Benton sat, recovering from his powerup. Well, he wasn’t sure if learning how to craft formations could rightfully be called much of a powerup, but he did spend lots of points? Anyway, once his head had stopped pounding quite so hard, he called for a council meeting.

Since there were no more beasts to worry about, he was no longer tied to guarding the Wood. It would have felt weird to have no one watching over the vulnerable cultivators, though, so he delegated that task to Huang Yimun, who had become Ye Zan’s right-hand man.

Another plus to the beasts leaving was that he could return to having his council meeting in the arena. There was no real need for him to relocate the gathering to that location as the mayor’s house worked just fine, but there was just something about utilizing his own building on his own land that was dedicated to the sect’s use that felt special to him.

Most of the council were gathered in the Wood, so getting the word to them didn’t take long. After a moment of deliberation, he also invited Kang Lin as the leader of a delegation from a friendly sect.

Interestingly, the girl seemed to be getting on quite well with Yang Ru suddenly. On the day of their walk, Benton had been sure that she was primed to reject any overtures the boy might make. Apparently, though, he was much better with the ladies than Benton had realized. All it had taken was that one outing for them to become thick as thieves.

The culture was obviously much different than the one Benton and his children grew up dating in. There was not even a hint of physical contact between the couple, not even something as innocuous as holding hands. They just seemed to be enjoying each other’s company a lot.

Speaking of which, of the council members, only Zou Tian and Wan Ai were in the village, and he popped over to tell them as well. Since they were the last ones, he went ahead and Quickstepped them over to the sect grounds, beating most of the rest who had to hoof it over from the Wood.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Benton said once everyone had gathered, “we’re in the home stretch. The withdrawal of the beasts means that we’re one to two weeks from the beast tide. Time for final preparations.”

He met the eyes of each one of the sixteen gathered with him in the arena. “This is the question for each of you—how can you best spend the remaining time to prepare yourself and/or the sect for the coming attack? I’ll start with Yang Xiu.”

“Practice, Master. I’m still not fast enough adding qi to my arrows, and my control over my shield is inadequate. I obviously won’t be able to reach Large Success in less than a couple of weeks, but I will get better and faster with both techniques.”

“That is acceptable. Yang Ru?”

“My use of my current two techniques is sufficient to do what I need with them, so it’s time for me to get a shield, Master. The goal is to reach Small Success with it before the tide.”

The combination of the boy’s physical enhancements from his Spiritual and Body Cultivation made him tough but not enough to withstand punishment from a rank six during an extended fight. A shield would help a lot with that, even just at Small Success.

Benton called up the appropriate menus and soon pulled the new jade slip from his ring. “Good. Here. Peng Zhen, figure out the charge for a Foundation Establishment level technique and deduct it from Yang Ru’s total.”

“Yes, Master.”

Deciding to get responses from the twins first was easy. Choices got tougher after that, but he definitely wanted to complete all the more martially inclined members first.

“Zou Tian?” Benton said.

“That’s not enough time for me to reach minor realm seven, Master. I’m close on both my techniques, though, Large Success for daggers and Mastery for Hide Presence. I will definitely reach my goal with the weapon skill within a week.”

“Good. I wish Yang Xiu or I could help you train Hide Presence, but we’ll both be too occupied with other endeavors. You’re welcome to request assistance from any of the guards who took a perception technique.”

“Understood, Master.”

“Ye Zan?”

The guard captain frowned. “It’s too short a time to advance my cultivation, Master. I’ll focus on techniques and group training exercises. We haven’t done many of those in the last month, and we’ll want to be sharp for what’s coming.”

“Acceptable. Hou Yazhu?”

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The former wagon driver who’d stepped up so well into a leadership role during the journey to the village hadn’t done much to distinguish himself since. He was, however, heading one of the two teams of sect guards, and there had been no complaints about his leadership.

“Techniques, Master.”

“Good enough. Zi Delan?”

“May I have permission to cultivate more than ten hours per day, Master?”

Benton stared at the former gang leader from Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town. There was a reason for the limitation as too much daily cultivation in the lower and mid Qi Gathering minor realms could stress a cultivator’s channels, and the boy was only in the fifth minor realm.

“Give me your hand,” Benton said.

Zi Delan, of course, complied immediately, and Benton examined the boy’s cultivation. The lack of talent was making him advance slowly, but the Foundation he was forming was in good shape.

“Just until you advance to the sixth minor realm or until the beast tide, whichever comes first.” Benton paused. “Also, come see me in a week to let me check your progress again.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Kang Lin?”

The girl’s face alternated between amusement and complete consternation. Benton was pretty sure that no other sect practiced status meetings the way his did. She caught on pretty fast, though, and didn’t hesitate at all with her answer.

“Techniques, Master!”

Benton couldn’t help but grin at her excitement. “Excellent.” That completed reports from all his martially oriented leaders. “Zhong Wen?”

“I won’t be able to get my bow technique to Large Success, Master, but every hour of practice I can squeeze in should help.”

“That it will. Wan Ai?”

She looked over at Zou Tian, who gave her an encouraging smile. “This lowly one will continue preparing baths, Master, and there is a small chance that advancing to the eighth minor realm is possible.”

That brought up a tough issue. Should he tell her to focus on herself or to keep preparing the baths? The twins and Zou Tian had almost reached the peak of Bronze, but all the others were far from that milestone. Advancing a couple more minor realms wouldn’t move the needle much for most of them.

“You can do both for the next week,” Benton said. “If you feel your cultivation is close after that, I’d prefer you focus on advancing even if it means some of the sect members don’t get quite as far with their Body Cultivation.”

She didn’t look pleased at the directive, but she said, “Yes, Master.”

“Shi Long?”

“Arrowheads, Master. Always more arrowheads. We can barely keep up with the fletchers.”

The boy was one of the sect members who had no desire to experience combat. Though he loved weapons in general, he didn’t like wielding them.

“Understood. Xun Wu?”

The expert blacksmith had a very serious expression. “I’m very close to the seventh minor realm, Master. Arrowheads are of course important, too, but cultivation will be my primary focus.”

“Good. Peng Zhen?”

The man looked more than a little flummoxed. It must have been hard making the transition from a simple merchant to a sect member facing a beast tide. “Mainly working with my spear, Master. I barely feel sufficiently able to use it in a spar much less against an actual beast.”

“Works. Mo Jian?”

“Seeing to the villagers, mainly, Master. They’re scared and rightly so. Your … exploits have eased concerns some, but there’s more than the normal amount of unrest. Tempers are flaring.”

The mayor’s job of keeping the people calm and pulling in the same direction was more important than any personal advancement he could make.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help,” Benton said.

“Yes, Master.”

“Guang Yin?”

“My men and I have been able to pick up our respective weapons well, and this new cultivation method is like a dream. Unfortunately, we’re all at least three weeks from advancing, Master. We’ve all been helping out the fletchers, trying to lay in as many arrows as we can.”

Of all the villagers, the six harvesters were the only ones with actual experience fighting spirit beasts.

“That’s fine,” Benton said, “but I’m counting on you and your men to stiffen up the villagers. Try not to skimp too much on weapon practice even if you don’t have a chance of advancing to Large Success.”

The harvester cupped his hands. “Yes, Master.”

“Xiang Da?”

“I wish I had something helpful to do or tell you, Master, but even though we’re making progress with learning formations, we’re all a long way from doing anything productive with them. We’ll mainly practice with our weapons to make sure we’re as ready to defend ourselves as we can be.”

“I don’t expect you or your team to be on the front lines. Keep yourselves safe and do what you can.”

“Yes, Master.”

“And finally, Pan Xiaolian. How goes the Healing Pavilion?”

“The knowledge from those slips was phenomenal, Master. We all understand so much more about how to treat people, and we’re continuing to learn by the day. The mayor has us set up in two separate clinics, and everyone knows where to bring the injured.”

“Perfect.” With reports done, Benton moved onto the next subject. “Ye Zan, I think a lot of sect members will still be using the Wood for cultivation in the next week or two. Even though an attack is highly unlikely, I’d still like a couple of guards patrolling whenever anyone is using it.”

“Of course, Master.”

Benton gave him a nod. He’d really been a huge asset to the sect. Kang YaTing had done a great job selecting the young man for the escort job.

“Next,” Benton said, “how are we doing, exactly, on arrows?”

It was Ye Zan again who spoke up. “In addition to the more than ten thousand that you bought in Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town, the fletchers, harvesters, and blacksmiths have added another three thousand five hundred. I took the initiative to have them distributed in barrels spread out atop the allure.”

Nearly fifteen thousand, most of which were mortal grade. That was either a tremendous amount or way too little. Benton wouldn’t know for sure until he saw the size of the beast tide.

“Master?” Yang Xiu said as he was considering the quantity of arrows.

“Yes?”

“What is the endeavor that you mentioned earlier that will be occupying your time? If it’s not a secret, Master.”

Benton grinned. “I will create a defensive formation that will prevent any spirit beast below rank ten from entering the village.”

Everyone looked shocked.

“Master is a formations expert?” Kang Lin said.

He shrugged. “You live long enough, you pick up a thing or two along the way.”