Benton’s scan of the Jade Chameleon Sect member told him a lot about the man. The first important fact was that he used illusion aspected qi.

According to what Su had learned in one of his lessons at the Flowing Tiger Sect, around three quarters of people born had qi aspects corresponding to one of the five primary elements—earth, fire, metal, water, and wood. There were additionally many, many secondary elements, including lightning, ice, nature, poison, shadow, and the list goes on. Obviously, then, less than twenty-five percent of cultivators used a secondary qi aspect, and since there were possibly hundreds of such aspects, that meant that the incidence of each was relatively small, though some were definitely rarer or more common than others.

Thus, even though the Poison Claw Sect favored poison users, well less than half of their members utilized that unique aspect. The same was true for the Jade Chameleon Sect.

Making the assumption that one of their members used illusion was less than an odds on bet. Benton, however, knew the man approaching did, which meant he knew to be aware of trickery.

The fact that the man was thirty-seven years old and only at the peak of Foundation Establishment told Benton a lot as well. C+ roots weren’t bad at all, but though spirit root rank was referred to as talent, having quality roots did not guarantee success. Anyone could bottleneck at any time. Deviations, heart demons, pill toxicity build up, lack of diligence, quality of cultivation methods, and any one of probably hundreds of factors could leave a promising cultivator to languish.

Given the quality of those roots, the odds greatly favored the man’s cultivation getting stalled in the Foundation Establishment realm instead of in Qi Gathering. He probably had plenty of years to master techniques as he struggled to overcome his bottleneck.

Of course, that conclusion was mostly speculation. He could have started cultivating at twenty-five years old and actually be right on track. Or he could be lazy or stupid or whatever and simply not cultivated much or learned anything.

Benton wouldn’t bet on any of the latter scenarios being true, though. In all probability, the man stalking toward the camp was an illusionist who had years to master many combat tricks.

If things escalated to a fight, Benton wouldn’t be able to trust what he saw, heard, smelled, touched, or even tasted. His best bet was to end things as soon as they started.

Of course, winning a fight with a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator at all was not a foregone conclusion. Benton’s ten available Sect Points would only advance him to the fifth minor realm, and he’d not even have a chance to adjust to his surge in strength and qi before the fight began.

A single quick and decisive strike would be his best bet.

No. Actually, his best bet was his go to move—bluffing.

The problem was that Benton wasn’t sure it would work. When Kang Ya-Ting had flown toward that initial confrontation between Yang Ru and Pan Jiang, Benton had understood why the man approached. He’d understood why the man was angry. Kang Ya-Ting’s actions and emotions were to be expected of a master whose disciple had just gotten involved in an altercation with what he considered to be street rabble.

All Benton had to do was to get the sect elder to stop and think in order to alter his perception of the situation. And the tactic had worked like a charm.

For the Jade Chameleon cultivator, things were different. He had to know that the caravan he was approaching was manned by friends of the Poison Claw Sect. Even if he didn’t before he approached, Benton still wore the snake pin. If the man had ill intentions, knowledge of the sect’s backing should give him pause, but he showed no hesitation.

By the same token, the cultivator should have extended a polite greeting by that point if he had friendly intentions. But he hadn’t.

His face held a severe expression.

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The situation felt off. Benton glanced at Yang Xiu, meeting her eyes and trying with all his will to convey to her that her and Yang Ru’s job was to protect the mortals and the two new disciples. She nodded, so hopefully, she understood the direction. It was the best he could do.

Benton faced the approaching Chameleon Sect member and nodded just the same depth he had in the first encounter with Ya-Ting.

“Kowtow before me, gutter trash,” the cultivator said. “Actually, you’re not even gutter trash. You’re nothing. You’re just a mortal.”

That opening line was not auspicious. Benton needed to proceed very cautiously. He couldn’t kowtow, but he didn’t want to provoke the sect member either.

“This one is a good friend of the Poison Claw Sect.”

“Those idiots. The Jade Chameleon Sect fools them all the time, just as you have. I’ve watched you for an entire day. You have used no qi. The only sign that you can use qi is that spatial ring, but I’ve heard of ones that can be utilized by mortals. You’re nothing but a conman. A rich conman who will soon make me a rich cultivator.”

Well, bluffing was out. The best Benton could do was advance quickly to Foundation Establishment and hope some external qi manipulation would make the man re-evaluate. Unfortunately, advancement to the next major realm would trigger a purge of impurities, which would be immediately obvious to the cultivator and ruin the deception.

Nope. Benton was almost positive the situation was going to devolve into combat.

“You have two choices,” the cultivator said. “Give me all your personal items and assist me in getting the wagons back to the city or die now.”

Benton didn’t need Su’s memories to know that surrendering was not an option. The guy was going to kill them either way. Fighting was the only recourse.

Well, it was possible Benton could find some argument or clever trick to make the man let them go, but nothing was coming to mind. And he wasn’t willing to bet his life or the lives of anyone present that he’d be able to think of something in time.

The problem was that the man was a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator. Benton wasn’t exactly like a gnat in comparison at the peak of Qi Gathering, but he felt like it.

Su’s sect had been a lot more martially inclined than Benton had witnessed from his brief experience in Sixth Flawless Flowing City. For the Flowing Tiger Sect, fighting was a way of life. One doesn’t survive so many battles without developing some tricks, and there was one using a spatial ring that would give Benton the element of surprise, which may or may not be enough to win.

He had exactly one shot to pull off the victory, and everything had to go perfectly. Knowing the man was an illusionist full of tricks, Benton carefully scanned the man with spiritual sense while also using qi to enhance vision and hearing.

It was as Benton suspected. The man standing before them was an illusion. The actual cultivator stood slightly behind and to the right of the projection.

Benton would never have noticed if he hadn’t known to be on the lookout for something similar.

“System,” he said internally, “advance me to Foundation Establishment minor realm one as soon as I move.”

He hated that his life and future sect was once again riding on a single moment, and his success depended on so many assumptions. One, that the man’s actually height and appearance matched the illusion. Two, that the estimate of the man’s position given by Benton’s spiritual sense was accurate enough for him to make a killing strike. And three, that the System would comply with his direction. So far, whatever guided the System’s actions had been quite flexible, but Benton hadn’t previously tried to execute a conditional command.

“Not ready to surrender, huh?” The man sneered. “Well, that’s going to cost you one follower. Let’s try that one!”

A blade appeared from the position of the invisible sect member. An instant later, three more blades appeared, these from the illusion. The blades combined into a diamond shape targeted at Zou Tian.

“Only the one on the right is real,” Benton yelled for his disciples’ benefit.

That was all the help he could give them, though. His job was to take out the main threat, not to protect the people behind him. And he had his hands full.

He lunged forward and to the right with his hands and arms in position like he was holding a spear.

Several things happened simultaneously. He felt a surge of power as the System advanced him to Foundation Establishment just as he summoned his Orange Vigor Spirit Wood spear from his ring.

“Wha—” the cultivator tried to say.

He never got to finish the word, though. Nor would he ever finish a word again.

As quickly as Benton’s Foundation Establishment new strength could propel him, he thrust the spear at the man, aiming, hopefully, for the eye.

The tip hit a tiny bit off center from where Benton intended, but close, in that case, counted.

The speed and surprise of the sudden strike meant it happened too quickly for the cultivator to use a defensive trigger or technique, and the force of the blow was easily strong enough to penetrate the corner of the eye all the way to the man’s brain, killing him instantly.

The illusion disappeared and the man’s bloody corpse, held up on the end of the red spear, appeared.

Benton heart thudded mightily. He glanced back, fearing that Zou Tian was dead.

Instead, he saw a blade lying on the ground, dented by an arrow, and Zou Tian calmly observing.

Benton truly did have the best disciples.

“Uh, Master,” Yang Xiu said. “What is that awful smell?”