Chapter 191
As soon as Benton returned to the sect grounds, he decided to send a message to Yang Xiu. First, though, he dithered a bit about using a message instead of just Quickstepping to her. Two thoughts convinced him that sending an origami construct was the correct call.
One, his time was valuable. In the ten or fifteen minutes it would take him to find her, exchange pleasantries, give her his instructions, and return to the sect grounds, he could complete diagnosing another array or two. Sure, the savings seemed trivial, but small expenditures added up.
Two, his disciples needed experience receiving messages. If something more urgent were happening, it would be bad if time were wasted by his sect members not understanding what the paper dragon was. The more his people saw them in use, the better.
Decision made, he composed the note.
Yang Xiu,
When your brother and his party return, please bring him, Jin LiJuan, and Zou Tian to me at the sect grounds. As the core of my sect leadership, it's important that you all understand what happened to Li'er and what my plan for her is going forward.
Gratitude,
Master
PS. If Kang Lin wants to join us, I have no objection. It's sect business, of course, but nothing about it is top secret. Purely her call.
There. The note had only taken a few seconds and sending the message consumed a trivial amount of qi. Much more efficient than tracking someone down.
Benton was sure that he would come to be very glad he'd created that technique. It was the next best thing to email. No more rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off when he needed something from someone. Instead, just pause a second to compose a message, fire it off, and wait for the person to come to him.
Awesome. That system was much more like how he'd operated on Earth. There was value in occasionally showing up unannounced in a subordinate's office, of course, but it was much more efficient to have them come to him.
With that task accomplished, it was time to get to work. The residences had comparatively simple arrays—a small shield, temperature control, alarm wards, and a cabinet designed to keep food in stasis. Even better for his purposes, each house and apartment pretty much utilized those exact four formations and only those four formations. Furthermore, whoever had crafted them had seemingly followed a template. There was little variation.
Unfortunately, they were all constructed to hook into a sect-wide array to feed them qi. The Rising Tide Sect didn't have a sect-wide array, and that wasn't something he wanted to attempt to create on the fly. That project was one that would require quite a bit of planning.
Yeah. Lots of forethought and planning. Wouldn't want to mess that up, especially as he'd need to also create a sect-wide defensive array that was much more complex and versatile than the one he'd used at the village.
He'd leave that for another day.
That decision left him with two options to deal with the immediate problem. One, create an individual qi source to hook into each domicile. That meant that, for each house, each single dwelling, and each apartment, he'd have to create a device that accepted spirit coins, converted those coins into qi, and fed it to the formations for that living area.
Doing one was simple, the work of ten minutes. Fifteen if he got fancy. The problem was that he had no trick for replicating his work. Maybe if he spent enough time, he could figure out some kind of automated factory formation, but creating such a complicated array would take as much time as making the power sources.
The second option was more palatable. Create a formation that networked all the residences together and feed it from a single power station. Much easier. Much faster. The only issue was that, instead of the individual or family being responsible for supplying their own power, the source was centralized, meaning he'd probably end up creating all the coins for that purpose.
Which wasn't a terrible thing. Making coins was a relatively trivial task for him, and he could delegate the task of resupplying the source with coins. In fact, that was a good idea. He'd have Peng Zhen create a job to check the power station daily or weekly or whatever and add coins as necessary. Since no special skill or knowledge was required to perform the task, any random sect member could take the assignment to earn some contribution points. The sect needed jobs like that.
The second option it was. Benton got started mentally designing the formation. Which didn't actually take all that long. The entire purpose of the array was to transmit qi from one point to another in the amount demanded by the receiving end. Formations didn't get much simpler.
More of an issue was the medium to hold the formation. He couldn't exactly etch it into the dirt. He basically needed a long thin strip of something that he could bury in the same trench he used for the water pipes. Something durable.
Benton had plenty of treated bamboo left over, so why not? After doing the appropriate engraving, he set up the coin station in the pump house, dug a small trench above the water pipe, and was in the process of laying the conduits when his disciples arrived.
"Greetings, Master," Yang Xiu said.
The others—Yang Ru, Zou Tian, Kang Lin, and Jin LiJuan, who was holding the wolf cub—repeated her greeting.
"Thank you for coming," Benton said. "Let's adjourn to my office for this conversation."
He didn't have a real reason for holding the meeting in his office other than simply wanting to establish the habit of using the correct facilities according to their functions. So he led them to the top floor of the administrative building.
Unfortunately, he hadn't touched the arrays in that building yet, so there was no heat or light. It didn't have any furniture, either, so they all had to stand.
Maybe it would have been best to hold the meeting elsewhere. Oh well.
"Yang Xiu, Kang Lin, Zou Tian, as you can see, Jin LiJuan has bonded a wolf cub," Benton said. "This situation will have a big impact on her cultivation journey and, to an extent, on our sect. I wanted all of you to be aware of what's going on with her, so you understand my wishes on the subject."
"Yes, Master," they all chorused.
"First of all," Benton said, "Jin LiJuan, please give me your hand."
He scanned her cultivation.
"Hmm. Qi Gathering minor realm four, and your channels have definitely improved." Benton laughed.
"What's funny, Master?" Li'er said.
"The entire situation. You all remember how I keep saying that this is a cultivation world and that we should expect that anything can happen?"
"Yes, Master," they chorused.
"Well," Benton said, "this is one of those anythings. It is extremely unusual for a cultivator to bond a spirit beast. It is even more unusual for the cultivator to do so accidentally. It is highly improbable for a cultivator to do so accidentally and to achieve such a compatible bond that she gains one hundred percent of the benefits of the beast's cultivation. It is a sign that the heavens are laughing at us that the cultivator who happened to achieve this highly improbable feat is someone who loathes spirit beasts with every fiber of her being and is now tied to one so tightly that her future cultivation journey is inexorably linked to it."
Li'er looked like she was about to cry.
"I'm sorry, little one," Benton said. "I know this feels like the worst thing that could possibly happen to you, but there are advantages. To be honest, I really didn't think that you'd ever even make Foundation Establishment, no matter how many resources I poured into you. Your channels were that messed up. Even the enhancement of your spiritual roots didn't help you much.
"Now, with your bond, I expect you to advance to that realm in less than a month. Finding enough materials to get you to Nascent Soul might be a challenge, but there is no reason for you not to reach Golden Core before any of your fellow disciples."
All of his disciples looked surprised.
No, shocked. They all looked shocked, and none more so than Jin LiJuan.
"The downside of that quick advancement is that, like I said, you are completely tied to the beast," Benton said. "You should still cultivate at least a cycle or two daily to keep your channels clear and open. Trust me, you do not want those to atrophy, and gaining cultivation realms without cultivating at all will do very, very bad things to you, understand?"
Jin LiJuan nodded vigorously.
"Right now, the cub isn't fighting the bond because it is a baby," Benton said. "It's depending on you for food and warmth and growth. The bigger and stronger it gets, though, the less it's going to need you. If I didn't already know that you don't particularly care for the beast, I could tell just from the way you're holding it. If you persist in not caring, the cub will pick up on that, and the bond will decay. When it does, your cultivation will revert back to the way it was a few days ago. Same thing if the cub dies, only worse."
The girl looked like she had swallowed a fly. "I'd lose everything, Master?"
"Everything."
"What do I do, Master?" Jin LiJuan said.
"Make yourself care about it somehow. Treat that beast like your life depends on it loving you because, in a very real way, your life does depend on that beast loving you."
"Yes, Master."
"In the meantime, keep feeding it rank one cores."
Zou Tian looked puzzled.
"Yes," Benton said, answering the unasked question. "Feeding the cub rank two cores would make it reach rank three faster than feeding it rank ones, and it will still need a rank two to finally advance. I don't want it to go faster, though. The more time Jin LiJuan has before it ranks up, the better. In fact, it might be best to only feed it a core every other day or every third day. It is far more important for her to strengthen the bond than to strengthen the beast."
Everyone looked like they understood, so Benton moved on to the next topic.
"Jin LiJuan, since you have reached the fourth minor realm, you can pick a weapon technique. Do you want to learn the spear, bow, or dagger?"
"What do you suggest, Master?"
Benton thought about it for a moment. "If you were a beast tamer, I'd say go with the bow as it would be the best choice from supporting your attackers, but you're not. You will, presumably, be fighting alongside your bonded wolf, though. A bow isn't a bad choice. Neither is a spear. Or if you want to go the stealth route, the dagger is fine. Really, it's your choice."
"I'm not a beast tamer, Master?"
"No. In addition to the fact that you'd make a horrible beast tamer considering your clear dislike for them, you've bonded a beast, which precludes you from taming additional ones. Normal beast tamers use a technique to bind a beast to them. They manipulate their qi to produce a sort of pseudo bond that allows them control of the creature.
"Those pseudo bonds aren't like yours. They're not as strong for one, and they don't go both ways for another. The downside is that tamers don't get cultivation boosts from their beasts, but the upside is that the number that can be controlled is limited only by the tamer's ability and time."
"I've heard of beast tamers, Master, but I've never met one," Kang Lin said.
"There aren't a lot of them around since high quality techniques are difficult to find, but beast tamers can really punch above their weight if they can get higher ranked beasts to fight for them," Benton said.
The girl smirked. "I bet Master has such a technique."
Benton grinned. "Mayhap I do."
None of them looked at all surprised by his announcement. It was as he feared. He was completely losing his mystique. The impossible had become the expected.
Benton cleared his throat. "Eventually, I'd like to add a beast pavilion, but there's no reason to create it until we have interested sect members who have reached at least Foundation Establishment." He turned to Jin LiJuan. "That being said, I would prefer that you join the beast pavilion unless you really feel strongly about a different route. For now, you'll mainly be practicing weapons, anyway, and should participate in the Martial Pavilion as if you were a member."
"Yes, Master."
"Speaking of which," Benton said, "have you decided which weapon technique you want?"
"Uh…"
Chapter 192
Jin LiJuan clung to the wolf pup in her arms like she was drowning and it was a lifeline. Which, in a way, it was. All her dreams of being a powerful cultivator were in her reach as long as she kept her bond with the beast.
Golden Core. She had no real idea what that meant, but the way Master said it made it sound powerful. And he expected her to reach that level before any of the other sect members.
She looked around her. Senior Brother was staring at her, as was Senior Sister. They were the two strongest cultivators in the sect, save for Master of course. And Sister Kang Lin, a fellow disciple though she was from a different sect. All three were in the Foundation Establishment realm and could do things that seemed absolutely extraordinary to Jin LiJuan, running almost faster than she could follow with her eyes, jumping over walls, hitting each other with blows that would have torn her body to pieces and laughing about it.
Even Zou Tian, who was only at a late stage of Qi Gathering, was amazing. He could practically turn invisible if a shadow was nearby.
She was so much weaker than any of them. According to Master, though, she'd soon be stronger than them, stronger than all of them.
Jin LiJuan could hardly believe it.
But her future wasn't assured yet. There was a very major condition involved. The bond she'd formed accidentally with the wolf pup had to become a bond in truth.
She honestly didn't know if she could partner with a beast. Sure, she'd managed to keep from killing it, but it was just a baby. Even for her, it was difficult to kill a baby. After the initial temptation had passed, anyway.
Even if beasts hadn't killed her family, she didn't think she would have been a person that particularly liked animals. Growing up poor hadn't left much room in her heart for anything but the essentials.
She and her parents had worked hard. If they were lucky, they were able to eat enough to avoid hunger pains most of the time. There had been nothing left over for anything that served no purpose such as toys or … pets.
There had been animals around the farm, of course, but Father had made it clear that they were tools, a source of food, not pets. Never a pet.
Then, she'd gone to the orphanage. Mistress Zhong had barely been able to feed herself and the children. There certainly had been no resources left over for pets.
Some of the other children whined about having left behind a dog or a cat, but Jin LiJuan had never understood the point of such creatures. She'd envied those kids but only because their parents had been wealthy enough to waste money on feeding such useless animals.
The wolf pup, though… It had a purpose. An important one. It could give her strength. It could make it so that no one could ever take anything away from her ever again.
For such a worthy goal, it might be worth trying to keep the bond with the creature.
If only she knew how.
"Speaking of which," Master said, continuing his conversation, "have you decided which weapon technique you want?"
All the stuff that Master had just told her about the importance of the bond was more than a little overwhelming. She didn't know what to think or what to feel. Wrapping her mind around the crucialness of the bond with the wolf pup was hard enough. Deciding on what weapon she'd be using for the rest of her life on top of that made her mind feel flooded. It was too much.
She couldn't admit that to Master, though.
"Uh," she said, trying to stall for time.
Okay. There were three choices. She could choose one of the three. The decision couldn't be that hard.
Did she want to use a spear like Senior Brother, a bow like Senior Sister, or daggers like Zou Tian?
What she really wanted was a sword. When she pictured being a cultivator in her head, she was holding a sword, the proper weapon for killing beasts and enemies. But that wasn't one of the options.
A spear gave her reach. Which was good because she was on the small side. A bow … didn't speak to her at all. She wanted to be close to her enemy, to feel a blade sink into their bodies. Daggers would work for getting her close, but Master had implied that she should only pick that option if she wanted to pursue stealth. Which she didn't. For her enemies to fear her, they needed to see her coming.
"I guess the spear, Master," she said finally.
###
Benton frowned when Jin LiJuan finally announced her decision, but it wasn't because of her choice. Any of the three options were fine with him. It was how resigned she sounded, like his youngest choosing between asparagus or Brussels sprouts with dinner.
"You don't sound entirely enthused about the spear, Li'er," Benton said.
"The spear is a fine weapon, Master. Its length will help make up for my small size."
"But?"
She hunched her shoulders. "It's silly, Master, but I always pictured myself using a sword."
Benton almost reflexively refused the request, but he hesitated a moment as he considered. There were two really good reasons to limit his sect members to three weapons. One, the older, more experienced sect members could help the younger ones learn their techniques. By Jin LiJuan taking up the spear, there were countless sect members who could help her out by sparring with her and correcting her technique. The only person in the area who had any experience with a sword besides him in his memories of being Su was Pan Jiang, who would surely be happy enough to help teach the girl but who would be returning to his own sect at some point.
Two, Benton had techniques already created for all three weapons, meaning anyone who learned them represented pure profit for him. Given how many points he was bringing in, he wasn't nearly as pressed for them as he had been, but spending frivolously was still a bad idea.
The first reason was still extremely valid. If Jin LiJuan learned the sword, she'd mostly be on her own. The second reason, however, was actually invalid, though, for her only.
Whether her not having a qi aspect would turn out to be mainly an advantage or a disadvantage to her in the long run remained to be seen, but for the moment, one upside was that she could use any technique he'd created, even if it was specifically attuned to another cultivator's aspect. Obviously, she'd get no benefit from the attunement, but there would be no detriment, either. It would be essentially the same as giving her a technique that was specced for any qi aspect.
Supplying her with the Strong Oak Sword technique he'd created for Pan Jiang would cost no Sect Points. It would, in fact, provide Benton with a way to recoup some of what he'd expended. He'd even picked up a few stray swords along the way from slain enemies. One of those would work fine as a starter weapon for the girl.
Why not?
Cultivating was the act of walking one's own path in defiance of the heavens. Just because choosing a weapon that no one else in the sect used didn't seem like the wisest course to him didn't mean that it wasn't the best choice for her. Maybe she had fate with the weapon.
Benton shook his head. Fate with the weapon? Where the heck had that thought come from? He'd literally just unironically considered that the girl might have fate with a weapon as a serious justification for giving it to her. He hadn't even been living on a cultivation planet for an entire year yet, and he was spouting such nonsense in his head like it made sense.
Alrighty, then.
"If you want to use a sword, you can," Benton said. "Know that the path will be more difficult for you because you won't have as easy access to trainers as you would with any of the other weapons, but I'll give you the same technique that Pan Jiang uses. I bet he can give you some pointers."
"He definitely can, Master," Kang Lin said.
Jin LiJuan cupped her hands. "I'd really like that, Master."
Benton produced the appropriate jade slip and pulled it and a sword from his spatial ring. "Good luck to you, Li'er."
A genuine smile lit up her face when he handed the items to her. "Gratitude, Master!"
"I'll let Peng Zhen know that you're authorized to draw beast cores from the Contribution Store for a while. Eventually, we'll have to talk about you earning Contribution Points to pay for them, but the sect will handle the expenses at least until you hit Foundation Establishment, okay?"
With the addition of Fatty Ren, the sect had three members in that realm, though hopefully the Town Lord would be ascending soon. It was worth a few beast cores to speed another member along, considering the circumstances. Benton would have to think long and hard about how to handle Jin LiJuan moving further than that, though.
On one hand, it would be great to have two Golden Core cultivators for what was coming. On the other, she was a child. Reaching such a high realm carried responsibilities, especially during a sect war. He was not willing to use her for such purposes.
The wolf pup, though… A rank seven or higher beast fighting for the Rising Tide Sect might be able to protect sect members when Benton was otherwise occupied.
There was much to be considered.
She cupped her hands. "Gratitude again, Master."
It was time to dismiss the four disciples and get back to work on the arrays, but there was one thing he had to do first. The thing he didn't want to do.
"We need to have a memorial for Ye Zan," Benton said.
The older disciples all looked at one another.
Ah. They'd noticed that he'd been avoiding the subject and were concerned. Benton hated that he'd made them worry.
"We do, Master," Yang Xiu finally said.
"I want the whole sect there and anyone from the village who wants to come."
"Should we hold it in the arena, Master?" Zou Tian said.
"No. The amphitheater. And…" Benton hesitated. He wanted to announce some decisions about the sect at the same time but wasn't sure it was appropriate for a funeral.
"Yes, Master?" Yang Xiu said.
Benton explained his problem.
"I think Ye Zan would have been fine with conducting sect business at his service, Master," Yang Xiu said. "He was very dedicated. Anything he could do to make us more successful, he would have. He would be happy to know that he was assisting even in death."
Benton didn't know if Yang Xiu was right or not, but her words made him feel a lot better. "Fine." It was already getting late in the day, and he had a lot of work left to do to get the buildings move-in ready. "Lets set it for the day after tomorrow in the mid-morning. I'll supply food afterward. We'll have a celebration of Ye Zan's life after mourning his passing." All those street meals from Sixth Flawless Flowing City would be perfect for the occasion.
"Yes, Master," Yang Xiu said. "We'll make sure that everyone knows."
"Gratitude, disciples." Benton cupped his hands.
After a few seconds of silence, Yang Xiu spoke again. "Should we find someone to attempt a trial today, Master?"
"No. That slot is spoken for. He should be arriving soon."
The older disciples all looked at one another, not sure who Benton was talking about.
"I'll introduce your new sect brother to you after the trial. I'll also take over scheduling people for the Trials Pagoda." Or rather, he'd use one of the administrators assigned to him for the purpose. "I like the order you established, going by cultivation level. Tell Wan Ai that she will be taking her trial tomorrow. Make sure she understands that it is not a request."
From the look on Zou Tian's face, Benton had been right in thinking that the quiet girl had demurred in taking a turn. He'd make sure Xun Wu took one as well.
"It's smart to make good use of the resource by having someone use it daily," Benton said. "Good job making that happen while I was away. I also like having an easily definable order implemented. We'll keep that in place for the time being but understand that we'll break that sequence when anyone with a legitimate need makes a request."
"Yes, Master," they chorused.
"Good," Benton said. "Go back to whatever you were doing. I've got a lot to accomplish still."
Chapter 193
After dismissing his disciples, Benton spent the next hour hooking up the residences to the main power supply, and once done, he was pretty happy with his accomplishment getting so many places move-in ready. The area could house over three hundred people at full capacity, and he'd randomly tested many formations to make sure they operated as expected.
They all worked. Climate control, defensive shield, alarm, food preservation, and both water and sanitary all functioned correctly in every place he'd tried. If someone did happen to move into a place and there was a malfunction, he'd just have to fix it when notified as performing one hundred percent quality control just wasn't efficient.
He mentally checked housing off his To Do List for sect move-in. Perfect.
His next task was a bit more tedious, but it was also more important. In addition to standard arrays for climate control and shields and the like, all the big structures he was using for his pavilions had complex custom formations for various functions. For example, the alchemy building had heating arrays for cauldrons and heat and smoke removal arrays for when experiments went awry. The martial building had all kinds of cool features for protecting people who were sparring and various illusionary opponents to practice against.
Benton had started the process of going through all of those arrays to make sure they worked and removing anything he thought might present a danger to his sect members. Which was more arrays than he thought he would encounter when he'd started. But upon reflection, the dangerous ones made sense. What might be deadly for the Qi Gathering cultivators who made up the majority of his sect was trivial for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to use.
He doubted that anyone below that realm had been allowed in some of the rooms without an escort when the building was in use by the Righteous Rain Sect. The Rising Tide Sect, in contrast, had no spare Foundation Establishment cultivators to employ for that purpose, so it was up to him to make everything safe enough for children … uh, young adult Qi Gathering cultivators.
The exploration wasn't difficult, but it was tedious. Each building had so many rooms, and when walking into one, he never knew if he would encounter only the standard arrays and be able to leave in minutes or if he'd have to spend hours tracing formations rune by rune.
It was a relief, then, when he sensed a very fast-moving Foundation Establishment cultivator heading toward the village.
In the past, the fact that no other cultivator could sense Benton's location was occasionally an annoyance. Instead of them heading directly to him at the sect grounds, a visitor would go where they sensed the largest concentration of cultivators, and Benton would have to Quickstep to them.
That bother was relegated to the past with the creation of his message technique. A moment of his time and a few qi later, and a paper dragon was on its way to Fatty Ren.
Benton watched through his spiritual sense, amused, as the big man halted for a moment and then changed course toward the sect grounds. A few minutes and a short Quickstep later, the two met.
"Fatty Ren, when you said you could move fast, I had no idea how truthful you were being. You know, Kang Lin uses lightning qi, and you would leave her in the dust. Well done!"
"It's nothing, Friend Su. I have a year or two or twenty worth of experience on the young lady. I'm sure when she's had more time to work on her movement technique, she will, as you put it, leave me in the dust."
"True enough, but I'm still impressed," Benton said. "I'll be even more impressed when you reach Golden Core, and I see you flying back to Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town on a sword."
"I hope that this lowly one can live up to your expectations, Friend Su. I must confess that I find the prospect of finally advancing to be quite exciting, but at the same time, I fear that I will fail the trial."
Benton shrugged. "Then either you'll wait and try again, or we'll find another way past your bottleneck. Never fear, friend, I fully intent for you to leave here as the Rising Tide Sect's first Golden Core member." Well, second if Benton counted himself, which he didn't. Besides, no one needed to know his actual realm.
As soon as the words left his mouth, a notification popped up.
"Host has new Quests available."
Benton was pretty darn sure that he knew exactly what the content of those quests were, so he could wait until after his conversation with Fatty Ren to check them out.
"I appreciate your confidence, Friend Su. It has been quite some time since I last held the amount of hope that I do right now. I'm afraid, however, that, even were I to reach Golden Core, you won't see me flying anytime soon since I can't afford a flying sword."
Benton laughed. "You can have one of mine." He extracted more than a dozen from his spatial ring and let them fall all over the ground. "I've managed to pick up far more than I can ever use. Every Golden Core cultivator who tries to kill me ends up contributing another one to my collection."
Fatty Ren's eyes went wide. Whether his surprise was at being offered such an expensive treasure or at the casual mention of killing so many high realmed cultivators, Benton didn't know. It just made him happy to have people around that weren't so used to him performing impossibilities that they could still be shocked.
He stored the swords back in his ring. "Choosing one of those is a reward for advancing, though, so you don't get to select it yet."
The big man cupped his hands. "I understand, Friend Su, and I agree. I want to earn my place."
"Well, my sect is a little underpowered at the moment, so you'll be earning just about anything you want at that point. Believe me, adding a Golden Core cultivator to our ranks will make me really happy."
"Glad to be of service, Friend Su!"
Benton scanned with his spiritual senses and, as he suspected, detected four people standing just out of earshot.
"Great," Benton said. "Let's introduce you to several of my disciples, and then we can get you to the Trials Pagoda."
Fatty Ren, having obviously sensed the four approaching as well, nodded.
Benton used his technique to amplify his voice slightly. "Come on, you four."
It didn't take them long to sheepishly reach where Benton and Fatty Ren were talking.
"Greetings, Town Lord Ren," Kang Lin said.
The others looked at her, and she shrugged.
"Apologies, Master," Yang Xiu said. "I sensed a cultivator approaching and wanted to make sure everything was okay."
Yeah. Benton was positive that ensuring his safety was foremost on her mind rather than simple curiosity, especially since it hadn't been that long ago when he'd informed all of them that a new sect brother would be arriving soon. It was hard to fault them for being inquisitive, though. The trait, when tempered with caution, was a good one for cultivators to have.
"Fatty Ren, you know my disciple, Kang Lin, of the Poison Claw Sect, of course."
"I do. Greetings, Kang Lin."
"These other three are your sect sister, Yang Xiu, and your sect brothers, Yang Ru and Zou Tian," Benton said.
"Greetings, sect sister and sect brothers. I hope for our relationship to be both cordial and fruitful."
The three cupped their hands. "Greetings, Senior Brother."
"Your senior brother, in addition to being the Lord of Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town, is also the leader of the Rising Tide Sect branch in that town." Benton cheered inwardly as he saw the faces of his four disciples. He did still have the ability to surprise them after all.
"Hey," Benton continued, "since all of you are here, do me a favor. Take your senior brother to the Contribution Points Shop and introduce him to Peng Zhen. Let him know that, as a branch sect leader, anything that Fatty Ren wants should be put on a separate tab that I will reconcile later, including access to the Trials Pagoda. Understood?"
"Yes, Master," the four chorused.
It was good having help. Much easier to have them show Fatty Ren where to go, leaving Benton to get back to work.
"Fatty Ren?" Benton said.
"Yes, Friend Su?"
"Come and see me as soon as your trial is over, regardless of the outcome. We have matters to discuss."
"Of course, Friend Su."
With that, the five left, and as soon as they were out of sight, Benton pulled up the Quest menu to view his four new quests.
Recruit First Golden Core Disciple Quest
Prerequisites:
None
Reward:
25 Shop Points
Recruit Additional Golden Core Disciple Quest
Prerequisites:
Recruit First Golden Core Disciple Quest
completed
Reward:
5 Shop Points
Special:
Repeatable
Advance First Golden Core Disciple Quest
Prerequisites:
None
Reward:
10 Shop Points
Advance Additional Foundation Establishment Disciple Quest
Prerequisites:
Advance First Golden Core Disciple Quest completed
Reward:
2 Shop Points
Special:
Repeatable
There was something very soothing about having the System, the mysterious entity that controlled his entire destiny, doing exactly what he expected it to do. From the quantity of new quests to the content to the rewards, the information displayed matched his expectations.
Maybe it was a little bit boring for the System to be so predictable, but sometimes, boring was good.
What was the old curse? May you live in interesting times?
Yep. When his life and the lives of those he cared about were on the line, interesting wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Give him boring any day of the week.
With his curiosity about the new quests satisfied, he returned to his work examining arrays. It was going to be a long night.
Well, maybe not too long. He'd gone without sleep for a while by that point. Grabbing a couple of hours would be a good idea to keep him sharp. Hopefully soon he'd reach Nascent Soul and would be able to totally avoid the necessity of rest.
As for his current project, he just hoped he could finish it by the end of the next day. He dearly, dearly wished to be able to announce the opening of the sect grounds for use at Ye Zan's memorial service the day after that.
Benton rubbed his hands together. His sect was really coming together nicely. Moving onto the sect grounds was the next major step.
He couldn't wait!