The Sect Leader System

Chapter 371: Paying Any Price

Benton’s first Teleport was to the arena. Though the conclusion of the last match had seemed like it finished hours ago considering how much had happened, a very short time had actually passed. Some of the Jade Chameleon and Swift Blizzard sects’ Golden Cores were still present there.

They weren’t when he left.

That was to say that they weren’t still alive there when he left. Their corpses remained.

His anger over Kang Lin being killed had largely faded—she was, after all, still alive—so the executions were carried out with dispassionate efficiency as he made each death as quick as possible. In some cases, the target barely knew Benton was nearby before their head was separated from their body.

The task was … unpleasant.

He normally avoided or put off such objectionable chores when he could, but there were multiple reasons to get that one done in a hurry. For one thing, the targets knew he’d be coming for them and would scatter to the winds with all due haste, making tracking them down a tedious endeavor. Days, if not weeks, of his life would already be consumed in finding them all. If he didn’t get to most of them fast, he’d be spending months or years instead.

The second reason was that, until he reached Nihility—which was years off with no way he saw to rush it—his sect was still in danger. Safety lay in making it known that he’d absolutely destroy anyone who came after him, and obliterating every single high ranked cultivator from two former top sects was needed to convey that message. If that task drug on for years, though, his prowess would be questioned and his power doubted.

Between rapidly carrying out the promised destruction of the JCSB alliance and letting those three influential Nascent Souls return to the Da Qing continent to spread the news of his power, it was possible that his sect would finally be left in peace to grow into what he wanted it to become. And if the threats didn’t work, he hoped that greed would.

He was, after all, at the pinnacle of craftsmanship in four of the most important fields cultivators valued—Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Formations, and Talismans. Letting it be known that factions could profit from him might just keep his people safer than any amount of personal power.

Thus, Benton’s next chore was to find the so-called Formations Master, Lei Bohai, as letting the man return home without setting down some ground rules would be a mistake. Besides, Benton had to give the man a little credit. His formations had been good enough to conceal his identity as a Nascent Soul and to hide the other Nascent Souls he’d smuggled to the ambush site. So he obviously wasn’t a complete idiot, just more suited to be called an Expert instead of a Master.

Benton had long since prepared for his current task. One thing he’d done in preparation was to explore all the important landmarks on the continent—such as the main branches of the big three sects—so he could Teleport there at a moment's notice. He’d also memorized the qi signature of every high realmed cultivator in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, so he knew exactly what Lei Bohai felt like, both unrestricted as a Nascent Soul and disguised as a Golden Core.

If Lei Bohai had flown straight home and was currently over the ocean on his way to the Da Qing continent, it would be a long time before Benton had the opportunity to find him. He hoped, however, that the man had run for the protection of either the Swift Blizzard or the Jade Chameleon sects.

As the bigger and less previously impacted of the two, Benton Teleported to the Swift Blizzard Sect first and cast his spiritual sense out over the main grounds. There were dozens of Golden Cores that he’d have to deal with, but that would unfortunately have to wait until after he found Lei Bohai, who wasn’t present.

Holding out a slim hope that the Nascent Soul formations crafter would be at the Jade Chameleon Sect main grounds, Benton Teleported there next. Many fewer Golden Cores were there, and one of them was Lei Bohai!

Benton Teleported through the sect’s Grand Defensive Formation and arrived right in front of the Order representative. “Look what I found—an idiot and a coward all in one!”

Always good to start a negotiation by putting your rival on their back foot.

“Y-you…” Lei Bohai sputtered.

“Yes, me. The one you tried to ambush with a formation a mildly talented apprentice array crafter could have made. You call yourself a Formations Master?”

The room Benton had appeared in was a large, opulent meeting area. A Golden Core wearing gray robes resembling those of the Jade Chameleon Sect but much more ornate sat at the head of a table. Two other gray robed Golden Cores sat on either side of her.

Unless Benton missed his guess, the woman at the head of the table was the sect leader, Duan Dandan, and the other two were probably elders. Combined with Benton and Lei Bohai, they were the only occupants in the room.

Benton used his four Auras to suppress each of the others, and after completing his mental checklist on the three Golden Cores, swiftly decapitated each of them simultaneously with Void spheres.

Lei Bohai’s eyes widened at the display of martial might.

“I have a problem,” Benton said. “To be clear, my problem is with you, specifically.”

Lei Bohai recoiled, seeming to finally realize his predicament. He obviously wasn’t much of a combatant and yet found himself in a room with an enemy who was.

“First, you assisted those who tried to ambush me, actively trying to sabotage me to make their jobs easier. Of course, that act is mitigated somewhat by just how bad you were at it, so…”

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Lei Bohai’s jaw tightened. Benton could tell that the man was doing everything he could not to dispute the claim.

“Further, you apparently recruited additional Nascent Souls to attack me by promising to build them arrays, which, coming from you, would probably be clearly second-rate. I appreciate neither your acts against me nor the fact that you claim to be a Formations Master, considering that your craft is so poor.”

Lei Bohai literally shook with suppressed rage, and finally, he could apparently hold back no more. “I am a Formations Master. The Order has declared it so. Who are you to say otherwise? Who are you to claim yourself such without our verification?”

“We live on a big planet, dimwit. It’s huge. Ginormous. You think there are no other organizations entitled to declare their members Masters? Are you truly that arrogant? That ignorant?”

The man opened his mouth, probably to argue the point, before shutting it again. His tightened jaw relaxed, and some of the tension drained from his body. “You’ve been declared a Master by another organization?”

The System was more an entity than an organization but sure.

“I have,” Benton said.

Lei Bohai took a deep breath and visibly centered himself. “Perhaps this one might have been somewhat hasty. The Twelfth Majestic Order of Formations Masters is the preeminent governing authority for formations in this part of the world, and it is incumbent upon those who wish to practice here to announce their presence to us. However, rather than going straight to the punishment phase, giving you face by approaching you first would, perhaps, have, in this instance, been a better procedure.” Lei Bohai paused. “Please consider that most of those calling themselves Formations Masters are true charlatans trying to scam sects into giving them more of a commission than their craftsmanship warrants.”

Kind of like how Lei Bohai’s entire Order did as far as Benton was concerned. He chose not to further provoke the man, though, as they were beginning to find common ground.

“Hmm,” Benton said. “I’m not sure if that makes my decision harder or easier.”

“Decision?”

“Whether to kill you or not.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Do you know who I am?”

Not a good sign. After all, no conversation was enhanced by that particular statement.

“You are Lei Bohai, representing the Twelfth Majestic Order of Formations Masters. And neither your name nor your organization matters to me in the slightest. You came here and helped my enemies. You attacked me, stood right there on that building announcing yourself. If I let such an act go unpunished, what does that say about me as a cultivator?”

“Kill me and the entire weight of the Order will come down on you. Every sect and faction we do business with will attack you, or they will find themselves no longer able to procure our services. You wouldn’t dare!”

“Are all the members of this Order of yours as incompetent, arrogant, and, frankly, stupid as you are?”

Lei Bohai sputtered incoherently for a moment.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Benton said.

Contrition was not a word in Lei Bohai’s vocabulary, which rubbed Benton’s cultivator sensibilities the wrong way. Could he weather any storm the man’s death produced? Yes. But how tedious would dealing with those ramifications be?

From Qian Liqin’s reactions, Lei Bohai’s reputation was top notch, one of the better if not the best Formations Masters in the Order. Which meant that, overall, the Order sucked.

Benton was sure that, once he demonstrated how good he was to the sects on the Da Qing continent, the Order’s influence would quickly wane. But it meant being away from his sect to establish that reputation.

Hmm.

Honestly, seeing the world seemed like fun, and he had Yuan Yaozu to keep an eye on things.

“I shall court death,” Benton said, laughing at himself even as he uttered the words.

Lei Bohai was already suppressed, so Benton tossed a Void sphere at the man, fully expecting that first one to be blocked by a formation. Incredibly, the man started fumbling inside his robe when he saw the sphere, but whatever he was trying to activate didn’t get triggered before the attack hit.

The mighty representative of the Twelfth Majestic Order of Formations Masters, Lei Bohai, had fallen to a single attack, not even able to defend himself by activating an array.

Benton shook his head. Those guys really were incompetent. And, on one hand, he understood why. They were used to being protected by their reputation, not their martial might. The problem was that soft power was vulnerable to hard power. And vice versa.

He made a mental note to teach that to the kids.

Meanwhile, he had more unpleasant tasks to perform, and he spent the next several hours executing all the Golden Cores at both the Swift Blizzard Sect main branch and the one in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, those at the Jade Chameleon main branch, and the three Nascent Soul mercenaries who had fled.

Which left all the Golden Cores who either escaped before he got there or who were off on sect business. It was a tedious and deeply unpleasant task, being the last person that so many ancient cultivators saw. But it was also the only way he knew to keep the kiddos safe.

Benton would pay any price to meet that goal.

Teng Wuying had fled the arena once he’d received a message that the fight was turning out poorly for his forces. And that was a good thing because he received messages later that Chao Su had killed all the Golden Cores who had remained behind.

Luckily, Teng Wuying had a plan for just such an eventuality. All his most important valuables—the few he had left since the destruction of the sect branch—were stored in spatial devices on his person, and he’d purchased the best disguise device possible. He couldn’t afford one from Lei Bohai, of course, but the man had evaluated the device as a favor and declared it, “passable.”

That would have to do. As long as Chao Su’s spiritual sense wasn’t enhanced, it should be fine.

Teng Wuying fled the city immediately after leaving the arena and headed for a cave in the middle of nowhere, well away from any sect grounds or anything of any importance. The idea was to live there for a number of years, cultivating and consuming only spirit coins from his storage. Then, once everyone had forgotten his very existence, he’d emerge.

He reached the cave just fine and settled in, disturbing as little of the surroundings as possible and wearing the device that lowered what could be sensed of his cultivation to Foundation Establishment. Hours turned to days, which was a bit boring. But that was okay. He was a cultivator, used to patiently cultivating in seclusion. A few years were nothing.

The main question facing him was what he would do next. His plan to acquire the Trials Pagoda had obviously failed. There had to be another way, but he didn’t see one currently. He had no contacts remaining. The only ones who might have lived were on the Da Qing continent, a troubling journey for him, and even if he made it there, he might not be received graciously.

Then again, he had one thing that might help him—his reputation. After all, a man could claim that his worth was judged based on his enemies, and his nemesis stood supreme on the entire continent. With Chao Su’s victory, news of him was probably already making waves elsewhere, especially on the Da Qing continent.

Extensive knowledge of the man had to be worth something, and the claim of being his nemesis could be easily verified.

Yes. Teng Wuying would have to be careful, but there was a path there. A whisper about the Trials Pagoda in the right ear, a Nihility realm ear, might just put him in control of the very thing he sought.

So many plans and contingencies floated around his mind that he found it hard to cultivate. He’d been soundly defeated, but he was only down, not out. Teng Wuying would return, and when he did, he would finally acquire the Trials Pagoda.