The Sect Leader System

Chapter 349 - Summons

Benton was quite pleased when Kang Lin lost her match, and no, that emotion didn’t reflect any residual animosity toward the girl. Instead, it was an attestation of the emotion he’d seen reflected on her face—pure happiness.

She earned her top four finish, but she wasn’t quite good enough to reach the finals. And from her expression, she realized both her accomplishment and her limitations.

Good for her. That was the exact attitude he’d wished for his disciples and sect members to have regarding participation in the tournament.

Perhaps she hadn’t quite emerged from whatever personal trial she was undergoing, but he felt confident that she’d at least turned the corner. The end was in sight, and he felt confident that she would come out the other side having learned something important about herself.

How she’d go about fixing the errors she’d committed along the way was still in question, but as long as she was okay, everything else could be figured out somehow.

Yang Xiu’s victory concerned Benton much more. Or, more specifically, her reaction to that victory.

She had been on the path to becoming something of a battle maniac. Of all his sect members, she had most embraced a love of fighting and the overall culture, both good and bad, that came with being a cultivator.

Above all, she’d been a joyful, exuberant person, the opposite of what he’d just witnessed. The girl who had won the fight against the boy from the Swift Blizzard Sect had been completely emotionless. Defeating him had meant as much to her as stepping on a blade of grass. Her eyes were dead. She cared about nothing.

Seeing that change in her broke his heart.

He needed to do something about it, but he didn’t know what. Neither his experience from a full life lived on Earth nor the knowledge gained by the previous occupant of his body nor all the secrets of the universe crammed into his mind from the System offered him much of a clue.

There were potential solutions, of course. One was to reset the twin’s cultivation and have them start over. Which was a terrible idea. It would kill all the momentum—and Momentum—that they’d gained thus far and might not even work. Such a setback might even cause one or both of them to develop a heart demon.

Another was to purchase a Mind technique that he could use to heal their psyche. The problem was that their affliction wasn’t mental or physical. It had to do with their qi aspect, the core of who they were.

Cultivation was much more based on esoteric traits than on scientific principles. He really felt that messing around with their personalities was likely to do more harm than good and, again, might not even solve the problem.

Unless or until he knew more about the issue and possible remedies, Benton honestly felt like he was better off simply doing nothing. After all, though the twins definitely weren’t themselves, their condition so far didn’t seem to be life threatening.

Speaking of which…

While he’d been woolgathering, a Golden Core for the Swift Blizzard Sect had approached Yang Xiu, demanding that she kowtow. Adhering to what he’d instructed the entire sect to do in such a situation, she, of course, refused.

Benton’s expectation was that her refusal would end the matter.

Not totally, of course. The Golden Core would probably yell some more in an attempt to preserve face, but the entire JCSB alliance had to know by that point what would happen if a senior had the gall to attack one of his sect members. Yang Xiu’s words should have shut down the threat.

Instead…

“You insignificant worm!” the Golden Core yelled. “You seek to set conditions on me, your senior? You give me no face? I will end you!”

Surely, the woman didn’t mean that literally.

In the back of his mind, though, his voice said, “Yes, she did mean it, and don’t call me Shirley!”

He grinned.

As the crazy woman prepared to attack, Benton just shook his head. The fact that Yang Xiu was completely undaunted in the face of what must have seemed like certain death should have given the lady pause, right? And if not that, she had to know what he’d done to the last two Golden Cores who had attacked his disciples.

Maybe it was all a feint. Yeah. That had to be it. She was testing how far she could go before he would appear.

Nope. The woman let loose with her attack, a qi-infused piece of sharpened stone that was big, dense, and heavy enough to obliterate Yang Xiu’s Foundation Establishment realm shield. It was a killing blow.

If it hit Yang Xiu, anyway. Which was obviously a big if with him around.

With a weary sigh, Benton Teleported in front of Yang Xiu and let the attack hit him. Partially, he had to admit that he let the impact proceed to show off a little. It wasn’t a bad thing for his enemies to see that a full strength technique from a Golden Core did exactly nothing to him.

The more rational reason that he’d let the stone impact, though, was to be sure that the woman really had sent a deadly attack. Spiritual sense, even his, could be fooled. He would have felt awful if he ended up killing someone and then found out later that things weren’t as they appeared. And he didn’t put it past his enemies to sacrifice one of their own to set him up as a murderer or something.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

His method gave him the confidence that one, the stone was an actual real thing and not just an illusion and, two, that the woman fully intended to go through with the attack instead of pulling it back at the last instant.

When the rock spear hit him, the force convinced him that he was in the clear to retaliate. After all, she had drawn metaphorical first blood.

Benton didn’t say a word. Not a single peep. He’d given his warnings previously, and they’d apparently been ignored. Nothing further was owed to the person who sought to attack his disciple.

Hmm. The Golden Core liked stone, did she? He supposed it would be fitting for her weapon of choice to become the manner of her death.

Instead of a simple spear, he conjured a floating column of the densest stone he could muster, twenty feet in diameter and thirty feet long. It was quite impressive with fluting on the shaft and decorative spirals at the top.

When the woman saw it, her eyes went wide.

“Wait—”

Whatever excuse she planned to use to try to get him to halt his attack was lost when the stone hit her with a loud thud.

The impact didn’t kill her, obviously. Golden Cores were too tough for simple blunt force trauma to end their lives. Simple blunt force trauma. Non-simple, on the other hand…

With the woman pinned to the top of the column with an application of Gravity Burst, Benton accelerated the massive hunk of stone, gradually pulling it into a tight curve so that it eventually pointed at the sky.

Up, up, up it went. Some helpful soul must have disabled the arena’s defensive formation to let the column go so high, probably to prevent the Golden Core from being crushed into paste against it.

When it reached about a mile high, Benton had it tumble so that its top pointed toward the ground. From there, he let it fall, adding to its Momentum as it did. As it rocketed toward the arena floor, his manipulations caused it to greatly exceed its natural terminal velocity.

“Stop this at once,” someone yelled from the Swift Blizzard Sect’s luxury box. “I demand it!”

Benton ignored the voice, one he was almost sure he recognized. He couldn’t remember her name exactly, but it was something like “my” … uh, female dog. Yeah. That was it.

The Golden Core had tried to kill his disciple. The woman’s life was therefore forfeit. Extreme violence was the only language those people understood, and they apparently had a hard time grokking even such a clear example.

Down, down, down the column raced, and by the time it neared the arena again, with its passenger still stuck in place, it was really moving. Benton was a little sad that he didn’t make it go a little higher. With a bit more distance, he was pretty sure it would have broken the sound barrier.

He threw up a shield to reinforce the one protecting the audience and created strong barriers protecting Yang Xiu, Zhou Kang, and the referee, all still on the arena floor.

It was a good thing he did that, too.

Thump!

The impact shook the entire arena, possibly the entire city, and produced a massive cloud of sand, stone dust, and pulverized cultivator.

“Well,” he said, “that’s one way to make an impact on the tournament.”

Teng Wuying didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. With each new disaster, Mao Biya’s grasp on reality became more and more strained. She’d already used all the political capital she possessed not to be recalled to her sect’s main branch to face their Punishment Hall.

He would have thought she would have learned to temper her arrogance.

Had she? No. Not at all. But he would have thought.

Instead, he sat with her in yet another tea shop, listening to even more of her outrageous demands.

“I am so sorry for the loss of your sect sister,” he said.

“What? Oh, don’t worry about her. She was dead weight, stuck in the eighth minor realm. We’re better off without her. It’s the complete refusal to give our sect face that must be addressed.”

He struggled to keep his expression impassive. They kept having the same conversation over and over. “Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, what would you have me do? Once we ambush him, you’ll never have to worry about him giving you face again. He’ll no longer possess a face or anything else for that matter.”

“You keep saying that!”

“Yes, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, I do. Because it’s the truth, and I don’t know what else I can say.” His tone didn’t change when he uttered her title, but in his mind, he used it as an insult.

“Fine. When will this ambush take place?”

“Just prior to the closing ceremony, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

“You’re going to let him get away!”

Teng Wuying took a deep breath before responding. “I assure you, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, that I will absolutely not let Chao Su escape this city.”

“You will if you wait that long.”

“I disagree, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

“After this round, he’s only got one disciple left, and she won’t make it out of the first round of her division.”

“I understand and agree, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

She gave him an angry glare.

He sighed. “Have you noticed anything unusual about this Quinquennial Tournament, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader?”

“Yes. An upstart so-called sect is taking places meant for better cultivators and refusing to give me and mine face!”

“Besides that, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader. Something procedural, perhaps? A big something?”

She waved her hand. “You know I don’t pay much attention to the logistics.”

Oh, he knew. He definitely knew.

“No prizes have been awarded yet, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

That statement actually made her stop and think. “That’s right. The Qi Gathering division ended without anything being distributed. Don’t they normally get presented right after?”

“Normally, yes, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

“You’re holding the prizes until the end. Forcing him to stay.”

“Exactly, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Okay. Fine. That might work. But I insist something be done about him not giving my sect face. Immediately.”

Teng Wuying barely held back another sigh. “What did you have in mind, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader?”

She told him, and he froze. It was a terrible idea, of course, one that was more likely to go wrong than right. But there wasn’t any real harm in it as long as she used what political capital she had left rather than relying on his pull.

“If that’s what you want to do, Esteemed Branch Sect Leader, I’ll back your move.”

Benton woke early the morning of the final round of the low Foundation Establishment division, mainly because someone knocked loudly on his door. He reached out with his spiritual sense and determined that it was one of Huang Yimun’s guards.

“Come!” Benton yelled after he’d taken a moment to make sure that his appearance was presentable.

The guard entered and cupped his hands. “Apologies, Sect Leader. A message was delivered to the gate for you.” He held out a sheet of parchment.

Benton thanked the guard and, once the man had left, opened the message.

Sect Leader Chao Su,

You are charged with interfering with the integrity of the Quinquennial Tournament. As such, you are summoned to attend a disciplinary hearing in front of the tournament’s executive committee to take place one hour before sunrise.

It was about an hour and a half before dawn, giving him only about half an hour. He immediately fired off a dragon message to Kang Ya-Ting, but Benton seriously doubted that he’s receive a response in time.

Hmm.

What to do? What to do?