The Sect Leader System-Chapter 323 - Trades

Yang Xiu put on her most winning smile. “C’mon, Junior Brother. It’s a fair trade.”

“I am not giving you Stone Shaping for Lightning Bolt,” Zi Delan said.

“Why not? When will you ever need to scult stone? Are you planning on making a statue of yourself of something? It’s useless. Lightning Bolt, on the other hand, might just save your life.”

“Yeah, and I already have three bolts. No one else has Stone Shaping. Master only made five of them.”

Most of the sect members had no idea about the worth conveyed by rarity. She’d exchanged a short range Teleport, which everyone received ten of, for a Temperature Manipulation. Obviously, instantly disappearing from one place and appearing nearby was much more useful than changing the temperature of an object or area, especially since their robes now kept them completely comfortable. But when one was trying to acquire the complete set, it was the scarce ones that were the most valuable.

As far as Yang Xiu knew, very few people were collecting the talisman, which made the effort a lot easier for her. Unfortunately, Zi Delan was one of them.

Yang Xiu gritted her teeth. “Fine. I have an extra Explosive Growth.”

“Hmm. I do need that one, and I know who has another one of the Stone Shapings…” Zi Delan shook his head. “The value isn’t there for the trade, though. Master made eight growths. Throw in the Teleport, and it’s a deal.”

The next time she got the kid in the sparring ring, she was going to make him wish to the heavens that Yang Ru had steped in instead of her. “Teleports are way too valuable. You know as well as I do that they’ll be used up. By the end of the tournament, there might be hardly any of the original printing left.”

“Okay. A heal them.”

“That’s the same thing as a Teleport, and you know it,” she said. “I’ll give you an Earth Shot.”

Master had made a lot of each of his simple attack spells. Which made sense. In a fight, each would give his sect members an option that didn’t require a lot of thought and that packed a hefty punch.

Zi Delan frowned. “Those are almost worthless.”

“I’m giving you two for one already.”

“Throw in either a Hydro Blast or Wind Slash on top of the growth and the shot, and it’s a deal.”

“Fine.”

Zi Delan smiled. “Pleasure doing business with you, Senior Sister.”

Benton grinned. He’d been walking outside one of the compound’s huddle rooms and noticed Yang Xiu and Zi Delan talking instead of fighting. Curious, Benton did a wee bit of eavesdropping.

It turned out they were trading talismans. Awesome.

He’d happened upon such before, of course, but it was usually an exchange based on utility like when Huang Yimun gave most of his Coin Creations to Sun Hua for the combat focused Chain Lightning and Gravity Burst. What Yang Xiu and Zi Delan were doing, though, was completely different. It did Benton’s heart good to see that at least some of the kids had gotten into the spirit of collecting.

For him and Greg, competitions were fun, but there was nothing better than putting that last holdout that completed a set into a binder. Good times.

Obviously, these particular collectables were functional as well as for fun, and Benton looked forward to seeing the talismans in action. Besides limited use in sparring and demostrations for the purpose of explaining their functionality, they hadn’t been used yet because Yang Xiu ordered everyone to preserve them for an emergency.

Benton didn’t countermand her, either. For one thing, the instruction made sense. If their enemies knew about the cards, they could prepare for them—maybe?—and having an ace up the sleeve was always a good thing in a fight.

For another, he generally didn’t like putting someone in charge and then undermining their authority. Unless a mistake was so bad that was more likely than not to lead to disatrous, long-term consequences, it was far better to allow a protégé to make mistakes.

Benton did, however, make sure that all the sect members knew that, if they felt like they were in danger, it was far better to use a talisman and not get hurt than to try to preserve secrecy.

With the trade winding down, he returned to his patrol, walking around the compound on the lookout for trouble. Not that moving about was necessary—his defensive formation would detect any intruders and his spiritual sense was just as effective at detecting problems while he rested in the comfort of his temporary office as it was anywhere else inside their designated area—but the combination of tense anticipation and boredom drove the need from some kind of physical activity.

The previous three weeks had flown by. Though nothing actually happened, the time was actually quite stressful as he had to remain alert throughout almost every day just in case one of his sect members popped their contingency ring. Nights were better, of course, because the kids were confined to the base with rare exceptions.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Honestly, he’d expected there to be constant fights—or at least tense encounters—with the enemy allied sects, but Yang Xiu was big on the element of surprise. When she found out that the number one opponents for the Qi Gathering juniors in early rounds would be the clan, she clamped down on everyone hard. She didn’t want those opponents learning that all the Rising Tide Sect members also used Body Cultivation, so she made avoiding conflicts a huge point of emphasis.

Combined with the Swift Blizzard Sect apparently making some attempt to be circumspect and the Jade Chameleon’s obvious desire not to lose additional face, the three main potential instigators all had turned unexpectedly pacifist, leading to a dearth of disputes.

Thus, other than effectively being on constant call, Benton didn’t have a lot to do. For the first time in a very long while, he had no pressing projects that he needed to complete, and even if he wanted to tinker, he was away from his crafts area in the Administrative Hall and forges of the Blacksmith Pavilion.

He could have Teleported back to the sect, obviously, but he feared going heads down into a project and having an emergency occur when he was distracted. As a Nascent Soul, his reaction time even while busy doing something else was quite fast, but fractions of a second mattered when a junior was being threatened by a rival cultivator. Better to be safe and bored than have one of his kids hurt.

On a positive note, he had all those novels that the auction manager purchased, so those gave him a bit of an outlet.

Other than reading, the only tiny distraction came from Huang Yimun of all people. The guard captain had organized an excursion into the slums and came back with over two dozen friends and family members of the original set of guards and drivers. He’d pled their case to have them inducted into the sect, and Benton had agreed—not that he’d required much convincing.

He didn’t want any rival sects to witness their intake processes, especially the spiritual root enhancement, though, so he found places in the compound for the twenty-seven recruits, intending to induct them back at the main sect grounds when the tournament was over.

Oh well, he’d gladly trade a few weeks bored out of his skull for his sect members’ safety. Besides, at least initally, it was a nice change from his previous frantic pace. The really good part, though was that the tedium was almost over as the tournament started the next day. He was sure that between watching the bouts and keeping everyone out of trouble, there’d be more than enough excitement to keep him busy.

Sun Hua was completely surrounded. Huang Yimun walked side by side with her, and four of his guards fanned out around them. Frankly, she felt ridiculous.

“Are you sure this is necessary, Guard Captain?”

“Senior Sister ordered me to keep you safe. If a hair on your head is damaged, it will be my head. So, yes, this is necessary.”

Mother would probably have been impressed at the entourage, but it just made Sun Hua feel self conscious. She was just going to a logistics meeting with other juniors to discuss details too mundane to bother the actual leaders with—not exactly a high profile or high risk activity. Sure, representatives from all the other sects and the clan would be there, but no one would be higher than low to mid Foundation Establishment.

Considering the she wore her battle robe, had her contingency ring on her finger, and kept several talismans close at hand, it was hard to imagine anyone below Golden Core being able to harm her.

Obviously, the level of protection provided by Huang Yimun was seriously inflated. Admittedly, she wasn’t much of a fighter, so she did feel safer having a guard. A single one would have been fine, though.

Sun Hua felt even more foolish when she entered the meeting room and discovered that none of the other representatives brought even one guard, much less five. She shot a glare at Huang Yimun, but he just shrugged. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Her escort also hadn’t been ready to leave quite as early as she would have preferred, which meant she’d had to wait. Which meant that she wasn’t the first at the meeting. Not even close.

The group wasn’t late, of course. She wouldn’t have allowed that to happen regardless of the guards’ tardiness. But she was the last of the representatives to arrive.

Since the others were already present and seated, there was only one chair left open at the end of the table. It was, to her dismay, right next to the blue-robed Swift Blizzard Sect representative, which wasn’t as bad as if it had been the Jade Chameleon Sect member.

It was almost as bad as the worst case scenario, however.

The man was sure to be hostile toward her. With her guards present, she doubted it would devolve into physical threats, but she envisioned shouts and insults.

There was no help for it. Her job was to participate in the meeting, so that was what she would do.

Mother’s training took over. Sun Hua utilized her purposeful walk, designed to show that she was a capable, no-nonsense worker who was fully prepared. She marched to the open chair and, without a word, placed her stack of papers on the table in front of it.

After taking her seat, she smoothed her robe and sat with her back completely straight and expression poised.

At least she hoped it was.

Surprisingly, the Swift Blizzard Sect representative, who appeared to be in his mid twenties, inclined his head at her, showing no sign of hostility. Somewhat relieved but still cautious, she returned the gesture.

There were still several minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start, and she expected to spend them in silence. To give herself something to do, she read through the top paper in front of her even though she had its data—and that contained in the rest of the stack—memorized.

Mother always said to bring all necessary documentation. A good assistant should never have to refer to it, but it was much better to do so than to—heavens forbid!—forget a number and not have access to it. Besides, some bosses wanted to see the data, not just be informed of it.

“Greetings, Esteemed Cultivator,” came a voice from her right. “This one is Wu You.”

The introduction startled Sun Hua as it came from the Swift Blizzard Sect representative. Their two sects weren’t on a war footing yet, but either active combat or a formal declaration or both were expected at some point during the tournament. If he was being nice to her, he surely had a reason.

But her training had stressed that it was never okay to be rude. The rival you snub today might be the employer in charge of hiring decisions tomorrow.

She looked more closely at him. He was short, not much taller than her, and somewhat scrawny, lacking the muscle tone that came from constant work with weapons. Ink stained his fingers.

“This Assistant is Sun Hua.”

There. Short and succinct, neither rude nor welcoming.

“This one has heard good things about you, Esteemed Cultivator. All your members were correctly entered into their matches.” He chuckled. “The branch sect leader herself mentioned how frustrated she was that you’d somehow navigated the labyrinth of paperwork they threw at you. Impressive performance.”

The forms had been detailed but not particularly complex. She didn’t consider completing them to be a noteworthy task. “This Assistant just did what was required.”

Luckily, the chair, representing the City Lord’s faction, called the meeting to order, so she was spared more conversation. And, once the meeting concluded, she rose quickly, not giving him the chance to engage her, and left.

The whole experience had been strange.