The Sect Leader System

Chapter 355 - Confrontation

The current highlight of Benton’s life was watching Jin LiJuan compete in the tournament.

Well, saying that Jin LiJuan competed was something of a misnomer, but that was part of what made it so fun for him. All his other kids were the sole participants representing the Rising Tide Sect in their matches. When a hit was made, it was that person who struck. Winning was about applying their own techniques and martial abilities.

She, on the other hand, simply stood as far from her opponent as she could get and watched. When she was targeted, which was often through the first three matches, she simply let her shield handle the blow.

The contrast between the little girl who stood impassively while the world exploded around her and the rest of the participants throughout the tournament amused him to no end.

Her strategy proved to be a good one, though. None of the cultivators paired against her in the early rounds could dent even her small qi pool before being shredded by Leizhenzi and Ganzou.

In all three matches, a tiny, quiet, nearly motionless kid had come out ahead of three grown adults by literally not doing a thing. To say that her opponents and the JCSB alliance were frustrated was an understatement.

Beast tamers were rare in the tournament, but when one did appear, that cultivator could be slotted into one of two categories. The first category, the rarest, was someone who bonded with a single beast and gained benefits to their cultivation by doing so. The advantage of that type was that they could bond a beast at the same, or even higher, equivalent realm.

The second category, which was common in the sects but not in the tournament, tamed multiple beasts, sometimes in great quantities. Their weakness, though, was that the tamer couldn’t control beasts at their equivalent realm, meaning they fielded a small army of much weaker beasts.

That method was quite useful to fulfill particular sect needs. For example, earthworms enhanced soil. Earthworms with a qi core provided a huge benefit for growing many types of expensive, qi-rich crops. A tamer who controlled a half dozen or even more of the creatures contributed greatly to their sect. In fact, Benton eventually wanted that kind of tamer to assist with his own nascent spirit herb farming efforts.

That kind of tamer, however, was fairly worthless in a fight. A high Foundation Establishment realm cultivator would absolutely destroy dozens and dozens of rank three beasts in combat. A lot of tamers had tried different combinations of beasts, but none had gotten out of the early rounds of the tournament.

Jin LiJuan combined the best of both categories due to her unique circumstances. She could, apparently, form bonds with as many beasts as she liked, and she bonded them instead of taming, which meant the beasts’ equivalent realm didn’t matter since she wasn’t trying to control them. All her bondeds for the tournament were at the peak of rank six, equal to or better than the combatants.

Even worse for her opponents, all her beasts possessed strong bloodlines. Leizhenzi was strong enough that he could have defeated all their foes in the first three rounds by himself. Ganzou, though not at the thunderbird’s level, was strong, too. And Oogway had yet even to be needed, spending the entire tournament thus far in his spatial habitat.

Benton watched eagerly from the stands as Jin LiJuan, Ganzou, and Leizhenzi marched onto the arena floor for their fourth round match. Their opponent was a young lady from the Jade Chameleon Sect, and she glared at the trio as they approached.

Jin LiJuan cupped her hands and bowed, as she was wont to do, to both the official and her opponent. The official politely returned the gesture. The young lady didn’t.

Leizhenzi whispered something to Jin LiJuan. Benton could have used his enhanced hearing to listen in, but he tried to give people privacy whenever he could. Besides, the subject became clear once the opponents had retreated to the opposite sides of the arena—she pulsed a bit of qi into the beast bag and Oogway appeared on the sand.

Reactions to a massive, twenty-feet diameter turtle making his first appearance in the tournament were freaking hilarious. The crowd went completely silent. The young lady from the Jade Chameleon Sect first had her eyes go cartoonishly wide before her face turned red.

“That’s not fair!” she yelled to the official. “It’s now four against one, and they’re all higher in realm than I am. How can this be allowed? Do you know who I am?”

Benton chuckled. The young lady apparently had bad luck. She should have been facing a very low quality opponent, but the tournament organizers hadn’t known Jin LiJuan’s strength when they made the brackets.

Oh well. Too bad, so sad.

Considering all the crap her sect had pulled already, the young lady deserved what she got.

He did feel sympathy for the poor official who had to put up with the incessant whining of a woman who should have been old enough to know better. Benton was all about spoiling his pseudo kids and grandkids but not to the point that they behaved like brats.

Nice kids deserved nice things. Spoilt kids deserved an attitude correction.

Unfortunately, it didn’t appear that the young lady had heard the word “no” nearly often enough.

Eventually, the official got her calmed down, and the match began. She immediately raced toward Jin LiJuan, a strategy every opponent thus far had tried.

Benton had to hand it to the young lady. She was fast. Very fast. It looked like she’d reach Jin LiJuan before any of the three spirit beasts could do anything about it.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

For most viewers, it looked like a disaster in the making for the Rising Tide Sect’s combatant, but Benton knew the truth. For one thing, though the young lady appeared to be reasonably strong and talented for her realm, the Momentum Dissolution Shield wasn’t so easy to defeat.

Even though Jin LiJuan’s qi pool was anemic compared to her sect mates, Benton estimated it would take a good dozen or so fully qi enhanced strikes just for the young lady to penetrate the shield, and there was no way the three spirit beasts would give her enough time to do that. Jin LiJuan’s toughness shouldn’t be discounted, either. In addition to the benefits provided by her peak Spiritual and Body Cultivation, the boosts in strength and toughness from her bonds were nothing to sneeze at. If the young lady somehow made it through the shield, she’d find her target a lot harder nut to crack than she’d imagined.

As it turned out, though, the young lady didn’t even get to make a single hit on the shield. One moment, Oogway was completely out of position. The next, he was right between Jin LiJuan and the attacking woman.

For anyone in the audience without Nascent Soul level senses, it probably looked like the turtle Teleported into place, but he actually simply moved faster than unenhanced eyes could track, the result of a bloodline skill. He really was the perfect tank. Benton suspected that even he would have to expend actual effort if he wanted to break that nearly invulnerable shell.

The young lady, clearly surprised by the sudden interception by what appeared to be a large, slow, almost immobile beast, collided with the turtle and bounced back, landing on her behind. She didn’t even get a chance to rise to her feet before Ganzou and Leizhenzi were on her, and the match ended with her unable to continue moments later.

Another round, another victory. Go Jin LiJuan and team!

That win definitely illustrated one of the best parts of Benton’s new life—anything could happen. A girl who loathed spirit beasts with every fiber of her being could learn to lean on them. The weakest sect member could win in the tournament. The possibilities were endless. No limits.

With the tournament one step closer to finishing, however, it was time for Benton to work on a very pressing problem—resolving the mess of teen angst that had ensnared three of his most important disciples.

Honestly, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Evelyn had handled that kind of stuff back on Earth, and he severely missed her extreme competency in dealing with teenagers and their raging hormones.

Well, he missed her for a lot more than just her competency, but her skills and empathy would have come in really handy at that moment. He didn’t have her, though, so he’d just have to muddle through on his own somehow.

The first step was to remove all three of the problem children from the city by Teleporting them back to the sect. The compound was too small and relatively cramped. It was hard to do anything without the entire contingent knowing about it. The sect grounds were more controllable and, thus, more private.

The next step was to throw them in a room together and not let them out until they’d actually talked. Or killed each other. Whichever came first.

Metaphorically, of course.

Easy enough. He had plenty of rooms, and both silencing arrays and outside locks were quick and simple to install.

After coordination with Yuan Yaozu to take over watching the tournament contingent and letting Huang Yimun and the others know that Benton would be away for a while, he first Teleported Kang Lin, who’d been apprised of the plan, to the prepared room.

The next step would be more difficult as the twins would be going in blind. He wondered how they’d take it.

Using message dragons, he summoned the two of them to his office. “I have a mission for you two, an important and urgent one. Are you ready?”

“Yes, Master,” they chorused.

“Good. Let’s Teleport.”

In the blink of an eye, they were all transported from Sixth Flawless Flowing City back to the sect grounds, specifically to a room in the Time Pavilion. Neither really reacted, however, when they saw Kang Lin waiting for them.

Interesting.

She immediately dropped to her knees and kowtowed three times to Yang Ru.

“This lowly one is so sorry for the way I acted,” she said once she’d completed the ritual.

She then turned toward Yang Xiu and repeated the procedure. “You were the best friend this lowly one had ever had. I am so sorry for my actions.”

The twins stood there motionless, not saying a word. They might as well have been robots for all the expression that crossed their faces at the heartfelt apologies.

“Well,” Benton said, “do either of you have a response? Yang Ru?”

Silence stretched, and he almost issued a more forceful order. Finally, though, the boy spoke. “Kang Lin, I don’t blame you for your actions. I wanted something that you did not.” He shrugged. “Such happens in the normal course of a life. I have put it past me and bear you no ill will.”

The entire statement had been given in a flat tone. Benton had seen more emotion from a man in front of him in line at the dry cleaner, explaining how much starch he wanted in his shirts.

Still, the very beginning of healing was present in Yang Ru’s words. He hadn’t accepted the apology per se, but he’d held her blameless. It was something.

“Yang Xiu?” Benton said.

“This whole situation is pointless, Master. None of this matters to me. None of it makes me stronger.” Her voice wasn’t just flat; it was cold.

Kang Lin flinched.

“The last time you and Kang Lin spoke, you told her that the two of you were no longer friends and definitely not sisters,” Benton said. “You were quite angry with her. How do you feel now?”

“I feel nothing, Master, and certainly not anger.” Yang Xiu glanced down and picked lint off her robe and flicked it onto the floor. “She has no more meaning to me than that trash.”

Despite proclaiming herself not to be angry, she’d clearly chosen her words to inflict the maximum amount of pain on her former best friend. Benton took that as a good sign.

Time to roll out the big guns.

“I am quite disappointed in both of you,” Benton said.

He vividly recalled a strong admonishment he’d delivered to Yang Ru once, but Benton didn’t think he’d ever had a harsh thing to say to Yang Xiu. His words had the impact he wanted, though, finally breaking through their impassive miens.

“What?” Yang Xiu said. “Why?”

“What did I do?” Yang Ru said at the same time. “She was the one who broke up with me!”

“Kang Lin is someone who obviously meant much to both of you over the past year. I’m disappointed that you’d discard her so easily.” Benton turned to Yang Xiu. “Like a piece of trash.”

She looked away, unable to meet his eyes.

Yang Ru clenched his fists. “You weren’t disappointed in her when she rejected me.”

Good. Benton would much rather anger than indifference, feigned or not.

“I gave her and you two space to fix it yourselves, which the three of you have screwed up to an unimaginable degree.” Benton paused. Now that their emotions were running high, they might actually make progress. “I will leave you now. The room is silenced, so even I won’t be able to hear what you say. Talk. Yell. Argue. Fight. Whatever it takes. You don’t need to love each other or even like each other, but you do need to not hate each other, understood?”

“Yes, Master.” Their response, especially the twins’, was the most half-hearted he’d ever heard from them, but it was enough.

Hopefully, they’d figure it out without anyone getting hurt too badly. For physical pain, they had plenty of healing pills. There wasn’t much he could do about their emotions, though.

He sighed. Teenagers.