Chapter 116 – There's No Aspect Like No Aspect
Benton went to the orphanage to check on little Jin LiJuan and found the girl up on her feet, a good sign. He scanned her.
Name:Jin LiJuanAffiliation:Prosperous Gray Forest Village OrphanageAge:12Cultivation:NoneTechniques:NoneSpiritual Roots:F-Qi Aspect:NoneThere was only one small change to her status since the last time he'd read it, but that change had major implications. F- spiritual roots meant she should be able to cultivate.
She stared at him with big, hopeful eyes, and he wanted to tell her the good news. Unfortunately, there was another part of her status that confused him. Why was her qi aspect listed as none?
"May I touch your hand for a moment, Li'er?" Benton said.
She shyly held it out to him. "Is there something wrong, Master?"
"I'm not sure. Give me a moment."
His first instinct had been to soft peddle his answer and tell her that things were fine, but even though he considered her to be a child, she'd been through a lot. She at least deserved the courtesy of being told the truth.
As he grabbed hold of her finger, he dived his senses into her and found a mess. Her channels, her meridians, her dantian. All the important components of her body's cultivation system were all muddled and clogged and just a … mess. That was the only way to describe it.
As far as his considerable System-granted expertise told him, however, she was healed. Kind of.
"Congratulations, Li'er," Benton said. "You can now cultivate."
She grinned.
"Don't be too happy. You've really done a number on yourself. I did all I could, but you're still damaged."
"What does that mean, Master?"
"For one thing, cultivating is likely to hurt. A lot. Every cycle. Though, as you complete more and more, your channels should stretch, and the clogs should smooth out, hopefully making it easier in time. But you're still in for a lot of pain for a long time."
"I can handle pain, Master."
Benton sighed. "I'm sure you can, but you got into this mess because you disobeyed me. It is very important that you never do that again. If you make one more mistake, even a tiny one, you could damage yourself in ways that even I can't fix. Understand?"
"Yes, Master."
She looked so serious that he believed her.
"Okay," he said. "Normally, our sect's members start out trying to do one cycle in approximately an hour for ten hours a day. I have no idea how long it's going to take you to do a cycle, but it's going to be a lot longer than an hour, probably more than several hours. And it's going to hurt like fire moving through your body the entire time. And if you stop even for a moment, you're going to lose any progress you made for that entire cycle and have to start all over again."
Her eyes grew wide.
"Yes. It's going to be that bad, but you do not have to do this. You can still back out, live a nice life and still be a part of the sect without cultivating."
He'd wince a little bit at the complete loss of those Shop Points, but it would be worth it to spare her the pain.
"No, Master. I want to be a cultivator."
He sighed again. "I won't stop you, but I am going to limit you to one cycle per day. Not one and a half. Not one and three quarters. Definitely not two. One. Understand?"
"Yes, Master."
"Good," he said. "To be clear, this isn't me setting an arbitrary limit. Your channels are in bad shape. You need to take it easy until they start to strengthen. Once you reach minor realm two, we'll re-evaluate."
If she reached minor realm two. There was no reason she couldn't achieve that milestone from a cultivation standpoint, but he was, if anything, downplaying the pure agony the process was going to cause her. He really wished she wasn't so determined.
She cupped her hands. "Gratitude, Master."
"I don't think you'll further damage yourself by doing one cycle a day, but if the pain gets worse—not a little worse, that's going to happen, a lot worse—stop cultivating and find me. Okay?"
"Yes, Master."
"Alright, first things first," he said. "Do you know what a disciple is and what a sect member is?"
"No, Master."
"A disciple is someone who has a special mentee to mentor relationship with a master. A sect member is just what it sounds like, a member of a sect. A person can be a member of the Rising Tide Sect without being anyone's disciple. All the founding members of the sect, however, are my personal disciples. All the members I've inducted since are just regular members of the sect."
Her little eyes were filled with so much hope while her face expected disappointment.
"I want you to be my disciple," Benton said. "Is that okay with you?"
Tears leaked out of her eyes. "Yes, Master. Gratitude, Master."
Benton had thought he was done with the whole bai-si tea ceremony thing, but there he was again taking the kettle and the cups out of his ring. And in actuality, that time was a pure joy. Jin LiJuan's happiness was infectious.
He soon got the notification that he'd gained a new disciple and another Shop Point.
Next step, teaching her to cultivate. But there was a problem, a potentially big problem. She had no qi aspect.
Instincts born from his Mastery of Pill Basics and enhancing Analyze to examine other's cultivation told him that she would be unable to cultivate with a method designed for any qi aspect because she didn't have any qi aspect. She had none.
"System," he said internally, "can I create a Qi Gathering Cultivation Method that has no qi aspect?"
Host can create cultivation methods suitable for use by cultivators who utilize any qi aspect possible. Host cannot create aspectless cultivation methods.Well, that answer didn't sound right.
"System, I'd like to create a Qi Gathering Cultivation Method. Please pull up the menu."
Cultivation Realm set to Qi Gathering.
Sect Point Factor set to one.
Select Applicability:
Targeted to Specific Qi Aspect
Sliding Scale (Specify)
Any Qi Aspect
"System, I select 'Targeted to Specific Qi Aspect,' and for the specific aspect, I choose Jin LiJuan's aspect, None."
For a moment, nothing happened, but eventually, a blue box popped up.
Host cannot create an aspectless cultivation method. Host is allowed to set a cultivation method's aspect to match any targeted individual who has the ability to cultivate. Host cannot create an aspectless cultivation method.
Calculating…
Calculating…
Calculating…
Calculating…
Calculating…
Calculating…
Sect Leader System authorizes the creation of an aspectless cultivation method. Even though no such techniques have ever been seen on this planet, there is no penalty to the creation cost due to Host's ability to set a cultivation method's aspect to match any targeted individual who has the ability to cultivate.
Thank you for that ruling, whoever determines such things. And really, Benton had no desire whatsoever to peek behind that particular curtain. The important thing was that the System worked and had remarkably few limitations. He could live with not fully understanding the inner workings.
It was a no brainer for him to proceed at that point. After all, he'd already went through so much effort just to let the little girl cultivate, he wasn't going to let ten Sect Points stop him from continuing, especially when he was so flush with them.
A certain one of his bosses would have had words about that particular decision. Terms like sunk cost fallacy and throwing good money after bad came to mind.
Benton didn't care, though. He wasn't dealing with an investment. He was dealing with a person, a little girl at that.
He did wonder about what the lack of a qi aspect meant for her, though. If she ever got to Foundation Establishment—not that such an achievement was even a remote possibility—would she be able to use techniques at all? Or would she be able to use all techniques like him?
There was no way to know. Her possibilities could be null, or they could be infinite.
Hey, that would make the basis for a good name. Cool.
He proceeded to create the method, called the Null Aspect, Infinite Possibilities Method. Since he believed that she had literally no chance, nil, none, to reach even the peak of Qi Gathering, he set Foundation to zero as it would be useless to her. And since she wouldn't be able to go any further to gain real power, he threw a minimum amount into that at ten.
The real strength of the method met her biggest need—Ease. He set that at ninety. Anything he could do to make her path a little bit easier was of paramount importance.
"Okay, Jin LiJuan, only my most special disciples get their own personal cultivation methods." Benton pulled the jade slip and a rank one beast core from his ring. "This is yours."
Her eyes went wide.
"Yes, I mean it. It's a completely unique cultivation method just for you, and the core is yours, too, of course."
She hesitantly took the two objects from him, and he walked her through how to use both.
"Let's sit," he said, taking a lotus position on the floor.
She'd clearly been watching the other orphans cultivate because she easily slipped into a matching position.
He walked her through sensing qi, which took well over an hour for her.
"To become a real cultivator," he said once she'd sensed her first mote, "you must complete one cycle. It's going to be difficult, but I'm going to stay right here with you for as long as it takes."
And he did just that. It was almost as painful for him to watch as it demonstratively was for her, and he wanted to stop her so, so many times. But she persevered, and so did he.
Eventually, hours later, he got the pop up he'd been waiting for.
Host's Disciple, Jin LiJuan, has reached Qi Gathering – Minor Realm One.
Host is awarded one Sect Point.
Host has 240 Sect Points available.
Benton couldn't help but feel that the point was the most precious one he'd earned and, perhaps, would ever earn.
She was, of course, exhausted by the time she finished. After instructing her to begin practicing the bow and the spear as soon as she felt up to it, he left her to get some rest.
He went to do the same. It had been an emotionally draining day.
Chapter 117 – It's Time
As Benton watched over his sect members cultivating in the Wood, his thoughts turned to the progress everyone had made. They'd all worked really hard over the last four weeks.
All his recruits from Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town had advanced from minor realm four to minor realm five, and Xun Wu, Shi Long, Zou Tian, and the original group of eight orphans from the village also reached their next minor realm, the sixth. Pan Xiaolian and the other forty-nine villagers were the big point earners as far as Spiritual Cultivation went, moving all the way from the first minor realm to the fourth. The wood harvesters actually surpassed the other villagers' feat, resetting their cultivation and going all the way from nothing to minor realm four, but their smaller numbers didn't result in quite as high a gain.
In total, Spiritual Cultivation added two hundred and four Sect Points to Benton's total.
Recently, it had seemed like techniques were costing him more than they were returning, but the last month turned that trend around. With some notable exceptions, sect members learned techniques he'd already created, meaning all their work resulted in mostly pure profit for him.
One exception was for the healers. Realistically, the five villagers slotted into that pavilion wouldn't be able to accomplish anything miraculous until reaching Foundation Establishment, but the technique he created for them essentially gave them all the knowledge a doctor on Earth might possess. It was, hopefully, enough for them to be able to triage patients during the upcoming tide to determine who needed a pill immediately and who could survive without one. They'd also be useful in dealing with scratches and bites by applying mundane bandages, etc.
Benton feared that need of miraculous resources like Healing Pills might exceed his supply of Shop Points to buy them. Having people he could trust to make good decisions about when to use them would take a large load off his mind.
The other exception was the four techniques Benton had promised Ye Zan, covering perception, stealth, defense, and movement. Each of the guards got one of the techniques at least to Small Success during the month, giving him an additional seventeen to offset the cost of forty.
Besides the five points earned from the healers, Wan Ai's Alchemy Pavilion made ten, four from the villagers learning their craft and the other six from weapons' techniques. Nine more points came from crafting as Xun Wu's team and the new Formations Pavilion found time to devote to their practice.
Most of the points from techniques, though, came from sect members getting either their primary or secondary weapons, or both, to Small Success. Those advancing weapons included the wood harvesters who also each reached Small Success with their crafting technique as well. Having previous experience in an area really accelerated the learning curve.
In total, Benton earned a net eighty-two Sect Points for the month from techniques.
The biggest point earner by far, however, was Body Cultivation. The twins and Zou Tian advanced from minor realm one all the way to minor realm six. Ye Zan's guards, Zi Delan's group, and the rest of the seventeen Martial Pavilion members who had started the process advanced all the way to the peak of Bronze. The twenty village guards and an additional twenty sect members all began the process, the guards reaching minor realm three and the rest minor realm two.
All in all, Body Cultivation netted Benton a whopping two hundred sixty-seven Sect Points for the period.
Needless to say, he was left with a huge personal allotment to spend, one hundred twenty in total.
Benton used seventy-eight of those immediately to max out his Ultimate Juggernaut Combat Build Mark Two. He advanced his area of effect shield, Meditation, and his Time Manipulation techniques to Mastery, as well as buying and mastering Nascent Soul cultivation knowledge and Healing. Additionally, he moved all the way to the peak of Golden Core, minor realm nine.
That left him with thirty-eight points.
Of course, he wanted to further advance his cultivation, but that path forward was barred to him until he reached one thousand loyal sect members.
His Mastery of Nascent Soul Cultivation gave him a lot of information about what would happen in the next major realm. While it was true that he would receive a new body at that point, not everything would be washed away.
The new body would be free of impurities and any pill toxicities, and cosmetically, the cultivator had a lot of control over what the new form would look like. Things like spirit roots, channels, meridians, and the dantian would remain unchanged, however. Whatever successes or failures one encountered over their cultivation career was carried with them.
The same holdover of Spiritual Cultivation characteristics was true for improvements made by Body Cultivation. The strength and toughness of whatever realm one achieved would be carried over.
Thinking that increased toughness would be a good thing if he had to fight in the middle of a bunch of raging spirit beasts, Benton used twenty of those points to raise his Body Cultivation to Gold minor realm one.
That purchase completed his Mark Two build, and he had twenty-two points left over. The biggest problem he could think of with his combat style was lack of an area of effect finisher. His current gravity technique worked great for crowd control, but it was extremely difficult to actually kill anything truly powerful with it.
Void was a special qi aspect. It worked great at destroying matter but was inefficient in that it required a relatively high amount of qi. Thus, trying to use that aspect for a large area effect was suboptimal.
Kang Lin's lightning aspect had been on his mind lately, though.
He could just imagine calling down huge bolts of lightning like Thor in those movies, except his version wouldn't just explode everything in radius of the initial strike. His attack would chain to the next person nearby.
Benton rubbed his hands together. Yeah. That sounded perfect.
For eight of the twenty-two points, he created Chain Lightning and bought it all the way to Mastery. Since he'd already mastered the Concept for Lightning, he decided to save the remaining fourteen points for a future Concept, of which Healing was his most important priority.
He pulled up his status.
Sect Name:Rising TideSect Members:162Disciples:56Sect Points:657Shop Points:96Host Cultivation:Golden Core - Minor Realm NineQi Available:5,647,745Host Body Cultivation:Gold - Minor Realm OneHost Techniques (Qi Gathering):Basic Archery – MasteryBasic Spear Combat – MasteryExpert Golden Core Cultivation – MasteryNascent Soul Cultivation Knowledge – MasteryPill Basics – MasteryHost Techniques (Foundation Establishment):Analysis – MasteryAutomatic Reaction Variable Shield – MasteryChain Lightning – MasteryFolded Space Quickstep – MasteryHealing – MasteryLayered Variable Shield Breaker with Void Finisher Weapon Augmentation – MasteryMeditation – MasteryPause Time – MasterySeeking Speeding Arrow – MasteryVariable AoE Gravity Burst – MasteryVariable AoE Shield – MasteryVariable Spirit Coin Manifestation – MasteryHost Techniques (Golden Core Concepts):Earth - MasteryFire - MasteryGravity - MasteryIce - MasteryIllusion - MasteryLightning - MasteryMetal - MasteryPoison - MasterySpace - MasteryTime - MasteryVoid - MasteryWater - MasteryWood - MasteryMenus:[Cultivation Method][Technique][Quest][Perk][Advancement][Shop][Sect]Besides Benton becoming probably the strongest Golden Core Cultivator on the planet, the other exciting change for the sect was that the village seamstresses finished enough robes for all the members to get at least one. Since they really didn't have core, inner, and outer divisions yet, there were only three versions of the robes.
As the sect leader, Benton got a style all his own, mostly blue but with streaks of silver woven in and no accent color. He quite liked it.
The second version was for each of the council members. Those were opposite Benton's, being mostly silver with streaks of blue. Each pavilion had its own accent color, which each member had incorporated into the sash and sleeve cuffs. Pavilion heads had a gold insignia representing the pavilion on their shoulders.
The colors were green for Alchemy, black for Blacksmith, gray for the Contribution Point Store, purple for Formations, yellow for Healing, red for Martial, orange for Outer Sect, and brown for Woodworking.
All the other members of the sect received plain blue robes but with the pavilion accents.
When Benton looked at all the people cultivating in the Wood, they looked like a real sect. They just had to survive the beast tide and set the buildings, and they'd be as real as real could be.
Yang Ru sighed. He was in a relatively isolated section of the Wood next to his sister and Zou Tian and was supposed to be cultivating. Concentration was coming hard, though.
The closer it came to time for Kang Lin to arrive, the more distracted Yang Ru became. By the time Yang Xiu finished the cycle she was working on, he still hadn't managed to even start the next one of his.
"What's wrong, Brother?" she said.
"Nothing."
"Uh huh. Nervous about tomorrow?"
"No."
"I think it's sweet that you're so nervous about making a good impression on your fiancé."
"She is not my fiancé."
"You don't want to marry her?" Yang Xiu said, feigning shock. "Why not? Isn't she pretty enough for you? I think she's pretty. Don't you think so, Zou Tian?"
The boy grinned. "Not as pretty as Senior Sister."
Yang Xiu barked out a laugh. "Don't you mean, not as pretty as Wan Ai?"
Zou Tian's face reddened. Yang Ru would have felt sorry for the boy, but it was infinitely better for it to be him on the receiving end of the teasing.
"I think the lovely young lady will make a great companion for Senior Brother," Zou Tian said diplomatically.
"Master said that I just have to get to know her. There is no commitment to anything else." Yang Ru grimaced. He knew the words had been a mistake as soon as they'd left his mouth.
"Brother, brother, brother." Yang Xiu grinned. "If we were back in town, would you have any say in who Mother, Father, and the elders picked for you?"
He so badly wanted to bring up the fact that she hadn't agreed to marry Fang Wei, but that was neither fair nor a good comparison. The Lord Mayor had sidestepped the entire process, not letting their parents or the elders have a say.
Not to mention that Yang Ru didn't want to ruin his sister's mood by bringing up such a painful subject.
The worst part was that his sister was right. Yang Ru would have ended up marrying whoever they picked for him. He didn't know why the thought of marrying Kang Lin was bothering him so much.
"I can just imagine Mother's and Father's faces now," she said. "Their big, strong son getting married … to a girl who can beat him up."
There. That was it. Of course, Yang Xiu would see the issue even before he did.
From his youngest memories, his parents had appointed him the protector of his sister, a job he had failed at. But that was in the past. He was one of the strongest members of their fledgling sect, and his future was bright. His entire purpose in life was to become the sect's protector.
If his bride to be could beat him in a martial contest, what value did he bring to the relationship?
"We should be cultivating," Yang Ru said, closing his eyes and attempting once again to concentrate on cycling qi.
It didn't help him much, but at least Yang Xiu stopped teasing him.
A couple of cycles later, she stopped and said, "Go get Master. I think it's time."
Great. Just great.
Chapter 118 – Your View of Who You Are
The first time Benton had a woman tell him, "It's time," had been when Evelyn was about to give birth to their firstborn. Yang Xiu's news wasn't quite so urgent, but it was pretty darn important.
She was ready to breakthrough into Foundation Establishment.
That step was a major one for the Rising Tide Sect. Thus far, they had exactly one cultivator who could deal any damage to a rank four spirit beast—Benton himself. The news that Yang Xiu would soon be ready to take a much more active role in that regard was fantastic news.
Knowing the moment was coming and not being idiots, they'd prepared for it. A temporary hut constructed of bamboo and cloth had been put up behind the temporary Alchemy Pavilion. The walls provided the person inside with privacy, and the main area was stocked with buckets of water and supplies for washing. There was also a separate area for changing into old disposable clothes at the start and back into sect robes after the process was over.
Best of all, the temporary nature of the whole thing meant that Benton could just void it all away, including a couple of inches of the dirt floor. No muss, no fuss. Bye, bye stinky purged materials.
Despite Yang Xiu being slightly dramatic when calling for him, there was no real hurry. The process wasn't actually like having a baby. The breakthrough wouldn't happen on its own. She would have to slip into a meditative state and trigger it.
Still, there was no reason to delay the process. She'd need time to consolidate her gains, and the more time she had to learn her new techniques, the better.
Benton grabbed her hand, and they Quickstepped to behind the temporary Alchemy Pavilion.
"You're good, right?" he said. "There's no reason for me to stay?"
He really didn't feel comfortable leaving the others alone for long in the Wood. The area attracted spirit beasts like flies to honey. A rank four or higher appeared pretty much daily.
"I've got it, Master. You go back and protect the others."
"Great. After you finish, I'll give you a while to clean up before I come retrieve you."
By that point, she's been with him long enough that she didn't even question things like how he'd know when she was done.
"Gratitude, Master."
"Good luck," he said as he Quickstepped away.
About an hour later, he got the notification he was waiting for.
Host's Disciple, Yang Xiu, has reached Foundation Establishment.
Host is awarded three Sect Points.
Host has 660 Sect Points available.
That was such a ridiculously high number of Sect Points. It hadn't been that long ago when he was down to eight.
More importantly, go Yang Xiu! Foundation Establishment was huge.
He noted that there was no minor realm listed, which made sense. She'd broken through to the major realm but hadn't started cultivating a technique yet. When she did, he'd get another two points.
Which was a good thing, because he was about to start spending out the wazoo on her. Just her cultivation method would be twenty points, and two techniques at six apiece were another twelve. She'd eventually need a Silver Body Cultivation method as well, another twenty points.
It was a good thing that even all those points were just a drop in the bucket compared to his total.
Right after that popup, another notification appeared.
Host has completed a quest, Advance First Foundation Establishment Disciple.
Host is awarded five Shop Points.
Host has 101 Shop Points available.
Sweet. Benton had almost forgotten about that quest. It was always good to get more Shop Points.
He waited about an hour or so before Quickstepping back to the temporary Alchemy Pavilion's backyard.
"Yang Xiu?" he called. "Are you clean?"
He assumed she was because there was no one in the bamboo hut. She emerged from the house wearing her nice new Rising Tide Sect robe.
"Yes, Master. Ready to go."
He scanned her.
Name:Yang XiuAffiliation:Rising Tide SectAge:15Cultivation:Foundation EstablishmentQi Available:2,620Techniques:Foundational Archery Essentials - Mastery; Foundational Spear Essentials – Small Success; Peerless Peering and Perception – MasterySpiritual Roots:AQi Aspect:Perfectly smooth ice balanced on the razor edge of freezing and thawingVery nice. Two thousand six hundred twenty qi. Exactly what he'd expected since it was ten times her peak Qi Gathering total, but it was good to see that nothing unexpected occurred.
"Congratulations! I am so proud of you right now. This advancement is a testament to your talent and hard work."
For the first time since he'd met her, she actually blushed. She cupped her hands very formally. "Gratitude, Master."
A putrid smell wafted from the temporary bamboo structure. She clamped her nose shut.
"Are we finished with the hut?"
She nodded vigorously.
A few weeks ago, he had swung by the forge and had Shi Long melt scrap metal and form it into small balls. Benton tossed one at the tent, triggering his attack power charged with void qi.
The tent and several inches of soil disappeared.
He'd been practicing with the technique and could trigger it with up to eleven balls at once. It was a good supplement to his lightning area of effect attack.
With that task accomplished, he and his disciple Quickstepped back to the Wood in an area far enough away from the others to give them privacy. "Once we're finished here, your first order of business is to consolidate your gains. That may take an hour, or it may take a week. You'll know it when you feel it, right?"
"Yes, Master."
"Before you start on that, however, we need to do something much, much more fun. We need to choose your techniques."
Yang Xiu listened enraptured while Master told her about how it was very difficult to learn how to manipulate qi externally without a technique.
"For every sect member who reaches Foundation Establishment, I will gift two techniques. Others will be made available through the Contribution Point Store," he said. "My advice is to at least advance each of the first two to Small Success before buying any more, but it is completely your call how to proceed. You are an adult and a cultivator. From this point onward, I will be available to give you advice whenever you need it, but I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to choose your own path."
He had always emphasized that they should make their own choices, so she didn't really feel that what he was telling her represented much of a change.
"Yes, Master."
"If we were in a more established sect, you would have examples of probably dozens of cultivators ahead of you reaching this stage and would have some idea of what kind of options you have. Since you don't have that, I'll try to fill in the gaps by giving you some of my thoughts while at the same time trying not to influence your decisions too much." He paused, frowning. "To start with, the trinity of foundational skills is attack, defense, and movement."
All three of those sounded good to her.
"Starting with attack, your first decision is whether or not to stick with the bow," he said. "You could choose a different weapon or no weapon at all. It is possible, after all, to form ice bolts that you can shoot directly."
Yang Xiu had heard him espouse the benefits and qi efficiency of ranged weapons too many times to even consider going with ice bolts, but she still wanted to hear his input about sticking with the bow. She told him that.
"My observation is that you took to the weapon really well and have seemingly embraced the role of sniper. What you can do with an arrow is art. Neither of those factors matters at all, though. Your primary consideration should be whether or not archery fits your ideal of who you are as a cultivator. Only you can answer that."
She liked the process of shooting arrows and perfecting her craft, but sniping resonated with her on an emotional level. After feeling so powerless during the whole situation with Fang Wei, there was just something about being the one who chose who lived and who died that felt right to her.
"I can't imagine another path, Master."
"Understood. Then any attack technique should be centered around your archery skill. Do you have any thoughts on what form that attack should take?"
"I like how you attach qi to the tip of your weapon, Master."
He frowned, and she wasn't sure why.
"That's certainly doable, but it's probably not the best for you," he said. "For one thing, any qi aspect can be used in such a manner, so there's nothing unique about it that applies to yours particularly. It's also not a good idea for you to base your combat skills on mine because, frankly, I'm a cheating cheater who cheats. I have so many advantages that neither you nor any other cultivator has that it's ridiculous."
Yang Xiu had obviously noticed that Master was growing more and more powerful.
"You need to consider your own advantages and play to those strengths," he said.
"Like what, Master?"
"Your qi aspect. The more your techniques match your aspect, the easier they will be to learn and the more powerful they will become when you reach Golden Core. It won't give you a huge advantage now over your peers, but it will pay off in the long run."
She didn't like the sound of that.
He must have noticed her expression because he said, "Don't give me that look. It's very difficult for anyone to one shot someone who is in the same realm. Don't expect your battles to be over instantly. Fights between equals are all about using qi efficiently and making your opponent expel theirs first while not allowing them to recharge. And that, by the way, is another major advantage you have—your qi pool."
That mention was the first she was hearing about that plus.
"When I scanned Kang Lin at peak Qi Gathering, she had less than half the qi available that you do. Less than half. That's a significant advantage."
Yang Xiu and her brother had been talking a lot about that particular Poison Claw Sect member a lot lately, and one question was really bugging her. "Why did you choose her as a potential match for Yang Ru, Master?"
"Honestly, just a feeling, I guess. Yang Ru is so serious. I mean, don't get me wrong. Duty and diligence are two very important concepts for a sect member to focus on, but you do great with both those things as well while having fun at the same time. I kind of got a vibe from Kang Lin that, while she's definitely diligent—you don't master the spear and hit peak Qi Gathering at sixteen without being diligent—she's also a bit … whimsical? I can't really tell you what made me feel that way, and I could be completely wrong. The two could be awful for each other. It was just something that seemed to make sense at the time."
Uh huh. Yang Xiu didn't believe that explanation for a moment. There were surely reasons within reasons within reasons that the two would be perfect for each other. Him saying he didn't know why he chose those two as a match would be like him saying he didn't know Zou Tian and Wan Ai would end up being perfect for each other.
It was probably his way of teaching humility, by modeling it himself.
"Anyway, back to the topic of actual importance," he said. "I have a present for you."
Master drew a necklace out from underneath his robe and untied it. The necklace was full of rings.
"Pick one," he said.
There was a silverish one that matched her robe, so she picked that one. It turned out to be a storage ring, and it was his gift to her. She almost couldn't believe it. Real cultivators had storage rings, and she had one now, too.
The gift made her advancement feel so much more real.
After he taught her how to use it, he said, "The first thing I want you to put in it is these."
A thin, circular layer of what looked like red metal appeared in the palm of Master's outstretched hand. As she watched over the course of a second or so, the metal built itself into what looked like a coin.
Yang Xiu was quite familiar with Master pulling things from his storage ring. Whatever he'd just done was not that. It looked like he'd somehow conjured the coin into being.
Soon, nine more joined the first.
"Each of these spirit coins contains one thousand ice aspected qi that you can use to replenish your pool. Practice using them by running your qi down to about half and then refilling. I'll resupply you for the tide, but if you want more before then, I'll also give a handful to Peng Zhen that you can buy at the Contribution Point Store."
She seemed to remember Master telling her about spirit coins a long time ago, but she hadn't known that he could just make them. Why was she even surprised?
"Okay, we got a little off track there," he said. "Let's say your arrow, unmodified exactly like it is right now, hits a qi shield like rank four and higher beasts naturally employ. What happens?"
"Almost nothing, Master. It provides a distraction at best."
"That's because a qi shield is very, very good at protection against physical force. Hitting one with a sword barely diminishes it at all. In contrast, a qi shield rapidly deteriorates when hit by opposing qi," Master said. "What can we do to your arrows with your qi to make them gain some attribute or effect that fits your aspect?"
Yang Xiu thought for a moment. "Well, my qi is smooth and slippery, right? So how about we make the arrows slip through the air? Would that make them travel faster and hit harder, Master?"
"Perfect!" he said. "That is definitely one option. Don't forget, though, that you can physically manifest your qi as a material now. Is there anything you can do with that?"
"I guess I could make some kind of ice puddle form on the ground, Master?"
"That would work. Your ice has the potential to be almost frictionless, so such a thing would create a lot of havoc among your enemies. Those are exactly the types of things you should be considering." He gave her an encouraging smile. "Now, what about your shield? How do we make that function in a way that reflects your aspect?"
"I guess we make it slippery, too, so that projectiles want to slide off of it? Does that work, Master?"
"Again, that sounds like a good idea. What about movement?"
Yang Xiu was really getting into the spirit of the challenge. It was fun coming up with things she could do with her newfound power.
"I can make my feet slippery, Master, so that I can kind of skate over the ground. Or… I could make all of me slippery like the arrow so that I slip through the air, too, making me even faster."
"Good. You've got it. Is there anything else you want?"
"The perception technique you gave me has been invaluable, Master. I would like to continue developing along those lines."
"Great idea. It might be better for you to use your new spiritual sense for a bit before trying to figure out the direction you want to take that ability, though."
"You're right, Master. I should start with the basics. For my two techniques, I want the slippery arrow and the shield."
"I think those are great choices, and when you come up with what you want your next technique to be, just let Peng Zhen or me know."
"Yes, Master."
It wasn't that long ago that all her knowledge of cultivators came from stories, but her time visiting the Poison Claw Sect had been enlightening. The sect members there couldn't just think up any ability they wanted and have someone supply them with a perfectly suited top heaven grade technique that did just that.
Her master was so awesome!
Chapter 119 – No-Brainer
Benton accessed the System menu for cultivation method creation and, for the first time, chose Foundation Establishment. The Sect Point Factor being set to two was a bit of a bummer, but his elation at having a disciple finally breakthrough to the next major realm easily countered any negative feelings due to cost. Besides, he was quite flush with points.
The twins both were doing fantastic, advancing through realms and techniques quickly, and their qi pools were phenomenally high compared to their peers. Part of that was their talent and his having set the Power category so high, of course, but a lot of their success was using a cultivation method specifically aligned with their unique qi aspect.
That fact made choosing "Targeted to Specific Qi Aspect" a no-brainer. Next, though, came his two hardest decisions.
Targeted to Specific Qi Aspect selection accepted.
Specific Qi set to perfectly smooth ice balanced on the razor edge of freezing and thawing.
Please allocate 100 Cultivation Method Creation Points in the following three categories:
Ease
Power
Foundation
Generally, he started out his distribution of points by determining either the most important or the least important category, and creating Yang Xiu's new cultivation method was no exception. Advancing through all nine minor realms of Foundation Establishment took the average sect member about a decade, assuming no major bottlenecks. Yang Xiu, simply due to her immense talent, would likely shave a year or two off that time, and Benton saw no pressing need for her to attain Golden Core more quickly than that.
Ease, therefore, was the lowest priority for the new method. He set it at ten.
Her Qi Gathering method had its Power set high at sixty-five points, and the results showed in her qi pool. The category remained important in Foundation Establishment, both for the size of the pool and the quality of her qi.
Benton didn't have a way to empirically measure the strength of qi, but he was willing to bet that the twins' would outclass almost any of their peers from another sect. And that advantage was one that would help them in every fight of their entire long lives.
The problem was that Foundation was even more important. A weak Golden Core cultivator would obliterate the strongest one who was stuck in the Foundation Establishment realm, and he wanted to see the twins reach Nascent Soul or even higher.
He'd set the category low for their initial method because he was sure their talent would see them far. The higher they got, however, the less sure advancement became. Now was the time to make an investment for the future.
Benton set Foundation to fifty-five, leaving thirty-five for Power.
Yeah. That distribution felt right. He locked it in.
Finally, came his least favorite decision—the name.
Ugh.
He wanted something that conveyed action and impact since she could externally manipulate her qi while also referencing the nature of her ice. Reign. That word evoked action and impact in his mind, but what about her specific qi aspect?
It was smooth. Polished. Effortless.
That was it—Reign of Effortlessly Flowing Ice.
Good enough. He locked the name in as well, committing the twenty points for the new method.
Next, the techniques. He pulled up the appropriate menu and again chose Foundation Establishment.
For his very talented core disciples, choosing "Targeted to Specific Qi Aspect" was again a no-brainer. Having techniques uniquely attuned to them would make them more powerful immediately, and that power would scale when they advanced to Golden Core and created their Concept.
For the rank and file of the sect, he'd have to be more thoughtful. Each person having a specific technique or two to build the core of their crafting or fighting around was probably justified, but so was having some standard techniques that anyone with a particular broad aspect could learn.
Anyway, that was a problem for future Benton.
Specific Qi set to perfectly smooth ice balanced on the razor edge of freezing and thawing.
Please specify what skill or ability the Host wishes for the technique to impart.
"System," he said internally, "please give me a technique that allows my disciple to coat an arrow with her qi making it slip effortlessly through the air at great speed and impact with the weight of ice."
Skill/ability specification accepted.
Please allocate 100 Technique Creation Points in the following three categories:
Ease
Power
Foundation
Unlike her beginning archery technique, the one he was creating wasn't meant to be foundational. There were no more skills to be learned in the future that would build on what it provided. Instead, it was simply designed to give her a particular skill.
He set Foundation to zero.
The other two categories were both important, but Ease was considerably less so. With her combination of talent and diligence, he had no doubt that she'd be able to learn even the most difficult of techniques.
Still, there was a beast tide rapidly approaching, and she needed to have the skill at Small Success to have any chance at taking down rank four and above spirit beasts. He needed to allocate some points to the category solely because of the dire need for her to learn it quickly.
Choosing a number that was neither too high nor too low felt more like an art than a science. He set the category to twenty-five.
That distribution left a whopping seventy-five for power.
Good. That would give her quite a bit of needed oomph.
Benton was starting to prefer short descriptive names for techniques, so he went with Slippery Arrow.
That name was … fine. He probably wouldn't forget what it did at least.
He repeated the process for her shield technique, once again choosing to target her specific qi aspect, of course. When the System asked him about the skill or ability to be imparted, however, he had a thought.
"System, I'm assuming that I can't create a technique that lets my disciple use a different qi aspect, correct?"
Host is correct. The only way for a cultivator to use an aspected qi different from their own is for the cultivator to utilize devices such as talismans, etc.As expected, of course, but it was prudent to make sure.
"System, how about the reactive nature of my shield? Can I make one for Yang Xiu that triggers automatically and only to the extent needed?"
Host may create a personal Foundation Establishment technique that utilizes sophisticated programmed responses.
Creating a technique that allows a sect member to utilize sophisticated programmed responses was not considered by the Sect Leader System.
Calculating…
Calculating…
Calculating…
Sect Leader System authorizes the creation of a technique with programmed responses, but since such techniques have never been seen on this planet, creation will require fifty percent more Sect Points to create. Additionally, such advanced features of the technique cannot be utilized until the technique reaches Mastery.
He'd take that as a win, but there was a tradeoff for using programmed responses. Because they were automatic, the cultivator did not get to allocate the amount of qi to be drained. Instead, the technique simply took whatever it needed from the user's qi pool.
"Yang Xiu, there's another decision for you to make."
Benton explained the basic function of the shield technique to her.
"I don't understand why I wouldn't want that feature, Master. Yes, the technique might drain my entire qi pool at once, but wouldn't the alternative be that I'd be struck and perhaps severely injured or killed by an attack?"
"Yes. No. Maybe."
She stared at him with a confused expression, and he laughed.
"Let's say a sniper with stealth abilities good enough to hide even from you shoots an arrow at the back of your head. Without your shield active, you're dead, so this feature is a no-brainer, right?"
Literally, because she would no longer have a brain.
He would have chuckled at his own pun if it wasn't so grim.
She nodded vigorously.
"Great. New scenario. You're fighting against an opponent who is slow but strong. You dodge, but their strike hits your arm. Without the technique's special feature, you lose your arm, but your counterstrike kills your opponent. After, you take a Major Healing Pill, and you're good as new. With the feature, your shield triggers and drains all your qi. You have nothing left to counterstrike. Your opponent decapitates you. Game over."
"Oh."
"Everything has positives and negatives, Yang Xiu. Everything."
She thought for a moment. "Being struck unaware feels like a much greater risk than the second scenario. As long as I know the dangers, I can plan for them, Master. I would prefer that the technique have the feature."
"I think that's good reasoning."
He told her about needing to attain Mastery for it to take effect.
"Understood, Master."
Benton locked in the skill specification and moved onto allotting Technique Creation Points. The same reasoning process he used for Slippery Arrow still applied for Foundation, but he reconsidered his thoughts about Ease and Power.
It was crucial that Yang Xiu develop an attack that used qi prior to the beast tide. In contrast, the shield was a nice to have rather than a necessity. She could already go toe to toe with highly ranked spirit beasts just based on her speed and Body Cultivation.
Still, Ease did have some importance in that the sooner she got to Mastery and could use the automatic response, the better. Twenty-five was too high, but did it need to be ten, fifteen, or twenty?
Without any really good argument for one over the other two, he went with the choice in the middle, setting Ease at fifteen and Power at eighty-five. Considering that Ice was already considered one of the better qi aspects for shields, hers was going to be stout indeed.
A few moments and nine Sect Points later, he had created the Automated Slippery Ice Shield.
He handed the three jade slips to Yang Xiu.
She cupped her hands. "Much gratitude, Master."
Benton pulled up the Shop Menu and told it that he wanted the two pills that combined with the Black Ice Qi Concentrating Pill to increase a Foundation Establishment cultivator's qi pool by ten percent. The System told him that the pills would be one Shop Point each.
The cost was two Shop Points, which wasn't negligible. The gain, though, was a ten percent permanent increase in qi pool for one of his strongest sect members.
He didn't have to deliberate long. She'd immediately gain access to two hundred sixty-two more qi, a number that would increase to over two thousand six hundred at the start of Golden Core. That quantity was enough to one day save her life.
For two Shop Points, it was worth it.
"After you finish consolidating your gains but before you start either cultivating or learning your techniques, go to the Guard House and consume these, all three at once."
"Yes, Master."
Such was her trust in him that she didn't even ask what the purpose of the pills was.
He had such amazing disciples.
Chapter 120 – Nervous
Yang Xiu was a little concerned. Master had said that consolidating her gains could take an hour or a week. She took that to mean that it was likely to take an extended period of time.
After an hour, though, she felt … good.
She'd advanced through nine minor realms and Mastery of two different techniques. She knew what it was supposed to feel like when she was ready to continue with the next step.
She was ready.
Well, he had said that she would know. She shrugged and made her way to the Guard House, telling them she needed a room to consume pills Master gave her.
Her mind flashed back to when she and her brother had taken the pills that improved their spiritual roots. She really hoped that whatever was about to happen didn't hurt as much as that had. Regardless, she would endure, but she could hope.
The other thing that struck her was how helpless they both had been while under the influence of the medication. It was nice that Master had thought to set up a place guarded by people they could trust just for such a purpose.
A guard quickly led to a small room, and she cupped her hands and bowed low to him.
"Senior Sister, you don't have to do that!"
"Nonsense," she said. "This one thanks your for your service to the sect."
Despite his protestations, the man left smiling.
The room had everything she might need—separate containers of water for drinking and for washing, cleaning materials, rags, and a set of old clothes.
Though she wasn't sure what was about to happen, she didn't think disrobing would be necessary. She threw the three pills in her mouth, swigged some water, and gulped them down.
Dropping into a lotus position, she waited.
The process was painful, of course. Everything about cultivation seemed to involve pain in some manner. But it wasn't nearly as bad as the spiritual root refinement.
Best of all, the entire process seemed to only take about an hour or so.
After the pain had gone away and the burning in her channels had subsided, she dove her consciousness into her body to examine it.
Her qi pool was larger. She was already struggling to come to terms with how much more she had available compared to the peak of Qi Gathering, and now she had even more. Master was truly unfathomable.
After returning to the house she shared with her brother, she pulled out the jade slip containing her new Foundation Establishment realm cultivation method from her storage ring.
Her Foundation Establishment realm cultivation method. Her storage ring.
Yang Xiu grinned.
That day in the woods when Fang Wei had caught up to her and Yang Ru, she had thought everything was over. The spoiled wretch was about to kill her brother and do unspeakable things to her. Even if they somehow survived, their parents were dead. They had no food and no place to go.
Now, she was a real cultivator, one who would soon be able to do amazing things with her qi. She had a place to belong, a new family.
Yang Xiu couldn't wait to take the next step.
She dove her consciousness into the jade slip just like she'd done dozens, maybe hundreds, of times with other treasures and began assimilating the contents.
Information flooded her brain.
The root of the method was similar to her old one. The qi aspect was exactly the same, matched to hers.
And wasn't that something she and her brother had marveled over many times. It was obvious from their interactions with the members of the Poison Claw Sect that no one, literally no one, had cultivation methods uniquely tuned to their qi aspect just handed to them. The only people who used such things were Golden Core and higher elders who were able to develop their own cultivation methods after years and years of study.
She put aside that thought, concentrating on the task before her.
The purpose of Qi Gathering had been to gather in motes of qi and condense it into a liquid. Her new cultivation was similar in that she was still condensing the qi, but the goal was to make the liquid more and more dense until she could finally form a core in her dantian, which would trigger her ascension into the Golden Core realm.
Everything about the new method was the same but slightly different from the one she'd previously used, variations on a theme so to speak. The cycles were a slightly different pattern, and she'd be handling a lot, lot more qi at once than before, ten times more. The task was daunting.
Yang Xiu took a deep breath.
It would be fine. She could do it. She would do it.
She would not let down her master.
Slowly, carefully, deliberately, she absorbed qi from her environment and cycled it, using it to minutely compress the liquid qi flowing through her channels.
When she finished the cycle, she felt the change. Minor realm one. A small change, but she could detect it because her control and sense of her body were much more developed than it ever had been when she'd been a mortal.
After reaching that milestone, she switched to working on her new archery technique. It was, in a word, difficult. Moving qi outside her body was quite different from moving it inside. The change was something like how she imagined learning to use a new limb might be.
One really good thing about advancing to Foundation Establishment was that her need for sleep was reduced even further, so she stayed up all night practicing. By dawn, she could coat her arrow tips in qi and maintain it until they hit their target.
The process did slow her rate of fire, however. Before, she'd been able to pull an arrow, nock it, and smoothly pull back and release in a fraction of a second. The new technique required her to stop when the bowstring was pulled back and concentrate for up to several seconds to get the qi to move into place.
Still, she hadn't expected it to be easy. Learning to shoot a bow in the first place hadn't been easy, either, but she'd well and truly conquered that task.
Dawn brought the need to meet the others in the plaza, though, so she reluctantly stopped practicing. As she and Yang Ru walked toward the gate, she experimented with her spiritual sense. Her brother immediately flared before her more than just to her eyes. Even closing them, she knew exactly where he was and that there were more cultivators ahead of them.
The best she could guess was that she could detect any cultivator in about a hundred yards radius from her. Additionally, they felt more or less solid to her based on their cultivation level. Yang Ru was by far the firmest feeling of all of them. There was a definite difference between him and someone like Shi Long and again between him and one of the newest inductees.
Because she knew the realm of each of the people present, she was able to start associating a feeling of firmness with a certain minor realm. The only exception was Zou Tian, who barely felt like a cultivator at all. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought he had just learned to cultivate last night instead of being in the sixth minor realm.
Everyone arrived except for Master, which was strange. He hated being late and was almost always one of the first ones there. By the time he showed up around a half hour later, the sect members were starting to get worried.
"Sorry about being tardy," he said. "I'm expecting Kang Lin and her group today, so I spent some extra time clearing out the worst of the beasts along their path."
Yang Xiu glanced at her brother, who tried hard to act like the girl's imminent arrival didn't bother him, but it was obvious to someone who'd known him for his entire life that he was nervous.
"I went far enough to sense them as well," Master continued, "and I'll meet them on the road in about four hours. I'll patrol an extra long distance around the Wood before I leave and will try to be gone as short a time as possible."
No one had any problem with that, of course, and they all proceeded to the Wood.
The interesting thing for Yang Xiu was that Master didn't appear at all to her spiritual senses. He'd told her about that ability of his in the past, but it was interesting to experience it for herself. Of course, she also remembered him saying that any higher realm cultivator would be similarly hidden, so she looked forward to seeing what such cultivators felt like in future encounters.
About four hours after the start of their daily cultivating, Master arrived to take her and her brother to meet with the newcomers. She was excited, eager to get to know her potential new sister.
In contrast, Yang Ru had to grip his spear tightly to stop his hands from shaking.
Yang Xiu stifled a laugh, and he glared at her.
Oops.
Kang Lin had hoped to make the distance from Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town to the Prosperous Gray Forest Village in a single day, about twelve hours of running full out. That had seemed like a reasonable goal. After all, that was the time the trip had taken her both coming and going on her previous trip.
She hadn't counted on two factors, however. First of all, the spirit beasts were a lot more numerous and aggressive than they were on the previous journey. She and the other five Poison Claw Sect members had to stop multiple times to fight, though fortunately not against any rank four or higher. Her techniques were barely at Small Success, and though she was willing to try, she did not feel at all confident about fighting such a high ranked creature on her own.
The second delay came from her fellow sect members. The slowest of the bunch, Deng Meixiang, could barely sustain forty miles per hour, a good twenty percent slower than Kang Lin when she'd been in the Qi Gathering realm.
Normally, a trip taking fifteen hours instead of twelve would have been no big deal, but with all the spirit beasts and the overgrown path, travel in darkness was not a good idea. Which meant they had to camp for the night. Which wouldn't have been a big deal, either, but for the spirit beasts.
She'd spent the entire night on edge because several rank threes with good stealth had been able to sneak all the way into the camp before anyone spotted them. It was quite stressful.
Kang Lin was also on edge the next morning as they traveled because she fully expected to encounter rank fours. Considering the density of rank threes they'd had to fight and the warning from Esteemed Master Cultivator Chao Su, her conclusion only made sense.
Therefore, it surprised and worried her when not a single one appeared. Her only thought was—if there were no rank fours, was it because there was an even more dangerous one nearby?
She really hoped her bravado in saying that she could escort Pan Jiang and the other four wouldn't cost her or any of them their lives.
The further they traveled, the more nervous she became. Thus, when shortly before noon, two spiritual presences suddenly appeared just beyond the next rise, she let out a panicked cry.
"Get ready! Beasts just over the next hill!"
Pan Jiang readied his sword. Deng Meixiang nocked an arrow.
All six of them were as tense as Deng Meixiang's bowstring.
That was when Kang Lin realized her mistake. She was sensing one Foundation Establishment and one Qi Gathering cultivator over the rise, not beasts.
"Stop!" she yelled.
But it was too late.
At movement on the top of the hill, Deng Meixiang loosed.
Kang Lin winced. That was not good. Her grandfather was going to be so mad if what she thought was about to happen did, in fact, happen.
Esteemed Cultivator Chao Su suddenly appeared in front of them, holding Deng Meixiang's arrow. "I think you lost this?"
At least he was smiling when he handed it back to the girl.
Kang Lin had never been so embarrassed in her life. To have one of her charges shoot an arrow at Grandfather's friend was an incomprehensible loss of face. What a way to greet someone to whom she owed so much for such an amazingly easy breakthrough.
Worst of all, the incident was solely her fault. She should have known instantly that it was cultivators, allies, who had appeared.
She cupped her hands and bowed low. "This lowly one is so sorry, Esteemed Master Cultivator."
"For what?" He seemed genuinely perplexed.
"For this lowly one's sect mate shooting an arrow at our allies, Esteemed Master Cultivator. These lowly ones are sure to be punished when Elder Kang and Elder Dai learn of it, but any punishment the Esteemed Master Cultivator wants to add would be justified."
In Kang Lin's experience, the only way to gain any chance of leniency was to convince the master that one was absolutely willing to accept any punishment—not that they deserved lenience for that debacle.
"Don't be silly. Even if that arrow had hit one of us, it couldn't have possibly done any damage," he said. "Now, come on. I have two disciples waiting for you, one eagerly and one anxiously."
She'd had so much on her mind that she'd almost forgot about Yang Ru and their impending potential courtship. Suddenly, she was nervous for an entirely different reason.