Chapter 163 - Placemaking
12/22/24 A/N: Sorry for being a little late in my posting. I'm traveling for the holidays, and there was a glitch with the wifi and my mother-in-law's house.
Benton frowned as he received a notification. Not a half hour had passed since he had sent Yang Xiu to the Contribution Points Shop to arrange payment with Peng Zhen for a trial.
Well, she must have accomplished that task because the System informed Benton that that she had requested to participate in a trial. He was sure he'd been very clear on exactly which trial she was to pick. Her mission was to advance her shield. In fact, he'd explicitly told her she wasn't allowed to attempt to improve her spirit roots again for another year.
Why, then, was he receiving a notification asking his permission for her to do that very thing? What was she thinking?
He shook his head.
No. She did not have his permission.
He bet that, when he asked her why she'd selected that trial, she'd say something like she was just testing the pagoda's functionality. The little scamp!
A new popup appeared informing him that she'd selected the correct one, and immediately after that, she disappeared from his senses.
That was not something he'd expected to happen, and he almost rushed to the pagoda to investigate. Before doing anything in haste, he calmed himself. The Trials Pagoda was a product of the System, and it had told him that the one she was attempting was completely safe. He doubted that she'd died.
He pulled up his status and checked, finding he still had two hundred sixty-two sect members and fifty-seven disciples. That information confirmed that she was still alive.
The trials probably occurred in a separate dimension or something. Once it was over, she should re-appear.
At first, Yang Xiu coming to the arena with her request had helped to relieve his boredom, but the added tension of worrying about her made the wait even worse.
Hours passed, and he grew more and more worried. He knew it was irrational. The System had told him that the trial-taker would not be harmed, but he did not like not being able to sense her.
And worries about her safety led to other worries. Even if she emerged unscathed, it was possible for her to fail the test. He worried about what that would do to her confidence. Not to mention that it would hurt her pride when the rest of the sect found out.
A while later, though, there was a popup.
""Host's Disciple, Yang Xiu, has reached Automated Slippery Ice Shield - Large Success.
Host is awarded one Sect Point.
Host has 841 Sect Points available.""
As expected for such a talented disciple, she'd passed. He didn't know why he'd been worried. Such a good kid!
Immediately after the notification, she reappeared to his spiritual sense, though she remained completely immobile.
Ah. Consolidating her gains. Great kid!
After another hour or so, she ran to the arena.
"Disciple reporting to Master."
Ever since she started hanging around with Kang Lin, Yang Xiu had started randomly being more formal with some interactions. Benton didn't know if she was trying to act more like she felt a true sect member should act or if the manner of speech amused her.
If there was one thing that he had learned about parenting teenagers, it was that it just wasn't worth trying to micromanage the small stuff. He and Evelyn had never tried to control their children's hairstyles or, for the most part, their clothing choices.
They focused on the important things. Did the kids do their schoolwork? Were they respectful? Did they stay out of trouble?
In other words, pick your battles.
Overall, Yang Xiu was a fantastic kid. Diligent. Respectful. Responsible. If she wanted to be a bit more formal in her speech, so be it.
"Master listening to Disciple."
Of course, his resolution to let her choose her words for herself didn't mean he wouldn't gently tease her about it.
She looked chagrined. "The trial was a success, Master. I raised my shield technique to Large Success."
Yang Xiu went on to tell him about the trial, about how the spheres where unblockable and how she died multiple times. That news concerned him, of course, but after he questioned her about the experience, it seemed like there was no mental trauma associated with it. One instant she was alive and the next she was in a void being told she had died.
Though she seemed fine, dying over and over again couldn't be healthy for her psyche. He'd have to monitor the situation. If future trials used the same methodology but made the process of dying linger, he might have to consider not allowing his disciples to use the pagoda.
More tests were needed before he could make such a decision, though. He'd have Yang Ru attempt an improvement after the pagoda reset at dawn, and pending how that went, Kang Lin could try tomorrow. Both would be instructed with the strongest possible admonition to give up on the trial if it was in any way traumatic.
He trusted them to adhere to the letter and spirit of his orders even if they didn't want to follow them.
With Yang Xiu having finished her report, he sent her back to the village with instructions to return at first light with her two fellow Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Since he'd ended up waiting on pins and needles for her to get finished with the trial, most of the night had passed, and his newest sect members began finishing up the fiery ordeal on having their spiritual roots enhanced. Somehow, they all seemed happy with the experience despite looking like they'd all been run through the wringer.
After another hour, the fifty new cultivators were all on their way back to the village, and he was finally free to begin placing buildings. The current sect grounds consisted of an old farmer's field overgrown with weeds, shrubs, and grasses. Not the most auspicious of locales, but that was okay. He was focused on what could be, not on what was.
He envisioned a wall surrounding the entire area with a gate in the direction of the village as that would be where almost all traffic came from. Upon entering, he wanted all the main sect buildings to be front and center.
From various projects he'd been involved with over the years, he knew that creating a sense of place was very important. Or at least, the architects and developers had claimed that it was very important. Benton had little idea what exactly placemaking entailed, but he was enthusiastic to give it a go.
There were three buildings already sited—the arena far from eventual gate, the Contribution Points Shop, and the adjacent Trials Pagoda. The latter two were on the outskirts of what he termed his Central Business District in the direction of the arena.
Hmm.
In his mind, there was a large avenue leading from the gate through his new sect. Both sides of the avenue would be lined with his most important buildings, making everything easy to find. Ancillary facilities could be located on side streets leading behind the buildings on both sides. Housing would be in a different area entirely.
Perfect.
The first large structure a visitor saw when entering the gate should be the Administration Hall, a four-story pagoda he'd stored in his ring for that purpose. He wondered how close to the wall it should be, though.
There definitely should be a gap between the wall and any buildings. That space would be used for guard shacks and for defensive forces to muster and what have you. Probably a fifty-yard distance between the wall and the structures would work.
Those decisions made placing the first structure easy. The Administration Hall went fifty yards from the eventual location of the gate on the north side of the planned avenue. Even better, the actual installation went lightning fast with his new technique for excavating foundations.
He removed the hall from the ring, held it in the air with his gravity burst, dug out the foundations in the appropriate places with his technique, and lowered the gravity to allow the building to gently fall into place.
Awesome.
Across from it, he placed a five-story library. As of yet, he only had a few dozen books to store in it, but that amount would expand over time.
Next to the library, he placed the Lecture Hall, a building that reminded him a lot of something he'd find on a college campus but with an eastern flare. It was a more short and squat than most of the beautiful tall pagodas that housed the other functions, but the architect had done a good job of making it fit in with the surrounding buildings. The important thing was function, anyway, and it contained rooms that would fit up to several hundred in a single lecture all the way down to very intimate one on one study nooks.
Obviously, he also needed a space other than the arena where he could gather the entire sect, and next to the Lecture Hall seemed logical. Benton placed the Amphitheater there. As indicated by its name, it was an open-air facility, but its big advantage was that it held seating for close to five thousand people. It would be quite some time before the Rising Tide Sect outgrew it.
Moving back to the other side of the street, he placed the five-story Martial Pavilion next to the Administration Hall. He figured that it would be his most important and most used pavilion as almost every sect member would be required to learn a weapon skill.
Eventually, when their sect was large enough to rival the big three, it would be okay for specialist crafters to forego learning to fight, but until then, everyone needed to know the basics of defense just in case the sect was attacked.
Benton paused in his thoughts.
Actually, he wasn't sure if it would ever be okay for any cultivator to completely ignore combat skills. The world was too dangerous. Unless one truly planned to never leave the walls of the sect, the ability to defend oneself at least to some extent was a requirement.
He hated that fact, but it was the truth. Maybe a part of his long-term plans should be to make the world safe enough that not everyone was required to know how to fight. To do that, he'd need to establish the rule of law, which would require him to become so powerful that he could bring to heel anyone who stood against whatever justice dispensing organization he created.
Wow. His thoughts sure had turned heavy. Creating the place of his sect was supposed to be a happy occasion.
Benton banished those concerns, turning back to the fun project of building his physical sect. Next to the Martial Pavilion, he placed what he considered to be his second most important pavilion—Alchemy. Though the structure was only three stories, he expected it to be of incredible importance. Once he got Wan Ai and others up to speed producing nearly perfect pills, he'd start saving a lot of Shop Points. Her advancement was definitely one of his most important priorities.
He paused for a second. How lucky was it that she was so dedicated to cultivation? Despite her less than stellar roots, she was next closest to advancing to Foundation Establishment, and the sooner for that, the better.
Departing from the main avenue, he placed the Bath House dedicated to Body Cultivation behind the Alchemy Pavilion. It wasn't a structure that demanded a place of prominence, but it would be much visited as he would require all his sect members to eventually reach at least peak Bronze Body Cultivation. And obviously, the building needed to be close to the alchemists who created the baths for the sake of efficiency.
Back on the main avenue, he installed the third of the major pavilions, Formations, next to the Alchemy Pavilion. At the moment, the math-oriented profession was the least developed with only five members and none who could even make the simplest of arrays. Like with alchemy, it played a major role in the development of all sects, so getting them up to speed was another priority.
Benton had a choice to make with his next placement. One side of the avenue was lined with all the pavilions and four total buildings. There were only three on the other side, creating an imbalance.
Not counting the Outer Sect, he had three pavilions left install—Woodworking, Blacksmithing, and Healing. His first impulse was to keep all the pavilions on one side of the street, but that didn't make sense as he had nothing to go opposite them.
Hmm.
It was fine. All of them didn't have to line up next to each other as long as they were in the same area. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd end up adding more later. Those would probably end up on side streets or even farther away from the CBD.
Okay. Decision made, then. He'd balance the buildings on each side.
It was logical to keep Woodworking and the forge next to each other as they were similar types of craft and worked closely together, so he put those on the side next to the Amphitheater. That left the Healing Pavilion to go next to the building for arrays.
Great. That left only the auxillary building for the fletchers, which naturally went behind the Woodworking Pavilion.
Finished, he stood at one end and looked at his future main avenue. Big tall beautiful buildings lined it.
Of course, it wasn't perfect. There was no stone path yet for the actual road, and the area was still overgrown. There were no decorative trees or anything else.
But it was a start. A good start.
Chapter 164 Goodbye Home
Benton grinned. He had the core of his sect placed. The Administration Hall, the Library, the Lecture Hall, the Amphitheater, six pavilions, and a couple of auxiliary buildings had been installed near the eventual gate. A short distance away was the Contribution Points Shop and the Trials Pagoda. Farther on was the arena.
That was a great start.
With the work locations clearly established, he needed places for all his people to live and chose the large empty area opposite the arena to build the residential section. On his way there, he dropped the cafeteria, a large, single-story building that had enough kitchen space and seating capacity to handle roughly five hundred people at once. As long as everyone didn't go for meals at exactly the same time, it should work as the main eating location until sect membership reached into the thousands. Which was why he sited it where he did, halfway between the CBD and the housing area.
Once he reached the sector he'd selected, his first placement was the Outer Sect Pavilion, an eleven-story building that contained sixty apartments easily capable of holding up to one hundred eighty sect members, more if they really wanted to stuff them inside. He planned to mainly use it for children and temporary housing for new, non-village recruits.
Dotted around the area along planned curved roads much like a suburban development back in the good old US of A, he placed twenty family homes of various sizes and configurations and thirty single dwellings favored by many cultivators belonging to various sects.
Hmm.
All told, he could easily house about three hundred members, which was good. The capacity slightly exceeded the current membership. On the negative side, he'd was all out of dwellings from his ring, and the Rising Tide Sect was growing rapidly. There was no way he'd be able to fit all the people in the village into the current structures on the sect grounds.
To do so, he'd need to begin either building his own houses or moving ones from the village onto the grounds. Neither of those options appealed to him, though. All the structures taken from the Righteous Rain Sect, while having various appearances, had a certain aesthetic similarity that he liked. The village houses would clash terribly, and the time required to build new ones while maintaining any kind of architectural conformity would be problematic.
It seemed like a visit to Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town was in order in the near future. Which was a good idea on multiple fronts. For one thing, he had kind of promised Fatty Ren a solution to his cultivation stagnation, and recruiting the large Town Lord might just be a way to speed up the growth of the Rising Tide Sect so that Benton could get to Nascent Soul even faster.
He would feel much better about the security situation if he were stronger than any known cultivator on the continent. Fighting against an opponent with an aura had not been easy or fun. If that opponent had been a human with scores of mastered techniques, Benton may not have won.
Adding that out-of-town trip to his mental To Do List, he moved on to his next priority—getting the sect moving in the right direction. The beast tide had been a positive in many ways. Lots of sect members had made significant improvements. Pretty much everyone had gotten at least some experience out of the deal. The sect would be flush with material wealth from all the spoils for the beasts they'd killed. And best of all, no one had gotten killed. The village hadn't even suffered any significant damage.
The event couldn't have gone any better.
It had, however, disrupted his plans. Production on the wall had completely ceased, and for the most part, separation of sect members into their various pavilions had been abandoned as most everyone concentrated on learning weapon skills. Almost no progress had been made on pill production, and efforts to increase knowledge of formations for anyone but himself had been severely hampered.
Of course, the news wasn't all bad in terms of crafting. Forging and fletching had both proceeded at a fantastic pace, putting those sect members ahead of where they might have otherwise had been. Body Cultivation had also been pushed heavily. There was no way so many would have advanced so far absent the threat presented by the tide. And obviously, the number of hours spent practicing weapons had been immense, putting almost everyone further along the path toward Mastery than he would have otherwise expected.
Still, the sect needed to be able to win the peace just as much as being able to prevail in war. They needed crafting and production, not just weapons and fighting. His disciples needed to build and create.
Starting in the morning, he'd refocus everyone on those tasks.
He Quickstepped to the village and found Yang Xiu cultivating in her house.
"Cancel my orders to have the three Foundation Establishment cultivators come to me at dawn. We need a council meeting instead. Oh, and I forgot to reward Pan Jiang and the other Poison Claw Sect members for their assistance. Ask them to attend as well."
"Yes, Master."
As the sun was still in the process of rising, all the council members—Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, Zhong Wen, Wan Ai, Zou Tian, Shi Long, Ye Zan, Hou Yazhu, Xun Wu, Peng Zhen, Zi Delan, Mo Jian, Guang Yin, Xiang Da, and Pan Xiaolian—arrived at the arena accompanied by Kang Lin, Pan Jiang, and the other four Poison Claw Sect members who had participated in the beast tide.
"Today represents the end of an era," Benton said sadly.
All the assembled cultivators looked at him with confusion writ large on their faces.
"It's our last council meeting at the arena," Benton said. "In fact, we'll no longer be using the arena for meetings or inductions at all. From now on, it will be for spectated sparring and tournaments only. Council meetings will be held on the third floor of the new Administrative Hall and inductions and any meetings requiring the entire sect will be held in the amphitheater."
They looked just as confused. Perhaps they were all too young to mourn small changes, but he would always remember the arena as being more to the sect than simply a place to house fights. It would always be the sect's first official building. In a way, they were saying goodbye the sect's first home.
"I'll try to be brief. The purpose of today's meeting is to reset the direction of the sect now that the beast tide is past." Benton turned to Guang Yin, the old wood harvester. "One very high priority is to get the wall built around the sect grounds. Full speed ahead on production."
"Yes, Sect Leader."
Benton met the mayor's eyes. "Another high priority is to get the last couple of induction classes into their respective pavilions. Interview each person and assign them based on their interests. Alchemy and Formations need the most help long term but are the most ill equipped to get people started. I'll take a personal interest in helping organize both of those. Martial is both useful short and long term and is ready to accept and train new members. If anyone is waffling between Martial and something else or can't decide, try to push them to that decision.
"Woodworking, forging, and healing should be pretty straightforward. If the person was already at least apprenticed in one of those fields and wants to continue, then it's a no brainer. Otherwise, use your judgment. We also need to get started growing herbs. That will be a new pavilion. If we don't have at least five farmers already, let's prioritize that for the next induction."
"Yes, Sect Leader."
"All of you who are pavilion leaders," Benton said, "I know administration is a responsibility that takes time away from other tasks, but it is crucial to the sect's long term success. Please think about how you want to organize your pavilion and how you can both teach and utilize new members. I'm available if you have questions."
Some of his leaders would have no problem, especially experienced masters like the expert blacksmith, Xun Wu, the harvester, Guang Yin, and the old healer, Pan Xiaolian. If anything, they could teach Benton a thing or two. Others, like Wan Ai, were overwhelmed by even the thought of leading others. But that was okay. He was confident she'd grow into the role. Which she would very much need to do. Production of the baths needed to continue while they shifted their training to create pills.
"One final task," Benton said. "I left the corpses of the sixth, seventh, and eighth waves where they died. I want three teams, each led by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, to go out and collect the spoils."
He could see the obvious question on their faces. "Go ahead and ask."
"Why didn't you just collect them, Master?" Yang Xiu said.
"Anyone care to answer that for me?"
No one spoke for a moment, and as Benton had half expected, it was Zou Tian who finally came up with an answer.
"Experience, Master."
"Good," Benton said. "Elaborate."
"Everything that you do for us is something that we don't get to experience doing for ourselves. Even though storing bodies in a spatial ring is a relatively easy thing to accomplish, it is an important task that needs doing."
"Exactly. But you left off that it's also an opportunity to gain contribution points, which is important to the sect and its members. I want each of the three teams to include the Foundation Establishment cultivator and one guard, but I want the actual work of finding and separating the bodies to be accomplished by regular sect members, the lower ranked, the better. Understood?"
"Yes, Master."
"Great, now the final topic for today, rewards for our allies." Benton turned to Kang Lin. "As my disciple, you're able to participate in the same rewards as the Rising Tide Sect members. I hope that you're not too terribly disappointed not to also share in the same bounty as your actual sect members."
She smiled. "No, Master. This one is not quite that greedy."
Ha. He did like her playful nature and really hoped things worked out between her and Yang Ru. She would be good for him.
"Good," Benton said. "Pan Jiang, may I please check your cultivation?"
The boy, of course, assented.
"Not bad," Benton said. "Earth grade method?"
"Yes, Sect Leader."
Hmm.
"Okay, I think you're best off advancing to Foundation Establishment with the method and techniques you're currently using. How about an IOU that you can claim for a new method or technique of your choice once you advance?"
Pan Jiang nodded enthusiastically.
"Deng Meixiang," Benton said. "Is it okay if I check your cultivation?"
"Of course, Sect Leader," the archer said.
Benton kept his face expressionless, but he wanted to grimace. His best guess was that the girl's cultivation method was rated low profound at best. Still, she was talented enough that she'd probably reach Foundation Establishment. Eventually. Maybe.
He explained that situation to her.
"I can offer you a new cultivation method for Qi Gathering and can even reset your cultivation if you want. Your other option, though, is the same one that I gave Pan Jiang. I can give you a top heaven grade Foundation Establishment cultivation method once you advance."
The look of avarice on her face at the thought of what he offered was almost funny, but it was tempered with the realization that she wasn't guaranteed to ever make that breakthrough.
Benton sighed. "How about this—if you take the Foundation Establishment option, I'll also promise to provide pills for your breakthrough if your bottleneck takes more than six months."
He didn't like committing his dwindling supply of Shop Points, but with having so many Sect Points, he could always simply master alchemy enough so that he could created the necessary pills.
"Yes, Sect Leader. Gratitude, Sect Leader!"
The evaluations of the other three kids were similar, and Benton ended up making them each the same offer. The number of points he'd be spending on creating Foundation Establishment techniques would have made him apoplectic not that long ago, but he wouldn't be attuning the methods to their exact qi aspects. Some of his sect members would probably be able to use them eventually.
The Poison Claw Sect kids deserved the boon for their service to his sect, and he could afford to give it to them. Besides, he wanted it known far and wide that the Rising Tide Sect greatly rewards those who help it.
He wanted their reputation to be as a fantastic friend and a fearsome enemy. The rewards he was giving was the first step to establishing the first of those. Hopefully, he'd never have to demonstrate the latter.
Chapter 165 - Vengeance
Jin LiJuan tried not to hate spirit beasts, but the task was difficult. She was highly motivated, though. Master didn't ask much of her, just that one thing.
She hadn't understood why Master even asked her not to kill beasts in anger. The strong sect members killed beasts wherever the creatures were found, and the entire sect had trained so hard learning weapons and techniques for what seemed like the sole purpose of killing beasts.
Mistress Zhong has patiently explained to Jin LiJuan that the issue wasn't with what she was doing but why. Killing beasts was fine. Admirable even. Being so consumed with hatred that she couldn't live a normal life and devoting her entire being to a singular pursuit were what Master wanted her to avoid.
She'd also been told that she would never feel the satisfaction she expected to feel from the act. That she'd feel colder and more dead inside with each act of vengeance.
Jin LiJuan didn't know if she believed any of those explanations, but in the end, the reason didn't matter. Master wanted it of her, and she owed him everything. He was the only reason she could finally cultivate.
Still, the task was extraordinarily tough. While the other sect members fought against the tide, she'd clenched her fist, too weak to participate. All she could do was feed the barrier protecting the village—an important job that she performed with all the diligence she could muster but one that ultimately wasn't what she wanted.
People in the village didn't actually know a lot about spirit beasts, but Pan Jiang was different. The Poison Claw Sect member had been educated on that subject and many others from the time he was a small child. He said that the beasts were driven by an instinct to grow stronger and would do anything it took to advance.
She understood that motivation. The pursuit of strength was paramount. If you advanced far enough, no one could ever hurt you. No one could ever hurt those you cared about.
That motivation did not explain why her parents had been killed, though. They were as mortal as mortal could be. None of her family had a single mote of qi inside them. The beast knew that. It hadn't consumed them, just killed them and left their broken and bloody bodies.
She said that to Pan Jiang.
The boy had looked so sad. He'd gotten down on one knee to speak to her and told her that her family was dead because cultivators had not done their duty. When an area wasn't regularly culled, beasts grew aggressive. When nothing was available that could fuel their advancement, they sometimes lashed out at mortals, killing for the sake of killing.
He told her of the destruction of the Righteous Rain Sect, how the village was part of their territory, and how none of the other sects could move into that territory without breaking the tenuous peace that existed between the big three.
She understood little of what he said other than that cultivators had a duty to protect mortals from spirit beasts, and the cultivators had failed her.
Jin LiJuan wanted to be a cultivator who protected mortals, one who never failed. She wanted to be like Master. He would always diligently and successfully do his duty, whatever it was.
She strove to follow his example. Even though she wanted to strike out at the beasts in any way possible instead of passively feeding coins to the formation, she did not complain. Not a peep.
And her job hadn't been that bad. Without the barrier, many villagers would have been killed. Without her, the barrier would have failed. She felt important. She was contributing.
Then, the badger had gotten inside. It had wanted the bag of spirit coins and would go through anything in its path, including her. She had proved that, even if she wasn't as strong as the others, she was just as brave.
But she had failed Master. When she looked at that badger attacking her brothers and sisters, she had hated it. She'd wanted with every fiber of her being to kill it, and not to protect her fellow sect members.
It was a spirit beast. She wanted it dead.
After Kang Lin had delivered the killing blow, Jin LiJuan stared at the corpse. Even though it was already dead, she wanted to stab it until there was nothing left but tiny little pieces.
It was then that she realized the depth of her failure, just how much hate she still had inside of her. She had a lot of thinking to do.
The aftermath of the beast tide helped her some. Processing the beast parts, separating out the cores and the meat and the skin and all the pieces useful for crafting had given an outlet to her anger, and it turned out that she was good at the job.
Her small, nimble fingers guided the knife almost perfectly, and with every beast she processed, she grew better. It was almost as if she was in a meditative state as her hands flew over the corpses, quickly and efficiently breaking them down. All the mortals and even some of the cultivators were amazed by her progress.
Contributing made her happy. She owed Master so much, and her failure loomed large in her mind.
Master called a council meeting, and soon after its end, rumors spread that each of the Foundation Establishment cultivators would choose a team to gather the beast corpses that Master had left behind.
Despite her newfound skill at processing, Jin LiJuan did not expect to be picked for such a prestigious duty. She was, after all, the lowest ranked and weakest cultivator in the sect. It would not have surprised her if all fifty of the newest inductees were already stronger than her.
When Yang Ru, the senior-most brother of the entire sect, requested that she be on his team, she was elated. Another chance to contribute. Another chance to repay some of her debt.
There ended up being three of them besides Jin LiJuan on their team—Senior Brother Yang Ru, of course; Huang Yimun, a guard who had been really nice to her during the beast tide; and a newly inducted villager who Jin LiJuan had seen before but whose name she couldn't remember.
Master could cover incredible distances in a single step. No one else in the sect could match his speed, and with two very junior cultivators along, Senior Brother had to keep the pace slow. The trek to find the rank eight beast corpses ended up taking many days, and it was late afternoon before they neared the spot Master had described.
"I found the location," Senior Brother said after returning from scouting ahead. "It's not far now. Huang Yimun, make camp. Jin LiJuan and Luo Daiyu, come with me to begin processing."
While Huang Yimun stayed behind at a location near a creek, Senior Brother led them to the site of the battle. Well, not really a battle. More like a massacre.
Jin LiJuan had been told these beasts were of the eighth rank, unbelievably more powerful than the badger. She had been given special knives that Master had inscribed with formations to be sharp enough to cut the beasts' bodies because her normal knife wouldn't have been able to even scratch them. Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and Kang Lin together wouldn't be able to stand against one of these beasts for a second had the creature been alive.
Eleven of them were dead in a tight grouping, killed by Master within seconds of each other. Jin LiJuan couldn't even imagine how strong he'd have to be to achieve such a feat.
He was truly unfathomable.
While Senior Brother scouted the area to make sure no other spirit beasts approached, the other girl, Luo Daiyu, moved to one end of the group to start processing, and Jin LiJuan took the other.
Besides being bigger and tougher than the rank ones, twos, and threes she'd learned on back at the village, there wasn't much difference in the process of breaking the corpses down. Their size and toughness, though, made an impact. Her hand tired quicker because, even with the formations, she had to apply more force, and because the beasts were bigger, it took a lot longer to finish one. It was nearly dark by the time she got through with the second one.
She looked to Luo Daiyu, who was only halfway through her second. The girl showed no sign of stopping, so Jin LiJuan moved on to her third, a wolf. The beast was massive, though, so she was still in the process of skinning it when her partner completed hers.
"Should I start another?" Luo Daiyu said.
Jin LiJuan looked at the sky. Darkness hadn't fallen yet, but it was rapidly approaching. With the tide finished and Senior Brother patrolling, though, there was no danger.
"Go to camp," Jin LiJuan said. "I'll just finish skinning, and I'll be right behind you."
The other girl nodded and left, and Jin LiJuan returned to her work. Making the cuts actually was no longer the problem. It was just that the wolf was so big it was hard to move it around to pull off the skin.
The corpse was lying on its stomach, and she had to really put her shoulder into it to topple it onto its side. As soon as she did, the stomach moved.
Jin LiJuan tensed, fearing for a moment that the massive, powerful spirit beast could somehow still be alive. But that was stupid. It wasn't breathing. Its eyes were lifeless. It was clearly dead.
Why, then, was its stomach moving?
There was one way to find out. She took a formation-enhanced blade and sliced it open near the movement.
Jin LiJuan was a very brave little girl, but she wasn't stupid. As soon as the cut was made, she took several steps back to carefully observe whatever emerged from inside.
A small round shape tentatively pushed out of the bloody slit. The form was dark and covered in fluids.
At first, Jin LiJuan thought it was some kind of parasite. As more and more of the shape emerged, she realized the truth.
It was a cub. A baby. The wolf's baby.
She tossed down her knife and ran to it, grabbing it with both hands around its neck. Her hands tightened, squeezing.
Chapter 166 - mercy
Even Jin LiJuan's small hands were able to completely encircle the wolf cub's neck. It struggled pitifully, trying to breathe, as she crushed the life out of it.
She ignored the desperation on its face as the brightness in its eyes dimmed just as easily as she paid no attention to the disgusting, slimy substances coating its body that had transferred to her fingers. All that mattered was that it was a spirit beast, and after waiting for so long, she finally had the power to kill it.
Obviously, it wasn't the one that killed her parents. It had just emerged from its mother's womb moments ago. It hadn't killed anyone.
But none of that mattered.
It was a spirit beast. That was enough.
Ending its life was the fulfillment of the wishes of so many sleepless nights. The heavens had given her the opportunity, and she was going to take it.
Its struggles grew even weaker. The light in its eyes dimmed more.
Jin LiJuan grinned.
Finally.
A niggle of a doubt wormed its way into her mind. There was a promise that she had made.
No. Not a promise. An oath.
She had sworn to Master that she would only kill beasts to protect, not because she was mad. Not because she hated.
As the literal weakest of the sect members, it was laughable to think that her actions killing this barely newborn beast was protecting anybody. If she could kill it, anyone could, even a mortal child.
At that moment, anyway.
If she let it free, it would grow. It would become stronger. It could threaten a mortal or the sect.
Her responsibility was to protect. She had to kill it. Yes. Duty called.
Jin LiJuan tightened her grip, sure that her reasoning was sound. Not even Zou Tian could refute her logic. Killing it was the correct decision.
The creature was almost dead, anyway. A few moments more, and there would be no choice left to be made.
She smiled as she watched its life slowly leave it.
Another thought niggled at her. If she was so sure that killing it was the right thing to do, a yell would bring Senior Brother or Huang Yimun.
No. She found the wolf cub. It was her responsibility. No one else's. Hers alone.
In fact, she needed to speed up the process. Her understanding was that spirit beasts born to other spirit beasts started out life as a rank one. Senior Brother would be able to sense it when he drew close enough.
She wanted to be the one to end its life. She needed to be the one to end its life.
She hated the creature with all the passion her heart could contain.
Her fingers released, and the barely breathing cub fell to the ground.
Jin LiJuan had sworn to Master that she would not kill out of anger, out of hatred, and he'd made it clear that him healing her had been her second chance. She seriously doubted she'd get a third.
The beast had to die but not at her hands. She would call Senior Brother. One stomp from his foot would end it.
She would watch, grinning, as the life…
Jin LiJuan hung her head. Was calling Senior Brother to kill it any different than doing it herself? Master probably wouldn't think so.
He would expect her to … try not to hate it?
But it was a spirit beast. If it had the chance, it would kill her and the entire village to make itself stronger. It deserved death.
She stared at the creature. It struggled to draw breath and might die if she did nothing. After all, it had been cut out of its mother's belly, a mother who had been dead for quite some time. Days.
It was weak, starving. And she'd done further damage to it. The surprising thing was that it still lived.
Maybe she could at least admire its perseverance. That was kind of like not hating it, right?
She had a half full skin tied to her waist, and she used it to pour water over the creature, washing away some of the gunk coating its fur and maybe, incidentally, giving it a bit to drink.
Her situation presented quite a riddle. She could neither kill it nor cause it to be killed without violating the spirit of her oath to Master. Nor could she leave it to die on its own. And if it were healthy enough to live, she couldn't in good conscience let it grow strong enough to threaten the sect.
Which left what option for her exactly?
None that she could think of.
If she did nothing, any choice would definitely soon be removed from her. It was scarcely clinging to life and needed food to survive. Prolonging what time it had left would at least give her a chance to make a decision.
She wasn't an expert on spirit beasts by any stretch of the imagination, but her understanding was that anything soaked in qi provided them with nourishment. Moving to a beast she'd already processed, a fox, she cut off a tiny chunk of meat. Really tiny. Just a sliver, as she couldn't imagine that it would have an easy time consuming a large portion of a rank eight beast.
For all she knew, it wouldn't be able to chew or eat the higher ranked beast at all.
The cub was barely conscious, but it perked up, its eyes opening, as the meat was shoved into its mouth. It barely chewed at all before swallowing the morsel.
Then, it whimpered, clearly asking for more.
Jin LiJuan frowned. Keeping it alive long enough to decide what to do with it was one thing. Feeding it snacks was something else.
It whimpered again.
"Fine," she said. "One more sliver, but that's it."
She cut off another tiny piece of meat, but the beast wasn't unconscious when she went to place the morsel in its mouth. In its eagerness for the meat, it cut her finger drawing blood, which the cub lapped up with his tongue.
Jin LiJuan was furious. It had injured her. It had consumed her blood.
"Let's see how you like it!" she yelled.
Before she could consciously think about what she was doing, her knife sliced the cub's shoulder. It retreated from her, huddling against the body of its mother as if the corpse could provide it with protection.
Jin LiJuan waved the bloody knife in front of it. "See. Here's your blood. See! Do you like it if I do this?" She licked the blade, and a coppery taste filled her mouth.
After forcing herself to swallow, she calmed down some. She honestly didn't think the cub meant to hurt her. It was just eager to get the meat.
She had probably overreacted.
Her anger again. Maybe Master was right about not letting her emotions control her. He probably was.
Meanwhile, the cub was clawing at its mother's body, and a small piece of meat fell to the ground. The beast grabbed at it.
"Eww," she said. "That's gross. You can't eat your own kin. No!"
Instead of the cub moving the meat to its mouth, though, it held it out toward her. She took the sliver, mainly to keep the beast from changing its mind.
It stared at her with a pitiful and pleading expression.
"You can't be serious," she said.
It continued to stare with its wide eyes.
"You want me to eat this?"
She had no idea if it understood any of what she said, but she was almost positive that it did, in fact, want her to eat the piece of raw meat.
Jin LiJuan almost laughed. It was poetic, really. The thing that had got her into so much trouble, that had destroyed her chance to be a powerful cultivator and avenge her parents, was eating spirit beast meat without permission. Now, a cub was asking her to eat a piece of its mother.
Life was too weird.
She sighed. Now that she was a cultivator, no matter how weak, a tiny sliver of meat, even from a powerful rank eight beast, shouldn't hurt her. Neither would it help her.
It was disgusting, though.
Why was she even considering it?
Because she had made an oath to Master to stop hating spirit beasts and cub was seeking common ground with her. She had fed it. It had tasted her blood. She had tasted its blood. It wanted to feed her.
There was a kind of logic to its actions. They formed a cycle, and cycles were of prime importance to cultivators. Some instinct told her she should complete this cycle.
She stared at the gross piece of raw wolf meat in her hand. Since she'd become a cultivator, her body should be resistant to pests that caused food poisoning, and even if she caught something, a pill would cure it.
Jin LiJuan didn't think that Master would mind her actions even if it required her taking a pill. After all, she was trying to fulfill her promise to him.
"Fine," she said. "I can't believe I'm doing this but fine."
She popped the meat into her mouth and swallowed without chewing. It was all she could do to get it down her throat without throwing up.
As soon as she did, though, something happened. Her stomach started burning. She dropped to her knees as sweat poured down her face.
The cub likewise whimpered and whined, clearly in distress.
It was her core. Something was changing her core. And she wasn't experienced enough to know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Footsteps approached.
"Jin LiJuan?" Senior Brother said. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Th-the beast." She pointed.
He glanced at the cub. "It's okay. I'll kill it."
As soon as he said those words, an intense dread settled over her. She suddenly grew very positive that him killing the beast would end her chances of ever cultivating again and might end her life.
"No!" she screamed. "Don't, Senior Brother!"
"What? Why not?"
She paused, gathering her thoughts as the events of the past few minutes repeated in her mind. Her instincts told her what happened. The cycle was even more significant than she had thought. Whether it was to the good or ill, though, she couldn't say.
"The cub and I are bonded," she said calmly. "If you kill it, you might as well kill me, too."
Chapter 167 - The Care and Feeding of Beasts
Benton had a busy couple of days after the council meeting. For one thing, he had to make sure that the important tasks were moving in the right direction. Like the wood harvesting and wall creation.
Honestly, though, the villagers, now sect members, in charge of those operations were pure pros. There was nothing he could do to enhance the process because they knew a lot more about it than he ever would. After ensuring that production was happening and proceeding at the same rate as before the tide, he left them alone.
Likewise, he felt no need to oversee the workings of the Martial Pavilion. The twins, Ye Zan, and Kang Lin had lessons and spars and even mini tournaments arranged. The members of that pavilion were practicing the most, of course, but somehow the four of them had arranged for all the other sect members to spend a minimum of one hour three days a week on improving their weapon techniques.
That level of organization exceeded Benton's expectations, so he left them alone as well.
He did have to spend a number of hours with Peng Zhen, the leader of the Contribution Points Store, but those meetings were about discussing what kinds of techniques that Benton could offer and how many contribution points to charge and award for various items and services.
Pan Xiaolian had the Healing Pavilion well in hand since all their members were still in the Qi Gathering realm. Without fancy medical equipment or the ability to externally manipulate qi, all they really could do was diagnose any issues and feed the patient the appropriate healing pill. Since there was only the minor and major varieties available, the task was relatively trivial.
Still, all five of the doctors worked on improving their techniques, and Benton was sure that their diligence would pay off once they reached Foundation Establishment.
The Alchemy Pavilion was a bit trickier. Wan Ai, or more probably, Zou Tian, had found one of the newer members to oversee the Body Cultivation baths, and that process was proceeding along well enough. Without Wan Ai directly contributing to production, they'd reduced their peak capacity from a high of over forty down to the low twenties.
That was fine, though. The beast tide was over, so there was no longer a dire catastrophe hanging over their heads requiring sect members to rush through advancing. Twenty baths a day meant basically meant twenty Sect Points for Benton every three days, which was a fantastic return on investment. Combined with inducting fifty new members every month, he was swimming in points.
Wan Ai had turned her attention to pills, a move that Benton highly encouraged. The baths were important, but pills were crucial to the sect's growth. Obviously, she wouldn't be able to make any real cultivation pills until she reached Foundation Establishment, but every bit of practice and every lesson learned now would benefit her in the future.
He was so focused on investing in her ability that he almost bought Alchemy techniques for himself so he could teach her. At the last moment, however, he hesitated and instead sought Zou Tian's advice.
"Master, that is the worst idea I've ever heard from you."
Zou Tian went on to explain that Wan Ai was so introverted that it almost physically pained her to work closely with another person. Since Benton had given her a book and all the tools she needed to learn, she'd figure it out on her own. If Benton stood over her shoulder and tried to guide her, she'd be so nervous that she wouldn't be able to concentrate.
Buying Alchemy techniques still might be a good idea at some point, but seeing as how his current use for it was suboptimal, he decided to wait until he had a good reason to buy it.
Benton didn't even bother checking on the forge. If there was one true expert in the sect, it was the blacksmith, Xun Wu. The very idea of giving him ideas to improve how his pavilion ran was laughable.
It turned out, though, that there was one pavilion that A, was staffed by very inexperienced people, B, had a very large and very important job that needed to be accomplished, and C, involved an area of expertise that Benton had already Mastered—Formations.
Poor Xiang Da was a smart guy and was trying his best, but the mission he'd been saddled with was far beyond his abilities. At best, the five members of the pavilion could sketch out a profound grade rank one array and power it with a beast core. Which was a measure of success that was entirely appropriate for their level of expertise—minimal.
In contrast, Benton needed the existing arrays for each of the former Righteous Rain Sect buildings to be studied, repaired if necessary, and modified to run on spirit coins instead of hooking into the power feed from that sect's grand array. The members of his Formations Pavilion were months—realistically more like years—away from being able to perform that function.
Luckily, Benton, being a cheating cheater who cheats, was a Formations expert. Even for him, though, the job was not an easy one. From his techniques, he knew all the basic rank one, two, and three inscriptions, and he could modify existing ones to serve new purposes. If necessary, he could even create new formations. And sometimes those new and modified inscriptions bore little resemblance to the standard ones that he had learned.
Unfortunately, every other formation master had that same skill set, the ability to modify existing inscriptions and create new ones. Which made figuring out what an array did by studying it quite challenging.
A lot of the time, his intuition based on his enormous store of knowledge told him what was and was not dangerous, or he could piece together what a specific inscription's likely purpose was from the surrounding ones. Sometimes, though, his only option was to copy the inscription onto a separate plate and test it to see what happened.
After the first explosion, he moved to the forest far away from the village for those tests.
He spent a couple of days of doing nothing but examining formations and testing inscriptions, leaving him bored out of his skull. The really bad thing was that he was barely halfway through the first building on his list, the Alchemy Pavilion. At that rate, it would be months before he got his sect running the way he wanted it to.
Midway through examining a particularly complex formation, he got an unexpected popup.
""The Quest, Recruit Additional Disciple, has been completed. This Quest may be repeated. Host is awarded one Shop Point.
Host currently has 139 Shop Points.""
What the what? How the heck had he gained a disciple? He certainly hadn't recruited anyone recently, and there wasn't a single induction ceremony conducted or pot of tea drank.
"System," he said internally, "please identify new disciple and the disciple's origin if possible."
""Host's disciple, Jin LiJuan, has bonded an unnamed rank one spirit beast. The bonded beast of a disciple is automatically considered a disciple for the purposes of the Quest.""
Interesting. Of all the people in the sect, Jin LiJuan would place exactly last in the list of people most likely to bond a spirit beast. She despised the things.
He supposed he should go check on her and see exactly what happened. If nothing else, it would be a great distraction from studying formations. But that wasn't why he was going. That would be irresponsible.
No, the reason that he was going to find Jin LiJuan was that he needed to personally greet his sect's newest member.
Yeah. He'd go with that.
If he remembered correctly, she'd gone with Yang Ru to the site of the fight with the rank eights. Decision made, he almost Quickstepped right to them, but another thought occurred to him—he knew literally nothing about bonding beasts.
From Su's memory, there was a vague understanding that it was possible to do such a thing, and Benton had even thought about at some point adding a Beast Pavilion. As far as how to bond a beast or any information about how best for both the beast and the cultivator to advance, though, he was clueless.
"System, please create a technique to impart to me knowledge of beast bonding and purchase it to Mastery."
""Technique creation confirmed.
Host has learned technique, Knowledge of Beast Bonding - Mastery.
Host has 857 Sect Points available.""
As soon as the knowledge flooded his mind, he Quickstepped near the site of the battle, reoriented using his spirit sense, and Quickstepped again to land right in front of Jin LiJuan, who was quivering under the stare of Yang Ru.
###
Jin LiJuan considered herself brave, but there was no one in the sect as intimidating as Senior Brother. Master was more powerful, of course, but there was an underlying kindness to him that was apparent in everything he did. That trait and his general cheerfulness really undermined how scary he was.
Senior Brother, on the other hand, rarely said anything, letting his actions speak for him. And she had no idea how he would react to learning she'd bonded the wolf cub. If he decided to kill the beast despite her pleas, she was positive the end result for her would be terrible.
Before Senior Brother could speak or act, though, Master appeared. He seemed … amused.
That was good. Amused was much better than angry.
Still, Jin LiJuan was nervous. Considering how much trouble Master had gone through to heal her, she feared that any misstep on her part would cause him to kick her out of the sect. So she immediately kowtowed, burying her face in the dirt.
"Forgive this lowly one, Master. This lowly one was only trying to fulfill the oath."
"Rise, please," he said.
She tentatively lifted her head and stared at him.
Master seemed to be trying hard to contain laughter. "What oath exactly? And how, exactly, did fulfilling it lead to you bonding this cub?"
There was nothing for it but to explain everything that happened. How she'd nearly strangled the beast until she remembered her promise to him and how that vow left her with no choice but to save the beast's life. About the cycle and how it felt important to her to complete it and what happened when she did.
"Well, Li'er, I have to say that you are definitely not boring," Master said. "The wolf cub, which needs a name by the way, is now officially a member of this sect. I'll spread the word that anyone harming it will be considered to have harmed a sect member and will be severely punished."
"Yes, Master. Gratitude, Master."
"Feed the cub exactly one rank one core every day," he continued. "After a week to ten days, it should reach the peak of rank one. Once that happens, feed it a rank two. That should be enough for it to advance. Either way, bring it to me at that point for me to check its cultivation. Don't worry about paying for the cores. We'll work something out for the future, but I'll foot the bill to get it started on the right path. Oh, and save its mother's core for him. Obviously don't feed it to him until he's ready, but the core should belong to him."
And with that, Master Quickstepped away.
Jin LiJuan looked up at Senior Brother hopefully.
He sighed. "You heard Master. I expect you to continue to do your duty while keeping that beast out of trouble. Understand?"
"Yes, Senior Brother. Gratitude, Senior Brother."