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Chapter 86 – What Wasn’t Lost Has Been Founded
🕑 Added 2024-10-19 19:37:22 +0000 UTCBenton was so excited he could barely stand it. His goal was so, so close. He just had to wait for the official letter deeding the land, and he could found the sect and complete the quest.
The mayor was diligently working on the letter. That task shouldn’t take more than an hour tops.
Meanwhile, Benton was on his way to deliver food to the people who’d been designated to prepare it.
He arrived at the house the mayor directed him to and discovered it was owned by the same lady who had traded him vegetables for boar meat all those months ago.
“Good to see you again,” he said.
The woman cupped her hands and bowed low. “This lowly one is pleased to see the Esteemed Master Cultivator as well.”
“Great. I was told that you’re the one who will be setting up the feast for this evening?”
“This lowly one is coordinating the efforts of many, Esteemed Master Cultivator.”
“Perfect. You let me know what you need, then. I have everything we provided the village as far as rice and flour and all that stuff goes. I also have a few luxuries such a certain fruits and sugar and honey. Additionally, my disciples had a chance to hunt purely mundane animals near the city, so I can give you whatever game meat you want—more boars or rabbits or maybe deer? I’ve even got a bear if that would be better.”
The woman was a bit overwhelmed at first but quickly regained her composure. The two discussed options, and Benton unloaded three tables full of ingredients for her to use before leaving.
Next, he needed to find his disciples and hadn’t thought to inquire as to where they were housed. It turned out that he needed no such directions. His spiritual sense was up to the task. There were six individual cultivators scattered about the village that he assumed were the harvesters, a big grouping in the direction of the orphanage, and one more large grouping.
Bingo.
That second large grouping turned out to be an inn where a lot of his disciples were to be housed. Some of them would be sent to various other empty houses because the inn wasn’t big enough for everyone, but they were conveniently all in the common room when he arrived.
He quickly gathered his council around.
Ugh! He’d forgotten Mistress Zhong and Wan Ai. They should be included.
For the next meeting, he resolved to remember to invite them. Things were finally moving, and he didn’t want to delay any longer. Of course, retrieving them wouldn’t take long, and he knew he was being unreasonably impatient. He wanted to complete the sect founding before the feast that night in order to make it a true celebration, though.
“Alright, everyone, now that we’ve made it to the village, we have a lot to do. Events are going to start happening fast and furious. As soon as we can get everything arranged, I want every single disciple to go with me out to our sect’s new site where we will conduct a small ceremony to officially found it.”
Several of his disciples, mostly led by Yang Xiu, broke out in a cheer. He honestly wasn’t sure if they were excited for their own sakes or if they were just picking up on his enthusiasm.
“Okay,” Benton said, “Three tasks. First, Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, and I are going to do a quick sweep to the southeast to cull beasts. We won’t get all of them in the time we have, but we’ll knock them down some to make things a little safer. Second, Zou Tian, find the orphanage and tell Mistress Zhong what is happening. She’ll need to quickly arrange to have a non-disciple watch the remaining kids and gather her charges at the gate. Third, Ye Zan, begin planning for how we’re going to keep everyone safe, including at least three mortals and eighteen kids, both in transit to the site and back and while standing in the middle of a field surrounded by spirit beast infested forest.”
Benton knew he was rushing things, but he was tired of talking. He wanted to get things done! Besides, they’d all just spent three weeks traveling excruciatingly slowly through similar spirit beast infested forest. He and the twins would eliminate threats before they got anywhere close, and Ye Zan and his guards had enough experience to handle both the logistics and any leakers that got past to threaten the group.
“Any questions?” Benton said.
There were none.
“Fantastic. Meet me at the gate in a half hour or so. Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, you’re with me. Try to keep up.”
Benton dashed toward the gate with the siblings at his tail. “Once we get out of town, spread out fifty yards or so on either side of me. We’re not trying to find every beast, just to thin them out. Safety is your most important priority. Don’t get hurt. Run or yell for me if you get overwhelmed. Speed is your second priority. An injury that puts a beast out of commission for the rest of the day is just as good as a kill if it means you don’t have to break your stride. Understand?”
“Yes, Master,” the two chorused.
The trio made a very quick sweep, Benton keeping his Foundation Establishment realm speed down so that the twins could keep up. Though he didn’t know exactly which plot of land the sect would be on, that was okay. He needed to clear out beasts in a wide area and aimed toward the greatest concentrations.
Mainly, they found mostly rank twos, and all of them went down quickly to spear thrusts from him or Yang Ru or to an arrow from Yang Xiu.
There were several rank threes in the area as well. Benton handled those himself. Not that he didn’t trust the twins’ ability. It was just that he was confident he could do it fast without any risk. The siblings were more evenly matched with beasts of that level, and while he was sure they would win any fight, he greatly preferred the two treat opponents of that rank with caution instead of worrying about speed.
None of the three of them faltered at all during the massacre. Benton swept his kills into his ring, but the twins didn’t have time and left theirs where they lay.
In less than the thirty minutes he’d allotted, they were back at the gate, and, as he’d requested, Zou Tian and Ye Zan had all the rest of the disciples gathered there as well.
“Be right back,” Benton said.
He had one more person who was necessary for the ceremony—the mayor.
Mo Jian, along with the official letter deeding the land to Chao Su, was soon retrieved, and the entire entourage made their way carefully out of town. Benton and the mayor lead with the twins at the tail. Ye Zan and his guards formed an outside perimeter.
The fifty-six people made quite the procession.
Ye Zan’s precautionary measure of having the guards form up outside the others turned out not to be needed as Benton’s purge had done its job. Only a lone spirit beast came within sight, a small gray squirrel.
Benton attacked it as soon as it appeared. In order to not upset the children with the blood and mangled body, he used twenty-five void qi to literally make the beast disappear almost as soon as he struck it, pausing the implosion only long enough to withdraw the spear without damaging it.
Following the mayor’s instructions, Benton soon found himself in the middle of a large, wide-open, weed filled space that had once been farmland.
“This should just about be the center of the cleared area,” the mayor said. “I can have one of the town administrators accompany you to stake out the exact boundaries of your land whenever you want.”
“That would be perfect,” Benton said. “Right now, though, I just need to confirm that I own all the empty territory in each direction, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Everyone, stay right here for a moment,” Benton said.
He didn’t want to perform such a momentous ceremony in the middle of an empty field, especially when his ring was full of buildings. The question was which one to use. Due to the spirit beasts, he wanted something that was open to the outside so that the guards could both see him as he made his speech and keep line of sight with any approaching threats.
The amphitheater would have been absolutely perfect, but it required a hillside to be dug out for it to fit correctly. Likewise, a lot of his buildings had foundations that would need to be fit into holes, so creating the sect grounds wasn’t going to be quite as easy as just plopping down buildings out of his ring.
The arena was probably his best bet as it was the only other open-air structure he’d grabbed and required much less excavation than the amphitheater. He pulled the building out of his ring into the air and used the fast processing power of his Foundation Establishment realm mind to mentally measure how big the pits for the footers needed to be and where they needed to be placed. Once finished, he stored the structure back inside the ring.
Where exactly to place the building was a tougher job. He wanted all his most crucial sect buildings to go in the center of the clearing, and the arena, though important, didn’t quite meet the criteria for upper echelon. He’d prefer it go a little bit away from the central district, and he’d also prefer not to have to move it.
After a moment’s consideration, he decided on a spot a good seventy-five yards from the group.
Benton pulled the shovel he bought from Xun Wu from the spatial ring and got to digging. What would have taken Benton days to accomplish as a Qi Gathering cultivator and weeks or months as a mortal, took him less than half an hour.
By Earth standards, that would have been a terribly long time to wait for a ceremony to begin. For inhabitants of his current world, it was nothing. Soon after the arena was set into place, all the disciples and the mayor were ushered inside.
Ye Zan stationed four guards at the top of bleachers, one at each of the cardinal directions, and Benton had the rest of the disciples sit in a single section near the floor. Standing in front of them on the arena’s sandy floor wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind, but he hadn’t possessed the necessary forethought to grab a stage from somewhere.
Well, he’d just have to make do with one of the wagons from his ring. Not the fanciest of platforms but it was better than being flat on the dirt. Marginally.
Benton took a moment to gather himself before speaking. Back on Earth, he’d never been the one to address the entire company. He’d just been one of the guys in the audience while the CEO spoke.
Neither had Benton been the one to set the goals for the organization. That task, too, had fell to the CEO and others way higher on the org chart than Benton. He was feeling more than a little bit out of his comfort zone as he began to talk.
“My dear disciples, Honorable Mayor, thank you for gathering with me today for this auspicious occasion. I came to this area just about seven months ago knowing no one. My first encounter was with Yang Xiu and Yang Ru, and the two have become to feel like my own children to me. Since, I’ve had the occasion to meet more and more people, and some of them, all of you, agreed to help me in my dream of forming my own sect.
“And that’s why we are here today at this location.
“When forming any organization that one hopes will stand the test of time, one must first ask, ‘What is this organization? What does it stand for? What is its purpose?’
“Those questions are answered by this organization’s name, the Rising Tide Sect. We have a saying where I’m from, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ It is that saying that defines our organization and what we seek to accomplish. We seek to lift each other up. To support one another. To allow those around us to rise even as we seek the heavens ourselves.
“That is the organization’s purpose, but what does it stand for?
“The Rising Tide Sect is a righteous sect, and I mean that not simply in the context of opposing demonic sects but in the true meaning of the word. Our members seek righteousness. We protect the innocent. We punish the evil. We are bound by our word.
“I ask each of you to make this promise to me, that from this day forward, you swear to be a righteous, honorable member of the Rising Tide Sect, to diligently pursue your cultivation and techniques, and to obey those in the sect who have authority over you.
“In return, I make this promise to you. Each of you will be valued as family. None of you are trash because your talent is of a less than stellar rank. You will always have an honored position here. For those of you that are E and F ranked, I will personally use every resource at my disposal to ensure that you reach at least the Foundation Establishment realm. For those of you who seek to challenge the heavens, I will support you in any way that I can to help you reach immortality.
“I hereby make that oath!”
At that very moment, lightning flashed in the cloudless sky and thunder crashed with a tremendous boom.
Whoa! Benton hadn’t realized how big a deal making an oath was in his new reality, but though surprised, he recovered quickly so as to not lose momentum.
“Each of you who commits to your promise as a sect member, stand and yell, ‘We so swear, Sect Leader!’”
Almost as one, the fifty-one disciples seated before him stood, and all fifty-five yelled, “We so swear, Sect Leader!”
Fifty-five small flashes of lightning split the sky, blinding everyone for an instant. A tremendous wave of thunder crashed.
“I hereby declare the Rising Tide Sect to be officially established and each of you to be its founding members!”
As his new sect members began cheering, a notification popped up.
Yes. Finally. That moment was a long time coming.
“Congratulations, everyone! Tonight, we celebrate! Tonight, we feast!”
