The Sect Leader System-Chapter 176: Power of the Heavens

The fact that destroying the Jade Chameleon Sect branch in Sixth Flawless Flowing City might result in the Rising Tide Sect gaining the enmity of not only that sect but the Swift Blizzard Sect and the Emperor’s faction as well gave Benton pause. On one hand, following through with his threat risked his sect members. On the other, showing weakness by not following through garnered just as much risk.

To a sect, there was nothing worse than a coward. Sure, one had to give higher realmed cultivators face, but if he told the Jade Chameleons he’d reign righteous fire upon them and then did nothing? No one would ever take him seriously again. His reputation would be ruined.

And his reputation as a cultivator of an unknown high realm was the only thing that might keep his people alive.

Besides, his cause was righteous. He had warned the Jade Chameleons to leave his people out of any pursuit of vengeance, and what had they done? Attacked his people.

Not only that, but they’d rubbed the fact that they were making the attack in his face.

Logically, it made sense for all three of the Golden Core cultivators to face him first back when they launched their attack on him, removing the true deterrent before moving on to killing the innocents. But that wasn’t what they did.

Instead, they sent one of the trio ahead to the village.

They knew he valued his people and wanted him to suffer, knowing that his disciples and sect members were dying as he failed to defend them.

Regardless of whether the trio had acted on their own or with the blessing of their elders, the sect deserved punishment. For a cultivator of any realm, no matter how low, one’s actions reflect back on the sect. Period. For a cultivator as highly realmed as Golden Core, that fact held doubly true.

The Jade Chameleon Sect deserved punishment, and Ye Zan deserved to have his death avenged.

Benton’s threats were fair and measured as far as he was concerned. If anything, he was being too lenient. A real Nihility realm cultivator would have simply wiped the branch off the map with no warning whatsoever.

“Well, Friend Kang,” Benton said, “we’ve enacted the proper mitigating measures, and I do believe that the deadline I gave for evacuating the sect grounds has passed. It’s time for me to become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Kang Ya-Ting gave a funny look for a moment, probably due to the, to him, odd turn of a phrase. “Do you mind, Friend Su, if I and one other were to observe the spectacle? For purposes of serving as witnesses for the City Lord, of course.”

If not for the seriousness of what was about to happen, Benton would have chuckled. The elder obviously just wanted to satisfy his curiosity. There was no harm in that, though.

Unless Benton fell flat on his face, of course. That would be both embarrassing and deadly. He hoped he wasn’t overestimating his own prowess.

By that point, though, he’d already placed his bets, so to speak, so it was in for a penny, in for a pound time.

“No problem,” Benton said. “That way you can tell me afterward if I dialed my power back enough.”

The elder cupped his hands in gratitude and nodded.

Soon, Benton was flying above the city with Kang Ya-Ting and an elder he’d introduced as Dai Shuren following behind him.

Honestly, Benton’s greatest worry wasn’t that he would fail to destroy the sect or even that he would die. It was that the sect hadn’t listened to him about the evacuation, and he’d be forced to kill a bunch of mortals and teenaged cultivators. With the death of Ye Zan weighing on him, he’d come to terms with the fact that he would be killing more people, but the mass slaughter of relative innocents wasn’t something he wanted on his conscience.

Could he even bring himself to kill the Jade Chameleon Sect equivalents of Yang Xiu and Yang Ru and Zou Tian and Wan Ai and Kang Lin and all the others? Bright diligent young minds who just wanted a chance to find their own place in the world? How could he snuff out those lights so early?

No. There was no way. He’d have to find some alternative.

Luckily, when he approached closely enough for the sect branch to be in range of his spiritual sense, there were only a small number of Golden Core cultivators present.

Perfect. He’d probably be in for a fight, but he found that he didn’t mind that at all.

Just before he entered what he suspected was the range of his opponents’ senses—suddenly relevant considering the two cultivators following him—he got a popup notification and quickly paused his progress, hovering to read the prompt.

Host’s disciple, Yang Ru, requests to use the Trial Pagoda:

Requested Trial: Advance Cultivation or Technique

Requested Technique: Momentum Dissolution Shield

Allow Trial: Y/N

With the Foundation Establishment cultivators on missions to retrieve beast corpses and no clear plan for how, or which, Qi Gathering cultivators should use the pagoda, access to it had fallen by the wayside since Yang Xiu’s successful completion. It was good that his disciples were taking advantage of the resource and following the guidelines he’d given.

And Yang Ru advancing his shield was a good choice. Getting the technique to Large Success would be a huge improvement to the boy’s power set, and it seemed like all three of his Foundation Establishment disciples had difficulty learning their shields.

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The Momentum Dissolution aspect was quite interesting as well. Once Yang Ru attained Mastery, anything that hit it with Momentum would find that Momentum just … gone.

Powerful indeed.

Benton selected yes.

As he glanced back, Kang Ya-Ting arched his eyebrows.

“Just needed a second to take care of something,” Benton said. “I’m ready now. Let’s proceed.”

Seconds later, Benton reached the sect grounds and stopped just outside the wall. No less than fifteen Golden Core cultivators floated opposite them. Kang Ya-Ting and the other elder quickly retreated to a position out of easy striking distance.

“Any of you who leave now will not be harmed,” Benton said, using his new booming voice technique despite the nearness of his audience. “All who remain will die.”

He almost got goosebumps with how dark he sounded. The thing was, though… he wasn’t playing. There was no acting. No games. Every word had been completely serious.

The part of him that had been a grandfather back on Earth and who had suffered no true evil at the hands of others hoped that all fifteen of the Jade Chameleon cultivators would simply leave so he wouldn’t have to kill them. The part of him who had seen Ye Zan’s body, on the other hand, prayed to the heavens that they wouldn’t.

That second part of him had his wish granted.

“Advance one inch past this wall or take any aggressive action, and it will be you who dies this day,” the lead cultivator, a woman with a stern visage and who held a sword, said.

Benton had put a lot of effort into coming up with his ultimate juggernaut combat build. He figured it was time to put it to the test.

Channeling a single qi into a lightning bolt, he tossed it toward the lead cultivator. It was intercepted by a dome shield extending above the wall, an earth qi aspected shield.

Interesting. Lightning qi was weak against Earth. He was willing to bet that the Jade Chameleon Sect, having experienced his Lightning attack previously, assumed that was his sole qi aspect and tuned their defenses against it.

That mistake would be their undoing.

Well, part of their undoing. The first, most crucial, part had been attacking his sect members.

“System,” he said internally, “please create a technique that blasts a high-pressure stream of Water and buy it to Mastery.”

Technique creation confirmed.

Host has learned the technique, Hydro Blast: Mastery.

Host has 790 Sect Points available.

Nice. Since the shield was attuned to Earth, the Water would blast right through it fifty percent more efficiently than a neutral aspect and two hundred percent better than Lightning.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Benton said. “That was an aggressive act. Show me what you’ve got.”

The fifteen had been hesitating, clearly unsure how to respond to such a tepid little shock that wouldn’t have hurt any of them even had it gotten through the shield. His taunt got them moving, though, and all of them launched attacks almost as one.

Strike after strike hit his shield, which activated only when it was struck and only in the area in which it was struck and countered each strike with the most efficient aspect that he had a Concept for.

After several minutes, only a few hundred thousand qi had been drained. The shield had performed as well as he’d hoped. Better even. It was perfect.

“If that’s all you’ve got,” Benton’s voice boomed, “then it’s my turn.”

He charged a full one million qi into his hydro blast, which turned out to be overkill as the dome shield barely held for an instant against the onslaught. The cultivator’s individual qi shields performed a little better. But only a little.

One by one, he directed the blast at them until they were each overcome.

The high-pressure Water did a number on each of them, but Golden Core cultivators’ bodies were too tough to be killed by just that amount of force. They immediately tried to flee.

A Gravity burst stopped them, causing them to sink toward the ground and holding them in place.

Benton removed his bow from his storage ring and used a quarter of a million qi to power his signature attack, aimed at the lead cultivator. The shield breaker didn’t have a lot of work left to do after the damage done from the hydro blast and thus ended up taking out most of her chest. The Void finisher made the rest of her torso disappear.

As Benton charged the second arrow, he realized he felt no pleasure in executing the cultivators. It was a duty. Nothing more. His sole purpose was to avenge Ye Zan and protect his sect members.

Arrow after arrow fell. Cultivator after cultivator died.

By the tenth one, the Jade Chameleons realized their fate. The eleventh stood there atop his hobbled flying sword, resigned, as the arrow hit him.

Same for the twelfth.

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The thirteenth jumped to the ground and kowtowed. The force of the Gravity technique buried his face in the dirt. His two remaining compatriots quickly matched his cowardice.

Presented with his first true quandary, Benton winced. It was one thing to kill a foe, however underpowered, in battle. It was quite another to execute someone who surrendered.

How could he look his disciples in the eye if he killed these three cultivators in cold blood? But how could he not follow through? He’d specifically told them that any who remained were dead.

And if he did decide to let them live, what the heck was he supposed to do with them? Imprison them? Three Golden Core Cultivators? How?

See if Kang Ya-Ting could take them? But that was too big of an ask. The problem was Benton’s, and he needed to deal with it.

“System,” he said internally, “can you create a technique to destroy someone’s cultivation base?”

Tribulation aspected qi could theoretically destroy a cultivator’s core, and since Host is in possession of a Concept for Anti-Tribulation qi, it is also theoretically possible for Host to also gain possession of Tribulation qi.

That was one of the most reluctantly worded notifications Benton had ever received from the System, and considering some of the stuff he’d pulled in bending the System to do what he wanted, that was saying something. Regardless, Tribulation aspected qi sounded like exactly what he needed.

“System, please purchase a Concept for Tribulation qi to be the antithesis of cultivation and create a technique that allows me to fire a bolt of Tribulation Lightning at a cultivator’s core in order to destroy it utterly and completely. Please purchase that technique to Mastery.”

Concept creation purchase confirmed.

Technique creation confirmed.

Host has learned the technique, Power of the Heavens: Mastery.

Host has 766 Sect Points available.

Benton let out a sharp breath. The title of his new technique was more than a little ominous, and he briefly considered if he should be wielding power that maybe should remain the domain of the heavens.

Then again, if he really wasn’t supposed to have it, the System wouldn’t allow the purchase, right?

It would be fine. Probably.

“You shall live,” Benton said coldly, “but you will no longer be cultivators.”

Before his statement had a chance to sink in, he released his Gravity burst and fired a small bolt of Tribulation lightning at each of the three Golden Core cultivators.

Shortly after the bolts hit, the three were more accurately referred to as the three former Golden Core cultivators. The lightning had only been slightly hindered by their qi shields and penetrated their bodies, destroying meridians and their cores as it ravaged their bodies.

They’d live.

Well, if they found healing quickly enough, anyway. That wasn’t his problem, though.

They would not, however, ever cultivate again.

That was a more than satisfactory solution to him.

“Friend Kang,” Benton said, “would you please remove this trash from the grounds so that I can destroy this branch completely?”