Chapter 236: No Rest for the Weary

Benton had sensed two Golden Core approaching the sect, so he waited for them on the road between the two towers just behind the newly installed gate. When he caught sight of them, he grinned. It was Kang Ya-Ting and an old man who was also dressed in the green robes of the Poison Claw Sect, both on flying swords. Benton quickly scanned the stranger, discovering that he was a peak Golden Core cultivator.

The two descended, landing in front of the open gate.

“Friend Kang, greetings!” Benton said, cupping his hands.

“And you as well, Friend Su. This is Yuan Yaozu.”

Benton and the new man exchanged greetings.

“I’m afraid I’m here on business, Friend Su, and the news isn’t good,” Kang Ya-Ting said. “The Jade Chameleon Sect has brought two Nascent Souls out of secluded cultivation. We believe an attack is imminent.”

Even though Benton more than half expected something like that to happen, it was still a shock for it to become a certainty. His heart pounded. “How imminent? And just two or are more expected?”

“A day or two, no more than three, and none of our sources indicate that the sect’s other two Nascent Souls are joining the fight. Neither have we detected any movement from the Swift Blizzard Sect or the Emperor’s faction.”

Benton’s heart eased some at that response. Combined with the two towers and the Grand Defensive Formation, he felt confident that he probably could handle two Nascent Souls.

Then again…

Up until the very moment that Kang Ya-Ting had announced the looming arrival of the enemy Nascent Souls, Benton had actually been quite confident in his ability to handle two at once. Now that his life and the lives of all his sect members were riding on him turning back the attack, he felt decidedly less sure.

He couldn’t help but wonder if he had enough time to drag three hundred eighty-eight members of the village over to the amphitheater and induct them, bringing the sect’s membership total to one thousand and hopefully triggering his ability to ascend to Nascent Soul.



Of course, that move would go against the induction plan he’d established that literally everyone knew about. It would surely be taken as a sign of panic. The only sect allied with him would quite naturally start to question his strength. His sect members and the villagers would begin to doubt him, maybe even lowering the loyalty they felt toward him.

Maybe he was overreacting. It was, after all, only two Nascent Soul cultivators. He’d creamed the single beast he’d fought in that realm.

Well, for values of creamed.

Still, he was more powerful now. He had Mind and Soul Cultivation, and the former of those should be especially helpful. And he seriously doubted either of his opponents had their Body Cultivation at the peak of the equivalent of Golden Core like he did, if they even bothered with it at all.

He was absolutely positive that the arrays he built with the System-bought schematics would kill one of the enemies. Which meant he only needed to survive long enough to maneuver one into place and then deal with the other mano a mano.

Besides, he had the System. No one else had the advantages he possessed. He could use any qi element he wanted, create any technique he could imagine. So what if his opponents were a major realm higher than him?

Yeah. Okay. Moment of panic over. He could do it. He would do it. He had to.

“Are you here to bring your sect members to back to the city?” Benton said.

To bring them back to safety, in other words.

“This one has absolute confidence in Friend Su’s ability to handle a couple of Nascent Souls,” Kang Ya-Ting said, “and I have to admit that I find the thought of spectating such an event exhilarating.”

Translation—the elder saw the fight as an excellent way to gain intel on just how powerful Benton was, and he figured that his status as a high-ranking member of the Poison Claw Sect would see him safely through whatever happened.

Good heavens! Benton didn’t like that thought at all. It didn’t sound like him. Living in a cultivator world was turning him cynical. More likely, it was the stress of actual life and death stakes the likes of which he simply hadn’t had to deal with on Earth that caused the problem. He had, after all, already lost one young man.

“There will be a lot of energy thrown around,” Benton said, “and the sect’s shield can’t stop all of it. I should create a secondary protective formation somewhere to keep everyone safe during the battle.”

“An excellent thought, Friend Su,” Kang Ya-Ting said, beaming.

Sure, anything that provided extra defense for the old man was something he’d agree with.

Ugh. Again with the unkind thoughts.

Benton took a deep breath, though he tried to hide it. “Any advice?”

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“Don’t win too easily.”



Benton’s face must have shown his confusion because Kang Ya-Ting hurried to continue. “If you use your sect’s defenses combined with your own fighting ability to barely take down two Nascent Souls, then the takeaway by the other factions will be that the Jade Chameleons were stupid to attack you at your place of strength. If you instead easily beat them with no apparent effort, the conclusion they reach will be that you are too dangerous to leave alone. There are already rumors going around saying that very thing, and you can guess who started them.”

Benton honestly didn’t think that he would have any trouble struggling to win, so that was one worry he didn’t need to concern himself with. “What about you, Yuan Yaozu? Are you here for the show as well?”

The old cultivator cupped his hands. “I’m sure you’ve used your spiritual sense on me?”

Benton hadn’t paid a lot of attention to his scan other than confirming realm and affiliation with the Poison Claw Sect. He pulled up the notification to refresh his memory.

Affiliation:Poison Claw SectAge:977Cultivation:Golden Core - Minor Realm NineQi Available:1,096,691Concept:Venom - MasterySpiritual Roots:B-Qi Aspect:Venom that decays the flesh and spirit

By the time a cultivator reached Golden Core, one typically had dozens of techniques, which really clogged up their status with information that Benton didn’t need to know unless he was planning on fighting them. And most of the time, not even them. Thus, he’d long ago asked the System to only display Concepts for Golden Core cultivators, keeping the information shorter and allowing him to dive deeper only when needed.

Now that he’d focused on the scan results, a few important points stood out. One, the man was quite talented. Benton had scanned a lot of people on the planet. Not many were in the B grade or above.

Two, the man had a nasty, nasty qi aspect. Decaying flesh didn’t sound good. Decaying spirit sounded worse. Three, his qi pool was less than a fifth of Benton’s. And finally, the man was very near the end of his expected lifespan.

None of that information was particularly revelatory to Benton. It was expected for a major sect to have talented members, and those talented members were typically the ones with the greatest chance of advancing to the highest rank. The Venom element, a kind of subset of Poison, was quite rare, but he expected his allied sect to collect such members given the name. The man also didn’t have access to Benton’s System-provided perk to give him a huge qi pool, or, presumably, access to heaven grade cultivation methods for that matter. And for a Golden Core cultivator to appear to be that old, he had to be positively ancient.

“Let me guess,” Benton said. “You’re bottlenecked, heard about Fatty Ren’s success with the Trial Pagoda, and want to try your luck.”

Yuan Yaozu smiled. “Elder Kang told me you were a smart one.”

He’d said that like it took a genius to figure out his motive, but Benton supposed that flattery was better than insults or threats.

“I hate to sound too mercenary, but I’m short on time,” Benton said. “What would I get for the use of my Trial Pagoda?”

“I’ll cut to the chase. I’m offering exactly what you most need at this moment—another powerful defender.” Yuan Yaozu said. “If you can get me past this bottleneck, I swear on my cultivation that I will defend your sect and its members to my death against any threats for the next one hundred years.”

Purple lightning flashed against the clear sky, a sign that the heavens had witnessed his oath. If Benton had any doubt about the man not meaning what he said, that flash immediately dispelled it.

“Right to the point, then,” Benton said. “Thanks for not wasting my time. I won’t waste yours, either. I accept your offer. You can use the pagoda tomorrow morning.”

Yuan Yaozu looked confused. “Not today?”

Benton scratched the back of his neck. “Well, we can only use it once between sun-up one day and sun-up the next, and today’s has already been used.”

He neglected to mention that the use had been by a guard in the Qi Gathering realm improving his bow technique. The soon-to-be Nascent Soul would probably have been apoplectic at the reason for the delay.

“In the meantime, Kang Lin and a few of my sect members could probably give you some valuable advice about how to pass your trial on the first attempt,” Benton said. “They’ve all been through it and have heard Fatty Ren’s account of his trial. If you don’t mind taking advice from juniors?”



“If all my years of life have taught me anything, it’s that one should never pass up wisdom, no matter the source.”

“That’s an excellent philosophy,” Benton said. “I quite agree.”

He hurriedly concluded the pleasantries and sent the two visiting Golden Cores off to see Kang Lin, the twins, and Zou Tian, leaving Benton to focus on his priorities.

“Thank the heavens that I finished the sect’s defenses,” he said to himself.

And he really was thankful. The effort had been intense, and he hadn’t let up until he was done. Which was really a good thing. Without both the shield and the two towers, his chances of the sect making it through the fight without losing anyone would have been much reduced.

The presence of those defenses didn’t mean he had nothing else to do, though. The amphitheater was the only place big enough to hold all the sect members and the still mortal villagers, but it wouldn’t be very well defended when the shields anchored to the sect’s wall went down. He’d need to create a variable element formation to protect against direct qi bursts, penetration by cultivators, and mundane objects hurled as attacks.

He also needed to create more greater spirit coins as he literally never could have enough of them. And he hadn’t yet got around to creating wearable tokens for all his sect members so that they could pass through the Grand Defensive Formation. Instead, he was just leaving the GDF down, depending on sensing approaching threats fast enough to raise it before it was needed.

His other two tasks were to get Wan Ai started on the Body Cultivation baths for the twins and to see to Jin LiJuan’s advancement.

Ugh. All needed to be done. Priorities, though.

First, the arrays for the amphitheater. He would just have to suck it up and do three separate ones as there was not enough time to design a formation that combined them. At least three single formations were simple enough to do while using Time Manipulation.

Second, an hour of creating greater spirit coins while using Time Manipulation. Third, he’d find both Wan Ai and Jin LiJuan and get them situated. Fourth, another hour of spirit coin creation. Finally, he’d call for a council meeting to work out a plan for the coming attack. The wearable tokens would just have to wait.

With a sigh, Benton Quickstepped to the amphitheater. No rest for the weary.