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Chapter 142 – Better to Lose a Fortune
🕑 Added 2024-11-23 04:03:02 +0000 UTCThe fast approaching fourth wave worried Benton greatly. The beast tide was not likely to crest at rank six, and any higher than that was the equivalent of Golden Core and above. Fighting such an opponent near the village was a bad idea.
The kinds of energies that a rank seven or higher had access to could destroy even a wall made from Orange Vigor Spirit Wood with even an incidental blow. None of the sect members, not even the twins and Kang Lin, had a chance of surviving if forces of that strength were unleashed in their vicinity.
Heck, if the Big Boss were a high enough rank, Benton would have to go all out. Truly all out. He’d have to unleash the full might of his qi, and his techniques didn’t exactly come equipped with IFF to separate the allies from enemies when determining who to blast into nothingness.
Yeah. Fighting the higher ranked beasts too close to the village was a complete non-starter, which was why he’d been preparing his disciples to survive a portion of the tide without him.
His original plan had been to stay in the village until the beginning of the sixth wave. Upon leaving to find the Big Boss, he’d do serious damage to the beasts as he passed and leave the dregs to the twins and Kang Lin. With a long interval between waves, that would have hopefully given him enough time to find and destroy the tide’s mastermind before the higher ranks even reached the village.
If he left any sooner, he risked missing the rank sixes, and he feared what would happen if that entire wave made it to the wall. After all, he had no idea how many beasts would attack, and the defenders only had three Foundation Establishment cultivators to protect them if he left.
Crap. Really only one as neither Yang Xiu nor Kang Lin were powerful enough to kill a rank six. Two on one, they’d have a chance, but only a small one. And they were likely to instead be severely outnumbered.
Benton had been hoping that the experience they gained versus the rank fours and fives would trigger skill and/or cultivation advancements that would assist them with the sixes. Which wasn’t an absurd hope. The twins were two of the top three most talented sect members, and considering how much benefit even the low tiered disciples were getting, both of them should get a lot of gains.
That was really the best-case scenario. The twins would get stronger. Between their advancement and the special arrows Benton provided, they’d be able to handle the sixes and, hopefully, weather the storm brought by even higher ranked beasts.
With the interval between waves shrinking, though, there would not be enough time for them to finish one properly, much less consolidate their gains. They’d have to fight no stronger than they were at the moment, a losing proposition.
They’d basically have to rely on the shield holding just to survive.
That path obviously would no long work. Instead, Benton would have to choose between the least bad of two options—do his best to find and destroy all the waves himself as he journeyed to find the Big Boss, knowing that if any escaped him could prove disaster for his disciples, or stay at the village and attack with and defend enormously powerful qi techniques that would absolutely destroy any of the lower realmed cultivators if they were even so much as grazed.
Either way, there was nothing he could do about it for the moment. In no case did it seem to make sense for him to leave prior to the start of the sixth wave. He motioned for Ye Zan to signal Kang Lin and the twins to the gate.
Even though the three of them moved with all due haste to heed the summons, the beasts reached the wall first. The speed of the beast equivalent of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was an order of magnitude greater than that of a Qi Gathering cultivator. The journey from the edge of Benton’s spiritual sense to the village took less than ten minutes total for the rank fours, and hundreds of them arrived to siege the village.
Everyone knew the plan. Once the fourth wave arrived and Ye Zan signaled for the twins and Kang Lin, the three were to engage at will.
Yang Xiu took up a position on the allure and began shooting. Each shot hit, of course, but though her rate of fire had improved, she couldn’t quite get two arrows on a target fast enough to take advantage of the beast’s qi shield being momentarily overwhelmed. Instead, she chose a different quarry each time until finding one that reacted poorly to her ice qi, mainly those with the fire aspect.
Those targets she took down, fast and hard. Unfortunately, there just weren’t that many of them. Still, she managed to down two beasts before Yang Ru and Kang Lin jumped over the wall.
Those two faced an unenviable situation as they were each outnumbered several hundred to one. It quickly became apparent that the danger to them outweighed any possible benefit. Yang Ru had killed one beast immediately, having transferred the momentum from his jump, but he wasn’t able to build up any additional energy as he was swarmed with beasts.
Kang Lin was more agile and was able to use her spear to deflect most of her attackers, but she wasn’t able to land any truly damaging blows, either.
Benton had Ye Zan sound a retreat. Yang Ru and Kang Lin ran around the wall, beasts in hot pursuit, with her helping him to remove all the creatures clinging to him. Once he was free, they leaped back inside the wall.
“Well, that didn’t work,” Benton said to no one in particular.
He basically had two choices. One, kill all the beasts himself, which he could easily do with little effort and barely even expending any qi. Or two, he could allow the sect members to break out the special arrows.
Both options had benefits. Killing the beasts himself saved a precious resource that the defenders could use to kill much higher ranked beasts later. But using the arrows allowed the defenders to gain benefits from the fight.
What to do? What to do?
Using the wisdom of Solomon, he split the baby right down the middle.
Well, kind of. It really made no sense at all to use a consumable when his very presence negated the necessity. It wasn’t like shooting the externally charged munitions would provide much enlightenment to his sect members, and the arrows would be much better used as a failsafe when he wasn’t around to protect the village.
No, the split would be to have him kill a great number of the rank four spirit beasts while allowing his three Foundation Establishment cultivators to finish off the others.
That solution wouldn’t provide them the benefit a true life and death struggle, but it was a lot quicker. At the moment, speed counted.
He quickly drew the three and Ye Zan to him and explained the plan.
“Yes, Master.”
Benton jumped up to the top of the allure and called Chain Lightning, targeting beasts furthest from the wall. Each use of the technique killed four to six beasts but also held the slight risk of spreading inside the village. Once there were no beasts he judged a safe distance away, he was forced to switch to another option.
Gravity was great for immobilizing a great number of enemies, but both cultivator and beast bodies were extraordinarily resistant to being damaged by it. It took a lot of effort to kill by burst alone.
Temperature differences were good but not when the enemies were so close to his allies. Which left his void technique.
He really, really needed to come up with a technique that could be used in close proximity to his sect members.
Benton pulled a handful of tiny metal spheres from his ring and tossed them down in a wide arc. When each touched flesh, a large sphere of void blossomed, disappearing the entirety of everything inside it.
He winced. So many expensive materials destroyed.
There was no help for it, though. Better to spend literal fortunes than to lose a single sect member.
Soon, the hundreds of spirit beasts had been reduced to a mere handful, and the twins and Kang Lin were again released to attack. Through teamwork and with archers on the wall providing support, they made quick work of the survivors.
They immediately started gathering the corpses, but he told them to consolidate their gains instead. While they meditated, Benton did the grunt work for them.
It seemed unlikely to him that they’d advance much from the lackluster fight he’d left for them, but he wouldn’t know until they tried.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Dark Phoenix
Benton, maybe you should use a Void Blade, then you'd just void the part of the neck you slice through instead of the whole thing. Think Benton, Think!
Sarah Grfghlt
That would be too easy tbh let benton have some struggle
ShadeByTheSea
Yeah an auto iff technique would be useful. It's likely you could even make a concept with it.
Daoist_Matt
Wise words
CentrisAce
True brother
RedFaux
Why have a technique that can be used in close proximity, when you can have a technique that makes every other technique usable in close proximity?
