The Sect Leader System-Chapter 298: Ultimate Grandfather

After having advanced to Nascent Soul and beaten back the Jade Chameleon Sect, Benton felt a lot less pressure on him to work hard every single minute possible, so he took most of the night off. He napped for a couple of hours, vegged for a couple more, and feeling guilty, made Time aspected greater spirit coins for even more hours.

As morning approached, he made a mental list of what he most needed to get done that day. First up was obviously to craft the only remaining qi source that he had all the materials for—Nature. The thought of crafting led him to a bit of reminiscing.

Benton’s favorite thing about being a grandfather back on Earth was, of course, spoiling his grandkids. Which usually meant buying them something expensive from a store. He never considered himself remotely rich, but he’d worked all his life and done well for himself. The family finances held enough discretionary funds that it wasn’t hard for him to justify whatever cost was required to make whichever grandchild smile.

The situation in his new life was quite a bit different. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t just well off; he was downright loaded. He could literally make money out of thin air, and considering how much a single one of his swords sold for, there was nothing he couldn’t afford to buy for his disciples.

In a complete reversal from his previous life, though, nothing for sale was nearly as good as what he could make with his own two hands. Had he given one of his grandkids something he’d personally crafted in his backyard workshop, they would have politely thanked him, of course—all his kids had been taught proper manners—but at best, the object would hold sentimental value to them after he passed. The kid certainly wouldn’t have been excited about the gift.

As a cheating cheater who cheats, however, everything he made was leagues better than anything else available. It was like the stores all stocked only the most lousy, knockoff gaming system possible, and he made the one that all the gamers camped out overnight simply for a chance of purchasing.

And while seeing how much strangers from other sects and organizations valued his handmade goods at the auction was gratifying, it was nothing compared to having his actual grandkids—well, not actual. Pseudo grandkids—show their sincere appreciation for receiving something he made.

Even better, he wasn’t even really spoiling them all that much. Instead, those items were necessary, either to complete missions or for protection. Or, more likely, both.

With all the cool stuff he could create for them, he was basically the ultimate grandfather.

Benton liked that role. He liked it a lot.

By the time he’d finished the Nature source, Zou Tian and Yang Xiu were almost finished with their morning sessions, so he popped over to the new Time Hall for a brief wait. Having started a few minutes before, Zou Tian exited first, and they both waited for Yang Xiu to finish.

Benton again checked their cultivation and found no problems. If anything, they were each flourishing under the intense concentration of appropriately aspected qi.

“Still looking good,” Benton said. “Wait ten hours, no cultivation or use of the other dilation rooms, before returning. Do one final hour, and after that, we’ll have a council meeting. I’ll inform the others.”

Since the initial results from the rooms were extremely promising, they all needed to talk about how best to utilize the resource. He decided to wait to assign anyone to the Nature room until after the council met.

The two cupped their hands and departed to do whatever was most pressing for each of them. Whatever they each decided was sure to be something productive. Out of the core personnel of the Rising Tide Sect, he was definitely the one with the most tendency to be a layabout.

There was no opportunity for laziness at that moment, however. Next on his list was a mental inventory of sources.

The remaining material for the Fire source would arrive in about two weeks with the Poison Claw Sect elder who wished to use the Trial Pagoda. With any luck, they’d add another Nascent Soul to their alliance when she arrived. Even if she failed, however, he’d still get the Fire aspected plant, and bonus, the troupe he wanted for his special project would also arrive with her.

The other three materials were on a much more nebulous schedule. Who knew when or if Kang Ya-Ting would provide the missing piece of the puzzle for Lightning. The same applied to Auction Manager Jia Xueqin’s acquisition of the final Time and Momentum components.

Benton would need to message each of them to determine when to expect the goods. An even better idea struck him—he should have Kang Lin send the note to her grandfather just to ratchet up the guilt on the old man. The trick was to apply the appropriate amount of pressure while preserving the surprise, but Benton was sure he could manage such a simple trick. Besides, telling her about it would ruin the surprise.

As he pulled out a piece of paper and was about to draft his query to Jia Xueqin, he paused. The list Benton had given the Auction Manager to acquire had been somewhat rushed. Taking a few minutes to make sure he didn’t want anything else seemed prudent.

What more did Benton need?

Additional qi sources were a long-term concern as he only had a single component for each of them—Illusion, Metal, Water, and Wind. With no dire need to complete those, there was no sense in asking about them.

There was one thing the sect and village was getting low on, however—food. By supplementing with additional purchases from Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town and with hunting providing a lot of the needs of the sect members, the stock Benton had purchased in Sixth Flawless Flowing City five months prior still hadn’t completely run out. It wouldn’t last much longer, though. Might as well see what the Auction Manager could provide when tasked with provisioning over a thousand people for, say, three months.

Figuring out additional items for the list required Benton to spend a few moments considering what crafted goods he planned to create in the near future. The obvious start was a way for the second mountain expedition to travel. He didn’t want the group to waste too much time traveling there and back. Just as important, however, was that they do everything on their own, so Teleporting them would set a bad precedent.

Jin LiJuan could fly with the glider, of course, but he wasn’t about to make those for Qi Gathering cultivators. One, it would be dangerous for the much more fragile cultivators of that realm. Two, the gliders were a reward for reaching Foundation Establishment.

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What he needed was some kind of safe craft that the others could pile into that could be towed by a glider. Perfect. He should have everything he needed to make that, however.

What else?

Zou Tian would need a lot of gear for his mission. His spy mission. Which meant he needed spy gear.

Sweet. Benton got to be Q. Visions of an Aston Martin DBS with machine guns in the front and both an oil slick and smoke cloud in the back filled his head, including an ejector seat. And shoes with suction cups to walk up a wall. Chewing gum that was actually an explosive. A wristwatch that featured a built in laser.

Unfortunately, none of that stuff fit a cultivation world, but Benton could still have fun coming up with cool gadgets. That was a project for the future, though, and he doubted he needed much in the way of additional supplies. Between the fabrication capabilities of the blacksmiths and woodworkers and Benton’s own expertise in alchemy and formations, there wasn’t much the sect couldn’t create on their own.

As big a concern was outfitting all the sect members journeying to the tournament with protective gear. Talismans would definitely make up a big part of that supply, but he’d already asked the Auction Manager to supply everything necessary on that front.

What he needed was armor. The kids wouldn’t be allowed to use it during the actual tournament, of course—the rules prohibited almost all items that the participant didn’t personally create—but they could certainly wear it to and from the venue. The issue was that whatever they wore couldn’t look like armor as he didn’t want to take a chance in alerting their enemies to any of the sect’s preparations.

Benton needed something subtle. Something hidden.

Ah! Formations sewed into the robes. Perfect. He could make his sect members impervious to qi attacks below Golden Core level and pretty darn tough against anything up to Nascent Soul. Physical protection was a bit more difficult without upgrading the actual fabric with metal or special materials. Formations would provide force dampening, of course, but there was no way to make garments truly penetration proof against high realm cultivators. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Hmm. Physical protection.

The thought made him recall an old idea—a ring that captured objects targeting the wearer. Yeah. Better still would be if it preserved the Momentum and allowed the wearer to fire the weapon at an enemy.

Cool.

Benton would have to figure out how to do all that, of course, as it wasn’t something he believed anyone else had available, but what good was being a cheating cheater who cheats if you didn’t go all out for your kids?

Again, though, he didn’t need any special materials for that. Probably.

That just really left the sewing, for which he’d need more fabric, cultivator quality sewing supplies, and the proper techniques. Jia Xueqin could easily provide the first two of those.

Benton quickly composed the note to the Auction Manager and sent the origami dragon flying. He followed that up with notes to each of the council members about the meeting that evening. Then he remembered that he’d appointed Peng Lirong to head the new Time Hall and decided that position merited a position on the council as well. Another blue dragon was quickly launched.

He spent the rest of the day tinkering with the flying cart, whipping up a new batch of contingency rings, and making Time aspected spirit coins. Almost before he knew it, his two experiment subjects—uh, disciples—were finished with their respective second sessions. Both their cultivations still looked great, so he Teleported them to his office where the rest of the council had already gathered.

Benton started the meeting by having everyone welcome Peng Lirong. She seemed embarrassed by the attention, but her husband, Peng Zhen, beamed. Next came updating everyone on the Zou Tian’s and Yang Xiu’s progress and Benton’s observations that they were so far seeing no ill effects from the sped up cultivation. “In fact, they’re seeing a benefit, if anything.”

There were a lot of smiles at that announcement.

“The qi source cuts the cultivation time required by about half,” Benton said, “but it’s important to note that using the actual dilation effect is not a shortcut. Zou Tian and Yang Xiu are still putting in a lot of cycles. It’s just that the time is shortened from the perspective of the outside.”

“What is the benefit of the rooms, then, Master?” the mayor said. “You’re providing a great number of coins to power them.”

Benton had been hoping someone would ask just that question. “The benefit is twofold. One, the lesser concern by far, is the tournament. The room will allow the user to advance to the peak of one of the four categories, giving that person a definite benefit over someone in the lesser minor realms.

“Two, our sect is new. Besides myself, we have borrowed power in the form of Yuan Yaozu for the next one hundred years, exactly one Golden Core member who has only recently advanced, and four Foundation Establishment members.”

Kang Lin raised her eyebrows.

“The fourth being Ganzou, obviously,” Benton said.

She nodded.

“There’s a saying where I come from,” Benton said. “Quantity has a quality of its own. Our sect members have the potential to dominate all other sects due to the quality of our techniques and cultivation methods, but at the moment, we’re severely lacking the quality granted by quantity. I’ll feel a lot better about the long-term safety of the sect once we have a lot more members in the upper cultivation realms.”

The mayor cupped his hands, a thoughtful look on his face.

Benton paused for a moment to make sure everyone fully understood the import of what he’d said. “In the short term, encompassing the next several decades at least, my intention is to have enough different qi sources that each of our members can use at least one. That benefit combined with the dilation rooms will be an absolute game changer for raising our members up. Once we have the needed quantity of members in high realms, the importance of the rooms will drop significantly. Until then, though, they are a resource that needs to be utilized to the fullest extent.

“Which brings us to the topic of today’s meeting—how should we best take advantage?” He quickly filled them in on what he knew of the status of the other sources, with the exception of Lightning. “So should there be a sect-wide imperative that dictates each member advance as quickly as possible, or do we allow individual choice, letting factors such as the tournament weigh on decisions?”

When put like that, Benton knew which he’d choose, but it was important to see how his council members thought of such things.

“My short-term goal is to reach Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible, Master,” Zou Tian said. “After that, I’d prefer to focus on techniques and mission preparation. That path will benefit the sect more than prioritizing advancement at all costs.”

Yang Xiu appeared uncharacteristically conflicted. “I believe in doing what is best for the sect, Master, and gaining power is always a positive. But I really want to win at the tournament.”

Benton almost barked out a laugh but kept his face impassive as he turned his gaze to Wan Ai, silently requesting that she speak.

“Reaching Foundation Establishment quickly, for me and the most experienced in my pavilion, would be a huge boon both personally and for the sect, Master,” she said with no further urging on his part. “You should not be responsible for providing the entire supply of medicine and cultivation aids. But advancing further than that before we master new techniques seems … bad.”

That she said so much with so little prompting showed her passion for her stance.

“I think you three all have the right of it,” Benton said. “With this opportunity as with all things cultivation related, you must balance what is best for you in the short term versus long and what is best for you personally versus the sect. As a member of the Rising Tide Sect, you always have the right to choose, and there is no expectation that you put the sect above yourself. Actually, putting yourself first most of the time is what is best for the sect.

“I only ask that, whatever your decision, you consider all factors carefully and act with deliberation.”

“Yes, Master.”

He turned to Peng Lirong. “For the moment, we’ll have to arrange the room schedule on a case-by-case basis. Just try to be as fair as possible while prioritizing those who have a legitimate need. Come to me if you have any issues.”

She cupped her hands. “Yes, Master.”

“Gratitude, all,” Benton said. “Kang Lin, Sun Hua, and Wan Ai, please remain behind for a moment. The rest of you are dismissed.”