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Chapter 224 – Instructions
🕑 Added 2025-03-22 17:10:14 +0000 UTCA/N 3/22/25: Oops. I made not one, not two, but three mistakes in this chapter. I had to take it down and re-upload it. Apologies if you happened on it before the corrected version went up.
Benton had spent a lot of time coming up with a design for the towers. The formation capable of killing a Nascent Soul cultivator would go at the very top, but that array wasn’t the only one. He had to start with a solid base, one that could withstand quite a bit of punishment if anything got through the shield. Or if an attack on the sect came before the shield was finished.
The first step, though, was to obtain the base material for the tower, which meant another visit to the Wood, so Benton Quickstepped over there to find Guang Yin again.
“Sect Leader? I thought you didn’t need the wood discs for a while yet.”
Benton rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I already finished that project, and I’m ready for my next one. Can I get two Orange Vigor Spirit Wood trunks, the bigger and taller the better.”
Guang Yin frowned. “How important is the project, Sect Leader?”
“More important than anything I can imagine. It might one day save the entire sect from destruction.”
“Okay.” The old harvester let out a breath. “There are two trees that meet your description, the two oldest in the Wood at several hundred years old. We’ve been saving them for something big and important. If this project is really that important, Sect Leader, they’re yours.”
“It is that important.” Benton cupped his hands. “Gratitude.” He paused. “About how tall are these trees?”
“About two to three hundred feet, Sect Leader.”
Benton was thinking of making the towers about forty feet tall. Even considering the need to extend fairly far underground for stability, anything over a hundred feet was serious overkill. In fact, sixty to eighty feet would be fine. “You know, I think one of those would be sufficient.”
“As you wish, Sect Leader.”
Benton left instructions for the trunk to be cut down and sectioned into equal segments in the range he needed. Guang Yin promised to have the tree felled immediately and delivered to the village woodworkers for treatment with the alchemical baths.
“Perfect,” Benton said. “I also need a bunch of branches of different sizes, as many as your harvesters can gather. Don’t bother treating those. Just have them delivered to Administration Hall by this evening if possible.”
“It will be as you have instructed, Sect Leader,” Guang Yin said. “I should also have the kernel you requested by that time and will have it delivered as well. The segments of the big trunk should be ready for your use three days from now.”
That didn’t give Benton much time to make his other preparations, considering he also needed to spend much time creating spirit coins. All he made that night would go with the twins to the city to pay for the materials to make the qi source.
On top of that usage, both towers would need as many coins as possible. The power supply for them would obviously be a big target. Destroy the power source, and the tower would cease to work. Which meant he’d have to secure the power source. Which meant that resupply during combat would be difficult at best and likely impossible. Which meant that he needed to provide as many coins as he could or risk the tower running out during a protracted battle.
He also needed rocks. A lot of rocks.
Treated Orange Vigor Spirit Wood was relatively strong, but strong was a relative term. When one’s expected opponent was a Nascent Soul, strong needed to mean virtually indestructible.
The wood was not, by any means, indestructible, so Benton’s plan was to use layers. Unfortunately, he neither had access to sufficient Shop Points to buy enough heaven grade materials to coat the towers nor any other way to get metals that would resist Nascent Souls. So he’d have to improvise.
His memory from Earth was that igneous rock tended to be quite strong when compared to regular stones. Maybe something to do with the crystalline structure that formed when they cooled?
Anyway, he planned to coat each tower base in a thick layer of lava and cool into a solid protective shell.
To do that, he needed a massive quantity of basalt, a common rock formed by cooling lava. He’d run across several deposits of the stuff in his travels around the mountains, so that feat was easy enough. Which one of the reasons he’d chosen to use the material in the first place.
For the outside layer, he planned to use more rock, though not in a solid shell as he had other plans in mind instead. And the material he’d chosen was likewise easy to find. The name of it escaped him, but it was the kind that formed the really steep cliffs because it was so resistant to erosion.
Benton spent the rest of the daylight hours gathering both those types of materials into his ring. When he Quickstepped back to his workshop, he found a pile of branches waiting for him along with a small chunk of dense wood that was absolutely packed with qi.
He used Analyze on the kernel.
Benton really appreciated how the System looked out for him. The information under Other told him exactly what he wanted to know—first that the kernel was exactly what he needed for crafting a qi source and, second, that he’d need four more of them for the task. And if one of the kernels was worth one hundred ten-thousand-qi spirit coins, that meant any sufficient crafting material was probably worth at least five hundred.
He made a mental note of that information and moved on to examining the branches. Guang Yin and his men had done a great job. The pile was exactly what Benton needed.
Perfect. Between the sticks and stones, his entire next day would be consumed with inscribing formations. Before he began that part of the project, he had a full eight hours of spirit coin production ahead of him.
If he ever had thought that the life of a sect leader was glamorous, the tediousness of that night abused him of that notion.
He actually ended up going over the eight hours as he decided to maximize the number of coins to give to the twins. When he got the notification that Yang Ru had advanced his shield the Mastery, just like his sister had the previous day, Benton knew he should expect the trio of travelers soon, so he Quickstepped to the Blacksmith Pavilion to pick up the base from Xun Wu.
With his Time Manipulation, it took him only a little more than a subjective minute to finish creating Kang Lin’s glider.
Benton had a few minutes, maybe as many as a quarter hour, before she and the twins arrived, and he took a second to determine the best use of that short period. Starting his new project just to be interrupted didn’t make much sense, and he couldn’t make many coins that quickly.
On the other hand…
It was difficult to do extremely detailed work involving multiple techniques when he was also altering time, but creating spirit coins was one of the easiest things he did. The only real limiting factor was qi, and his pool wasn’t anywhere close to being depleted. The twins might end up needed an immense amount of coins, so every little bit might help.
Ten minutes of production was nothing. Ten minutes worth of production while also using Time Manipulation was an entirely different story. His decision made, he triggered the technique, and by the time the kids arrived, he’d spent an additional ten hours making coins.
“First of all, disciples, I have gifts for each of you.” Benton pulled three rings from his spatial storage. “Take these, put them on, and do not remove them.”
“But Master, we already have storage rings?” Yang Xiu said.
“These serve a different purpose. I call them contingency rings. If they break, they send me a pulse letting me know you’re in trouble and set off a beacon that I can teleport to.” Benton pointed to a small etched line on the ring. “Wear it with this mark on the bottom of your finger. It indicates a weak spot. Just a little bit of force from your finger will crush it, as will any force that gets through your shield that is strong enough to hurt you.”
“You made one for me, too, Master?” Kang Lin said. “I’m not one of your sect members.”
“I’ve said it many times. You are one of my disciples. And you’re going into potentially dangerous situation in service of me and my sect. I’m not going to hang you out to dry.”
All three of them cupped their hands. “Gratitude, Master.”
“The final gift is just for Kang Lin. We’ll call it an early birthday present.” He withdrew it from his ring and deposited it on the floor in front of her.
“My flier!” Kang Lin said. “Gratitude, Master.”
“Glider, not flier,” Benton said.
She tilted her head. “But gliding implies that the device doesn’t fly under its own power, Master.”
Okay, her criticism was valid as the device did use qi for lift and thrust. Hmm. The argument against it was that the movie called it a glider. Which, upon further consideration, was probably for alliterative purposes. In the end, nostalgia for Earth won out over accuracy.
“The inventor gets to name the device,” Benton said. “It’s a glider.”
She cupped her hands. “Of course, Master.”
Benton’s expectation was that Kang Lin would have a much higher degree of protection than the twins simply by wearing her Poison Claw Sect robe. The Jade Chameleons would be idiots to provoke a fight with another member of the big three by attacking her. Which was why he hadn’t insisted on her improving her shield before leaving on the mission.
Yang Ru had his shield at Mastery and both a movement technique and his main attack technique at Large Success. In contrast, his sister matched him with her shield and attack technique, but she hadn’t even learned a movement technique.
Benton felt the need to rectify that oversight prior to her leaving. He quickly created one for her, Slippery Steps, that would let her glide across the ground must faster than she would otherwise be able to.
“And finally, for Yang Xiu, an aid in escaping danger and in creating distance to proper bow range.” Benton tossed her a jade slip.
Yang Xiu caught it and immediately cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Master.”
With the gift giving out of the way, he moved onto giving them instructions. “Your first goal of the trip is to stay safe. Period. If you manage to buy literally nothing on the list, that’s fine as long as you return healthy and hale. If you’re facing an opponent and you feel yourself to be in true danger, forget face. Run. If you can’t run, break your ring. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” the three chorused.
“Second instruction,” Benton said. “Kang Lin is in charge. If she says run, you run. You do not question an order from her any more than you would from me. Do you understand?”
“Yes Master,” the twins chorused.
“Your grandfather has great faith in your ability to keep the twins out of trouble, Kang Lin. I’m trusting both him and you. Do not let me down.”
She swallowed hard. “Yes, Master.”
“Good. Now on to the actual mission.” Benton pulled out the Orange Vigor Spirit Wood kernel and showed it to the trio. “This is what you’re looking for. It holds about one fifth the amount of qi needed to be a proper ingredient for a source. Commit the feeling your spiritual sense gives you to memory.”
He gave the disciples a little while to examine the kernel, allowing each to hold it. The success of their entire mission rested on their ability to recognize the materials he needed, and the kernel was the only example he had. In fact…
“I can get more of these from the harvesters,” Benton said. “Why don’t you three take this kernel with you. That way, you can compare it to any materials you find to make sure the two are similar.”
Kang Lin cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Master.” She stored the kernel in her ring.
“Next thing is the money I have for you.” Benton deposited a pile of ten-thousand-qi spirit coins on a table.
Kang Lin’s eyes went wide. “Are all those greater spirit coins, Master? How many?”
Greater spirit coins? Benton had never heard the term, but it was a lot less cumbersome than referring to them as ten-thousand-qi coins. He liked it.
“Yes,” Benton said. “Five thousand of them.”
“Master… This is too much,” Kang Lin said. “If anyone knew we carried this much wealth in our rings, we’d be hunted by every sect in the city.”
“It’s actually not enough. The kernel you’re taking with you should go for about five hundred greater spirit coins, but we actually need materials that higher grade and contain more qi than that. At a minimum, you’ll be paying between that and a thousand for anything we can actually use. Most of the really nice stuff, you probably won’t even be able to buy. In that case, try to barter. As long as you can get the base materials, I can craft just about anything that alchemy, blacksmithing, or formations can produce.”
“Understood, Master,” Kang Lin said.
“I get your concern about having that much money on you, though. You’ll just have to take measure to keep the amount you have on you hidden. Maybe leave most of it with Kang Ya-Ting?”
“Yes, Master,” Kang Lin said.
He reiterated that they needed three types of material for each of six qi elements, going over those types of each. “These materials should be relatively difficult to find, so please do not stress if you can only find one or two or if you don’t find any. This project is one we’ll be working on for a long time.”
“Understood, Master,” the three chorused.
“You should be able to find any number of different spirit metals, though. Look for anything in the Golden Core or Nascent Soul realm, though the latter is unlikely for you to find. My preference is that you buy an ingot or two of a bunch of different types so that I can test them to determine which is best for my purposes. Please note the name of each, where you got it, and how much it cost.”
“Yes, Master,” the three said.
“The final thing I’ll need for you to purchase is a better cauldron. The ones here are for Foundation Establishment cultivators, and they just can’t handle the amount of qi I’ll be generating. I’d love one rated for Nascent Souls, but those are almost impossible to find and crazy expensive. One for Golden Cores should be fine.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Any questions?” Benton said.
“No, Master.”
He was sending them off into a potentially very dangerous situation, and man, he wanted so much to hug each of them. Their culture wasn’t nearly as big on physical displays as Earth was, though. They’d just find it awkward.
“Oh, I almost forgot, I need one more thing,” Benton said. “And this one is not important at all, so don’t stress about it. If you can, though, find me some sort of acting troupe, like people who put on plays or performances of some kind.”
He hadn’t encountered anyone like that when he was last in the city, but from Su’s memories, they existed. Considering that mortals would take weeks or months to travel from the city, the current crises should have hopefully passed by the time they arrived, and he had an idea that required actors.
“Of course, Master.” Kang Lin’s answer was firm, but her tone said that she thought the request to be quite strange.
Her confusion was okay, though. Being sect leader meant not having to explain oneself. Kind of like being grandpa. Eccentricity was actually a plus.
“Alright, then,” Benton said. “Be safe.”
That dismissal sounded so inadequate compared to what he wanted to tell them, but it would have to do. He was going to be a very anxious until he saw them safe again at home.
