Chapter 265: Trouble Brewing and Deal Making

Benton received an interesting message, the shortest one he’d gotten yet. It simply asked him if he would teleport to Kang Ya-Ting’s study at noon the following day for a quick meeting.

That was it. No context. Nothing. There should have been some explanation as to the purpose of the summons, right?

The paper sent had been one commonly used by the Poison Claw Sect, not one of Benton’s. Maybe that fact had something to do with the terseness.

Oh well.

Benton quickly sent a reply back, one even more succinct.

Sure.

Before sending it off, he re-read the single word and grinned. Even if no one else found it funny, he did.

A little while later, another message arrived, one from a source he didn’t recognize.

Sect Leader Chao Su,

Be it known that the Council of Four, an organization founded to improve relations between the four major factions on the Five Provinces continent, is hosting its quinquennial tournament in Sixth Flawless Flowing City. Events will allow faction members in the Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment realms to compete in contests of martial ability, pill making, blacksmithing, and formations creation.

Let this notice serve as an official notice from the Council of Four that members of the Rising Tide Sect are invited to participate in these events. No entry fees are required for contestants, and as your sect is an honored guest, contribution to the prize pool is also not required.

Each of the four types of contests will be broken into four divisions corresponding to the participants’ cultivation realm—Qi Gathering, low Foundation Establishment, mid Foundation Establishment, and high Foundation Establishment.



The tournament will take place in five months’ time. A notice of intent to participate along with quantities of cultivators anticipated to participate in each contest and division must be submitted within four months after receipt of this invitation. A final list of names along with cultivation realm and contest(s) to be entered must be submitted no later than one week prior to the commencement of the tournament.

Yours in the Spirit of Cooperation,

Qiu ZhenKang

Assistant to City Lord Luo Quan

Interesting. If Benton had to guess, he’d say that invitation was the reason for Kang Ya-Ting’s missive.

Hmm.

On the face of it, the invite didn’t pass the smell test. Though there were only three major sects on the continent, there were umpteen small ones. Benton seriously doubted that any of them had been invited to the tournament, but he could be wrong on that score.

He mentally shrugged. There was no reason for him to make a decision, or even really waste much time worrying about it, until after talking to his allies the next day.

If he did decide to let the kids take part, though, they would definitely need better equipment. If only he knew a master blacksmith. Oh wait…

Seriously, there was no reason he couldn’t whip up something for all the kids who would be going. Again, though, he should wait to get anything like that started until after finding out more information.

Related to the subject of better equipment, though, he had promised to provide a weapon to all his members who reached Foundation Establishment, and his efforts on that front had been a bit lackluster. Yang Xiu and Yang Ru were still using the weapons provided by the System, which were high quality and all but had no formations giving them that special something the weapons for auction had. And Kang Lin just had the standard sect spear, which, again, was better than what most kids her realm on the continent had to work with. Better just wasn’t good enough for his disciples, though. Poor Jin LiJuan didn’t even have that. He'd just handed her a random sword from his ring that he’d picked up somewhere.

Yeah, those four definitely could stand an upgrade.

Benton scanned the sect grounds. All cultivators stood out as little blobs of qi to his spiritual sense, and since he knew the quantity plus some hard to define quality about that qi each of his members possessed, he could quickly identify where everyone was.

Yang Ru and Kang Lin were in the Martial Pavilion, outside one of the sparring areas that held Yang Xiu and Zou Tian. Jin LiJuan was in a separate part of that building with Pan Jiang.

Benton teleported to Yang Ru and Kang Lin. Before they had a chance to even cup their hands or greet him, he said, “If you could use an attack of any element other than one associated with your aspect, what element would it be?” He held out two pieces of message paper.

They each took one of the pages, their expressions showing confusion.

“Think about it carefully and get me your answer before dinner,” he said, teleporting out before they could say a word.

He appeared in a sparring room with Jin LiJuan and repeated the conversation he’d had with the other two before leaving just as quickly.

Benton had to say that moments like those were some of his favorite things about coming to a cultivation world. The combination of being able to do such supercool superhuman things like teleporting and using that ability to flummox his disciples was just too much fun.

After leaving them, he popped over to the forge to begin implementing some of his plans. Luckily, it didn’t take long for the messages to start coming in. Jin LiJuan’s came first, choosing Void as her element.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He nodded as he probably could have guessed that result. She was focused on destruction, and there wasn’t a much better element for purpose that than the one she picked.

The selections from Yang Ru and Kang Lin followed fairly soon after that, and Benton found those decisions to be quite interesting. Besides outliers like Void, Tribulation, and Time, most sub elements were strong and weak against common elements. Yang Ru’s aspect, Momentum, was great against Water but not so much against Wood. His fighting style involved lots of close up melee attacks and was all about power.

In a similar manner, Kang Lin’s Lightning beat Wood but lost to Earth. Her style was also melee, but she focused on speed. She chose Gravity for her attack element, which represented a great addition to her repertoire. It served the dual purpose of giving her an AoE option and a way to pin down an opponent.

The choice was a good one.


Yang Ru’s showed a different way of thinking. Maybe. He picked Water. Which on the face of it didn’t make a lot of sense. Water was okay for ranged attacks, which would give him needed options in a fight. But there were better elements he could have picked if that were his concern.

If, however, he planned on fighting often with Kang Lin at his side, the choice got really interesting. She would struggle most against an Earth user, and Water was strong against Earth.

Could the choice be a sign that things were heating up between the two of them? Enquiring minds wanted to know.



Benton shrugged off his thoughts of a gossipy nature and got back to work, soon finishing up all his tasks in the forge and stowing the results in his ring. He expected that, after his meeting at the Poison Claw Sect the next day, he’d want to meet with his council to discuss the tournament. That would be a perfect time to distribute the results of his crafting.

He ended up taking it relatively easy the rest of the night and the next morning, spending an hour here and there making spirit coins but otherwise just napping, watching the kids’ spar, and re-reading a novel he’d particularly enjoyed.

At the appointed time, he teleported into Kang Ya-Ting’s study.

In addition to the elder, the leader of the branch sect, Dai Shuren, and an older Golden Core cultivator, who wore the Poison Claw Sect’s robes and who Benton hadn’t met, was also present. They all exchanged greetings, and the new man was introduced as Elder Feng, the gentleman who had the Ice Lotus that Benton needed available for trade.

Interesting. Benton had assumed the meeting would be about the tournament, but both the people who had materials available for trade were present. It made sense that the sect branch leader would be at the meeting regardless of which purpose was to be discussed but not necessarily for the other guy. Surely, they hadn’t summoned him so urgently just for a bit of business.

“I’m sure you are curious as to why we requested your presence, Friend Su.”

“I am.”

Kang Ya-Ting sighed. “The truth of the matter is that I got tricked.” He went on to describe his experience with the committee organizing the tournament and how the Jade Chameleon Sect elder connived his way into pushing through an invite for the Rising Tide Sect.

“It’s a trap,” Benton said, almost unintentionally inflecting his voice like a certain alien in a certain movie.

“I fear so,” Kang Ya-Ting said, “and a well laid one. He’s offering the carrot of official acknowledgement of your sect as bait. The tournament is for the four factions and is not generally open to anyone else. Occasionally a smaller, unaffiliated sect is invited, and when that happens, everyone understands that the council is giving them great face. It’s an important statement.”

Benton nodded. “And if I refuse, the loss of face will be equal to or greater than the gain I get from accepting.”

“Exactly,” Elder Dai said. “Even as our official ally, it may be centuries or never before your sect is offered an opportunity like this one. You cannot refuse it lightly.”

Benton felt he had a good handle on the political aspects of the situation, so he cut to the heart of the matter. “Will my kids be in danger?”

Kang Ya-Ting grimaced. “The Jade Chameleon and maybe the Swift Blizzards will be targeting them.”

“Targeting as in possible ambushes outside the arena or solely in the ring?” Benton said.

“Oh. It’s extremely unlikely that there will be any attacks on youngsters outside the confines of the tournament, Friend Su. The loss of face would be severe, and almost as importantly, it would draw in the Emperor’s faction on our side. They enforce the peace during the entire event, meaning that any attack would impugn their honor.”

“I’m assuming there are formations in place to prevent permanent injuries and death during the actual matches?” Benton said.

After all, if his recycled sect buildings had such formations as standard, sure an important tournament would as well.

“Of course, Sect Leader,” Elder Dai said. “And anyone who wants to, including you, will be offered the chance to examine them. If any of the arrays aren’t to your satisfaction, reasonable accommodations will be arranged.”

Hmm. Given the quality of the techniques his kids had access to, he’d put them one on one against anybody the sects had to offer. If the only danger was inside the ring and the damage would be healed at the end of the fight, he had no issues putting the kids in that situation. Even if they got beaten up, it could be a good learning experience for them.

One glaring problem stood out, though.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Benton said.

“You understand the problem,” the new guy, Elder Feng, said. “The truth is that the Jade Chameleons must have a reason for inviting your sect, and I seriously doubt that reason is a prelude to an offer of peace. They’ve either got something to gain or think you have something to lose or both. And no one outside their circle knows what that reason might be.”

“I think I now have a sufficient understanding of the situation. Gratitude.” Benton cupped his hands and inclined his head toward each of the three elders.

He needed time to process what he’d learned and consider the risk versus gain. There was also his council to consider. It would be good to get their input.

“There is time before the ultimate decision must be made,” Benton said. “I have much thinking to do before reaching a conclusion.”

“Yes, Sect Leader,” Elder Dai said. “We appreciate the careful consideration you’re giving this manner. As your allied sect, we felt it important to convey all the information we had to inform your choice.”

After that, the conversation turned to more mundane matters. It turned out that Elders Dai and Feng did want to do a bit of horse trading and had hoped Benton had brought the swords he’d made.



He had.

After a few tests, each of the elders was convinced of the value.

“You’re willing to take requests for a custom weapon in exchange for what we offered, Sect Leader?” Elder Dai said.

After Benton nodded, she continued. “As your ally, I feel that it’s important to let you know the value of your weapon exceeds that of the materials you want, especially for the ones that convert the wielder’s qi to a different type.”

Benton was actually taken aback by her straightforward honesty. “A product is worth what a customer is willing to pay, Elder Dai, and at the moment, I value the materials more than the time and effort it takes to craft the swords.”

“I believe we have a deal, then, Sect Leader. Provide me with a sword that converts my qi into Poison, and the Shadow beast core is yours.”

That request was easy enough for Benton to handle, but after his testing with Yuan Yaozu, the fact that his blades didn’t have a durability array just annoyed the crap out of Benton. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to add one.

Honestly, he was fine with selling the ones he’d already made at auction. After all, the bidders would know exactly what they were getting, and the blades might end up in the hands of his enemies. Having a glaring weakness like being relatively easy to destroy was fine. For an ally, though?

He explained the situation to Elder Dai, and she was ecstatic that her custom sword would be getting that extra feature.

Elder Feng had apparently always wanted the power to wield Lightning and was overjoyed at the opportunity. He would have been willing to accept the available sword, but his weapon of choice was the glaive.

Benton easily agreed to make the polearm with the same formations, including the added durability array.

All in all, both sides walked away extremely pleased with the deal.