Benton kept a watchful eye on his disciples, worried both about them getting injured in a fight and about them growing fatigued from how hard he was pushing them.
A week passed, and the siblings were making progress in many ways. First, distance wise, as they were covering a lot of ground. Each day the siblings got better at targeting their leg and foot muscles with smaller and smaller bursts of qi, allowing them to travel faster and farther. Second, cultivation wise, as they fastidiously cultivated for five hours every day. They'd been traveling for a little over two weeks since reaching the fourth minor realm, and between the twins' talent and the extra qi from the pill, Yang Xiu and Yang Ru were each more than halfway to the next breakthrough. And finally, third, combat wise, as they now each could solo a rank two spirit beast. Benton still stayed close by in case anything went wrong, but he hadn't had to act in days.
Further proof of their advancement came in the evening of the seventeenth day since they'd first broken camp. Yang Ru achieved Large Success with the spear technique. Yang Xiu was again green with envy, and his accomplishment spurred her to work even harder. He was nothing but supportive, in his taciturn way, until she broke through the next day. After that, it was all subtle jibes and glances proclaiming that he was the superior martial artist.
That night, Benton sat them down after dinner. "Great job, you two. I seriously mean it when I say you both should be proud of yourselves. The average sect member of even a larger sect would have taken three or four times longer to reach Large Success with a technique."
Of course, the average sect member didn't fight life or death battles multiple times a day. The siblings' talent surely helped, but all the fighting followed by meditating turbocharged their advancement.
"Now that both of you have achieved Large Success," Benton said, "I have a task for you."
Yang Ru grunted.
If Benton's interpretation was correct—and he was getting better at understanding grunt—that one meant something like, "Senior Brother means now that you have finally achieved Large Success, lil sis."
Yang Xiu shot her brother a glare.
"That task is to reach Small Success with your sibling's weapon," Benton said.
The two looked at each other. Yang Xiu actually moved her bow, so it rested farther away from her brother.
Benton had a reason for the request other than just the two relatively cheap Sect Points he'd earn, so he stood firm. "This is important. Each member of my sect must have the ability to strike opponents up close and at range, and right now, we only have access to the two weapons. I rarely put my foot down, but this time, I insist.
"Yang Xiu, what happens if you're alone and get surprised by an ambush with your opponent starting out right in your face? The bow requires space. You need a secondary weapon, and the spear should actually suit you well.
"Yang Ru, what happens if we're defending a walled position? An army is massed outside, and everyone else is contributing. You, however, will be about as useful as a knot on a log."
Benton grimaced. "Learning archery is probably not going to be easy for you as it goes against your nature. I expect you to persevere. Yang Xiu, realize that you might be in a similar situation at some point where I ask you to learn a technique that goes against your nature. If I ever hear you teasing him about how long he takes to learn it, I will not be pleased. Do both of you understand?"
"Yes, Senior Brother Chao," they chorused.
"Obviously, you will continue to use your primary weapons during fights and will only use the secondary weapons for practice at our campsite. Long term, how you proceed is up to you. Personally, I think reaching mastery with your primary weapon is the more important pursuit, but that will take a long time, much longer than reaching Small and Large Success combined."
Benton practically salivated at the thought of his two disciples' future. As siblings who obviously cared for and liked each other, they'd probably remain a team. Picturing them as Golden Core cultivators, one fire and one ice, one focused on the bow and the other a spear… They'd be deadly duo indeed.
"If you wish to take a break and try to get your secondary weapon to Large Success," Benton said, "it wouldn't be a wasted effort, especially for you, Yang Xiu.
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"Likewise, I do not require that you continue with that particular secondary weapon after reaching Small Success with it. Later, we may be able to find something that suits you better. Perhaps, Yang Xiu, a short sword may be preferable. It would be easier to carry along with the bow than a spear would. And Yang Ru, maybe something like javelins would suit your nature better for range. Once we reach a place where we can purchase proper weapons, we'll go shopping."
Yang Xiu's eyes lit up at that, but he wasn't sure her excitement was in regard to buying new weapons.
Ten days later, both had achieved the required Small Success. As expected, she had accomplished it in less than half the time it took her brother. But it was that tenth day when she achieved her biggest accomplishment yet. She broke through to the fifth minor realm, and for the next three days, she was super supportive to her brother, who had yet to achieve the same milestone. The day after that, he joined the same less than lofty heights as the rest of the group, and she began her teasing.
Benton checked their statuses.
Name:
Yang Xiu
Affiliation:
Host's Disciple
Age:
15
Cultivation:
Qi Gathering - Minor Realm Five
Qi Available:
71
Techniques:
Foundational Archery Essentials - Large Success
Foundational Spear Essentials - Small Success
Spiritual Roots:
A
Qi Aspect:
Perfectly smooth ice balanced on the razor edge of freezing and thawing
Name:
Yang Ru
Affiliation:
Host's Disciple
Age:
15
Cultivation:
Qi Gathering - Minor Realm Five
Qi Available:
71
Techniques:
Foundational Spear Essentials - Large Success
Foundational Archery Essentials - Small Success
Spiritual Roots:
A-
Qi Aspect:
Low viscosity lava flowing down Mount Burning Thunder
Their advancements had netted him another six Sect Points, bringing his total to sixty-five. That wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly enough. Once the siblings reached Foundation Establishment, he would start bleeding points. Their cultivation methods would run twenty points each, and ideally, he'd provide each of them with three techniques—weapon, defense, and movement—and since they'd be able to manipulate external qi by that point, each would have to be specially attuned to their respective qi. At six points per combined with the cultivation methods, he was looking at a total cost of seventy-six points to supply just his two core disciples.
He desperately needed to find some outer sect members.
With that thought in mind, he was devastated the next day as he peered out over a cliff.
His face must have reflected his dismay because Yang Xiu said, "Senior Brother, what's wrong?"
"See that mountain in the distance on the other side of this valley below us?"
She nodded.
"Where we're going is on the other side of it."
"I don't understand, Senior Brother. We're on a mountain now. That one doesn't look much harder to climb."
"It's not the physical features that I'm worried about. My spiritual senses are ringing alarm bells. As soon as we start descending into that valley, we'll start encountering rank three spirit beasts. Working together, we might be able to handle ourselves through that region even with them having a higher cultivation than us. On the other side of the valley, rank four and five beasts roam. And the mountain itself is radiating qi. I can't be sure because the qi level is overwhelming my senses in that area, but I can almost guarantee there will be rank seven or higher beasts there. That's golden core level. None of us would survive. Heck, if you told me that there was a rank ten beast there, the equivalent to a nascent soul level cultivator, I'd believe you. It's hard to even imagine how much more powerful than us such a creature would be."
Her face showed that she understood the severity of the situation. "What do we do, Senior Brother?"
"The only thing we can do. We go around."
Facing tremendous pressure to recruit new members and found his sect, the last thing he wanted was to add months of travel.
If wishes were fishes…
Benton intently studied the walled village before him. Neither he nor Su had any experience determining population just from looking at one from the outside, but his best guess was something in the low thousands. It definitely wasn't a tiny flyspeck, but he wouldn't classify it as big enough to be a town, either.
He didn't want to draw any conclusions until he'd gathered more information, but the state of the surroundings was beginning to paint a picture. For one thing, there was the proximity to the qi-filled mountain, about a week's hike to reach the valley that circled it if he ran flat out. If Su's memories were in any way accurate, that resource stood out enough that it should have attracted the attention of a sect, yet rank one and two spirit beasts roamed with impunity. An active sect should have kept them culled.
The condition wasn't new, either. On the outskirts of the village, farms lay abandoned, many showing rotting decay from years of neglect. Others that exhibited less deterioration but more damage had walls around them, walls with gaping holes bearing signs of beast attacks.
To the west of the village, his senses picked up a source of qi or, possibly, a grouping of many sources close together that all emitted qi. Logically, it made sense for such settlements to spring up around the location of a resource, especially if there was a sect nearby that acted as the customer base for whatever the town produced.
Another thing that struck him as strange was the presence of cultivators inside the village, a half dozen of them. That number was way too few to constitute a sect but was relatively large to be wandering cultivators. And if they lived here, why weren't they doing anything about the high numbers of spirit beasts plaguing the area?
The tug from the System had guided him to the village, though, and every fiber of his being told him that it was the fulfillment of his Advantageous Starting Location perk.
It had taken more than two months skirting the mountain to get to the village, and they'd only been able to move that quickly because they'd stopped hunting, increasing their movement time to seven hours per day and only fighting spirit beasts when it either couldn't be avoided or would have resulted in too great a detour. Having chosen to concentrate on getting their primary weapon techniques to mastery, neither of the kids had advanced much on that front, but both were close to breaking through to the next cultivation realm.
He turned to his disciples. "I have high hopes for this place."
"It looks run down, Senior Brother," Yang Xiu said.
"Don't look at what it is. Look at what it can be," Benton said. "We need people for our sect and think about how life must be for those villagers. A rank one spirit beast can kill a mortal, and there are plenty of those and some rank twos nearby. I bet they're mostly afraid to leave the walls. For proof, look at all the abandoned farms. If we can cull the beasts, they'll surely be exceedingly grateful."
"What about that mountain, Senior Brother?" she said. "You told us it was dangerous. Is it safe to build our sect so close to it?"
Benton encouraged such questions. He wasn't so confident in his abilities to think he'd never make a mistake. It was good to have any potential flaws in his reasoning pointed out.
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"There is some danger, yes," he said. "As cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm, the beasts there are way too strong for us, and with the sheer quantity of the lower ranked ones we've been encountering, we can't discount the possibility of a beast tide forming. We won't always be Qi Gathering cultivators, though, and that place is the kind of potential treasure trove of resources that sects are founded to take advantage of. Once we form our golden cores, we'll be glad we have it nearby."
Before he started counting his unhatched chickens, Benton took a mental step back. When he'd had his Auspicious Encounter with his disciples, there had been a real chance of failure. If he had tarried, they might have died before he reached them. Or he might have flubbed his recruitment pitch and had them refuse. He'd been given an opportunity, not a guarantee.
"There is definitely reason for concern beyond just the dangers presented by the mountain," he said. "We need to find out if there are any competing sects nearby that could cause us issues, and there are cultivators in the town. I won't know their exact level until I see them, but they don't seem very strong. Still, we'll need to understand their purpose here and if they'll be an obstacle. We'll take things slow. Our goal at first is just to gather information."
Another thought struck him. His disciples didn't seem like the type to act like arrogant young masters, but it was best to make sure. "As future core disciples of my sect, I expect you to behave with dignity and decorum but don't let your status go to your head. If we do decide to found our sect here, we'll be working with these villagers for a long time. There are many ways they can either ease our path or cause us endless trouble. We need them to be on our side. Bow down to no one unless I tell you otherwise but treat everyone with respect. Understood?"
"Yes, Senior Brother Chao," they chorused.
He and his disciples stood in the shade of a tree several hundred feet from what looked like the village's main gate, and there'd been no sign of anyone having spotted them. Something else had detected their presence, though. A peak rank two spirit beast was headed toward them. It was time to make their presence known.
They stepped into the sunlight and onto a wide area that was much clearer than the forest. Weeds and saplings covered the approach to the village, but there was gravel underneath all the vegetation. It had probably once been a nice path that facilitated commerce.
"Get ready," he said and told his disciples about the approaching beast. "We're going to get nearer to the gate, so they can see us fight."
Revealing that they were cultivators right from the start felt like a risky move, but Benton thought his logic was sound. With the area so teeming with danger, no mortal was likely to make it to the village, so they'd assume they were cultivators regardless. Trying to hide it gained them nothing. Showing off what they could do, on the other hand, had the possibility of earning them respect from the outset. It should be a better introduction than just walking to the gate and demanding to be let inside.
Hopefully.
The three sprinted toward the gate, covering the distance in mere seconds, and halted about ten yards from the front. Their arrival finally drew attention from inside. A guy in a tower beside the gate called out something, but Benton's attention was focused on the beast that was emerging from the woods.
A tiger.
The creature was, in a word, pretty. Or maybe majestic would be a better descriptor. It had white fur with striking gold stripes. Benton almost didn't want to kill it.
Almost.
And it didn't appear that Yang Xiu or her brother had any such qualms. No sooner had it appeared than an arrow landed in its eye. An instant later, a spear tip penetrated its other eye. Either hit would have been fatal.
The kids had gotten quite adept at harvesting cores. Even though they hadn't gone out of their way to hunt spirit beasts over the last couple of months, avoiding them completely had been impossible. The disciples had still faced fights almost daily.
Benton stowed the tiger in his spatial ring and turned to the gate. If things went well, the village would figure prominently in his future. Given that he'd spent one of his precious points for the perk, he had to ensure things did go well.
Benton intently studied the walled village before him. Neither he nor Su had any experience determining population just from looking at one from the outside, but his best guess was something in the low thousands. It definitely wasn't a tiny flyspeck, but he wouldn't classify it as big enough to be a town, either.
He didn't want to draw any conclusions until he'd gathered more information, but the state of the surroundings was beginning to paint a picture. For one thing, there was the proximity to the qi-filled mountain, about a week's hike to reach the valley that circled it if he ran flat out. If Su's memories were in any way accurate, that resource stood out enough that it should have attracted the attention of a sect, yet rank one and two spirit beasts roamed with impunity. An active sect should have kept them culled.
The condition wasn't new, either. On the outskirts of the village, farms lay abandoned, many showing rotting decay from years of neglect. Others that exhibited less deterioration but more damage had walls around them, walls with gaping holes bearing signs of beast attacks.
To the west of the village, his senses picked up a source of qi or, possibly, a grouping of many sources close together that all emitted qi. Logically, it made sense for such settlements to spring up around the location of a resource, especially if there was a sect nearby that acted as the customer base for whatever the town produced.
Another thing that struck him as strange was the presence of cultivators inside the village, a half dozen of them. That number was way too few to constitute a sect but was relatively large to be wandering cultivators. And if they lived here, why weren't they doing anything about the high numbers of spirit beasts plaguing the area?
The tug from the System had guided him to the village, though, and every fiber of his being told him that it was the fulfillment of his Advantageous Starting Location perk.
It had taken more than two months skirting the mountain to get to the village, and they'd only been able to move that quickly because they'd stopped hunting, increasing their movement time to seven hours per day and only fighting spirit beasts when it either couldn't be avoided or would have resulted in too great a detour. Having chosen to concentrate on getting their primary weapon techniques to mastery, neither of the kids had advanced much on that front, but both were close to breaking through to the next cultivation realm.
He turned to his disciples. "I have high hopes for this place."
"It looks run down, Senior Brother," Yang Xiu said.
"Don't look at what it is. Look at what it can be," Benton said. "We need people for our sect and think about how life must be for those villagers. A rank one spirit beast can kill a mortal, and there are plenty of those and some rank twos nearby. I bet they're mostly afraid to leave the walls. For proof, look at all the abandoned farms. If we can cull the beasts, they'll surely be exceedingly grateful."
"What about that mountain, Senior Brother?" she said. "You told us it was dangerous. Is it safe to build our sect so close to it?"
Benton encouraged such questions. He wasn't so confident in his abilities to think he'd never make a mistake. It was good to have any potential flaws in his reasoning pointed out.
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"There is some danger, yes," he said. "As cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm, the beasts there are way too strong for us, and with the sheer quantity of the lower ranked ones we've been encountering, we can't discount the possibility of a beast tide forming. We won't always be Qi Gathering cultivators, though, and that place is the kind of potential treasure trove of resources that sects are founded to take advantage of. Once we form our golden cores, we'll be glad we have it nearby."
Before he started counting his unhatched chickens, Benton took a mental step back. When he'd had his Auspicious Encounter with his disciples, there had been a real chance of failure. If he had tarried, they might have died before he reached them. Or he might have flubbed his recruitment pitch and had them refuse. He'd been given an opportunity, not a guarantee.
"There is definitely reason for concern beyond just the dangers presented by the mountain," he said. "We need to find out if there are any competing sects nearby that could cause us issues, and there are cultivators in the town. I won't know their exact level until I see them, but they don't seem very strong. Still, we'll need to understand their purpose here and if they'll be an obstacle. We'll take things slow. Our goal at first is just to gather information."
Another thought struck him. His disciples didn't seem like the type to act like arrogant young masters, but it was best to make sure. "As future core disciples of my sect, I expect you to behave with dignity and decorum but don't let your status go to your head. If we do decide to found our sect here, we'll be working with these villagers for a long time. There are many ways they can either ease our path or cause us endless trouble. We need them to be on our side. Bow down to no one unless I tell you otherwise but treat everyone with respect. Understood?"
"Yes, Senior Brother Chao," they chorused.
He and his disciples stood in the shade of a tree several hundred feet from what looked like the village's main gate, and there'd been no sign of anyone having spotted them. Something else had detected their presence, though. A peak rank two spirit beast was headed toward them. It was time to make their presence known.
They stepped into the sunlight and onto a wide area that was much clearer than the forest. Weeds and saplings covered the approach to the village, but there was gravel underneath all the vegetation. It had probably once been a nice path that facilitated commerce.
"Get ready," he said and told his disciples about the approaching beast. "We're going to get nearer to the gate, so they can see us fight."
Revealing that they were cultivators right from the start felt like a risky move, but Benton thought his logic was sound. With the area so teeming with danger, no mortal was likely to make it to the village, so they'd assume they were cultivators regardless. Trying to hide it gained them nothing. Showing off what they could do, on the other hand, had the possibility of earning them respect from the outset. It should be a better introduction than just walking to the gate and demanding to be let inside.
Hopefully.
The three sprinted toward the gate, covering the distance in mere seconds, and halted about ten yards from the front. Their arrival finally drew attention from inside. A guy in a tower beside the gate called out something, but Benton's attention was focused on the beast that was emerging from the woods.
A tiger.
The creature was, in a word, pretty. Or maybe majestic would be a better descriptor. It had white fur with striking gold stripes. Benton almost didn't want to kill it.
Almost.
And it didn't appear that Yang Xiu or her brother had any such qualms. No sooner had it appeared than an arrow landed in its eye. An instant later, a spear tip penetrated its other eye. Either hit would have been fatal.
The kids had gotten quite adept at harvesting cores. Even though they hadn't gone out of their way to hunt spirit beasts over the last couple of months, avoiding them completely had been impossible. The disciples had still faced fights almost daily.
Benton stowed the tiger in his spatial ring and turned to the gate. If things went well, the village would figure prominently in his future. Given that he'd spent one of his precious points for the perk, he had to ensure things did go well.
With Benton's proximity to the village's wooden walls, he noticed that they showed no signs of the scarring he'd have expected from repeated beast attacks, a discordant fact when compared to everything else he'd observed. Of course, the wall's material resonated with his spiritual sense to an absurd degree, which obviously had something to do with the lack of damage.
Su's memories boggled at the expense to construct a wall around a village in the middle of nowhere out of wood possessing such spiritual properties. That impression gave Benton pause. Only a powerful sect could afford to expend so many resources.
Made from the same material, the gate was about fifteen feet tall, roughly the same height as the walls on either side of it, and if it weren't in place, Benton judged that the gap would let in two wagons side by side.
It slowly slid open, stopping at the width of a single person.
A guard appeared. "Esteemed Master Cultivators, welcome to the Prosperous Gray Forest Village."
Having the gate open even that little bit obviously made the guard anxious, so Benton led his disciples inside so it could be shut. The man cupped his hands and bowed thankfully.
Inside, the village looked run down. Not that it was overgrown with weeds or anything, just that it had a somewhat neglected look. A wagon missing a wheel sat outside a house. One window had a pane of glass broken, and it had been covered with rice paper. Additionally, not a single structure appeared to have been painted in the last decade. In fact, many of the residences had a look of abandonment to them.
Prosperous would not be an adjective Benton would use to describe the place.
Another thing that stood out was that every house, even the ones that looked empty, had a garden. Crops grew everywhere there was space.
Other than the guard, there were a few people milling about, some tending the gardens. All of them, even the guard, looked gaunt. They weren't to the point that Benton would call them emaciated, but they definitely did not look like they were getting enough food.
Everything Benton saw tracked with the story he was building in his head of a village that had been isolated for a long time, unable to leave the walls or even receive traveling merchants, due to the spirit beast situation.
"The Esteemed Honorable Mayor has been notified, Esteemed Master Cultivators, and will be here shortly."
Even with Su's memories, it still amazed Benton's Earth sensibilities how convoluted conversation got when trying to avoid personal pronouns. That cultural norm was one he was determined to circumvent whenever possible, even if it made him appear a little rude. "No problem. We can wait."
That response might have been a mistake. Though the guard tried to cover his reaction, he looked surprised. Even though Su's memories were flooding Benton's mind with memories of treating guards like complete gutter trash, Benton wondered if he should have been more polite.
He observed his surroundings for the next few minutes until a mortal who looked to be in his lower fifties showed up. An expression of irritation and disdain flickered across the man's face as soon as he saw the group of three cultivators.
Benton knew the reason.
The man wore a gold tunic with black accents and black pants that honestly looked quite expensive, and his attire was immaculate. Clean. No tears. No blood stains.
Benton and the twins had been keeping as clean as possible using streams and other sources of water, but they had no supply of clean clothes to change into. Thus, in stark contrast to the man's outfit, Benton's robe was stained and torn and just plain dirty. The kids' tunics and pants were in a similar state to his and were clearly constructed of much inferior fabrics than the mayor's. The three of them looked like peasants. Beggars. Not exactly the best image to present to the mayor of the village where they wanted to set up shop.
Thankfully, the guard bailed Benton out.
"Esteemed Honorable Mayor, the Esteemed Master Cultivators slew the tiger that had been menacing us for weeks."
"The white tiger? The peak rank two?"
The guard nodded vigorously.
The mayor's attitude shifted visibly. "Welcome to the Prosperous Gray Forest Village, Esteemed Master Cultivators. This humble mayor is called Mo Jian and is extremely appreciative for the slaying of that troublesome beast."
Su's memories conjured up a vision of another mayor who Su's elder beheaded for the slight of looking down on their sect members. Benson rejected that advice, settling for dropping a few of the honorifics instead. "Greetings, Mayor Mo, I am Chao Su. These are my disciples, Yang Xiu and Yang Ru."
Benson had determined to keep a low profile in towns and cities by being "Senior Brother," and announcing the siblings as his disciples was a departure from that strategy. Because he was planning on dealing with the people of the village over the long haul, it was more important to deal from a position of strength from the outset.
The mayor took the minor amount of rudeness in stride. "Has the Esteemed Master Cultivator Chao Su traveled to the Prosperous Gray Forest Village in search of Orange Vigor Spirit Wood?"
Channeling his inner Yang Ru, Benton responded with a noncommittal grunt.
"This lowly mayor apologizes to the Esteemed Master Cultivator Chao Su. With the plague of spirit beasts inflicting our village, this lowly mayor's men have been unable to gather any new wood these last five years, and our stocks were emptied by another cultivator three years ago."
Interesting. All the information provided by the mayor tracked with the conclusions Benton had made about the area, and it was nice to both know the name of the resource to the west of the village and that it was valuable enough for cultivators to travel all the way to the village to get it. The wall construction also made more sense as the village was the source of the material, making it a lot less expensive.
"Have other cultivators appeared since the one who emptied your stores?"
"No. Esteemed Master Cultivator Chao Su and his two disciples are the first."
Even better. Benton and his soon to be sect both had access to a valuable resource and were unlikely to encounter rivals for it in the near future. Advantageous Starting Location indeed.
The cultivators in the village still bothered him, though.
"What of the six cultivators I sensed in your village? Are they not customers for the wood? And if not, why haven't they done anything about the beasts?"
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The mayor's eyes went wide, and he dropped to the ground and kowtowed.
"You may rise." With his most imperious expression painting his face, Benton waited for the man to rise.
The mayor was trembling by the time he stood, his head bowed.
"My question?" Benton said.
"This lowly mayor apologizes, Esteemed Master Cultivator. The cultivators who live here only possess a technique used to cut the Orange Vigor Spirit Wood. Those lowly ones are only at the low Qi Gathering realm and possess no abilities with weapons."
"I see."
Doubt must have rung in Benton's response because the mayor hastily continued. "This lowly one swears it is true, Esteemed Master Cultivator. The village used to be home to ten such cultivators, but four tried to kill one of the beasts that had attacked a farm owned by a relative. They did not return."
Honestly, the explanation sounded reasonable, but there was only one way to know for sure how dangerous these men were. "I would like to meet one of these cultivators."
The mayor dispatched a guard quickly to retrieve Guang Yin, and the rest of the gathering settled in for a quiet, awkward wait.
Soon enough, a man appeared. The first thing Benton sensed was how completely screwed up the man's dantian and channels were. Whatever cultivation method he'd been given must have been truly atrocious.
Benton scanned the villager.
Name:
Guang Yin
Affiliation:
Prosperous Gray Forest Village, formerly associate member of the Righteous Rain Sect
Age:
61
Cultivation:
Qi Gathering - Minor Realm Four
Qi Available:
???
Techniques:
Orange Vigor Spirit Wood Harvesting – Mastery
Orange Vigor Spirit Wood Farming - Mastery
Spiritual Roots:
D-
Qi Aspect:
Oak roots bursting through the remains of a decaying elm
Interesting. The mayor had clearly told the truth about the man's realm, and being listed as a former associate member of a sect tracked. The man's status also revealed that he didn't know any weapon techniques.
Benton vaguely recalled that the System allowed him to see anyone's techniques and qi aspect as long as they were of a lower realm than him, but he wondered about the available qi.
Benton mentally queried the System. "Why can't I see his available qi?"
To avoid the Host gaining even more of an unfair advantage than Host already has, some information is hidden from the Host when scanning cultivators who are not members of Host's sect. Asking the cultivator's permission will allow this information to be revealed by a scan.
"Honorable Guang Yin, may I scan you with my spiritual senses?"
The man was clearly taken aback by the request, but he quickly recovered. "Yes, Esteemed Master Cultivator. Of course, Esteemed Master Cultivator."
Benton scanned him again.
Name:
Guang Yin
Affiliation:
Prosperous Gray Forest Village, formerly associate member of the Righteous Rain Sect
Age:
61
Cultivation:
Qi Gathering - Minor Realm Four
Qi Available:
11
Techniques:
Orange Vigor Spirit Wood Harvesting – Mastery
Orange Vigor Spirit Wood Farming - Mastery
Spiritual Roots:
D-
Qi Aspect:
Oak roots bursting through the remains of a decaying elm
That information all checked with the mayor's explanation as well. Of course, it was possible one of the other cultivators had some kind of weapon technique, but given the example of Guang Yin and the overall weakness he sensed, Benton was willing to accept that risk until he could scan each of the other five cultivators.
"Mayor, to be frank, your town doesn't look like it's doing too well. I may have a deal for you that would help."
Mo Jian didn't say anything, but his expression made it seem like he was at least interested in hearing the details.
"Your part of the deal would be to provide three large wagons and have your six harvesters fill them with Orange Vigor Spirit Wood. I presume you can also provide me with a map to an appropriate market for the wood and names of people I can talk to who might be willing to buy it."
Guang Yin started to speak, but the mayor shushed him.
"My part of the deal would be to provide protection for the harvesters and to transport the wagons to the market," Benton said. "I'd then use the proceeds of the sale to fill two of those wagons with whatever goods you'd like me to purchase. The rest of the proceeds would be used to fill the third wagon with whatever I wish to purchase. Any remaining funds will be mine to keep."
Guang Yin wouldn't be shushed again. "Mayor can he … Can this Esteemed Master Cultivator do what is claimed?"
"The Esteemed Master Cultivator's disciples killed the white rank two spirit tiger right outside the gates," the mayor said through tight lips. "May these two lowly village servants retire for a moment to discuss the offer, Esteemed Master Cultivator?"
"You may."
Mo Jian rubbed his temples. He was getting a headache.
Along with Guang Yin and Xiang Qiao, the gate guard, Mo Jian walked away from the group whom he assumed were wandering cultivators.
"Haven't we gone far enough?" Guang Yin said.
"No."
The old harvester asked three more times before Mo Jian finally stopped. Even then, he wasn't sure he was out of earshot of that scary cultivator.
"I don't like it," Guang Yin said. "Did you see how they are dressed? Even if all three of them have reached Foundation Establishment, they'd be hard pressed to protect all of us while harvesting, and I've never seen a Foundation Establishment cultivator looking that shabby."
"You didn't see those two kids kill that tiger," Xiang Qiao said. "It was over in an instant. Both of them landed a hit in one of the beast's eyes. I've never seen anything like it."
"You're too young to have seen the cultivators from my Righteous Rain sect move. They were all amazing."
"None of that is important right now," Mo Jian said. "If we don't agree, that man might destroy our entire village."
"I doubt he could," Guang Yin said. "The name of the Righteous Rain sect still carries weight."
"That sect was destroyed twenty years ago," Mo Jian said. "We've seen no evidence that anyone survived. Exactly how is the name of a dead sect going to protect anyone?"
Guang Yin huffed. "Well, I still don't think that kid has even reached Foundation Establishment. I bet he and those other kids are just Qi Gathering realms who have a lot of experience fighting."
"Yin, he sensed that there were six cultivators in town."
"That's impossible. He'd have to be…"
"Yeah. Golden Core at least. Maybe Nascent Soul. I don't know why he's dressing like that or hiding his strength, but I don't see how we have a choice."
"You know he'll probably just disappear with the wood," Guang Yin said.
"So? As long as nobody dies, never seeing him again would suit me just fine."
With an agreement having been reached, the mayor and his small group returned to the wandering cultivators. "Esteemed Master Cultivator, these lowly village servants accept the proposal."
"Excellent," the man said. "Meet at the gate at sunrise to begin harvesting?"
"Yes, Esteemed Master Cultivator."
"Great. Thanks."
Mo Jian was quite surprised at the thanks as it was quite out of character for a cultivator to thank anyone who was beneath him by even so much as a minor realm, much less a mortal. He breathed a sigh of relief, though, that the encounter was over and he'd, somehow, survived.
"Hang on," the cultivator called. "Do you have an orphanage or something like it in the village?"
An orphanage? What did the cultivator want with an orphanage?
Benton felt bad about eavesdropping on the mayor's conversation, but the situation was simply too important for him to leave things to chance. The information he'd overheard was crucial for informing his actions in the immediate future.
First, though, it was time to see about acquiring new disciples. His thinking was that an orphanage in a village where food was scarce would be a good source of potential recruits. He just needed to make a good first impression, and the perfect start to that goal would be to supply dinner.
Once he and his disciples were out of the sight of the mayor, Benton started looking for someone he might be able to buy supplies from. He had a decent amount of meat, but even with rationing, his fruit and rice had been used up weeks ago.
An older lady—well, older than Su's body at any rate—was picking vegetables in a rather large garden.
"Excuse me, Honored Miss, could I purchase a basket of produce and maybe some rice from you?"
The woman looked him up and down.
"I assure you that I can pay, Honored Miss."
"Taels aren't much good to anyone around here anymore, and I don't see you carrying anything for barter." Her tone was cool but not outright disrespectful, though the lack of honorifics pushed the remark closer to the realm of an insult.
Su's memories went to him literally killing a mortal who had failed to use honorifics. Of course, there were extenuating circumstanced in play regarding sect internal politics, but still disrespect equaled instant death. Benton was much more understanding. He was a complete stranger to this lady, and he and the kids looked like vagrants. If someone looking like he did approached him on a street back on Earth, he would have been skeptical, too.
"If I did have trade good available for barter, Honored Miss, what in particular would you take in return for vegetables and rice?"
The woman frowned, having obviously expected her initial salvo to send the group away. "The same thing anyone else in this village wants and that I doubt you'd be able to supply—meat."
That information was useful and, upon reflection, something he should have figured out on his own. The villagers were obviously making use of every available space to grow crops, not to keep livestock. Without the ability to leave the town to hunt, meat would be much harder to acquire, especially since mortals couldn't handle eating the qi-infused flesh of spirit beasts. Not to mention the fact that the beasts had driven away all the mundane animals.
"Does the Honored Miss have a clean table I might make use of for a moment?"
The request obviously confused the woman, and it forced her to make a decision. Politeness dictated assent to such a reasonable request if possible, so the question became whether she would descend into outright rudeness. If she did, Benton would have to find another trade partner, and the woman would miss out on a valuable resource.
"Follow me," she said reluctantly and led them to a corner of the garden with a table that held a bucket of water and the leavings from various cut vegetables.
"Thank you, Honorable Miss."
Benton withdrew the boar he'd roasted the first day he'd met the siblings. Since they'd soon switched to consuming spirit beasts, they hadn't used all that much of the meat, and the animal had yielded well over a hundred pounds, all of which were perfectly preserved in his spatial ring.
The woman's jaw dropped. "Esteemed Master Cultivator, excuse this lowly one. This lowly one didn't realize—"
"It's fine." With the siblings becoming more informal as time passed, Benton still hadn't wrapped his mind around being literally bowed down to. He much preferred simply talking to people. "So how much meat for the vegetables and rice?"
"Esteemed Master Cultivator, this lowly one could not possibly accept your valuable possessions for this lowly one's meager offerings. It would be this lowly one's pleasure to gift anything the Esteemed Master Cultivator requires."
The translation of her panicked speech was, "Take whatever you want. Just don't kill me."
It took all Benton's patience to politely convince the woman that, no, he wanted to barter with her, not steal from her. Eventually, she accepted a pound of meat in exchange for whatever he took. He cut her off about two and a half pounds and left before she figured out he overpaid.
As a bonus, he also got directions from her to a tailor. Cloth was a scarce resource in the village, but for five pounds of boar meat, he and the siblings left the shop wearing clothes that were worn but in not nearly as bad as shape as what they'd changed out of.
The tailor directed him to an inn where a very surprised innkeeper provided them two rooms for the night, no meals included, in exchange for only a half pound of boar meat. Feeling that there weren't likely any threats in the village capable of any real danger, Benton left the siblings behind to cultivate.
He'd periodically check things with his spiritual sense. If any of the cultivators neared the siblings, he'd rush back and head off any trouble.
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Next stop, the orphanage.
As Benton had been walking around, he'd scanned most of the people he'd encountered with his spiritual senses to surprising results. Only about twenty percent of the people living in the village appeared to have F ranked spiritual roots in lieu of the eighty percent he'd expected. Instead, most people were in the E range. In a relatively small sample size, he'd also encountered three D ranked people in addition to Guang Yin, at least two more than he would have expected.
Another oddity was the almost everyone had a qi aspect that was associated with nature. Su's memory told him that, even in areas that were steeped in a particular type of qi—such as water qi near the ocean—the people living in those environments still possessed a random assortment of elemental qi aspects. Su's instincts didn't know what to make of the situation.
Though cultivators were long lived and certainly not stupid, they didn't have the scientific method to fall back on, so running tests to prove theories was not common. And even if it had been a normal practice, sects, and even factions of cultivators within sects, did not share secrets with each other. There might be experts out there who would be able to easily explain what Benton was finding, but such knowledge was not widely spread enough to have filtered down to Su.
There wasn't much immediate impact for him, though, so he mostly just accepted it as something odd that was mostly inconsequential.
Soon he arrived at the location that had been described to him. The village was mostly arranged with groups of four single-story houses facing each other around a central shared courtyard. The orphanage occupied one of those four-house sets.
A small child, maybe six or seven years old, answered his knock and, upon seeing a stranger, called, "Mistress Zhong! A visitor!"
A woman looking to be in her mid-thirties with a round face and a kind smile soon appeared at the door.
"Greetings, Honored Guest. I am Zhong Wen. How may this one help you?"
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mistress Zhong." Benton introduced himself as Chao Su. "It is my understanding that you operate an orphanage here?"
"Yes…"
"May I enquire as to the number of children and the relative ages?" Benton said.
"Uh… Twenty, Honored Guest. From about six to thirteen. At fourteen, this one places them as apprentices to various businesses in the village."
"It sounds like you do amazing work, Mistress Zhong. I was wondering if I might cook dinner for you and the children."
"The Honored Guest wants to cook for us?"
"Please. If you don't mind."
Zhong Wen tilted her head to the side. "This one doesn't understand. Why would the Honored Guest wish to cook for us?"
Benton could understand her confusion. He bet she had a hard time getting people of the village to contribute to the orphanage. A stranger showing up at her door to help must have been unprecedented, and she probably couldn't help but wonder if he had ulterior motives.
And she was right. He did have an agenda he wanted to keep hidden from her. No sense getting her hopes up until he viewed the kids' statuses.
With that thought in mind, he scanned her. E- with a qi aspect revolving around nurturing plants. Not great, but about what he'd expected.
"There are some who believe that the weak exist only to serve the strong. Others believe that it is the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak. I'm not sure that I stand firmly in either camp, but I do think that to those whom much is given, much should be expected," Benton said. "I have been given much, but I cannot assist everyone. Who, though, is more deserving of my help than a group of innocent children who have lost their parents?"
Though he was pretty sure the offer of free food would have eventually won her over on its own, his speech definitely sped things up. "If you wish to give the children a good meal, Master Chao, who is this one to stop you? When would you like to conduct this dinner?"
"Tonight is good."
"Very well, Master Chao. Will you require the use of my kitchen?"
"I will."
She sighed. "Please gather your supplies, Master Chao. When you return, you will be granted access to whatever this one has that you need."
"I've got everything that I need. I can go ahead and get started."
Zhong Wen looked him over, peeking behind him probably to see if he had a cart behind him or something. "Forgive me. I had assumed that you meant you would be providing dinner for the children, not just cooking it. While I appreciate your interest, perhaps—"
Benton withdrew the basket of vegetables he'd recently acquired from his spatial ring and held it out to her. "Apologies for any confusion, Mistress Zhong. I do, in fact, intend to provide everything necessary for the dinner."
He only wished he had something sweet. There wasn't a kid on any planet who didn't like dessert.
Her eyes went wide. From her perspective, the basket must have appeared like magic, and unlike the lady earlier, Zhong Wen didn't immediately come to the obvious conclusion. It was very possible she'd never had any experience with cultivators.
"I don't… How did you… What?"
"Don't worry about it, Mistress Zhong. As I said, I have been given much. The least I can do is provide some food for a bunch of deserving children. Just show me to the kitchen and you don't have to worry about anything else."
After so many nights of cooking over a campfire with a single pot, it was nice to have access to an actual stove and a selection of cookware, even if the technology was rather primitive compared to a modern American kitchen, and Benton went all out, creating a stir-fry with vegetables and the boar meat.
Smells must have wafted through the house because children kept appearing at the door of the kitchen, their little mouths salivating. Benton grinned at one little girl who had the cutest pout when he told her she'd have to wait until it was served. She reminded him so much of his youngest at that age.
With the meal preparation finished and the children gathered, all of them, including Mistress Zhong, were surprised when he filled their bowls. They were even more shocked when he told them that they could have seconds.
Honestly, the thought of these little ones going to bed with empty stomachs broke his heart.
His eyes actually welled when he realized just how much the simple meal he'd provided meant to them. They were all so lively and happy and energetic.
Well, most of them. A few of them seemed mad at the world, which was to be expected for kids who had lost everything.
As much as the meal meant to them, it turned out to mean even more to him. Their laughter and smiles fed his soul.
Overall, they reminded him way too much of the kids' table at his family's Thanksgiving. A desire to protect them rose in him. These children didn't have a grandfather, and he no longer had grandkids. It felt like a perfect match.
Benton had come to the orphanage with only somewhat honorable intentions, planning to trade access to food and the promise of the chance of a better life for Sect Points. He hadn't really thought of them as people to be supported and valued, only as tools to be used.
He had to do better. He would do better.
These kids would be protected and nurtured. All he had to do was to convince Mistress Zhong to go along with his plan. He just hoped that the meal would soften her up enough to listen to his pitch with an open mind.
Remove
As Benton watched the children eat dinner, he scanned each of them. Most of them returned messages such as:
System is unable to analyze target's cultivation because the target's spiritual roots are not finished growing. Repeat scan in 1.3 years.
The timeline varied from a month to, in the case of a little girl who Zhong Wen informed him was six, over seven years. That information tracked with Su's memories. It was well known that spiritual roots did not stop growing until sometime between the ages of ten and thirteen, and since cultivating prior to that point was immensely harmful to the individual, no sect recruited anyone under fourteen.
Of the eight children with mature spiritual roots, none were special. All had some form of nature aspected qi, some combined with one other aspect and others not. He found one F, four E-, two E, and one E+.
Not a single one of them would be a candidate for a typical sect because, using the poor-quality cultivation methods available to most of them, achieving even Foundation Establishment with such a low talent was unlikely. Qi Gathering disciples were considered next to worthless, definitely not worth the expense of feeding, housing, and clothing much less providing cultivation aids to. Foundation Establishment wasn't that much more valued.
All the resources of a sect were dedicated to one purpose—finding recruits with the potential to reach at least Golden Core and, though much more unlikely, Nascent Soul. The strength of a sect was measured by the number of members in those two realms.
Benton's circumstances caused him to value the children differently. For one thing, the cultivation methods he could create were better, making it more likely that even these kids with low talent might make Foundation Establishment. That concern wasn't really that important, though.
No, what really drew his consideration was that each one of those kids was a potential Sect Point generator. Every kid who even learned a method and drew in a single mote of qi, reaching minor realm one, was worth a point. If the child was even halfway diligent about cultivating, the kid would produce at least three points over the next month or so, and that total didn't even take into account techniques.
Compared to the generation of a truly scarce and valuable resource like Sect Points, the expense of raising the children was nothing. If possible, he would find a hundred, a thousand, such kids.
Benton felt a little bad about essentially using them for his own gains, but he firmly believed the kids would benefit as well. It was a true win-win scenario.
When dinner was over and the children dispatched to do chores, Benton pulled Zhong Wen aside. "I'm impressed. You have the house running like a well-oiled machine."
"A well-oiled machine, Honored Benefactor?"
"Just a turn of a phrase. Don't worry about it. The point is that I think you're doing a good thing here, and I might be able to help."
"More food, Honored Benefactor?"
"Yes … and more."
"Like what, Honored Benefactor." She certainly still seemed skeptical of him despite his actions thus far.
Well, he could certainly understand her concern. He'd be skeptical of him, too.
Benton cleared his throat. "Well, you see … I'm a cultivator."
She started to get down on her knees, but Benton grabbed her to stop her.
"None of that, please. Just keep treating me the way you were."
"Y-yes, Esteemed Master Cultivator."
He sighed. "Anyway, I want to form a sect, and I want these children to join."
"Aren't they too young, Esteemed Master Cultivator? None have yet reached the age of fourteen."
"Let me worry about that. I just want your permission to ask, for now, eight of them to become my disciples."
Zhong Wen clearly doubted the wisdom of accepting his offer.
"There are a lot of advantages to this arrangement. It might take a few weeks or months, but I'll provide for everything you and they need. Food. Clothes," He paused as a thought occurred to him. "Have you ever lost one of your charges to sickness?"
Her expression saddened. "Yes."
"Cultivators don't get sick, and if something does inflict them, they have access to healing pills. All these children will be likely to live past one hundred years old. Make that two hundred if they cultivate diligently."
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"Unless they die at the hands of another cultivator."
"True. The life of a cultivator isn't always peaceful," Benton said. "But neither is a mortal's. How did all these kids' parents die? Mostly beasts, I imagine. As a cultivator, they'd be able to fight back at least."
"But—"
"No," he said. "Stop a moment and really think about this. Right now, you're worried if you'll be able to find enough food to feed all these kids through the winter. You hope none of them come down with a fever and don't recover. You fear a beast coming over the wall and attacking them."
She sighed. "That's all true, Esteemed Master Cultivator."
"I am not going to promise that nothing bad will ever happen to these kids, but I will promise that it is not my intent to have them fighting battles for me. If the sect is attacked, then they'll be defending their own lives as they defend the sect, but very few members of my sect will have to go out and fight other cultivators. Only the ones talented enough and who agree to do it will be called upon to do that. If I have my way, each of these kids will die peacefully in bed after a long, long life."
She didn't say anything for a while before finally sighing again. "You can truly do all these things you say, Esteemed Master Cultivator?"
"I can."
"I guess there's not much I can do to stop you anyway," she said under her breath. Raising her voice, she continued. "You said you're making eight of the children cultivators. What will become of them? Will you take them away? What about the other twelve?"
"If you don't mind, I would have you continue looking after all the kids, and for now, I'd prefer they remain here. Eventually, we'll set up a proper sect, but that's going to take a number of months."
"So, I'll be paid?"
"Well, I'll take care of your food and various other stuff, of course, but I was hoping you'd join my sect as well."
"Me? I'm too old."
"You're only thirty-two," he said.
She stared at him open mouthed, and he decided to ignore her shock at him being able to determine her age with such accuracy. As her presumable future sect leader, the more power he displayed, the better.
"You're hardly old," he said. "Sects prefer to take fourteen to sixteen year olds for a lot of reasons, but none of those really apply to this situation. The fact is that I am not prepared to take care of a lot of children right now. I need you."
"What do you require of your sect members?"
"The main responsibility, especially at first, is to cultivate, ideally ten hours a day. We may have to adjust that for the younger kids down to about half, of course, but that's the goal. Also in a perfect world, you'd spend several hours a day practicing techniques."
"There's no way I can do any of that," she said. "I barely have chance to breathe during the day."
Benton thought about it for a moment. "I imagine the thought of joining a sect and being fed would be pretty attractive for a lot of villagers. Are there any that you trust and could recruit to help you take care of the children?"
"Really, Esteemed Master Cultivator? I could bring in help?"
Benton hadn't failed to notice that she'd dropped honorifics for much of the conversation when she'd obviously been displeased with him. "You have someone in mind?"
"I've been forced to find employment for the children as they get older since I just don't have the space and resources, Esteemed Master Cultivator. There are a few who were taken in out of obligation more so than need. Two of them that I can think of are in such a situation who are hard workers and would be great with the younger children."
"Sure. That sounds like a plan."
Benton led Zhong Wen through the house and pointed out the eight kids who were ready to be inducted, asking her to gather them in the dining room. While he waited, he pulled up the Cultivation Method Creation Menu.
He obviously selected Qi Gathering for the realm but paused at the Qi Aspect. All the kids had nature, and the closer to their actual aspect the method was, the better. On the other hand, not every E-ranked and below person he recruited to the sect was likely to have the same, meaning he'd have to create more methods instead of having one he could use for literally everyone.
A quick test of the System revealed that selecting Nature as the Qi Aspect cost only twenty points compared to twenty-five for "Any." A savings of five points wasn't insignificant, not to mention that eight kids plus Mistress Zhong just getting to minor realm three would pay for the entire method and give him an additional seven points.
Besides, a part of him was thinking of these children as grandkids. How could he resist giving them a bit of a boost?
It was so going to hurt when he had to sink even more points into another method, though.
With the first two selections made, he needed to determine whether to emphasize Ease, Foundation, or Power. Of the three, the last was arguably the least important. Benton had no desire for these children to fight or labor for the sect, especially when in the Qi Gathering realm. If they could help with farming and the like, great, but their main jobs would simply be to cultivate, contributing by earning him points.
Ease, of course, was much more important. The kids were fundamentally untalented. Their cultivation was going to be slow.
Obviously, though, Foundation was even more important still. Considering their spirit roots, there was no guarantee that any of the kids would reach even the second major realm, and the fact was that a Foundation Establishment cultivator was orders of magnitude more beneficial to a sect than one stuck at Qi Gathering.
He set Foundation to seventy-five and Power to a mere five. That left twenty for Ease.
After waffling back and forth for a minute or so, he went ahead and confirmed it. The settings seemed much more like an art than a science.
Next came the worst part, the name.
"I'll call it the Supreme Growth of Heaven Method," he said.
Man, that sounded so totally and utterly lame. He hoped no one laughed when they read it.
With a wince, he pulled the trigger, committing a whopping twenty points for the creation of the method, leaving him with only forty-five Sect Points remaining. He needed to start earning them back fast.
As soon as the eight children had gathered, he said, "Kids, want to see a magic trick?"
They, of course, clamored for him to show them. He promptly made his tea set appear on the table out of thin air.
The kids oohed and aahed.
"Does anyone know how I did that?" he said.
"Magic," a little boy said with absolute confidence.
"Not exactly but kind of. You see, I have a spatial ring. I'm a cultivator."
The children's eyes grew wide.
"And," Benton said, "I want to make you cultivators, too."
Benton instructed his new recruits on the bai-si tea ceremony.
"We'll start with Mistress Zhong," he said after the explanation was over.
The orphanage had a tea pot, and being able to boil twice the water at once sped things up. Still, the process involved a lot of slow actions, and he had to give each inductee their moment. With nine people at ten to fifteen minutes per person, it was about two hours before each had officially, per the System, become one of his disciples.
Completing the Recruit Additional Disciple Quest nine times gave him that many Shop Points, not that he could spend them yet. He was looking forward to actually founding the sect and triggering the opening of the Shop.
Baby steps, though. Baby steps. His future sect had just taken a major leap forward, going from three members counting him to twelve. He was happy with the progress. Even better, he saw a path forward. Complete some reputation quests for the village and then ask for the land he needed.
The sun hadn't entirely set yet, but it was getting late, approaching time when the children should be getting to bed. His many years of experience as a father of young children told him that, if he gave them the jade slips and let them start cultivating, they'd be up all night. Better to wait until he was free tomorrow evening for that.
Benton had Zhong Wen send them off to bed.
As his new recruits filed out, another child, a girl, appeared in the doorway.
"Hi," he said.
The girl scowled at him. "You are making them cultivators."
"Jin LiJuan!" Zhong Wen yelled. "Show respect to Master Chao!"
The girl ignored the mistress. "Why them and not me?"
Benton had scanned her earlier in the evening but didn't remember the exact results. He scanned her again.
System is unable to analyze target's cultivation because the target's spiritual roots are not finished growing. Repeat scan in 0.9 months.
"This cultivator apologizes, Jin LiJuan," Benton said kindly. "You are not quite yet ready. If you are willing, I will induct you in about a month."
"A month? Fine. I can wait that long, but I will hold you to it." The girl turned and stalked from the room.
"This lowly one is so sorry for that outburst, Master Chao," Zhong Wen said. "She has taken the loss of her family even worse than most of the others."
"Don't worry about it. I understand completely." He removed the cultivation method jade slip and a rank one beast core from his ring. "Are you ready to become a cultivator?"
She looked nervous. "Yes, Master Chao."
He gave her the slip and the core and instructed her on how to read it. She took a while to fall into a meditative trance and at least another three quarters of an hour passed before a blue box popped up.
Host's Disciple, Zhong Wen, has reached Qi Gathering – Minor Realm One
Host is awarded one Sect Point.
Host has 46 Sect Points available.
Well, he'd at least gained back one of the points he'd spent on the venture.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he berated himself for it. That way of looking at things was horrid. Investing his points was the only way forward, and the ROI for just these nine disciples was pretty darn good.
Man, he'd been so lucky with the siblings. It had taken them less than five days to reach the second minor realm. They both possessed such amazing talent.
Not so for Zhong Wen. The process of just sensing qi had taken much longer for her than it had for either Yang Xiu or Yang Ru. Of course, that delay wasn't necessarily due to Zhong Wen's lesser talent. It could have been because of her relatively advanced age, or maybe, it was simply a variance between people. Since Su hadn't been an integral part of his sect's induction process, his memories weren't much help.
"I must protect some men tomorrow morning as they harvest spirit wood, but I'll return tomorrow evening as soon as I can to go through this process with the children. I'll also bring my other two disciples so that you can meet them. They're good kids. Well, fifteen, but still kids to me."
"What about my two assistants, Master Chao?"
Truthfully, Benton had basically forgotten about them, having been focused on the induction and everything else. "Whenever you want."
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"If the honorable Master Chao can wait, I can get them now?"
He wondered if Zhong Wen was in desperate need of help or if the prospective assistants were in worse situations than she had made out. Probably the latter. In a village where food was scarce, it couldn't be easy to take in an extra mouth to feed.
"Sure. If you don't think it's too late."
"This lowly one will return immediately. A few minutes. Please wait, Master Chao."
Zhong Wen practically sprinted from the room. Her estimate of a few minutes was a little optimistic, but less than fifteen had passed before she returned, two young girls in tow. She introduced them as Xiao Rong and Wan Ai.
Benton's scan didn't turn up anything impressive for the first girl, an E with a pretty standard nature-oriented qi aspect. The second girl, though…
Name:
Wan Ai
Affiliation:
Prosperous Gray Forest Village
Age:
14
Cultivation:
None
Techniques:
None
Spiritual Roots:
D
Qi Aspect:
Dry leaves ignited by a wildfire
The D-ranked spiritual roots were impressive only in comparison to the other recruits he'd seen recently but nothing when compared with the siblings. What really excited Benton was the girl's qi aspect.
He'd come to the orphanage with the goal of establishing a way to farm Sect Points as the lack of those was his most pressing immediate problem. To truly establish a sect, though, one needed more than two outstanding recruits and a bunch of walking potential points. A sect was divided into various pavilions, and each of those pavilions required a suitable elder to lead it.
The Martial Pavilion was easy. One of the siblings would head it. Or Benton might decide to establish one for the spear and one for the bow.
Other necessary pavilions included, at the very least, Smithing, Formations, Treasures, and … Alchemy.
Anyone with either fire roots or nature roots could become an alchemist. Some other minor elements also did well in the profession. The absolute best trait for a potential alchemist, however, was a combination of fire and nature elements, exactly what Wan Ai possessed.
Benton hadn't even considered he might find a potential pavilion elder at the orphanage. He was over the moon at what he saw.
His gaze must have indicated just how struck he was because, when he finished reading the box, he noticed the expressions on the faces of the girl and Zhong Wen. They shared a glance.
Prior to learning to interpret the glances that Yang Xiu and Yang Ru exchanged, Benton probably wouldn't have been able to figure out the meaning of that silent communication. With that experience, he clearly saw that it communicated a resigned acceptance on the part of both women that he had a prurient interest in Wan Ai.
It sickened him that they would think that of him. It sickened him more that they would accept it as a matter of course. That reluctant tolerance and the commonality of sheer brutality were two things he most hated about the might-makes-right world he'd found himself in.
"No. That is not what is going on. Just no." He pointed at Wan Ai. "That young lady possesses spiritual roots an order of magnitude better than any of the children inducted tonight. More so, her nature makes it likely that she would take well to the practice of alchemy, a crucial profession for any sect. I apologize if my expression made you think my interest was indicative of anything other than how much benefit she can potentially be to the sect."
They both cupped their hands and bowed low. Benton couldn't tell if they were embarrassed at the topic or chagrined at being called out or if they even believed him at all.
"Are you interested in being an alchemist, Wan Ai?" he said.
She looked at Zhong Wen. "This lowly one promised to assist Mistress Zhong with the children, Master Chao."
"I'm sure that Mistress Zhong can find someone else to help her."
"If it benefits … the sect, Master Chao."
That acceptance wasn't exactly as enthusiastic as he would have liked, but he supposed she didn't really know anything about what she was agreeing to. According to Su's memories, though, a cultivator's inclinations were heavily influenced by their qi aspect. Considering that hers were so well suited for alchemy, she'd probably end up enjoying it.
Benton saw no harm into pushing her into an area that she had a good chance of liking and that she would be good at, not to mention something that was good for him and the sect as a whole. The real question was whether or not she was worth the creation of a unique cultivation method. Alchemy required external qi manipulation and thus couldn't be practiced until she reached the Foundation Establishment realm, so a method attuned to her qi aspect would not help her directly with the profession. It would give her a larger qi pool, though, and would both speed her cultivation and increase her chances of breaking through.
The downside was that he was starting to run low on points. Spending ten on her now would leave him at thirty-six, and that calculation didn't even take into consideration that she would need custom techniques to prepare to become an alchemist.
He could delay things a bit, wait until he recouped more points from his recent inductees. That approach would give the additional advantage of perhaps having the Shop open before he started her cultivating. Maybe he could buy a Spiritual Root Refinement Pill for her.
Doing so would improve her cultivation speed and enhance her power, both good things for someone so likely to become an important member of the sect. On the other hand, even if the pill somehow boosted her all the way to the C rank, she'd still be just an average talent.
That expenditure probably wouldn't be worth it.
In the end, his decision came down to the fact that he had so few outstanding talents to choose from. Normal sects had many villages, towns, and cities feeding them all the most talented young people. He had none of those resources. His finding anyone above an E would purely be the result of serendipity.
The absolute least he could do when he did find one of them would be to make it as smooth and easy as possible for them to advance in realms. He needed to be prepared to invest in those disciples when he discovered them. Period.
Thus, he decided that creating a unique method for her was the way to go and that it was best to get her cultivating as soon as possible. He created the Fiery Forest Method for her, which was relatively balanced between Foundation, thirty points; Ease, twenty-five points; and Power, forty-five points.
After inducting both her and Xiao Rong, he started them both on their cultivation journeys, gaining him two Sect Points back and leaving him with thirty-eight.
Benton waited outside the gate with the siblings for the six harvesters to show up. He sensed a handful of spiritual beasts in the area, but none higher ranked than two and none nearby enough to worry about.
"Senior Brother," Yang Xiu said, "I thought about a question a lot last night, and I still don't understand. Why are we so interested in this wood?"
Feeling very wise, Benton said, "What conclusions did you draw?"
"Well, Senior Brother, obviously this wood is valuable, and you've stated that the sect needs money. You also said that cores are valuable, though, and we've got a lot of those. Is the wood worth that much more?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure how many, say, rank two cores it would take to equal the value of, say, a ten-foot log of the spirit wood. The absolute value of the two resources isn't as important as things like diversification."
She obviously didn't understand that last word.
"Having one income source is risky," Benton said. "If we overhunt the spirit beasts and they all die out, we'll no longer have money coming in. Diversification means that we find other sources of income to hedge against that eventuality."
Yang Xiu nodded.
"You should also think of it this way," he said, "who gets richer—a hunter or a guy who owns a cattle ranch? Without my spiritual sense, you'd find your hunts to be a lot less productive. Creating an industry, though, allows you to optimize your process to make it efficient."
It seemed to Benton that she wasn't just asking out of curiosity and that something about it was bothering her. "Why are you struggling with it so much?"
"It seems so un-cultivator like, Senior Brother. The heroes of the stories I read never acted like merchants. I mean, aren't we basically being used as pack mules to take a load of goods to market?"
"Where I'm from, we have an expression about killing two birds with one stone. Do you understand what that means?"
"Solving two problems with one solution, Senior Brother?"
"Excellent response, my disciple, and this trip to market actually solves three problems. One, it helps build trust between us and the villagers. They expect us to take the wood and run off with it. Returning just as we said we would is the first step toward creating a partnership. Two, if we are to build an industry around the spirit wood, this trip, along with guarding the harvesters today, will teach us a lot that we need to know about the wood from where it grows, to how it is cut, to who and where the markets are, to the demand, to the price we can get for it. And three, we need to go to a city anyway to get some shopping done."
He grinned at her, and she smiled back.
"Besides that, believe me, Yang Xiu, every sect and all but the most spoiled of cultivators worry about resources. Wars are fought over veins of spirit metal or a grove of wood like the one here or even a good source of spirit beasts. Sure, the elders tell their disciples that they're fighting over honor, but when it gets down to it, you typically find something extremely practical at the bottom of the conflict.
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"The harvesters are almost in earshot, though, so we should probably table this discussion for another time."
Soon Guang Yin arrived with five other men, all of a similar age and cultivation level to him. The thing that stood out the most about them to Benton was that each of them carried a weapon.
After introductions were made all around, he said, "Seems like you guys might be more combat capable than the mayor led me to believe."
Guang Yin had the decency to look chagrined. "We have no techniques for fighting or any formal combat training." He shrugged. "But over the years, one picks things up, Master Chao."
Benton had lived a long life back on Earth and understood what the man meant. While he felt like these six men wouldn't be a pushover by any means, he also didn't think Guang Yin was lying.
Still, he'd make sure to avoid putting himself or the twins in a vulnerable situation. Trust but verify.
"The wood is located about five miles from the village," Guang Yin said. "Should take us about an hour to walk there, assuming beast attacks don't slow us too much."
An hour? Benton and siblings could make a five-mile trek in a quarter of that time, and that pace would have been one he considered leisurely.
"Best get started then," he said.
It didn't take long for the first spirit beast to near their path. With a gesture, he sent Yang Ru to take care of it. The boy returned a few minutes later with the carcass of a deer draped over his shoulder, which Benton stored in his spatial ring.
Yang Xiu got the call for the next one, and they continued taking turns after that.
At a distance, the location that Benton assumed was the source of the spirit wood was one big massive blob of qi. It was kind of like looking at a whole bunch of LEDs that were grouped together to make a giant flashlight, blending into one big beam.
By the time he neared their destination, his senses were able to separate out individual sources of qi. He called the party to a halt. "There are a lot of spirit beasts ahead. Dozens. Mostly rank ones and twos, but there are a couple of threes."
Guang Yin nodded. "I was afraid of that, Master Chao. The Wood always did attract the critters, and they haven't been culled in way too long. I guess we'll have to turn back."
"You're probably right." Benton sighed. "I feel good about our team being able to clear the area, but I promised the mayor I would keep you safe."
"Yeah. I'm sure you could kill all those beasts in no time if it weren't for these weak old men holding you back, Master Chao." Guang Yin scoffed. "If you want to make a go of it, don't let us stop you. We'll handle what comes at us."
Benton couldn't believe his ability was being doubted so openly. The mayor had flat out said he suspected Benton of being a golden core or nascent soul level cultivator. Guang Yin must not have been convinced. Either that or his pride was writing checks his body couldn't cash.
"I committed to protecting you, and I do not like going back on my word," Benton said. "If the three of us go full out against that mass of spirit beasts, some will leak out and may head this way. It shouldn't be many. One or two of each rank. And I will make sure that we either kill the rank threes or they flee the opposite direction from the village. Tell me true, do you believe you can really handle that level of danger?"
Guang Yin just scowled.
"Begging your pardon, Esteemed Master Cultivator," one of the other harvesters, Gao Xiaojian, said. "I reckon all of us have more experience than we'd like fighting beasts these past ten years. We're too old to make much of a difference trying to cull them or for a long, drawn-out fight, but I reckon we can stand up to what you're talking about for a while."
"Okay," Benton said. "If that's your final answer, I'm game if you are."