Chapter 63 - Every Day Is Like Survival

Benton took a deep breath as the wagon rolled slowly, really slowly, along beneath him. The mortals could walk as fast as the oxen moved, not to mention how much faster a cultivator could go.

He supposed it was fine. Two months on the road instead of one made little difference in the end, and the time would give all his soon-to-be new disciples time to cultivate. Some of them would probably reach Qi Gathering minor realm four before they reached the village.

There was no reason to be so impatient.

Really, the main issue was a desire to be as far from the city as possible. They were over a mile away by that point, and he was feeling safer with every creak of the wagon’s wood wheels despite his spiritual sense detecting the presence of a cultivator following them.

Which was probably going to become a problem.

Benton sighed. He wouldn’t feel legitimately safe until the sect was protected by more than just him. The twins were great, but no Qi Gathering cultivator was a threat to a sect. If he had, say, five disciples who were as strong as the siblings, the best that could be expected of those five would be them teaming up to maybe take down a weak Foundation Establishment cultivator, but the fight wouldn’t be clean. The likelihood was that he’d lose one or more.

Benton was not looking forward to the day when one of his future sect members died protecting the others. He accepted that he lived in a cultivation world and such a thing was bound to happen, but that acceptance didn’t mean he had to like it. The only things he could do about it were to become as personally powerful as possible to serve as a deterrent and to make his sect members individually as strong as he could.

Things would be slightly better when his people started reaching Foundation Establishment. A true attack by a rival sect would involve mostly Foundation Establishment cultivators with a few Golden Cores. He needed enough of his own to counter such an attack.

Of course, he’d need something like twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators all as strong as he thought the twins would become just to fight one Golden Core, so such a position of strength was a long way off.

Even then, he wouldn’t feel truly safe until he had reached the Nascent Soul realm and all his lieutenants were in the Golden Core realm themselves.

Yes. Then, finally, he would feel safe.

Well, safe-ish. The Flowing Tiger had three Nascent Souls and dozens of Golden Cores, and they’d still been wiped out almost to a man. Benton wasn’t sure anyone was ever truly safe in a cultivation world.



Still, he was at least on his way.

He pulled up his log of open quests.

Found a Sect QuestPrerequisites:Sect name selected Minimum of one disciple Sect land ClaimedReward:Shop unlocked Recruit Additional Disciple QuestPrerequisites:Recruit First Disciple Quest CompleteReward:1 Shop PointSpecial:Repeatable New Quests Available

Oh? That part about new quests being available surprised him. He asked the System to please display them.

Recruit First Foundation Establishment Disciple QuestPrerequisites:NoneReward:10 Shop Points Recruit Additional Foundation Establishment Disciple QuestPrerequisites:Recruit First Foundation Establishment Disciple Quest completed

Reward:2 Shop PointsSpecial:Repeatable Advance First Foundation Establishment Disciple QuestPrerequisites:NoneReward:5 Shop Points Advance Additional Foundation Establishment Disciple QuestPrerequisites:Advance First Foundation Establishment Disciple Quest completed

Reward:2 Shop PointsSpecial:Repeatable

Okay, that information was cool. He’d get Shop Points for his disciples advancing to Foundation Establishment, which was great. Any additional sources of those points were likely to come in really handy in the future. If nothing else, he had lots of uses for pills since he’d become an expert on the subject of using them for cultivation advancement.

The other quests were interesting as well. He’d never even considered trying to recruit sect members who were already cultivators, especially not those already in the Foundation Establishment realm. Once he got his sect up and running and gained a bit of status, those two quests might be doable.

Finding the new quests was a distraction, though. He had wanted to look at the quest to Found a Sect, so he pulled it up again.

That quest had three criteria. First, select a name. He hadn’t yet, but he had a good idea, one he was almost positive he’d go with. Two, minimum of one disciple. Check.

The third one was the difficult one. Sect land claimed. Even with the Poison Claw Sect knowing his association with Prosperous Gray Forest Village, he still wanted to set up near the village. It was simply too good of an opportunity.

There was a highly commercial product nearby for the sect to utilize. Spiritual beasts roamed the area freely, which would give his sect members experience fighting and access to valuable materials for crafting. It was in reasonable proximity to a major source of qi at the mountain he’d viewed from across a valley, and the nearest sect to that source had been wiped out, leaving a hole that was ripe for filling. Even better, the other three large sects in the area didn’t want one of the other big ones to have it, so he could play each one off the others.

It truly was an Advantageous Starting Position worth the Perk Point he’d paid.

Obviously, he could have simply picked a plot of land and told the village he was claiming it. There wasn’t exactly anything they could do to stop him.

The way he was going about first winning their support, though, held so many benefits. To begin with, the village needed the food he was bringing to them. Not wanted. Needed. Any route other than the one he took would have left any who died over the winter to weigh on his conscience.

Of course, his decision wasn’t totally altruistic. When he delivered the food, he’d be the village’s savior. He’d build trust. The village would be more inclined to work with him instead of against him, meaning he could pull recruits from there without fearing quite as much that he was giving superpowers to a bunch of people who might turn against him at the first chance.

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Their goodwill should last until at least the second chance to overthrow him. He was living in a cultivation world after all.

Not getting the land to establish his sect was a deal breaker, though. The day after he reached the village—if not the night of!—he would found his sect. If the mayor had a problem with that, the village would need a new mayor, and they would keep needing a new mayor until one agreed with him.

There was being nice and there was being a pushover. He had at times in his life been accused of being the latter, but he couldn’t afford to be one in this situation.

As he thought about his future plans, more and more of the day passed. Traffic was light on the path but not non-existent. They hadn’t overtaken anyone, not that he would have expected them to do so considering their speed—or lack thereof. Two merchants had passed going toward the city, though. Each had seemed wary but not hostile as they waved.

Benton spent the day seated next to the driver on the rear wagon. The man seemed used to sitting all day on rough wood that often bounced violently over ruts in the dirt path, and Benton didn’t mind the conditions at all as his two levels of body cultivation and nine levels of spiritual cultivation had hardened his behind enough that something so mundane wasn’t able to cause him discomfort.

The twins were likewise comfortable enough riding but possessed more restless energy. When they took breaks from cultivating, he encouraged them to hunt. There were no spirit beasts in this part of the forest, but there was plenty of game—mainly squirrels, rabbit, deer, and boars. They didn’t need much of a push, especially when he reminded them that the villagers could use fresh meat in their diets, and as mortals, they couldn’t eat spirit beasts.

He did advise them to stay ahead of the wagon train in order to avoid the cultivator who was still following.

The twins shared a glance.

“A cultivator is following, Master?” Yang Xiu said.

“Yes. A ways back. Since we left the city.”

“How strong, Master?” Yang Ru said.

“I don’t know. My spirit sense can detect the rank of a beast from miles away, but I have to be close enough to see a cultivator to determine their strength. And since I don’t know if this is someone who could easily overwhelm you, I’d prefer you range in the opposite direction. If the cultivator moves toward you, I’ll intercept.”

Benton suspected that they might object to him putting himself in danger without them present, but they didn’t seem concerned at all. He was a bit flummoxed as to the reason for their attitude before he figured it out. They had so much confidence that he could handle the situation that they really were completely blasé about it.

Regardless, nothing happened with the cultivator, and the twins came and went from the woods, finding various small game for Benton to store in his ring.



The guards lasted longer walking than he had expected before eventually asking his permission to switch to shifts having everyone ride in the wagons. Since the front seats easily held three people—four if they were friendly—it worked out to keep four guards walking at any one time.

Eventually, the sun began to set, and the lead driver advised that it was time to stop for the day.

The drivers also insisted, for values of insisted when someone who was essentially a peasant was addressing a cultivator, on cooking dinner, which was actually a nice surprise as Benton was used to meal prep. It probably would have looked strange if the high and mighty cultivator were to do something as menial as preparing food for everyone, anyway.

Yeah, Benton could see how him serving them would make a bunch of peasants uncomfortable, so he gave in pretty easily and directed the drivers to use whatever they wanted from the stores in the wagon Benton had designated for the sect. He also pulled out several rabbits the twins had managed to kill.

Darkness was fast encroaching on their camp, so as the men cooked, Benton used qi orbs to light the area around the wagons. Twenty-two people were, after all, quite a large number to cram around a single cookfire, and he wanted everyone to have enough light to see what they were eating. Besides, he’d stocked up on dozens of the handy little light sources, and each lasted quite a while as long as you replenished their qi, which he or the twins could do using beast cores.

Rabbit stew obviously took a while to make, but it was quite a hit. One of the guards exclaimed quite loudly about how he’d hadn’t expected fresh meat to be served. Benton couldn’t wait to see their reactions when he served them hot and fresh street vendor meals for breakfast and lunch.

Dinner finished, Benton was ready to begin the most important part of the day, gaining new disciples. His first thought was to do all nineteen at once, but he rethought that. Like it or not, this world was not as egalitarian as Earth. Well, as his culture was, anyway. Two of the recruits stood out from the others and should be treated as special, even if that was to just have their ceremony separately.

He summoned Zou Tian and Shi Long and, using a qi orb for light, led them a short distance into the woods, just far enough that they wouldn’t be heard by the mortals at the campsite.

“You both already know me, but my name is Chao Su. I am forming a sect near the Prosperous Gray Forest Village, and I would like both of you to join as sect members.” He stopped a moment to let that sink in. “This is a serious commitment. I will teach you to cultivate and make sure you have everything you need to be successful. You will be diligent in your cultivation and training. You will use your talents to serve the sect. Are you with me so far?”

“Yes, Master,” Zou Tian said.

Benton gave him a somber smile.

“This lowly one thought the Esteemed Master wanted a blacksmith?” Shi Long said.

“I do. You will be a cultivator blacksmith who works with qi-infused metals. You will create things beyond the ken of mere mortals.”

The boy considered the response for a moment before speaking. “This lowly one is honored. If the Esteemed Master truly wants this lowly one’s service, yes.”

“Great. Let’s get the two of you tested.”

Benton felt a little bit stupid while doing it, but he made a big show of having each of the boys hold the silly quartz sphere he’d purchased like it was some valuable, mystical thing. Zou Tian would obviously see through the ruse as he’d been present when the rock was purchased, but the rest of the inductees should believe that the orb allowed Benton to determine their spiritual roots.

“Excellent,” Benton said when the two boys had finished. “Zou Tian, you obviously have shadow aspected qi, but you’ll be pleased to learn that your talent is ranked D-.”

The boy seemed far less than pleased.

“Don’t be disappointed. That rank is better than ninety-eight percent of people. A lot of smaller sects would take you, and I’m especially glad to have you as a member.”

“Yes, Master. This lowly one apologizes for seeming ungrateful. This lowly one will gladly serve as your assassin.”

“What?”

“Sorry, Master. This lowly one will gladly be an assassin in your service?”

“No, I’m not worried about the way you said it. Why do you think I want you to be an assassin?”

“Apologies for making an assumption, Master,” Zou Tian said, “but everyone knows that cultivators who use shadow qi fill that role for sects.”

“Well, not for my sect. I’m not going to employ assassins.”

Zou Tian looked hopeful. “May this lowly one ask what task Master wants fulfilled?”

“I want you to be an agent. A spy. A scout. To quietly infiltrate an area, observe carefully, and return to me with information, leaving no enemy the wiser that you were ever there in the first place. I want you to do what you’re already good at.”

The boy looked overjoyed. “That … This lowly one would be happy to do that for Master!”

“Good. I’m glad we got that settled.” Benton turned to Shi Long. “Well, you already know your task for the sect, and it might not be a surprise to you that you actually have dual aspects—fire and metal.”

“Both fire and metal!”

“Yeah, you are literally destined to be a blacksmith and, I think, a good one. You have B rank talent.”

Benton really wished he had more spirit root improvement pills. One would definitely be worth using on a disciple as talented as Shi Long. Unfortunately, it would be a minimum of two months before Benton got access to the Shop, and he had no way of knowing how expensive the pills would be or even if they were available at all. The Shop could have levels that he had to unlock to access pills or those pills could only be available with Perk Points or any number of other System shenanigans could come into play.



He decided that the potential advantage of raising Shi Long’s spirit roots from B to B+ simply wasn’t worth the present loss of cultivation time combined with the possibility of not even being able to buy a pill.

Honestly, the decision was a tough one. If not for the latter issue, he probably would have told the boy that he’d begin cultivating when they got to the village.

With the two boys excited to begin, Benton performed the bai-si tea ceremony and officially accepted them as disciples. The standard popups followed, telling him he’d gained two more Shop Points, taking him to twenty.

His Sect Points remained at twenty-eight, of course. For a moment, anyway.

He’d pretty much made up his mind to use twenty of those points to create individual cultivation techniques for each of the two boys, but he went over his thought process to make sure. On the con side, Benton would be left with only eight points for emergencies.

That state would only last a little while, though. He had seventeen more people to induct right after he finished with Zou Tian and Shi Long. Those points plus the two for the boys would bring him back up to twenty-seven, more than enough.

Satisfied with his reasoning, he created two new cultivation methods for ten apiece and got two of those points back as he taught them to cultivate, ending with a whopping ten points remaining. More importantly, he’d increased the size of his future sect from fourteen to sixteen.

Overall, it had been a good day, and it was going to get even better shortly when he inducted the guards and the drivers.

As he approached the path, though, he sensed the cultivator that had been following them advancing. Soon after Benton reached the wagons, the cultivator stepped into the light created by the qi orbs.

It was a middle-aged man in gray robes. Benton immediately scanned him.

Affiliation:Jade Chameleon SectAge:37Cultivation:Foundation Establishment: Minor Realm 9Qi Available:???Techniques:???Spiritual Roots:C+Qi Aspect:A mirage hiding deadly blades

Shit. Peak Foundation Establishment. They might be in trouble.