To simply call Sixth Flawless Flowing City a city did not do it justice. The area it encompassed was enormous. It stretched as far as Benton’s eye could see. He had no way of determining how many people lived within its walls but wouldn’t have been surprised if it were in the millions. Scanning it with his spiritual senses revealed that there wasn’t a huge concentration of qi like he would have expected with a sect, but there were thousands of cultivators present.
Benton hadn’t expected the city to be quite so huge when he’d set out from the village, nor to have so many cultivators present. Gaining the interest of a sect could be deadly for him, and going inside risked just that. He couldn’t help but reconsider whether continuing was worth it.
On one hand, yes. The three reasons he’d outlined to Yang Xiu before leaving still held. Though not starving, the people of the village were hungry, and he feared what winter would do to them. They needed the food he was going to return with, and doing so would create a lot of goodwill and start to build trust. The city was also the best place to sell the wood, and getting to know the players was crucial for developing a future industry. And lastly, his sect needed supplies.
If not Sixth Flawless Flowing City, where? His lone map didn’t show any other locations big enough to buy and sell what he needed, and any city that sold supplies for cultivators was likely to have … gasp … cultivators present.
Really, though, it depended on the degree of risk.
A risk matrix consisted of four quadrants, with probability from low to high being measured on the x-axis and impact, also from low to high, on the y-axis. Low impact but high probability was fine. As was high impact but low probability and, of course, low impact, low probability. The danger zone was high impact, high probability.
Buying and selling cultivator materials meant that Benton was almost guaranteed to run into other practitioners at some point. The result of a run in was much harder to predict. It might just be a nothing burger, but it might result in a fight for their lives. The only thing that gave Benton a modicum of confidence was the thirty-five Sect Points in his pocket. Quick mental calculations told him that he could get to the third minor realm of Golden Core with that many, though doing so would leave him almost nothing in reserve.
Knowing he had the ability to massively power up in an emergency gave him a lot of confidence. What still concerned him, however, was not knowing the strength of who he might be up against.
His spiritual sense could pick up the rank of beasts at a large distance because their cores, unless blocked by an innate ability, emitted that information. Cultivators were different. Intelligent. Controlled. Benton could sense their presence from far away but, for most cases, not their realm.
Still, Nascent Souls were rare, and the city before him was nothing special. Considering the sheer quantity of practitioners inside, there were likely Golden Cores, but he doubted there were any higher than that.
He could easily end up in a situation where he was both outnumbered and outgunned, but only in the case where he attracted undo attention. There was no reason for high rank sect members to pay attention to three low level wandering cultivators.
In the end, his decision came down to the old saying that, if one wanted to make an omelet, one had to break a few eggs. The best he could figure, the benefits of continuing their shopping trip outweighed the risks, but they’d need to be careful.
The siblings and he stood about a hundred yards from a gate, and a line had formed as people waited for guards to check them and their wagons over before being let inside. Considering the trio’s distance, no one was near them.
“Alright, listen closely. I know it may not look like it, but going inside that wall is the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done, eclipsing the rank three. Understand?”
“Yes, Senior Brother.”
“Okay, since you understand, why is it so dangerous?”
The siblings exchanged one of their glances.
“Other cultivators, Senior Brother,” Yang Xiu said.
Benton smiled. These kids exceeded his expectations at every turn. They truly were a delight. “Exactly. There are forces in there that would take me a lot of resources to overcome, an expenditure that would set our sect back. We need to be careful. Your rule for the entirety of our stay in that city is…” He paused as the perfect line from a movie gurgled up from his memory. “I want you to be nice until it’s time not to be nice.”
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Road House. Good flick, the original with Patrick Swayze, anyway. He missed movies. Once he got his sect established, he’d have to investigate a way of recreating some of his favorites. Hmm.
“How will we know when it’s time not to be nice, Senior Brother?” Yang Xiu said.
“Follow my lead.”
“Yes, Senior Brother.”
“Let’s think about our goals because those dictate our actions. Goal one, leave this city alive and together. Your survival is more important than any other objective. Period. Goal two, navigate the cultivators inside so as to leave as little notice of our passage as we can. I doubt it will be possible to totally fly under the radar, but we need to be thoughtful about how we handle things. Goal three, recruit. We need more disciples. Too many might overwhelm our capacity at the moment, but something in the five to ten range would be great, especially if we find any high talent possibilities who we can entice without attracting attention. Goal four, convert a good quantity of the materials in my ring to cash. Goal five, convert that cash to the supplies we need.”
Benton nodded, pleased with the list he’d constructed. “Given those objectives, our first course of action is to establish a home base inside. I’m thinking a warehouse of some kind. That will give us the space we need to process and sort the materials as well as house any recruits we encounter. Thoughts or concerns?”
“No, Senior Brother.”
“Let’s get to it, then.”
The three of them had cleaned up the best they could in a stream as they’d broken camp that morning, but they still looked really road worn. And that was putting it kindly. An uncharitable person might have said they looked like homeless beggars.
That was nothing that silver couldn’t solve, though, and he had a bit of that from that idiot Fang Wei and his men. Not to mention the fortune in supplies he carried in his ring. Though he wanted to keep most of his spirit beast cores for Body Cultivation, they were the resource that was most easily converted into silver and easy to replenish. Selling a dozen rank twos wouldn’t hurt him and would give him on the order of ten thousand taels to work with.
The wood, of course, was the most valuable resource he was willing to sell, but he wanted to be smart about it. He also needed weapons for his sect, and it didn’t escape his attention that a lot of the branches looked like they could be crafted into spears. That was part of the sorting he needed to do before finding a buyer.
Finally, he had literally thousands of pounds of spirit beast carcasses in his ring. Almost every part of a beast was useful. Each of them needed to be dressed, skinned, butchered, and have the teeth and claws cut off. Once his sect was up and running, he’d have crafters that could use all that stuff, but that was a long way off. And there were plenty more spirit beasts running around to replenish his supply.
That processing would take a lot of work, and he was sorely tempted to find someone to do it for him in exchange for a portion of the profits. The siblings wouldn’t gain anything from doing that, though. Every portion of that procedure was something they needed to learn, and the mound of carcasses in his ring presented the perfect training opportunity. The only reason Benton hadn’t already taught them was that he had prioritized cultivation and defending themselves. Not to mention that he first wanted to buy them good knives to use for that purpose.
The line was not too long, and it moved fairly fast. Soon, the trio found themselves at the front.
“What is the nature of your business in Sixth Flawless City?” one of the guards said.
He was a young mortal, no older than twenty, and he looked bored more than anything else.
“Buying and selling,” Benton said.
The guard frowned. “I don’t see any goods.”
Benton held up his hand and used his thumb to twist his spatial ring.
The guard’s eyes went wide. He cupped his hands and bowed slightly. “Apologies, Esteemed Cultivator. You did not have to wait in the line. In the future, please skip to the front.”
Benton shrugged.
“Cultivators are required to note their names and sect affiliation when entering, the guard said. “This lowly one apologizes for any inconvenience.”
Given the guard’s general manner, containing only the slightest hint of fear, Benton guessed the city had methods to deal with cultivators who didn’t comply with policies. Not that he had any desire to do such a thing. Simply obeying was the best way to stay low key.
He had a choice to make, though—use his body’s real name, Chao Su, or make something up. The city having such a huge number of cultivators present, he feared they might have a way to detect lies, as such methods were fairly common. Being caught in a lie like that would definitely make him stand out and might actually instigate the events he was trying to avoid.
One way around lying would be to go by Benton, but that wasn’t a normal name. It, too, might draw too much attention.
Though the demonic sect did pursue him when he ran, they hadn’t, to the best of his knowledge, kept up that pursuit. As far as he knew, they had no idea who Chao Su was. As long as he didn’t link that name, which was probably shared by thousands of people considering the sheer size of the world and number of people in it, to his former sect, he should be fine.
Benton bowed slightly. “I am Chao Su. These are my junior siblings, Yang Ru and Yang Xiu. We are wandering cultivators with no current sect affiliation.”
That was pretty much it for the entry process. Since he was a cultivator, he didn’t even have to pay a fee.
“One question, if you don’t mind,” Benton said to the guard. “Can you recommend a place to convert a few cores into more useful currency and then a place to get cleaned up and acquire new clothes. We’ve been long in the wilderness, honing our hunting skills.”
“Of course, Esteemed Cultivator. The Mahogany Dreaming Palace is located just a few streets over that way.” The guard pointed to the right. “They are used to consulting with newly arrived travelers and won’t bat an eye at your appearance and will both be able to purchase as many cores as you wish to sell and also guide you on next steps. Please tell them that Pan Mingyu sent you.”
The guard would surely receive a kickback on any deals Benton completed there, but he was fine with that. As long as they didn’t try to rob him blind, a little gratuity here and there to help grease the wheels was to be expected.