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Chapter 249 - Barely
🕑 Added 2025-04-26 17:34:20 +0000 UTCThe three hundred soon to be new Rising Tide Sect members were already gathering in the amphitheater when Benton summoned Yuan Yaozu, the twins, Zou Tian, Sun Hua, and Kang Lin to his office.
“Thank all of you for coming so quickly,” Benton said once all five of them had gathered. “I have a few announcements. First, Yuan Yaozu has requested that I take him as a disciple, and after giving the matter its due consideration, I accept his request.”
The man cupped his hands. “Gratitude, Master.”
Though he said it with a smile, there was no mocking in his tone. To all appearances, he was taking the situation seriously. Good.
Kang Lin had the biggest reaction. “Elder Yuan? A Nascent Soul? Master’s disciple?”
Her reactions really were the best. Benton really liked the girl, but even if he’d hated her, he probably would have kept her around just for the amusement factor alone.
“I believe you mean Senior Brother Yuan, fellow disciple,” the man said, grinning ear to ear.
Ah, a fellow connoisseur of funny reactions. Benton approved.
“Anyway, on to my second announcement. For reasons that would require way too much backstory to explain, it is greatly beneficial for me to have the sect reach one thousand members as quickly as possible. As you’ve probably noticed, the amphitheater is filling up. The three hundred villagers gathering there along with the one hundred prospects that Fatty Ren is inducting will take us over that number.”
None of the meeting’s attendees reacted strongly at all to his news. Most of them were used to him doing things for inscrutable purposes.
“As my current disciples and sect members know,” Benton continued, “Yuan Yaozu and the inductees here will be indisposed for half a day or so.”
That one did get a reaction from the man in question. He raised his eyebrows in question.
“Normally, I prefer to watch over my members personally when they’re in such a vulnerable state,” Benton said, “but I will have some tasks of my own to complete during a least part of that time. I’m depending on my three Foundation Establishment disciples and my lead scout to keep an eye on things while I’m not available. Obviously, make use of the guards as well. If there’s a major emergency, I’ll be here in my study, and I don’t think I’ll be so consumed by my tasks that I won’t be able to take care of things. I probably won’t be monitoring the surroundings as closely as normal, though, so your main goal if something happens is to summon me. Use your contingency rings. Speaking of which…”
Benton pulled two more from his spatial storage and tossed one each to Zou Tian and Yuan Yaozu.
“Gratitude, Master,” Zou Tian said, donning the ring.
Meanwhile, Yuan Yaozu turned his over in his hand and peered at it. “Some kind of signal array?”
“Break in case of emergency,” Benton said. “If you need me, I’ll appear. I know it probably seems silly for a Nascent Soul, but if you’re going to be one of my disciples, you get all the advantages.”
Yuan Yaozu cupped his hands again. “Gratitude, Master.” He placed the ring on his finger.
That distribution unfortunately left five of the six people in the room possessing the potentially life saving devices, which meant Benton felt really guilty about leaving the last person out. Rationally, she shouldn’t be getting into many dangerous situations given her job, but it still had to sting to see others in the room favored so while being left out.
“Sun Hua, I need to make another batch soon,” Benton said. “You’re at the top of the list when I get them ready.”
The girl blushed bright red as she mumbled her thanks.
“The plan for the evening is as follows,” Benton said. “When you leave here, you have less than an hour to make your preparations for guarding the sect. Use that time well. Yuan Yaozu, if you’ll patrol during that time?”
“Of course, Sect Leader.”
“Good, at the end of that hour, I’ll pop over to the amphitheater and conduct the induction ceremony. As soon as I’m finished, Senior Brother Yuan and I will do the disciple ceremony. Then I’ll pop back here and go about my business, and the four of you will be in charge of keeping the sect safe until I’m finished. Cool?”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
The kids were obviously still young, but they were diligent, hard-working, capable, and reliable. Their knowledge, personalities, and abilities also complemented each other well. Kang Lin was risk averse and knew a lot about sect politics. Zou Tian was observant and analytical. Sun Hua was methodical and focused on details. Yang Xiu had the personality required to take charge of the diverse group and a natural fighting talent. And Yang Ru took responsibility for making sure they all stayed safe while possessing the skills to greatly exceed his realm in battle.
Benton felt comfortable leaving things in their hands. “Great. Get going.”
Benton watched them go with a smile on his face. Yang Xiu, Zou Tian, and Sun Hua were discussing security measures while Yang Ru nodded along. The thing that amused him, though, was the other conversation taking place, the one between Yuan Yaozu and Kang Lin.
“If this is some kind of haze the new Senior Brother thing, junior sister, I feel the need to remind you that I’m still an elder in your sect.”
“Elder Yuan! I would never! I swear!”
“You have a good reputation, and your grandfather thinks the world of you. But it’s simply not possible to gain a minor step in spiritual roots simply by becoming someone’s disciple. It’s just not.”
Though the man’s reaction did tickle Benton, he would have preferred that Kang Lin play the situation completely straight. Instead of acting presenting the increase as a huge thing, she could have gone with something like, “It’s no big deal. Just a small increase to your spiritual roots. You’ll get used to stuff like that happening.”
Of course, if acting like that were her inclination, he doubted her reactions would entertain him nearly as much, so…
Though he enjoyed watching the kiddos, he had his own work to do, mainly the creation of a dozen more of the contingency rings. Which wasn’t a hard task but was somewhat finicky and involved a lot of steps. With a small use of his Time Manipulation, he finished exactly when his hour was up.
Cool. He’d discovered another use for that technique. Besides getting more accomplished, he was able to arrange for himself to be extremely punctuality.
Though the induction was becoming routine for him, Benton realized that it was special for each of his new sect members, so he did his best to be enthusiastic. Still, the ceremony wasn’t terribly lengthy, and before he knew it, the three hundred former villagers were all choosing to enhance their spiritual roots despite his efforts to dissuade them.
Gaining new members gave him both Shop Points and Sect Points. Kind of. Officially, he gained one Shop Point as soon as a prospect became a member or disciple as a reward for the completion of the Recruit Additional Disciple Quest, which the System had graciously allowed to be awarded automatically. That quest completion was triggered pretty much simultaneously with the new member being offered the opportunity to improve their talent.
Gaining Sect Points wasn’t actually tied to the induction process. It was just that one of the first things he did once he added a member or disciple was giving them a cultivation method. As soon as the newbies absorbed knowledge of the method and sensed their first mote, he got credited with a Sect Point.
With the spiritual root reward becoming part of the process, it would be the next day before he got those points, but that was okay. They would come soon enough. More important for his current purpose was that the new members all counted to officially increase his sect’s roster size almost immediately.
Sweet.
He checked his status.
Fatty Ren apparently hadn’t completed his induction ceremony yet. No problem. Benton had faith that the Town Lord would get it done on time before nightfall as instructed.
Benton removed his tea set from his spatial ring and began preparations for the bai si ceremony. Yuan Yaozu must have been paying attention while on patrol because, by the time Benton had finished setting the cups out, the man had floated down from the sky.
By that point, Benton felt like he’d preformed that ceremony a thousand times even though it was actually less than a hundred, and since his new disciple was the exact opposite of a wide-eyed newbie, Benton didn’t stress nearly as much about trying to make it special.
Contrary to his expectations, though, Yuan Yaozu’s eyes did go wide with wonder.
“This… Junior Sister was telling the truth.”
“She does have a sense of humor,” Benton said, “but I’m pretty sure she’d go apoplectic at the thought of teasing a Nascent Soul.”
“This is real? And safe?”
“Perfectly. Though as you probably heard me warn the others, it hurts. A lot.” The thought of a thousand year old suffering a bit of pain didn’t bother Benton nearly as much as putting teenagers through the same thing, so he made no real attempt to convince the man not to go through with it.
“I should be fine, Sect Leader … Master,” Yuan Yaozu said.
Benton checked his status again.
Exactly as he’d expected. But something at the bottom of the screen caught his attention.
“System,” he said internally, “please display available quest rewards.”
Given his latest action with Yuan Yaozu and past quests issued by the System, Benton was pretty darn sure he knew exactly what the new ones would be. “System, please show new quests.”
It was Benton’s turn to have his eyes go wide. He quickly asked the System to award him his Perk Point.
Sweet. Those were super rare. He would have fun making that choice.
In the meantime, though, he’d received another notification. Fatty Ren had completed his induction, bringing his total number of sect members to one thousand twelve.
“System,” Benton said, “what is my Average Loyalty Rating?”
Yes! The System’s requirements for him advancing to Nascent Soul were one thousand members with an Average Loyalty Rating of six point five. He’d just squeezed over the line for both criteria. Barely. But by a full point or only point three, it was enough.
Benton Quickstepped back to his office, inscribed a half dozen privacy formations around his cultivation mat, and sank into a lotus position. It was finally time to enact a true measure of protection for his sect members.
“System, please advance me to Nascent Soul.”
Comments
Frardowin
He is 5 chapter behind. That is going to either be a big dump of chapters, or a pain to catch up on.
corefish665
When’s the next chapter coming out?
Sparkley Unicorn
Updated royal road, they're probably just editing or hit a block. Nascant soul is a big jump with a lot of massive boosts. Probably got stuck figuring out all the numbers and what sounds cool enough if a bonus. Would be my guess anyway
Dotakiin
Are you alright?
Frardowin
19 ahead.
Joppest
punctuality -> punctual
Dark Phoenix
"during a least part of that time" minor spelling error here? should be "at least"?
Frardowin
I Don see him making the power mistake again. He will likely take the advancement perk so he can get to nihility. Unless there is something trully insane offered.
Starter_guy
I wonder if he will do like last time, first realm only and then create his new build after seeing the changes. We have not seen perk options since chapter 99, wonder if he will go enhanced spiritual power, better senses and hide presense as all three could now be lvl 2
KingOrgasmusTwo
Perk will be the Major power boost if placed correctly. He has enough points to max put every new rank cap in cultivation, body, mind and soul and be truly the strongest of all 4 factions
Starblossom
Yes the hiding perk is useful, the question is what is the difference between hiding lv1 and hiding lv2. The fact that hiding lv2 exist mean that hiding lv1 has a limit, but we don't know what that limit is. Is it, hiding lv1 stop being effective for every cultivator at nihility realm and above. Or is it that hiding lv1 doesn't work on cultivator 3 major realm and higher. If it is the latter, then upgrading the hiding perk will probably be less useful Than what some of the other perk can offer like the perk that ease the restriction on Going to the next major realm. It also depend whether Or not the hiding perk lv2 add some option that the lv1 didn't have like the ability to be invisible to every sens of ennemy cultivator for exemple
Pagemaster
He should take the hiding perk level 2 the one where others can't sense him. That particular perk has paid dividends in usefulness, and I can only imagine what level 2 will look like!
Starblossom
I think he will go peak 4th realm right after he has reach N.S or maybe after he used his perk point Or maybe he go up to nihility by using the perk point to lessen the restriction on reaching nihility
RedFaux
No insta peak?
