After Benton finished giving instructions about the FEDs, he pulled Kang Lin away from the others. “I need some advice, and I think you and Zhong Wen might be my best sources.”
“Of course, Master. Anything you need.”
The two of them walked to the orphanage, and Zhong Wen invited them inside. Once they were settled, she asked him what he needed help with.
“It’s kind of an awkward subject, and I’m not sure how to handle it.”
“You can ask us anything, Master,” Zhong Wen said.
“Well, you see, sect members are starting to pair up. There are two official couples already.”
Kang Lin tilted her head to the side.
“Are you confused about something?” Benton said to her.
“Yes, Master. Zou Tian and Wan Ai are obviously a couple, but who makes up the second one? I don’t know all the sect members, but I would have thought Yang Xiu would have filled me in.”
“Uh…” Speaking of awkward. “You and Yang Ru are the second couple.”
“But we’re not, Master.”
Benton frowned. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Did he do something stupid? Yeah. I bet that’s it. He did something stupid. Look, I’m sure he didn’t mean it. I’ll tell him to apologize.”
“We didn’t break up, Master. We were never together in the first place,” Kang Lin said.
“What? But the two of you were getting along so well. I don’t understand.”
Kang Lin launched into an explanation about how Yang Ru would advance much more quickly than her and how the chances of her bottlenecking before Golden Core were a lot higher than his and how he had a real shot at Nascent Soul while she didn’t.
“So, you’re not willing to be with him because he’s more talented than you?” Benton said.
“Yes, Master.”
“And that’s the only reason? You like him otherwise?”
“Well, I guess…”
“Look, Kang Lin. I’m all for you kids trying to figure out problems on your own, but when you run into a situation that you can’t solve, come to me.”
“You can help, Master? How?”
“For one thing, I can assure you that, if you stick with me, you’ll get to Golden Core just fine.”
Her eyebrows climbed.
“Yes. I can make that guarantee. There’s nothing I can do for most of the sect members, but you have more than enough talent to see you that high at least.”
She cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Master.”
“I will admit that he’ll have a better shot at Nascent Soul than you will,” Benton said, “but cultivators are said to challenge the heavens for a reason. Absolutely no one is guaranteed that level of success. There’s a reason there are only a half dozen or so in that realm on the entire continent. It’s silly to make big decisions based on something that nebulous and so far distant. Okay?”
“Yes, Master.”
“There also may be a way to keep the two of you in lockstep as you advance,” he said.
“Really, Master?” Kang Lin’s forehead was wrinkled.
He wasn’t entirely sure if the method actually existed or not as he was just going off something that Su had heard about.
“System,” he said internally, “can I create Dual Cultivation methods?”
Host will unlock additional System features at the same time the qualifications for Nascent Soul are met.
Benton took that response as an affirmative. Good. And that milestone wasn’t even all that far away. Assuming he was able to save the village from the beast tide without a significant loss of life, he figured he would get to one thousand members relatively quickly. And he also suspected that, under the circumstances of him being the hero of the village, his Average Loyalty would be pretty high by that point as well.
“Have you heard of Dual Cultivation?” he said.
Kang Lin’s face reddened, but Zhong Wen just looked confused.
“It’s a technique where cultivators harness the dichotomy between yin and yang energies to transfer small amounts of internal qi from one to another,” Benton said.
“Oh. That sounds useful,” Zhong Wen said. “If one person cultivates fast, like Yang Ru, he could use the method to help Kang Lin advance faster.”
Kang Lin’s face had taken on the color of a tomato by that point.
“Why do you look so embarrassed?” Zhong Wen said.
Benton chuckled. “It’s a technique that can only be performed by a man and a woman together, and it involves them being … intimate.”
“Intimate?” Zhong Wen’s eyes widened. “Oh!” She laughed. “I see.”
“The technique is not considered proper by my sect,” Kang Lin said. “It’s too akin to demonic cultivation.”
It was Benton’s turn to be surprised. “Why do they think that? It literally doesn’t have anything to do with demonic cultivation. It harnesses the very natural yin and yang forces to power the transfer. There is nothing natural about demonic attacks.”
Kang Lin looked frustrated. “There have been instances where men have taken advantage, Master. Having peasant girls cultivate and then basically stealing that cultivation. Or one who pursued many different girls in the sect, seducing them and taking power from each.”
Benton summoned his spear from his ring. “If I go to a random village and kill some poor innocent soul with this spear, does that act make the weapon evil? No. It’s a tool. The person using it can be evil. The thing cannot be. It is no different with Dual Cultivation.” He paused. “Look, I’m not advocating for you to use the method. I certainly won’t command you and Yang Ru to do so. I don’t really care, honestly. It’s an option, nothing more. Whatever two consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom is no concern of mine.”
Benton let out a sharp breath. “Speaking of which, that’s why I’m here.”
Zhong Wen looked taken aback, and he had to stop for a moment to figure out why.
“That’s not what I meant,” Benton said. “I’m here because I’m worried that, with teenagers starting to couple up, them becoming too physically involved might be something I need to concern myself with, but honestly, I’m not sure of the social norms here in the village—which is why I wanted you here, Zhong Wen—or with sects in general—which is why you’re here, Kang Lin.”
Su’s sect had been very focused on martial pursuits. There was no dating at all as far as he knew, so Benton had no idea how sects handled couples and marriages.
“Ah, I understand, Master,” Zhong Wen said. “In the village when two young adults begin to get close to pursuing such activities, either their parents or an elder steps in, and a marriage is arranged.”
Kang Lin looked mortified at the direction the entire conversation had taken, but she gamely contributed anyway. “It is the same with the sects, Master. Either the couple is forcefully broken up or a marriage is arranged. Only on very rare occasions do young cultivators go astray.” She paused. “Just to be clear, there is no chance of me going astray with anyone in such a manner.”
Benton had heard that before from each of his children. He was fairly sure that one of them had actually followed through with that commitment. The others … hadn’t.
“Basically, no need for me to get involved, then?” he said.
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“No, Master,” both women said.
“Zhong Wen, can I trust you to keep informed on this issue and come to me if I do need to get involved?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Great. I like it.”
His favorite solutions were the ones that required him to do nothing at all, and it was particularly nice on that occasion as he needed to concentrate on the beast tide. It was growing near. It had to be. Two weeks had almost passed.
He left the orphanage and returned to the sect grounds, spending another day creating more formation-enhanced arrows and churning out spirit coins. When the sun neared the horizon again, it was time to do one last check of his gains and make any last-minute advancements he could.
Looking at techniques first, he’d actually gained a reasonable number of points from them over the last almost two weeks. Yang Ru had reached Small Success with his new shield technique, and Zou Tian advanced to Large Success with his daggers. Additionally, all five of the healers had made it to Small Success with their primary knowledge skill, and five of the guards had advanced various techniques.
All told, Benton gained twelve Sect Points from that source.
Since most of the sect members were entering the higher minor realms of Qi Gathering, progress there had slowed. Besides the two points from Wan Ai, only the third set of fifty villagers had earned him any points, reaching minor realm three. He spent seventeen Shop Points on Qi Condensing Pills and distributed them, meaning he was anticipating another fifty Sect Points the next day.
As usual lately, the big points earner was Body Cultivation. The twins and Zou Tian had all reached the peak of Bronze. Forty sect members reached minor realm seven and thirty made it to minor realm three. The latter of those groups was capped for the moment since he switched Wan Ai’s focus to cultivating and her assistants couldn’t produce enough baths on their own.
All told, Benton earned one hundred seventy-seven Sect Points during the time period. Not bad. That gave him thirty-five points to spend on himself.
Not that being strict with the allocation mattered much to him anymore. He had so many excess points and had so many coming in that he basically spent whatever he needed without really keeping track.
Still, he felt it was a good habit to keep pushing his abilities forward and, thus, would keep spending twenty percent when he examined chunks of earnings.
His first thought for his use of the current allocation was to develop two new Concepts, but that advancement felt lackluster. With the tide almost there, he needed to increase his offensive capacity.
Hmm.
His first step was to review his attacks in order to determine what he lacked. Chain Lightning was able to deliver a lot of qi quickly to multiple targets. Its only downside was that it had to overwhelm shields to make kills. The combination of his Seeking Speeding Arrow with his shield breaker was a devastating attack designed to take down shields and destroy targets. He’d have trouble coming up with a better single target attack. Gravity Burst was quite effective at crowd control, but the bodies of both cultivators and spirit beasts tended to be too strong to kill with increased gravity alone.
Obviously, then, his main deficit was the lack of a strong area attack that ignored shields. Since environmental effects bypassed qi barriers, the technique would need to feature one of those, but he needed something that could kill, not just incapacitate.
What environmental effect could kill, though? Radiation would work. He could go full Chernobyl on his enemies. Interesting. Maybe even some kind of nuclear explosion from Nuclear aspected qi.
That was a thought.
Both of those methods had two huge downsides, though. One, he wouldn’t want to use either of them anywhere near his own people. And two, he really didn’t want his territory to be irradiated.
If he, for some reason, had to completely destroy an enemy sect, either or both might be a possible solution, but for the beast tide, it would be better to go with something a little more environmentally friendly.
What else? Extreme cold maybe? Even a cultivator could freeze to death. Presumably. Same with extreme heat, right?
He stretched his brain for a while trying to come up with better possibilities, but nothing occurred to him.
“System, I’d like to create a technique to use Temperature aspected qi to greatly increase or lower the temperature of an area. Is that possible?”
Yes.
Nice.
“System, please buy that technique to Mastery along with a Concept of Temperature as an element that relegates the motion of particles that constitute heat, from the absolute minimum possible all the way to some theoretical maximum.”
The System confirmed his choices, and he pulled up his status.
s.
Sect Name: Rising Tide Sect Members: 212 Disciples: 57 Sect Points: 827 Shop Points: 88 Host Cultivation: Golden Core - Minor Realm Nine Qi Available: 5,647,745 Host Body Cultivation: Gold - Minor Realm One Host Mind Cultivation: Higher - Minor Realm One Host Soul Cultivation: Manifestation - Minor Realm One Host Techniques (Qi Gathering): Basic Archery – Mastery Basic Spear Combat – Mastery Expert Golden Core Cultivation – Mastery General Knowledge of Mind Cultivation – Mastery General Knowledge of Soul Cultivation – Mastery Knowledge of Rank 1 Formations – Mastery Knowledge of Rank 2 Formations – Mastery Knowledge of Rank 3 Formations – Mastery Nascent Soul Cultivation Knowledge – Mastery Pill Basics – Mastery Host Techniques (Foundation Establishment): Analysis – Mastery Automatic Reaction Variable Shield – Mastery Chain Lightning – Mastery Folded Space Quickstep – Mastery Extreme Area Temperature Manipulation – Mastery Healing – Mastery Layered Variable Shield Breaker with Void Finisher Weapon Augmentation – Mastery Meditation – Mastery Pause Time – Mastery Perception – Mastery Rank 1 Formation Construction – Mastery Rank 2 Formation Construction – Mastery Rank 3 Formation Construction – Mastery Rank 1 Formation Construction Acceleration – Mastery Rank 2 Formation Construction Acceleration – Mastery Rank 3 Formation Construction Acceleration – Mastery Rank 1 Inscription – Mastery Rank 2 Inscription – Mastery Rank 3 Inscription – Mastery Seeking Speeding Arrow – Mastery Stealth – Mastery Variable AoE Gravity Burst – Mastery Variable AoE Shield – Mastery Variable Spirit Coin Manifestation – Mastery Host Techniques (Golden Core Concepts): Earth - Mastery Fire - Mastery Gravity - Mastery Healing - Mastery Ice - Mastery Illusion - Mastery Light - Mastery Lightning - Mastery Metal - Mastery Momentum - Mastery Poison - Mastery Smell - Mastery Sound - Mastery Space - Mastery Temperature - Mastery Time - Mastery Void - Mastery Water - Mastery Wood - Mastery Menus: [Cultivation Method] [Technique] [Quest] [Perk] [Advancement] [Shop] [Sect]
Yes! His new technique was the perfect complement to the rest of his combat build, and he’d bought it just in time, too. At the edges of his spiritual senses, rank one spirit beasts started appearing.
The beast tide had begun.