Benton quickly ran to the harvesting site and found a large pile of wood laying on a tarp, including multiple tree trunks exceeding forty feet in length. He stored all of it in his ring and ran to the village.

It was late, and most everyone was asleep. Not knowing where to deposit his load, he ran by Peng Zhen’s house and discovered that the place was dark and silent. He needed to know where to leave the wood, but his tardiness didn’t justify disturbing the family inside. There had to be another source for the necessary information.

Well, if any of his people knew, it would be Zou Tian.

Benton ran to the temporary alchemy lab. Luckily, the boy and Wan Ai hadn’t retired for the evening. Both were still hard at work.

Finding them up was good for multiple reasons. Benton could find out what to do with the wood, get a status report on the baths, and determine what the heck happened to increase his sect members’ loyalty toward him so much.

“Greetings, disciples,” Benton said.

After the two returned his salutations, he got right to his questions. Zou Tian did indeed know where the wood was to be dropped off. Benton got directions and asked how the body cultivation was going.

“Preparations are going well, Master,” Wan Ai said. “This one was able to cut enough herbs for five baths tomorrow as this one anticipated, and all three baths this morning took on the color and smell as described by the cultivation method. Ye Zan and two of his men each completed one session. We won’t know until after they have their third baths if it actually worked, but this one believes the chances are good.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Keep up the great work!”

She turned away bashfully, but he suspected she was pleased with the praise.

“I did have another question,” Benton said. “Has something happened today in the village? My … intuition is telling me that my sect members are feeling more loyal toward me?”

“The story is all over town, Master,” Zou Tian said.

“What story?”

“How you decided to heal Jin LiJuan despite the cost and the fact that she will never be much of a cultivator.”

“And that make my sect members more loyal? How? Why?”

Zou Tian shrugged. “Master is unfathomable, of course, but this one thought Master’s actions to be a waste of resources. Others, though, seemed to think that, if Master valued such a worthless girl so highly, then surely, he would see value in them, too.”

“I guess…”

Benton could kind of see that point of view. Given the general reputation of cultivators as selfish and as dangerous and uncaring as acts of nature where mortals were concerned, it made sense that any sign he actually cared about the fate of the village would be taken as a good thing.

He happened to glance at Wan Ai, who was clearly struggling with wanting to say something but was too shy to speak up.

“What do you think, Wan Ai?” he said.

“This one couldn’t say, Master.”

“Of course you can. By now, I’ve surely made it clear that I value the opinions of my sect members, especially those I’ve chosen for my council.”

She looked very conflicted, but finally, she spoke. “During the ceremony, Master said that the sect is supposed to lift each other up. Then, Master decided that healing Jin LiJuan was a waste of resources and wouldn’t heal her. This lowly one felt like the words and actions were at odds. When Master later changed his actions to meet his words, this lowly one felt … good about the choice and Master. This lowly one suspects others may feel the same.”

Out of the mouths of babes…

Her point did raise an interesting question. Was he being hypocritical? Was refusing to spend an exorbitant amount of limited Shop Points on a sect member who probably wouldn’t even be able to reach Foundation Establishment the opposite of lifting each other up? In a way. But that view lacked a lot of nuance.

He’d have to consider that issue more. A larger concern was that, if Wan Ai felt that way, why didn’t she speak up during the council meeting?

Oh. Wait. Look who he was thinking about. There was no way the girl was confident enough to speak in that setting without being practically forced to.

“Thank you, Wan Ai. That perspective helps. A lot.”

And it really did. Benton still didn’t understand how to reconcile wanting his sect to be righteous and lift people up versus what he believed it took to survive in a cultivation world, but maybe it hadn’t been completely fair to beat himself up so much over his actions.

He said his goodbyes to the duo and headed over to the guards’ house where he dropped off Jin LiJuan’s pills. Next, he found the woodyard exactly where Zou Tian had directed and dropped off the load.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Those missions accomplished, he ran back to the arena. He had a Perk Point to spend.

“System, please call up the Perk Menu.”

Welcome, Host, to the Perk Menu.

Host has one Perk Point available. Selecting any perk from the list below uses one Perk Point. Using additional Perk Points on the same perk increases the potency of the perk.

Please choose from the following list:

Auspicious Encounter

Advantageous Starting Location

Enhanced Body Cultivation Power

Enhanced Cultivation Power

Enhanced Physical Senses

Enhanced Spiritual Senses (2)

Enhanced Technique Power

Five Equipment Points

Hide Cultivation (2)

Regeneration

The first two, Auspicious Encounter and Advantageous Starting Location were crossed out, not allowing him to select them. That made sense. Both perks involved starting conditions, and he’d already formed his sect.

Two, Enhanced Spiritual Senses and Hide Cultivation, showed that he’d already spent one Perk Point on them. It was interesting that Five Equipment Points didn’t have that mark. That lack probably meant he’d simply get another five points instead of an enhanced version of the perk.

Benton was definitely leaning toward a certain one of the choices, but he’d learned to carefully review all his options before making a decision. He had no idea, after all, when he might get another chance to choose from the menu.

First, Enhanced Body Cultivation Power. Try as he might, he couldn’t figure out a reason to take it. He simply wasn’t focused on Body Cultivation, so improving it made no sense.

Next was Enhanced Cultivation Power. That one made everything about his Spiritual Cultivation better. He’d get a little bit stronger, faster, tougher, etc. in excess of what he already gained with each realm he advanced. The biggest impact, though, was to his qi pool. The System promised major gains in that area. It was definitely the frontrunner for him to pick.

Enhanced Physical Senses felt like a very inferior option to him. He hadn’t even invested in a technique to enhance that aspect of himself. Why would he use a precious Perk Point on it?

In contrast, Enhanced Spiritual Senses Level Two was an attractive option. There was some information about opponents that his current version wouldn’t reveal, and he worried about using it on higher realm cultivators. Spending another Perk Point on it would probably alleviate both those issues.

Enhanced Technique Power was also in the running. Imagine making all his techniques better. He was already developing a devastating combat style around his purchases and just about drooled over the thought of each and every one of them delivering more punch for the same cost.

There was no way he was going with Five Equipment Points again. He was in a way different situation than he had been when he first gained the System. If he needed equipment, he could just dash over to Sixth Flawless Flowing City and buy some.

At first blush, Hide Cultivation seemed like another one of those very poor choices. He’d already spent a Perk Point on the characteristic, and it worked quite well. The fact that an upgrade existed concerned him, however. The implication was that an upgrade was needed, meaning somebody out there somewhere would be able to see through the inferior version of the perk.

Finally came Regeneration. To be honest, it was hard to consider spending a critical resource on it. Benton hadn’t even needed to consume a healing pill yet, and the only use for it was to keep him alive between the time he received a hit and when he could get to a pill.

That bit of reasoning narrowed his choices from eight down to four. He’d cut the list in half. Not bad.

Of the four remaining, Hide Cultivation Level Two was the easiest to eliminate. Sure, there might be someone out there who could see through his concealment, but what were the odds of running into that person? Even if he did meet a cultivator like that, it was hard to spend the point on such a limited use ability.

Likewise, he decided not to upgrade to Spiritual Senses yet. Benton desperately wanted it and hated to eliminate it. But in the end, he needed to focus on becoming the sect’s primary protector. He needed more power, not more information.

There, he’d reduced his choices in half again.

More qi or more powerful techniques? Was it better to be able to hit more times or for each punch to land harder?

“System, is there a way to get another Perk Point?”

Host will likely unlock additional quests in the future. Additional quests may provide Perk Points as a reward.

Well, that was a total non-answer answer.

Honestly, he thought that his techniques were pretty darn powerful, and they were already scalable with the amount of qi he input. Not to mention the fact that his ability to obtain even more powerful techniques was limited only by his imagination. In the short term, at least, more qi was definitely better.

For the long term, he wasn’t so sure. He’d naturally grow his qi pool as he increased his cultivation realm, but as far as he knew, the strength of the attack per qi point invested would never change. Increasing his technique power fundamentally altered that equation by permanently increasing the strength.

The fact was that he needed strength immediately, and he felt that a bigger qi pool provided that necessity better than increased technique power. He simply didn’t have enough qi available to power the combat style he wanted.

“System, please spend the Perk Point on Enhanced Cultivation Power.”

Instantly, he felt stronger, even more so than when he’d increased his Body Cultivation recently.

“System, please show me my available qi.”

Qi Available: 5,550

Yikes. It had quintupled. The System wasn’t kidding when it said it would be a major increase.

Nice. He could do a lot with that. If he got into a fight with another peak Foundation Establishment cultivator, he’d feel pretty darn confident about winning, especially once he got his shield.

A high ranked Golden Core cultivator on the other hand? Benton honestly wasn’t sure. He didn’t know enough about the realm.

Add another useful technique to the wish list—expert knowledge of the Golden Core realm. He would need that eventually when his disciples started reaching that rank, maybe even before as choices made in Foundation Establishment would probably affect the next realm.

Overall, the whole debacle with waffling on his decision about Jin LiJuan had turned out better than he had any right to expect. His sect members were more loyal to him. He’d inadvertently modeled the behavior he’d said he wanted his sect to emulate. And finally, he’d completed an important quest much sooner than he had expected.

Who knew how long it would have taken him to get the average loyalty to six otherwise? Getting that Perk Point was huge. With so much qi available, he could spam attacks that he could barely afford earlier.

Finally, he was starting to feel strong enough to defend his sect.