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Chapter 110 – Changes
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 16:00:56 +0000 UTCThe appearance of a rank five was a major change, but it was too soon to draw any conclusions about the impending beast tide from it. Benton decided to wait a few days and observe if more of the higher-level beasts appeared before calling a council meeting to discuss.
He did, however, make it a point to scan to the extent of his spiritual senses a minimum of four times per hour.
Additionally, he instituted procedural changes. The twins combat lessons were moved to the village as he deemed the trek to the sect grounds to be too dangerous. In fact, all activity outside the village walls were halted with the exception of the wood harvesting.
He also delayed the induction of the next set of villagers until after the council meeting as the status of the beast tide might have a big impact on their decisions.
Over the course of those three days, no one advanced their spiritual cultivation, but several of the guards reached Small Success with their techniques, getting him four points. The big gain came from Body Cultivation, where he got twenty-four points from martial pavilion members hitting Bronze minor realm five and six and another three from the twins and Zou Tian each reaching minor realm one.
The small windfall gave him six points for his personal use, and he reviewed his priority list just to make sure of his thinking. His first thought was to buy the technique to allow him to start producing spirit coins, but he wasn’t sure. The coins would be a very limited use to Qi Gathering cultivators, so the only members likely to get any benefit from them were the twins, assuming they advanced before the tide.
The coins’ use as currency was also not crucially needed. The body of one rank five from his storage ring would pay for a lot of bows and arrows, not to mention all the other meat and claws and cores in there.
Of course, the coins would be of some use to him as well, allowing him to effectively bank his qi for when he needed it. He definitely wanted the technique prior to the beast tide, but he wasn’t sure if it was an immediate necessity.
Nothing else on his list truly called out to him as being urgent, however. Time manipulation was the most powerful, but it would only shine against really fast opponents. So far, the beasts he faced weren’t all that impressive in that regard, and even if they were specced for speed, he had his gravity area effect to counter them.
Advancing his minor realm in Golden Core would give him access to more qi, but spirit coins would likely be the better investment for the short term. Body Cultivation was out until he learned more about what would happen at Nascent Soul, which was so far away that it made purchasing knowledge of the realm seem like a poor investment at the moment.
Healing was a strong choice, but he’d need to invest a lot of points to really make it shine. He just wasn’t sure he was ready to start sinking those points in yet. Meditation made no sense without the ability to spend his qi for making spirit coins, and a shield against area effect attacks was suboptimal against beasts.
In the end, he decided that getting the spirit coin technique was the right call. He invested all six points to buy it at Large Success and immediately used it to create ten ten-thousand qi water coins, chosen pretty much at random from one of the five major elements. It cost him one hundred seventy-five thousand qi to do it, which he’d regenerate in about seven hours. Not bad.
Benton pulled up his status.
Over the next three days, beast activity increased as he’d expected. How it increased and to what degree told him a lot, though. By the time the third day was up, he was ready to hold his council meeting.
Three changes were made to the council. First, Guang Yin, who was already an invitee, was made the official head of the Woodworker Pavilion. The choice took a lot of deliberation on Benton’s part because he would have preferred a crafter over a gatherer. In the end, though, he valued the older man’s experience as it really balanced out some of the sect’s many young voices.
Second, Xiang Da was added to the invite list. The older villager, in his mid-forties, had only F rank nature aspected roots, but he was apparently outstanding at math. Benton had no trouble picking him as the head of the Formations Pavilion as clearly the most qualified for the position.
Finally, they used the mayor’s house for the meeting. Even though Benton was fairly sure he could keep everyone safe for a trip to the arena the risk to reward ratio just wasn’t where it needed to be. The house was a bit cramped, but they made it work.
“The first order of business,” Benton said, “is the beast tide. Over the last three days, more and more rank fours have appeared as well as two additional rank fives. In patrolling miles from the village in the direction of the mountain, I’ve also killed three rank sixes.
“Not only are the ranks of the spirit beasts increasing, but the rate is accelerating. That’s a solid sign that a tide is imminent. Over the next month to month and a half, we’ll start to see sixes and higher at the village, pushing the lower tiers further past. Then, if a typical pattern holds true, we’ll see a false calm as whatever dominant beast that’s driving the rest gathers all the ranks to it, drawing all creatures away from the village. From that point, we’ll have a week, two at the most, before the tide hits.”
No one said a word. They barely even breathed.
“From this point on,” Benton said, “preparing for the impending tide is our sect’s primary objective. Everything else is a distant second.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Our biggest challenge at the moment is that I am the only one who can kill beasts rank four and above. Thus, our most important priority is to increase that number.” Benton turned to the twins. “Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, that means the two of you. Wan Ai is the only other sect member who has a chance of advancing, and she isn’t exactly a fighter.”
The twins exchanged a glance.
“We’ll be ready, Master,” Yang Xiu said.
“Thank you, my disciples, but I’m afraid that I’m going to have to be a little more hands-on this time. You are not to conduct any more lessons. Techniques are no longer worthy of your time. For the most part, I’ll be spending most of my effort guarding the Wood to keep it safe for cultivators and only returning to the village for the minimum amount of time necessary to kill any beasts that get near. I want the two of you with me taking advantage of the high qi density to cultivate for twelve to fifteen hours per day.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Guang Yin, no more harvesting until after the tide. I’ll provide you and your men with the reset pills we talked about and the new cultivation methods. Once you’re back to minor realm four, I’ll also get you the weapon techniques. Let me know if you have any problems.”
The old man cupped his hands and bowed. “Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Ye Zan, you no longer need to protect the harvesters, obviously, but I still need you supplementing the village guards and securing the house anytime someone needs to consume a pill. We’ll talk about Body Cultivation in a moment. When your guards aren’t on duty doing something else, they can accompany the twins and me to the Wood to cultivate.”
Benton gestured to include everyone else. “That goes for all sect members. Anyone who wants to go with us each day to cultivate may do so as long as they have no other duties.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Okay, Body Cultivation,” Benton said. “Of the forty-three currently undergoing the process, only the siblings, Zou Tian, Ye Zan’s guards, and Zi Delan’s crew are primary martial pavilion resources. I want all twenty-six of those to continue with baths until reaching the ninth minor realm. For the other seventeen, let them finish their current minor realm, and then quit for the moment. I want to start working in the twenty village guards instead.”
Benton met Wan Ai eyes. “That means increasing the number going through the process to forty-six. Can you handle that?”
Wan Ai looked at Zou Tian, who took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled at him.
When had that happened?
“I can do it, Master,” she said.
“Good, Next item is induction.” Benton looked to the mayor. “Let’s you and I discuss details on who to include after this meeting, but the goal is to get another fifty cultivating tonight. Judging from past experience, we should be able to get them to minor realm four in a little over a month and to Small Success with a weapon, hopefully, by the beast tide. As much as I want to round out my pavilions, I think fifty new archers for the wall would be much more important.”
The allure circling the village was quite long. Even with another fifty covering it, there was not going to be nearly the density of defenders that Benton would like.
Benton paused as a thought hit him. “Actually, scratch that. If we’re going to be fighting, people are going to get hurt, and pills are a limited resource. Let’s shoot for forty-five archers and five villagers to be designated to a new Healing pavilion.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“That leaves me to my final topic, bows and arrows,” Benton said. “We need more, and I promised Mistress Gong of the Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town orphanage that I’d check up on them in ten weeks’ time. That’s tomorrow. I also need to get a read on the situation there, and see if my message to Elder Kang resulted in a merchant ready to sell me what I need. I think it’s important that I go. You see the problem, though?”
“There is no one here who can do more than hold off a higher rank beast, Master,” Yang Xiu said. “That’s…”
“I know. Me leaving puts all of you in danger, but I really feel like I need to go.”
“How long will it take, Master,” Ye Zan said.
“Two hours there, two hours back. Maybe six to eight total? That’s a maximum. No matter what happens, I will not be gone longer than eight hours.”
Zou Tian let out a breath. “I’m assuming you’d do a wide sweep before leaving, Master?”
“Yes. But higher ranked beasts with an ability to hide themselves are harder to detect the farther away I am. There’s no guarantee I’d get all of them.”
“Go,” Yang Ru said. “We’ll be fine, Master.”
Benton was pretty sure that was the most the young man had said in a meeting.
“Anyone else?”
“We need the bows and arrows, Master,” Xun Wu said. “I don’t see how we hold the wall without them.”
Wan Ai tentatively held up her hand.
Wow. She was volunteering to speak? Amazing.
“Yes?” Benton said to her.
“The heavens recognized your promise as a righteous sect to seek to keep our word, Master. What happens if you break your word and don’t go?”
That was an interesting question, one Benton didn’t want to find out the answer to. He made a mental note to be careful in the future about what promises he made.
The eight hours really was an overestimation, though. Two hours each way was calculated assuming he could sustain a top running speed of about three hundred miles per hour, but Benton thought he might be able to cut the time down some by using Quickstep. He had, after all, built up quite a supply of spirit coins by that point. If he could use the technique a few times, consume coins to replenish his pool, and use it a few more, and so forth and so on, he might be able to make the trip one way in under an hour.
If he were fast in getting everything done while in town, he could maybe bump that down to less than an hour, too.
Surely, nothing would happen to the village in the scant three hours that he’d be gone.
Comments
BWFoster78 Last
Yes. He just needs one.
Jack Trowell
Couldn't he use a flying sword now that he is at core formation level?
Jeff091
hi, thanks for the chapter typo, I think? (everything sounds weird to me because Ai's sounds like eyes) Benton met Wan Ai eyes. +'s Benton met Wan Ai's eyes.
Daoist_Matt
TFTC! 😋🥳
Shawn Morwood
poor Benton, tempting fate. Odds are after he heads to the orphanage a rank 7 shows up
