortified Sewing had been required to make formations out of thread, but the technique had worked like a charm. He'd created a battle robe for each of the sect members likely to go to the tournament and for more than a few of them that likely weren't, just in case.
And those robes were masterworks. Formations fed by greater spirit coins in an internal pouch protected against both physical and qi attacks, controlled temperature surrounding the cultivator based on thermal indicators from the wearer's body, self cleaned, self repaired, and adjusted the force gravity exerted on the garment based on intuitive inputs from the wearer.
Best of all, he'd covered all the formations in a concealment array. Even a Nascent Soul—as long as that Nascent Soul wasn't also a Formations Master—wouldn't be able to discern any enhancements on the garment. The only slight vulnerability to detection was the pouch containing the spirit coins. Some beasts and cultivators were so well trained at detecting qi that even the best available formation couldn't hide so much of it in one place.
That was okay, though. It wouldn't be anything unusual for sect members to carry qi-filled devices or spirit coins on them. The overall badassery of the robes wouldn't be revealed simply by the presence of a lump of qi.
He couldn't wait to show the new duds to the kids because, obviously, only a practical demonstration would do. That fun could wait until it was time to leave for the tournament, though. No sense gathering everyone together before then.
The other major project he'd completed was creating talismans. To make those, he'd had to purchase eight Foundation Establishment realm techniques, four ranks of two different ones. The first was Formations Modification. Essentially, written formations were not the same thing as inscribed formations. Luckily, there was a lot of crossover between the two, however. By learning to modify inscribed formations, he could utilize all his knowledge as a Formations Master.
Talisman Crafting was the second technique, one that allowed him to imbue his techniques into paper for a single use. Which offered both great versatility and was absolutely broken.
Anyone, even a mortal, could use a talisman.
They were also expensive, due to the materials used, the skill required to craft them, and the need for a high level practitioner to channel their technique into the device. For Benton, the cost of the materials was trivial compared to how much he made at the auction and his ability to literally print spirit coins. And obviously, skill was no issue. After spending sixty-four Sect Points, he became a Talisman Master, able to imbue the simple devices with techniques up to the very peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Finally, he possessed a quite impressive number and variety of attacks that he could imbue, negating the need to find anyone else to do it.
All that to say that he could cheaply and easily create as many talismans as he wanted. And he wanted a lot of them. In fact, he had the System create a list just so he could keep track.
NameEffectAmplify VoiceMakes voice louder, throws voice, etc.AoE ShieldProtects user from environmental area attacksAura DefenseProtects user from enemy AuraChain LightningChain LightningCloneCreates an illusory clone of a targetCoin CreationCreate spirit coins (variety of elements)Dispel IllusionGets rid of illusions in a specified areaEarth ShotShoots ball of EarthEnhance ProjectileMakes any projectile faster and hit harderExcavateDigs a holeExplosive GrowthCauses plant to grow rapidlyGlass CreationCreates a glass structure to the user's specificationsGravity BurstAdjusts pull of gravity in targeted areaHealingProvides directed burst of healing energyHydro BlastShoots water jetInvisibilityRenders user invisibleLightning BoltSingle bolt of lightningMessengerCreates a dragon messagePause TimeAllows user to stop time to consider actionsPerceptionBoosts user's physical and spiritual sensesQuickstepFolds space for quick movementShieldShort duration shield (variety of elements)Speed BurstProvides user with burst of speedStealthHides userStone ShapingUser can shape stoneSwitch PlacesUses Teleport to switch user's place with targetTeleportationTeleports userTemperature ManipulationRapidly adjusts temperature of target areaTime ManipulationSpeeds or slows time relative to userVoid AttackShoots metal ball with Void qi attachedWind SlashGenerates wind attackWhen Benton realized that he wanted to create thirty-one different talismans, he at first felt like he was being a little excessive, especially since a lot of the talismans would benefit from having both high and low qi output versions and at least two needed to be available in multiple aspects.
His restraint was tempered by one thought—how cool it would be for his sect members to have access to such attacks? It would almost be like playing instants in Magic: the Gathering—Benton had enjoyed that portion of Greg's childhood much more than the Pokemon years.
Inspiration naturally struck. What if he made the talismans resemble a collectible card game?
The more Benton thought about it, the cooler the idea sounded. He could draw an illustration on each, title it, list the attack power in qi, maybe even add flavor text. The cards could be numbered so that members could trade with others to collect the entire set.
He laughed. It would be epic!
Yes. He had to do it. He couldn't not do it.
Two more techniques were required. The first was Illustration, a Qi Gathering realm skill that taught him to draw because he had exactly zero talent in that area. The next solved the problem of having every card be an original creation. Instead of hand copying each of them how many ever times he needed, the Foundation Establishment level Copy Image would allow him to duplicate his original work exactly with minimal effort.
Perfect.
As it turned out, it made sense to provide some of the talismans, such as attacks, with three different qi expenditures—low, medium, and high. And some of those with multiple qi settings also required various qi aspects.
In the end, he spent days creating nearly a hundred cards. When all the copies he made were accounted for, his ring had thousands of the things.
He really hoped the kids loved them because he'd spent way more time and effort on them than he'd anticipated.
His next project was minor but important, involving alchemy. Benton spent three Shop Points each time one of his disciples reached Foundation Establishment. Considering his skill level, he figured he could take over some of the production to save on a scarce resource just like he'd done with healing pills..
The cocktail that increased a cultivator's qi pool at the start of the realm consisted of three pills. One of those was unique to each aspect. Though the formula for that type of pill was well known, it required special ingredients to make which were almost as difficult to obtain as the qi source materials. It made sense to keep paying a single Shop Point for those unless he happened to run across the material he needed.
On the other hand, the other two pills in the cocktail presented the opposite problem—from the composition of the finished product, Benton didn't detect any particularly hard to acquire ingredients, but none of the sects on the continent seemed to have any awareness of how to make them.
The System offered the sell him the formulas for five Shop Points each, a bargain considering that he'd be into profit territory with the sixth pill of each that he made.
Next, Benton figured out the Momentum ring, and man, was that thing difficult to design. In fact, he almost gave up and bought a schematic from the System, but in the end, he persevered. And the result was worth it. Kind of.
Wanting to hide the surprise from the kiddos, he had Yuan Yaozu shoot an arrow at him—when you get to be nearly a thousand years old, you tend to pick up basic proficiency in almost all useful skills. The ring worked like a charm. It snagged the arrow from the air with a minimal qi expenditure and didn't even require that to let the projectile fly.
Of course, there were some issues. One, it required external qi manipulation, and using a beast core during combat wasn't exactly feasible. Two, it took more than a little practice both to capture fast moving missiles and to direct them accurately from the ring. If he ever got around to making a Mark II version of the ring, he'd definitely have to figure out how to add a targeting feature.
Anyway, while the coolness factor of the ring was off the charts, the practicality factor was nil for his Qi Gathering members and not much better for ones in the Foundation Establishment realm.
Oh well, Yuan Yaozu enjoyed the gift.
The final task Benton completed over the dozen days was to make all of Zou Tian's … tools, though he still needed to present them to the boy.
No time like the present. Except for one problem.
Initial tests with the Time dilation rooms had gone well. Zou Tian and Yang Xiu had been cultivating for a full one hundred subjective hours per day for almost a full week with no ill effects. Wan Ai, though restricted to only two or three sessions every other day due to her dual aspect, also was proceeding just fine. None of the kids using the non-aspected rooms for technique practice experienced any issues, either.
At his current rate, Zou Tian needed at least four to five more days to reach Foundation Establishment, though, and Benton would have much preferred to supply the gifts after that point. On the other hand, he really wanted to go heads down crafting once he got all the materials for the sources in.
Hmm.
There was no real issue with giving Zou Tian his supplies early. The only thing he needed to advance to use were the jade slips and the storage device. And for the latter, he could simply use a beast core in the interim.
Benton fired off one message to the boy and one to Yuan Yaozu asking them to meet in the Admistration Hall in an hour.