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Chapter 158 – Celebrate Good Times
🕑 Added 2024-12-15 01:36:32 +0000 UTCDespite Benton’s reservation about the Trial Pagoda being a point sink, he pulled the trigger, confirming that reward as his selection, and the System stowed the building in his spatial ring. The time taken to bathe and deal with the prompts allowed a decent amount of his qi to be restored, but he still decided to consume ten spirit coils to add another one hundred thousand units.
With the tide finished, he wasn’t expected to run into any danger, but it was better to be prepared than to be caught off guard.
His impulse was to go straight to the village, but there was one errand he needed to take care of first. He Quickstepped to the sect grounds and looked for a good spot for the new pagoda.
It would be a central building for the Rising Tide Sect, something that made the sect extraordinary. He wanted to give it pride or place instead of hiding it away. Unfortunately, with only the arena having been placed, it was hard for him to visualize exactly how the grounds were going to take shape.
He had mentally designated an area away from the arena to be the sect’s central administrative complex, so he picked a place there that seemed like it would work and placed the Trial Pagoda. Unlike with the structures he took from the Righteous Rain Sect, there were no visible foundations to deal with. Instead, when he placed the building, he got a pop up.
“Yes, please.”
The prompt made him think that the placement would be permanent, but he could deal with that, The other buildings could be maneuvered around it. After all, one of them had to be the first to be placed.
Foundations grew out of the bottom of the building and burrowed into the ground.
Neat.
While he didn’t know the exact layout of the area, he did know that he wanted the Contribution Points Shop to be near the Trials Pagoda because Peng Zhen would be put in charge of managing access to the place. To an extent, anyway. Obviously, the merchant would have to coordinate with Benton for trials involving death stakes and for permission to use Sect Points, but the actual schedule and the amount of contribution points to charge the trial-takers wasn’t something that the sect leader needed to concern himself with.
There was a small two-story building that he had planned to use for the shop. It was perfect with a relatively large open area on the first floor that could be turned into a sales floor, plenty of storage space in back rooms, and living quarters upstairs. The entire Peng family should fit easily with space to spare.
Benton quickly removed the building from his ring, took a look at the alignment of the foundations, and stowed it back inside. Before he started digging, though, he had a thought. When he’d set up the arena, he didn’t have nearly the understanding of techniques or the plethora of Sect Points that he currently did. He’d had to actually dig out spaces for the foundations by hand.
He was no longer so simple.
“System, I’d like to buy an Earth aspected technique to dig out foundations. Please confirm purchase to Mastery.”
The new technique worked like a charm, allowing him to quickly and easily place the new Contribution Points Shop adjacent to the new pagoda.
Nice. That would come in super handy when he placed the rest of the sect buildings.
Time to go visit the kids.
He Quickstepped in the forest just outside the village gate and used his spiritual sense to find a spot clear of people in the plaza. One more Quickstep, and he was inside.
“Master!” Yang Xiu yelled.
Yang Ru, Kang Lin, Ye Zan, Jin LiJuan, and a lot of the others were there, meditating. All looked up at Yang Xiu’s shout. They all had smiles on their faces as big as the one on his.
“All of you, great job,” Benton said. “I cannot adequately express how proud of you I am. Now, someone tell me what happened after I left.”
It wasn’t that easy, of course. Each of them had parts to interject, and Benton did not spare his praise as they related their harrowing adventure, especially when they told him about the badger that had made it inside the wall.
He was quite displeased with himself when he heard that. The thought of a beast going underneath the shield hadn’t even occurred to him, and considering the number of animals that burrow, it definitely should have. It was only luck and the talent of his amazing disciples that prevented the entire village from being destroyed.
Another concern was that his super-fast arrows hadn’t gotten the job done at all. The higher ranked beasts had dodged them … as easily as he could have. He really should have thought of that as well. A homing function would have been better than making them faster. The formation would have been a lot harder, but the results would have been worth it.
In contrast, he was so happy with his disciples that he could barely stand it. Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, Kang Lin, and Zou Tian had all defended against beasts well above their level, and Ye Zan, Jin LiJuan, and the others had shown true bravery and commitment in the face of what must have looked like certain death. When they finished the story, he singled each of them out by name and told them how incredible he thought their actions were.
And of course, they all wanted to hear his story, so he related how the seventh, eighth, and ninth waves were actually pretty easy. More tedious than anything else as he wanted to make sure none of them escaped past him.
The cyclops, on the other hand… Since various Poison Claw Sect members like Pan Jiang were in the audience, Benton couldn’t give the gathering the true blow by blow as those details would have given way too many clues about his actual cultivation level, but he did let them know that it was an intense fight and that the Big Boss of a beast tide was much stronger than an average beast of the same rank.
“With the beast tide officially over, though, we have two very urgent tasks to accomplish,” Benton said.
“Of course, Master,” Yang Xiu said. “We’re ready to obey. What would you have us do?”
“Number one, receive your rewards. Number two, celebrate!”
There were laughs and cheers all around.
“To the victors go the spoils,” Benton said, “and you all stand victorious. Gather all the sect members and any villager who want to come at the arena as quickly as possible. I think you’re going to like what I have for you.”
With the tide over and so many beasts killed, the area around the village and the sect was safer than it had ever been. Benton didn’t detect a single spiritual signal in range of his sense save for his sect members and their allies. He made sure to tell that to those assembled and have them pass it on to the others.
It was nearing nightfall when the last person took a seat in the stands. All the sect members and the Poison Claw Sect allies attended, of course, along with several hundred of the villagers.
Benton looked around at the five to six hundred people who had gathered in the stands and smiled. They’d come so far and would only continue to advance. He was so pleased about their response to what could have been a disaster. Even the villagers had showed calmness and fortitude, not complaining at all during the entire beast tide.
Speaking of not complaining, though, he couldn’t help but notice that Jin LiJuan was shivering. Even though she was only at the first minor realm of Qi Gathering and had a horribly damaged circulation system, she was a cultivator. It was rare for one to come down with an illness.
“Are you okay, Li’er?” Benton said.
“Y-yes, M-Master.”
“Why are you shivering? Are you sick?”
“N-no, M-Master. I’m f-fine.”
“Nonsense. You can barely talk your lips are trembling so hard.”
“Master,” Mistress Zhong said. “The child is cold. The mortals and those early on the path of cultivation notice temperatures more than we do.”
Ah. He supposed it was getting close to winter. Trivial concerns like whether the weather was hot or cold wasn’t even noticeable to him anymore. But having had his attention called to it, he noticed that the villagers were all huddled together and had on coats or wore blankets wrapped around them.
Luckily, he could do something about their comfort.
“Tell me when you start to feel warm enough, Li’er.”
She looked confused but nodded.
He triggered his Area Temperature Manipulation, increasing the heat until Li’er told him to stop.
“There,” he said. “Nice and cozy.”
“Gratitude, Master,” Li’er said, grinning at him.
He took that as a rare treat. The kid did not smile often.
After removing a wagon from his ring to use as a podium on the arena floor, he took his position atop it. The crowd grew silent in anticipation.
“Once again,” Benton said, “I cannot adequately express how impressed I am at how all of you handled an extremely stressful and dangerous situation. Even though I would prefer to always be with you to provide protection, that luxury simply will not always be possible. That I can depend on you to help and defend each other is an enormous boon, one that deserves rewarding.”
His words had an immediate impact, especially to all who had not been present in the plaza earlier. He had a hard time fully understanding what he meant to these people, but it must have been something profound because a few words of praise elevated the mood even higher. There were smiles on practically all faces.
Of course, part of that might have been the promised rewards…
“As you made your way to the arena, you may have noticed two new buildings. The smaller of those is the new Contribution Points Shop.” Benton looked around until he found who he was looking for in the crowd. “Peng Zhen, that building is now yours. You’ll find housing space for your family upstairs.”
“Gratitude, Master.”
“The larger structure adjacent to it is the Trials Pagoda.” Benton paused for a moment to let the impact of the statement sink in. “Once per day, one person approved by Peng Zhen and me and requiring payment of contribution points to do so may enter the pagoda for the purposes of undertaking a trial. He and I will talk later to discuss the criteria for doing so.”
The villagers, of course had no idea what such an announcement portended. Neither did most of his sect members who, until very recently, had been mortals and knew little about the world of cultivators. Yang Xiu looked excited, either because she’d read about trials in a story or something or because she just expected that anything coming from Master was sure to be interesting.
The best reaction was from Kang Lin, who had grown up in a prominent family in a major sect. Her jaw literally dropped. She surely knew what a Trials Pagoda was, and Benton figured she never anticipated being able to see one.
“If you partake of the first trial, you will be able to work on improving either a chosen technique or your cultivation. This trial requires only contributions points to partake, and as the trial has no real risk, Peng Zhen may schedule your participation. While this trial is helpful to move you along your cultivation journey, please remember that taking the trial means that no one else will be able to use the pagoda that day. For those of you who are not bottlenecked, slots for this trial will be the absolute lowest priority.”
Benton grinned as he waited for the implications of his statement to sink in but ended up being disappointed. In Su’s memory, all cultivators feared bottlenecks as a potential end to one’s challenge of the heavens. His sect members, on the other hand, had no reason to fear such a thing. Even for the lowest talented ones, the journey thus far had been smooth.
Only the Poison Claw Sect members and the old harvesters truly understood what Benton said, that the trials were a potential path to breaking bottlenecks.
Oh well, he was used to failing to get the reaction he wanted. Some people were just no fun.
“If you partake in the second trial, you will be able to modify your qi aspect. Note that this action can result in a very profound change as your qi aspect is something that is integral to who you are as a person. Choosing to take this trial is something that requires careful consideration. On the other hand, the results can be profound as adding a new element to your repertoire could be a game changer. Unfortunately, though, participation requires a small amount of a limited resource that only I can contribute, so it requires my permission.”
The announcement of the second trial produced more of a reaction than the first. He could see wheels spinning in the heads of Yang Xiu, Zou Tian, and others as the potential revealed itself. Kang Lin just looked flummoxed.
Benton grinned. She was fast becoming his absolute favorite person to tease.
“If you partake in the third trial…” He paused, allowing the tension of the moment to build.
A lot of the audience literally leaned forward in their seats.
“If you successfully complete the third trial, you will be able to improve your spiritual roots by one minor step.”
Finally, he got the reaction he had been looking for. Even the villagers understood the importance of the rank of one’s spiritual roots as it was the sole determining factor in acceptance to most sects. They also knew that it was incredibly rare to change such a thing. After all, only a very few of his most talented sect members so far had been afforded that opportunity.
To hear that any of them could possible do so was of profound relevance.
Benton couldn’t wait announce that all of them would be allowed to advance one minor step free of charge. The reactions were sure to be hilarious.
Comments
richard bond
"Gather all the sect members and any villager who want to come" - not sure if I am being fussy, but I think this would read better if either "villager" or "wants" was pluralized.
richard bond
"decided to consume ten spirit coils" - coils -> coins
Jeff091
hi, thanks for the story typo spirit coils coils-->coins
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
BelligerentGnu
Yep. KangLin.exe has stopped working.
richard bond
Honestly looking forward to Kang Lin's reaction to the next reveal, and the aftermath. Also looking forward to seeing how Jin LiJuan turns this into the start of her rise to immortality.
