The Sect Leader System-Chapter 322: A Gain, Tests, and a Reversal

A few days had passed since Benton had put on his performance at the steering committee meeting, and all was quiet. Neither Mao Biya nor the Jade Chameleon Sect had made any overt moves against City Lord’s faction. But that was fine. Expected. After all, Benton could have been paying Qiu ZhenKang off for something that had nothing to do with them.

Benton had an idea that might anger them enough to take actions that would push the City Lord’s faction away from them, but it would have to wait until the tournament started. For the moment, it was time to test his Aura suppression against multiple Nascent Soul opponents. He Teleported to the arena at the Poison Claw branch sect. Kang Ya-Ting and Elder Dai were already there, and they all exchanged greetings.

“Revered Senior Sister Duan Lan will be here momentarily,” Elder Dai said. “We also secured the participation of two of our three Nascent Souls who aren’t in seclusion, Revered Elder Xu Chuanli and Revered Elder Tang Huan. Unfortunately, Revered Elder Luo Xiaotong has other commitments.”

“That’s fine. Yuan Yaozu makes four, which should be a good test.”

Five would have been better, but Benton felt sure that he could extrapolate results well enough that the lesser number would work. Gathering so many Nascent Souls was not a trivial task, after all.

Soon, Duan Lan did, in fact, show up, and right after a round of greetings were exchanged, Benton Teleported to his sect and brought Yuan Yaozu back to the arena with him. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Benton noticed a small bead of sweat on Kang Ya-Ting’s brow.

Nascent Souls naturally exuded a small representation of their Aura, one that they really couldn’t control unless they’d practiced their technique extensively—or unless they’d cheated and paid to have the System bring it to Mastery. So having two of them nearby had a noticeable, though not too intense, effect on the Golden Cores.

“The plan is simple,” Benton said, once yet another round of greetings were complete. “I need both of you to attack me simultaneously with your Auras.”

Targeted use of Auras was much different than the naturally emitted pressure, and even at just Small Success—the level at which Nascent Souls started with their techniques—attacks were eminently controllable. Thus, since no powerful qi techniques were expected to be used, there was no need to move the test farther out onto the arena floor. Kang Ya-Ting and Elder Dai didn’t even need to move away as the Nascent Souls’ control extended to including and excluding any targets they desired from the effects.

“Begin,” Benton said.

A pressure descended upon him as two Auras sought to suppress him. To test the impact of the restraint, he used his Concept of Light to send what amounted to a laser pointer beam at both his sparring partners. A red dot appeared on each of their foreheads.

If he had to guess, he’d say that, with two of them suppressing him, he was maybe at eighty-five to ninety percent power with his qi attacks. Though it was two on one and he wasn’t actively using his Aura, they were both much lower than him in realm, and his superior Auras provided decent passive protection.

Nice.

He pushed back with only his Gravity Aura, and the force bearing down on him lessened to almost nothing. After firing his laser beam again, he honestly felt that his qi attacks weren’t hindered at all.

That was a good result for him.

Next, he tried to ramp up the power of his Aura to suppress both his sparring partners. “Are your qi attacks affected?”

Nascent Souls could easily shut down a cultivator in a lower realm—several cultivators at once, actually—but in a one on one match with both opponents being in that same major realm, it was well known that the Auras basically cancelled themselves out. Suppression could only be achieved if multiple Nascent Souls focused on a single target.

Not knowing about the impact of Benton’s Aura Mastery, Duan Lan had no idea what he was talking about. Her face showed only confusion.

“No effect, Master,” Yuan Yaozu, who had experienced the phenomena, said.

That result was a bit of a bummer, but Benton wasn’t quite done for yet. He switched the focus of his Aura to Yuan Yaozu only.

If the test were an actual fight, Yuan Yaozu would basically be out of it, having his qi restrained to the point of making his qi attacks mostly powerless, and leaving Benton one on one versus Duan Lan. Since her Aura alone did very little to weaken him and his attacks were much superior, he was in a very advantateous position.

He tried adding a second Aura without using his Mind technique, Split Focus, but as he’d discovered in previous tests, it was impossible. When he did use a second Mind to add his Time Aura, he suppressed both of his opponents simultaneously.

Duan Lan obviously noticed his Aura overwhelming hers and was surprised.

“Try to attack me,” Benton said. “Use your most powerful technique.”

A pathetic Illusion based strike lanced out at him. He restrained his shield, not even needing to waste the qi to absorb the hit. Of course, Illusion was more than a little sub-optimal for attacks, anyway. Still, the point was to demonstrate the power of his suppression to her.

“That’s impossible!” she said.

“As impossible as using a Trials Pagoda to break through to Nascent Soul even with an extremely damaged cultivation circulatory system?” Benton said calmly.

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She hesitated a moment, calming herself down before cupping her hands. “Acknowledged. Gratitude for the instruction, Sect Leader.”

Even with just two opponents, he’d learned a lot. He just needed to see if the experience scaled with twice as many sparring partners. “I’m ready for the others.”

Elder Dai dashed off two quick messages, and several minutes later, two more Nascent Souls descended on the arena. With so many gathered in a small place, even Benton, protected as he was, could feel the pressure generated. It didn’t affect him, obviously, but it was definitely present, not something he could ignore. Kang Ya-Ting and Elder Dai had beads of sweat running down their faces.

Greetings went on for practically forever. The more powerful someone was, the more face had to be given. Yuan Yaozu and Duan Lan hadn’t been too bad because both were acquainted with Benton and understood his distaste for the process. He was actually amazed that he’d somehow gotten the two Golden Cores to mostly ignore that social convention when it was just him visiting them.

Still, Benton did nothing to rock the boat. Those newly introduced Nascent Souls, after all, were busy, powerful people and were taking time out of their lives just to help him out. Besides, he could force himself to deal with the niceties when he had to. He really didn’t want to be rude to anyone. It was just that he was too old of a dog to learn too many new tricks.

Once they finally began, he basically replicated the previous tests just with more subjects. He could fairly easily suppress all four as long as he used his Split Focus, but as four was the limit with that technique until he was allowed to advance another realm, there was no way to add a fifth even if though he had another Aura available. Still, the ability to basically take so many out of the fight was nothing to sneeze at. Even better, even with all of them trying to suppress him, his qi attacks were still about sixty percent effective.

That amount of his considerable power was still enough to go toe to toe with at least three or four Nascent Souls.

Benton effusively thanked the two unfamilar cultivators, and they quickly left, both of them having grown to appreciate his power quite a lot.

“Alright, I honestly think that I can handle seven Nascent Souls solo,” Benton said. “Maybe eight, but that would be about the limit.”

None of the four remaining cultivators disagreed with him after his performance.

“The Jade Chameleon Sect and the Swift Blizzard Sect combined can only field six,” Elder Dai said, “a number we can match on our own thanks to your generosity.”

“Remember, Friend Su, you don’t need to win, only hold off until we can get re-enforcements to you.”

Benton honestly didn’t see the need. He fully expected the fight to be over before any of his allies had a chance to intervene. No need to make them feel useless, however, so he cupped his hands. “Gratitude, Friend Kang. I do think, however, that my experiement shows there’s no reason to bring your final Revered Elder out of seclusion.”

Elder Dai frowned.

“It’s seven on six, and if I can make four of them fight at the level of a Golden Core, it’s more like seven on two. Making it eight is completely superfluous.”

“It would be something of a tragedy to bring the Revered Elder out of seclusion without sufficient need.” She hesitated. “Worse, though, would be to need him and not have him available.”

“Let’s approach this from a different direction,” Benton said. “What’s the worst case scenario?”

“First of all, Friend Su, we stop assuming that they’re capped at six combatants. What if the Emporer’s faction joins them? You’ll be facing at least four more. Additionally, what if they somehow prevent you from communicating with us, meaning no support will be coming. Can you fight ten on one?”

Benton grimaced. “Not easily. Honestly, I think that would be about my limit. Any more than that, and I think they could suppress me. Still, I can always Teleport out, and if I can’t get word to you, having another Nascent Soul available for backup wouldn’t help.”

“True…” Elder Dai said.

Benton turned to Yuan Yaozu. “What are your thoughts?”

The man let out a breath. “What about the Formations Master?”

“I’ve seen his formations in that square. Master? Really? I’d barely call him an Expert. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’ll easily neutralize anything he has prepared. Easily.”

“If it were anyone else making these claims,” Yuan Yaozu said, “I’d be highly doubtful, but I’ve seen you do everything from the improbable to the absolute impossible. On the other hand, you are known to overestimate yourself on occasion.”

“Point,” Benton said. “I’ll leave it to you guys. It’s your sect, after all. But we do have them literally outnumbered without your final Nascent Soul and not counting any other considerations.”

Elder Dai sighed. “When I tell the sect leader, he will surely choose to have the Revered Elder remain in seclusion.” She paused. “Unless there’s a chance he could use the Trials Pagoda to break through to Nihility?”

“Sorry, that’s a true no go. The pagoda does not have the ability to advance anyone so high yet.”

And Benton wasn’t just blowing smoke. He’d asked the System some questions about its capabilities and found out that it was capped at raising people only to his current realm.

His audience, though, only seemed to hear one of those words—yet.

Teng Wuying was meeting privately with Mao Biya. Again. He barely held back a sigh. Chao Su would have to be an absolute idiot not to know about the alliance by that point.

Worse, the woman was going on and on about how Qiu Zhenkang was a traitor. First of all, how could anyone who wasn’t an official part of their alliance be considered a traitor? He was free to act in his own best interests. Second, Teng Wuying was almost positive the gift of the sword was a setup put together by his nemesis.

Not that Mao Biya would listen to reason.

There was one bright spot, though. Teng Wuying would have to be quite careful in his approach, but he might be able to turn the situation to his advantage.

“I fear you’re right, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader. They’ve made fools of us, given us no face.” He feigned a shudder. “My biggest fear is that the City Lord goes fully over to the other side and joins their Nascent Souls with Chao Su’s.”

The suggestion clearly startled her, and her eyes widened. “That would be a disaster. This is an all or nothing ambush at this point. The side that prevails will rule the continent. The side that loses will perish sooner rather than later.”

She wasn’t wrong about that part.

“We have to do something!”

“Agreed, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, but what?”

Mao Biya paused for a moment, thinking. “The Swift Blizzard Sect will come up with enough money for another mercenary. You will have to do the same.”

That task wouldn’t be easy for either of them, but the fact that she committed to it gave him the leverage he needed to get his elders to agree.

“The problem with that solution is availability. The four mercenaries we already hired are the only ones who were willing to wait around for us to spring the ambush,” she said. “All the others will only Teleport in right before the attack, meaning our timing has to be perfect.”

Teng Wuying grinned. “That won’t be a problem, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

“How so?”

“Chao Su has given us everything we need to get him to any location we choose anytime we choose, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

Her expression showed her clear confusion.

“When we attacked his twin disciples, they signaled him by breaking a ring, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

“Ahh. So all we have to do is put those twins in danger.”

“We don’t even have to do that much, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader. When a ring breaks, he comes. We simply must steal one of those rings, and even better, all his sect members carry them.”