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Chapter 111 – Preparations
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 17:42:11 +0000 UTCAs the mayor left to round up fifty more villagers for induction and the rest of the council adjourned to do whatever it was that would most advance the sect’s goals, Benton took a moment to think about where he was and where he was going. He had one hundred eleven sect members, not counting himself, and he felt like he barely even knew most of them. And he was about to add fifty more.
He needed to get a better handle on his organization before it grew out of control.
At the moment, he had two people assigned to him as administrative assistants that he hadn’t utilized at all. He’d barely even met them. Seven sect members were technically working in the Alchemy Pavilion, but four of those were villagers who hadn’t even gotten their herb technique to Small Success yet. Five were in the Blacksmith Pavilion, which, honestly, Benton had left for Xun Wu to organize. Presumably, they were all busy making arrowheads or something.
Peng Zhen and his family were running the Contribution Point Store, though that hadn’t really gotten off the ground yet, instead coordinating the villagers who were working on crafting the wall. The Formation Pavilion had five sect members assigned to it, but they were really just getting started as Benton had not appointed a leader until the man had reached minor realm four.
Mistress Zhong ran the outer sect, which was essentially the orphanage at that point. No one save her two helpers were actually assigned to it.
Eventually, Benton envisioned her being in charge of getting everyone through the first four minor realms before moving them on to their assigned pavilions. When the sect was bigger, Benton would think about making the core, inner, and outer sects into real suborganizations, but that division just didn’t make any real sense with so few people.
The second largest pavilion was actually Woodworking. It contained the six village harvesters, their six new apprentices, and five villagers experienced in making bows and arrows. Since the latter of those were already experienced crafters, they’d continued working as they’d started their cultivation journey.
Though Benton had basically merged the village and the sect by that point, he still kept the mayor and the four he’d selected as subordinates as a separate division within the sect, though Benton wouldn’t call it a pavilion per se.
Finally, the remaining sixty-three sect members, even those who were eventually slated to be assigned to other places, were assigned to the Martial Pavilion. Besides the twins and Zou Tian, there were four defined groups—Ye Zan’s two groups of guards, Zi Delan’s burgeoning strike team, and the twenty village guards. That left a combination of seventeen villagers and various orphans who would be either added to another pavilion in the future or organized into new or existing martial squads.
Of course, with the exception of those working on prepping for Body Cultivation baths and those crafting materials useful for the fighting beasts, all sect members were to be focused on cultivating and learning weapon techniques until after the crisis was resolved.
Benton lamented the cessation of progress on his sect wall. They hadn’t even reached half of what he needed yet, having produced only seven hundred forty linear feet. There was a bright spot, though. It was entirely possible that, should they survive the beast tide intact, the density of creatures would be so low and his sect members experienced enough in fighting them that the wall wouldn’t be immediately needed.
That consideration was actually a valid one. He’d have to check conditions afterward, but that he might be able to place all his main buildings once the combat was over cheered him considerably.
Feeling as prepared as he could be for the induction of fifty new sect members, he headed to the plaza just inside the village’s gate, the only spot big enough for a lot of people to gather. He hated not following the protocol he’d established by going to the arena, but travel outside the walls was simply too dangerous for a large group of mortals. Rank fours and fives were smart enough to use diversions and set simple traps. Losing anyone to an attack would be both a tragedy and a huge hit to morale.
A trip to the site of the sect to do the induction simply wasn’t worth it.
Besides, it wasn’t like he would continue using the arena for inductions anyway. The amphitheater was a much better venue.
People were still arriving when he got there, so he took a moment to scan everyone. Most were exactly what he expected. None save one were over E+ and most had nature aspected qi. The one lady who really stood out was a great find, though.
As he read her status, he made a mental note to scan everyone in the village at some point. If there were talented people like her around, finding them sooner would be better.
Yikes, not only was she the first person with triple aspected qi—Light, Earth, and Nature—that he’d encountered, but she was a natural born healer. Benton assumed that was the role she filled for the village.
Seeing who was sure to become the head of his sect’s newest pavilion, he immediately created a cultivation method for her. He would have done so because of her talent regardless, but he also didn’t want to lose the advantage of her triple aspect, either.
Ten Sect Points later, he had the Tri-Aspect Healing Foundation Cultivation Method for her in a jade slip in his ring. His biggest concern was that she was so old. Most mortals in a cultivation world didn’t reach sixty, so he wanted to speed her to Foundation Establishment to get that boost in lifespan as soon as possible. To that end, the set Ease to fifty. Power was the least important point, especially in the Qi Gathering realm, so he allocated only five points to that one. That left forty-five for Foundation.
He went up to her and introduced himself.
She cupped her hands and bowed slightly, having obvious problems with her back. “This lowly one is Pan Xiaolian, Sect Leader.”
“Don’t bow, please. I can see it hurts. In fact, can I get you something for that? A Minor Healing Pill, perhaps?”
“It’s just old age, Sect Leader, but gratitude for the offer.”
“I understand.”
And he did. He had been fairly spry for his age back on Earth, but he often found himself hurting when he’d done nothing to merit an injury. And when he did suffer some kind of ailment, it took forever to heal.
“This may be presumptuous of me, but can I ask if you’re a healer?” Benton said.
“Yes, this lowly one does provide that service for the village.” She clearly looked shocked that he’d known this.
“I had asked the mayor to provide five healers for the sect, so it only made sense.”
“Ahh. Why else choose a walking skeleton, eh?” She grinned.
Benton smiled back. “Well, I appreciate your willingness to volunteer. I’ll be providing you with a different cultivation method than the others, one that will hopefully provide benefits quickly. Also, I want to work you into the Body Cultivation regimen as soon as we have space.”
She chuckled. “Wow. The Esteemed Sect Leader really doesn’t want this lowly one dying on him too quickly, huh?”
Benton liked the old woman. She had spunk.
“You caught me,” he said.
“Well, if the Esteemed Sect Leader can keep this lowly one alive…” She shrugged.
“I’ll that as a promise for you to keep my sect members alive.”
Benton considered buying a Spiritual Root Improvement Pill for her, but two concerns stopped him. One, the pill might actually kill someone at her age. It was not a danger at all to a young, healthy person, but risk factors went way up when someone was nearing the end of their normal lifespan. Any major shock to body’s system could be lethal, and the pill did provide something of a jolt. Two, even though he needed healers, taking someone from D+ to C- just wasn’t enough of an improvement to justify the cost.
After a bit of thought, he added a third. Starting at the age of sixty-one, Pan Xiaolian was a lot less likely to get to Golden Core, even with her decent talent, than someone like Zou Tian, who started much younger. Thus, the return on investment for the pill was probably a lot less from that standpoint as well.
Benton hated thinking about people in such a manner, but he was the sect’s leader. If he kept spending Shop Points recklessly, he would eventually get in a situation where he really needed one but was out.
His presence was obviously making the people around nervous, so he left the woman to her own devices as he retreated to the edge of the square. Soon, the mayor showed up with the rest of the fifty soon-to-be members.
He ran through the rigmarole with the quartz sphere, telling each person their roots’ rank and qi aspect. The mayor, or perhaps Pan Xiaolian, had done a good job designating the healers, as each of them had a qi aspect well suited to the role, all with nature aspected qi.
Benton separated them out from the others and explained that, upon reaching minor realm four, they’d be provided with a technique to heal others. Then, he turned to the rest.
“I don’t like dictating what pavilion you are to join, but the sect and the village are facing an impending disaster. We need fighters to combat the beasts. While I hope that none of you end up on the front lines, we need you to be able to shoot arrows from atop the walls and to defend yourselves if portions of the wall are overrun.”
He told them about the qi density at the Wood and strongly encouraged all of them to join him each day.
“The stronger you get now, the more likely you, the village, and the sect are to survive,” Benton said. “Once the emergency is over, you’ll be given an opportunity to join a different pavilion if you so desire.
“Now, it’s time for you to learn to cultivate.”
He’d distributed the Supreme Growth of Heaven to forty-six of the inductees and Supreme Foundation of Heaven to two others when he’d told them their qi aspect and rank. After leading them through the exercise to sense qi, he gained fifty new sect members at Qi Gathering minor realm one.
And of course, fifty new members meant fifty new Sect Points. Which meant ten more for him to use to make himself stronger.
His first step was to bring his Variable Spirit Coin Manifestation to Mastery for six points. His second, after a moment’s thought, was to purchase Variable AoE Shield at Small Success. Although he doubted he’d need it in the near future, the lack of a defense for that type of attack was his biggest glaring weakness.
Those buys left him with one point, and there were only two uses for a single one—meditation or knowledge of Nascent Soul cultivation. The former was, by far, the most useful immediately.
Comments
richard C bond
“I’ll that as a promise for you to keep my sect members alive.” I'm not sure what word is missing in there, but there is definitely a word missing in there somewhere. :) I'll TAKE that? dunno.
BWFoster78 Last
Yeah. Not a huge benefit at Qi Gathering, but it lays the foundation for later.
Monus
For a second I was really worried when Benton mentioned healing techniques, but then I remember that modern medicine is also a thing and doesn't require Qi 😅
Daoist_Matt
TFTC! 😋🥳
