Benton waited outside the gate with the siblings for the six harvesters to show up. He sensed a handful of spiritual beasts in the area, but none higher ranked than two and none nearby enough to worry about.

“Senior Brother,” Yang Xiu said, “I thought about a question a lot last night, and I still don’t understand. Why are we so interested in this wood?”

Feeling very wise, Benton said, “What conclusions did you draw?”

“Well, Senior Brother, obviously this wood is valuable, and you’ve stated that the sect needs money. You also said that cores are valuable, though, and we’ve got a lot of those. Is the wood worth that much more?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure how many, say, rank two cores it would take to equal the value of, say, a ten-foot log of the spirit wood. The absolute value of the two resources isn’t as important as things like diversification.”

She obviously didn’t understand that last word.

“Having one income source is risky,” Benton said. “If we overhunt the spirit beasts and they all die out, we’ll no longer have money coming in. Diversification means that we find other sources of income to hedge against that eventuality.”

Yang Xiu nodded.

“You should also think of it this way,” he said, “who gets richer—a hunter or a guy who owns a cattle ranch? Without my spiritual sense, you’d find your hunts to be a lot less productive. Creating an industry, though, allows you to optimize your process to make it efficient.”

It seemed to Benton that she wasn’t just asking out of curiosity and that something about it was bothering her. “Why are you struggling with it so much?”

“It seems so un-cultivator like, Senior Brother. The heroes of the stories I read never acted like merchants. I mean, aren’t we basically being used as pack mules to take a load of goods to market?”

“Where I’m from, we have an expression about killing two birds with one stone. Do you understand what that means?”

“Solving two problems with one solution, Senior Brother?”

“Excellent response, my disciple, and this trip to market actually solves three problems. One, it helps build trust between us and the villagers. They expect us to take the wood and run off with it. Returning just as we said we would is the first step toward creating a partnership. Two, if we are to build an industry around the spirit wood, this trip, along with guarding the harvesters today, will teach us a lot that we need to know about the wood from where it grows, to how it is cut, to who and where the markets are, to the demand, to the price we can get for it. And three, we need to go to a city anyway to get some shopping done.”

He grinned at her, and she smiled back.

“Besides that, believe me, Yang Xiu, every sect and all but the most spoiled of cultivators worry about resources. Wars are fought over veins of spirit metal or a grove of wood like the one here or even a good source of spirit beasts. Sure, the elders tell their disciples that they’re fighting over honor, but when it gets down to it, you typically find something extremely practical at the bottom of the conflict.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“The harvesters are almost in earshot, though, so we should probably table this discussion for another time.”

Soon Guang Yin arrived with five other men, all of a similar age and cultivation level to him. The thing that stood out the most about them to Benton was that each of them carried a weapon.

After introductions were made all around, he said, “Seems like you guys might be more combat capable than the mayor led me to believe.”

Guang Yin had the decency to look chagrined. “We have no techniques for fighting or any formal combat training.” He shrugged. “But over the years, one picks things up, Master Chao.”

Benton had lived a long life back on Earth and understood what the man meant. While he felt like these six men wouldn’t be a pushover by any means, he also didn’t think Guang Yin was lying.

Still, he’d make sure to avoid putting himself or the twins in a vulnerable situation. Trust but verify.

“The wood is located about five miles from the village,” Guang Yin said. “Should take us about an hour to walk there, assuming beast attacks don’t slow us too much.”

An hour? Benton and siblings could make a five-mile trek in a quarter of that time, and that pace would have been one he considered leisurely.

“Best get started then,” he said.

It didn’t take long for the first spirit beast to near their path. With a gesture, he sent Yang Ru to take care of it. The boy returned a few minutes later with the carcass of a deer draped over his shoulder, which Benton stored in his spatial ring.

Yang Xiu got the call for the next one, and they continued taking turns after that.

At a distance, the location that Benton assumed was the source of the spirit wood was one big massive blob of qi. It was kind of like looking at a whole bunch of LEDs that were grouped together to make a giant flashlight, blending into one big beam.

By the time he neared their destination, his senses were able to separate out individual sources of qi. He called the party to a halt. “There are a lot of spirit beasts ahead. Dozens. Mostly rank ones and twos, but there are a couple of threes.”

Guang Yin nodded. “I was afraid of that, Master Chao. The Wood always did attract the critters, and they haven’t been culled in way too long. I guess we’ll have to turn back.”

“You’re probably right.” Benton sighed. “I feel good about our team being able to clear the area, but I promised the mayor I would keep you safe.”

“Yeah. I’m sure you could kill all those beasts in no time if it weren’t for these weak old men holding you back, Master Chao.” Guang Yin scoffed. “If you want to make a go of it, don’t let us stop you. We’ll handle what comes at us.”

Benton couldn’t believe his ability was being doubted so openly. The mayor had flat out said he suspected Benton of being a golden core or nascent soul level cultivator. Guang Yin must not have been convinced. Either that or his pride was writing checks his body couldn’t cash.

“I committed to protecting you, and I do not like going back on my word,” Benton said. “If the three of us go full out against that mass of spirit beasts, some will leak out and may head this way. It shouldn’t be many. One or two of each rank. And I will make sure that we either kill the rank threes or they flee the opposite direction from the village. Tell me true, do you believe you can really handle that level of danger?”

Guang Yin just scowled.

“Begging your pardon, Esteemed Master Cultivator,” one of the other harvesters, Gao Xiaojian, said. “I reckon all of us have more experience than we’d like fighting beasts these past ten years. We’re too old to make much of a difference trying to cull them or for a long, drawn-out fight, but I reckon we can stand up to what you’re talking about for a while.”

“Okay,” Benton said. “If that’s your final answer, I’m game if you are.”