The Sect Leader System-Chapter 258: Taking Advice, Making the Right Choice, and Arranging Trades

Benton enjoyed his time spent with the members of the Formations Pavilion.

Just like with all the other cultivators, they needed to reach Foundation Establishment to truly begin contributing, meaning, in their case, creating useful arrays. It would be a long time before any of them were of great use to the sect. That fact didn’t mean that leaving them to their own devices was a great idea.

In fact, their time spent in self-study had definitely been counterproductive. Not only had they not advanced their main knowledge technique, but they’d barely reached Small Success with their weapons, either. None of that lack of progress had been due to them not trying hard enough. They simply didn’t have the background in math to make proper use of the technique to advance it, and because they’d spent all their time trying in vain to do just that, their other pursuits such as practicing with their weapons and studying the array manuals had suffered.

Truthfully, Benton hadn’t meant to leave them so long without guidance. There were just too many other fires that had to be put out, and they kept getting pushed to the back of his priority list.

Now, though, he’d set them on the right path to advance their technique and taught them to do something useful in maintaining the sect’s arrays. Not that they’d be able to fix every problem, of course. But they could fix most of the common ones, and the attempt to figure out the solution to other issues would increase their experience with arrays.

Yes. The evening had been a great success. He made a mental note to try to spend more time with each of the pavilions. A new day had dawned, however, and he was unlikely to have a chance to do that for a while. As always, other issues seemed to be more important.

First, he received a return message from Kang Ya-Ting.

Friend Su,

I understand your desire not to impose on the hospitality of my sect, but it is my strong preference that you do not come to the city yourself unless absolutely necessary. The messages you sent have unfortunately stirred up much talk. Your presence might ignite hostilities, and this old man doesn’t think such is your desire.

It is a trifling matter for me to send a junior to collect all the herbs you need, and I can meet you at a time and place of your choosing outside the walls to deliver your goods. If it makes you feel better about me taking the time to perform this service for you, I can charge you a ten percent fee for procurement and delivery.

If you bring the Nature kernels, we can also trade for the Fire stones at that time. We also need to discuss possibilities for exchange of the other materials my sect has.

Your Friend,

Kang Ya-Ting

Benton laughed. The old guy sure like to play the angles. Still, ten percent was a trivial price to pay considering how much less time Benton would have to spend on the errand. And the point about trading for the materials for the qi sources was a good one as well. He fired off a reply stating he’d wait a mile south of the main gate at noon the next day.

With that task taken care of, Benton worked on creating greater spirit coins until it was time for his sect’s assemblage. Once he’d sensed that everyone had gathered, he teleported onto the amphitheater’s stage.

It only took a moment for his sect members to spot him and grow silent.

“Greetings, my sect members. Gratitude for gathering here this fine morning. I will be away from the sect for a little over a day, and while I’m gone, the Grand Defensive Formation should remain active. In order for you to pass in and out of the gate, I’ve prepared a token for each of you.” Benton held one of them up. “I’ll need to present one to each of you in order to attune it to your unique qi signature. So please line up in an orderly fashion.”

As his sect members quietly moved to form a queue, Benton continued. “Yuan Yaozu, a Nascent Soul and my newest disciple, will remain here in my absence. If there is any trouble, he can signal me, and I’ll return in seconds. Please do not worry about your safety.

“While I’m away, Yang Xiu and Yang Ru will be in charge of the sect.” Benton turned to his assistant. “Sun Hua, please assist them in the same manner you so ably have for me.”

She cupped her hands.

As he’d predicted, he attuned all the tokens in a little over three quarters of an hour, and as soon as he finished, he teleported to Fatty Ren’s palace.

Man, he so loved teleporting. Quickstepping was similar, of course, but it was much more limited. Teleporting handled longer ranges easier, was more qi efficient, and was instantaneous. One second he was standing in the amphitheater and the tiniest fraction of a second later, he appeared in Fatty Ren’s throne room.

So cool.

“Sect Leader!” the Town Lord said. “Welcome.”

“Fatty Ren, good job getting that induction done for me,” Benton said. “That should be the last time we need to do something like that. From here on out, you are free to recruit anyone you want, but there is no requirement to add any more members.”

“Understood, Sect Leader.”

“Good. You’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

“The as yet still undeclared war with the Jade Chameleons is heating up,” Benton said. “I had to kill two of their Nascent Souls when they attacked me the day before yesterday.”

Fatty Ren’s eyes went wide.

“On the plus side, a cultivator from the Poison Claw Sect used the Trial Pagoda to advance to Nascent Soul, and he’ll be helping out with protection for the next century as payment.”

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Somehow, the Town Lord’s eyes went even wider at that news.

“Anyway, I’m worried about protection for you and your town,” Benton said. “What do you think about me using the wall to create a Grand Defensive Formation? I can create tokens that your guards can use to escort people in and out, and I’ll give you several contingency rings for you and your people. All you have to do is break one of them, and I’ll teleport to that location as soon as I possibly can.”

The request for permission was not perfunctory. Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town was owned by the Emperor’s faction, not by the Rising Tide Sect. Not only would the creation of an array hinder movement in and out of the town, but its existence might rile up the higher nobles.

Fatty Ren cupped his hands. “Gratitude, Sect Leader.”

“So no issue with me creating the formation, then?”

“No, Sect Leader. It might create minor political and/or logistical issues, but nothing I can’t smooth over or deal with.”

Good. Benton trusted Fatty Ren to understand the situation with the nobles and handle it. As long as he didn’t think it was too big of a problem, Benton was willing to disregard the potential for conflict.

He tossed the Town Lord five of the rings. “Distribute these as you see fit, but I recommend you keep one of them. I’ll get to work on that Grand Defensive Formation and will get you the tokens when I finish.”

Benton didn’t accelerate time for the entirety of the next twenty hours as even the relatively less stressful nature of the Aura still impacted his concentration, but he did for most of it. He also didn’t replicate the GDF he used on the main sect grounds exactly because it would be much easier for spies to examine his work at the town walls than it would be at his home. He saw no reason to make it more convenient for his enemies to gain important information about his primary defenses.

Still, as a Formations Expert, such obfuscation was relatively easy. By that point, creating a GDF was more tedious than challenging, and when he finished, he was glad he had completed the important task. Even though he wasn’t as personally connected to his sect members at the branch, they were still his people. He hadn’t realized how worried having them be relatively unprotected had made him until the relief hit him when he inscribed the last bit of the final array.

The next step was to create tokens. At first, his idea had been to make ones just like he had for the members at the main branch, connecting each individually, but even with the use of his Aura, he was growing short on time to make his meeting with Kang Ya-Ting.

Benton could have, of course, simply returned after picking up the herbs, but as long as he was putting off creating official membership tokens anyway, there was no real need for them in the short term. All Fatty Ren really required was a way to get people in and out of the array without shutting it down.

That simplified version was super easy to construct and took Benton almost no time. When finished with the task, he teleported back to the palace.

“Greetings, Sect Leader.” Fatty Ren was much less surprised that time, probably because of the men Benton had noticed watching his progress.

Benton tossed the Town Lord a pouch filled with the simplified tokens. “These are honestly going to be pretty easy for one of our enemies to steal, but do your best to keep track of them. I’ll return within the next couple of weeks to create another Grand Defensive Array around your palace. At that time, I’ll also give each of the members here a personalized sect token that will track contact with their qi signature.”

Fatty Ren face took on a quizzical expression.

“I’d do all that now,” Benton said, “but I’m out of time. My priority for the last day was simply to give you a defense capable of pausing any enemies long enough for you to summon me. What I created should be fine for that purpose as long as you’re careful with those tokens.”

“I see. Gratitude, Sect Leader.”

Benton hid a frown. In retrospect, maybe he should have just protected the palace from the start instead of the entire town. His spiritual senses told him, though, that, while the sect members all had moved into the palace, they frequently visited various shops and houses. He’d have hated for an attack to catch them out and about and unable to get back to the protection of the GDF.

The fact was that he simply didn’t have time to build both at the moment. Neither solution was perfect, but he felt pretty good about his decision to protect the extents of the town instead of only the palace.

With his resolve firmed, Benton said his goodbyes and teleported to a location about a mile south of the Sixth Flawless Flowing City main gate. He was a bit early, so he remained on the ground until he judged it to be noon, at which point he summoned his flying sword from his spatial ring and rose into the air to wait for Kang Ya-Ting.

Benton did feel a little silly for using the device, but others in the city had seen him fly with it. He didn’t want changes in his behavior to give any information to anyone who might be watching.

Luckily, he didn’t have long to dwell on it as Kang Ya-Ting flew to him a few minutes later.

“How much do I owe you?” Benton said after greetings had been exchanged.

Kang Ya-Ting held up a spatial ring. “Enough herbs for two thousand Qi Condensing Pills, five hundred Minor Healing Pills, and one hundred Major Healing Pills. That’s a lot of herbs.”

Benton didn’t respond. The elder had been the one to volunteer his service, after all, and he was getting paid for work that he surely had pawned off on his juniors.

“I paid just under fifty greater spirit coins for the whole lot,” Kang Ya-Ting said. “With my ten percent commission, that’s sixty to you.”

Benton probably could have bargained a bit, but the savings simply didn’t matter. Compared to spending Shop Points, such a low number of easily obtained greater spirit coins just wasn’t worth worrying about.

“Gratitude, Friend Kang,” he said, cupping his hands.

After extracting the required amount from his spatial ring, Benton used Gravity to levitate the coins to his fellow Daoist and retrieve the ring with the herbs stored in it.

“Do you need the ring back?” Benton said.

“Nope. I included it in the price.”

Of course he did.

Benton grinned. “Well, gratitude to you once again. And the Fire stones?”

“Also in the ring.”

“Perfect,” Benton said, extracting five Nature kernels from his storage and floating them over to the elder. “Any thoughts on what your fellow sect elders might want for the Shadow core and Ice lotus?”

Kang Ya-Ting grimaced. “Nothing easy. What do you have?”

“How about this? I can use that metal you acquired for me and some other materials I have lying around to produce a variety of swords. There’s that auction coming up. We can try to set up a three-way trade between me, your elders, and the auction house.”

“That might just work, Friend Su. Even if it doesn’t, there might be other materials there that you want to purchase.” Kang Ya-Ting paused. “And on that note, the troupe that you requested departed the city a couple of days ago. They should be arriving in your village in a little over a month.”

Ah. The troupe. Benton had almost forgotten about the arrangement he’d made for another Poison Claw Sect elder to use the Trial Pagoda for advancement in return for the Fire plant material he needed to create a qi source.

“Excellent,” Benton said. “I believe that the friendship between our sects is turning out to be quite mutually beneficial.”

“Quite!” Kang Ya-Ting agreed, but soon after, his face took on a doubtful expression. “You do know that those messages you sent probably weren’t the best idea, right?”

“Honestly? I do. But I didn’t have a choice. The next time one of them attacks me, that’s it for their sect. Period. They’re done for. But my personal morals won’t let me deliver that retribution without giving them fair warning first. If my warning causes them to act…” Benton shrugged. “That’s on them. Not me.”

“You’re that sure you can handle what they bring after you?”

“If every Nascent Soul on the continent, including those from your sect, all attacked me at once, I am completely convinced that the end result would not be in question. I doubt any of them would even cause me to need to use my Healing technique.”

Kang Ya-Ting stared at him for a moment before breaking into a smile. “I knew you were holding back. When one has been around for as long as I have, one can sense these things.”

Benton grinned in return. “You got me.”