The Sect Leader System-Chapter 184: An Exciting Twenty Years

Benton summoned four copies of the new REDI Soul Cultivation method from his spatial ring and distributed one each to the four former Righteous Rain Sect Qi Gathering cultivators. Each immediately dove their consciousness into the respective jade slip.

Song Yongliang was the first to finish his brief examination. “This is a Soul Cultivation method.”

Benton wasn’t sure exactly how to respond to that statement. He had promised, after all, to provide exactly that. “Yes?”

At the commotion, the three other Qi Gathering cultivators raised their heads, their faces stunned.

“This one has never even seen a Soul Cultivation method, Esteemed Sect Leader,” the young man said. “And the one provided, to this lowly one’s insufficient powers of observation, appears to be high quality. Very high quality.”

“Of course. I only provide top heaven grade methods and techniques to my sect members.”

Benton almost laughed as he watched the contortions happening to the young man’s face in reaction to that statement. With the initial confusion cleared up, Benton was starting to enjoy the conversation. Providing unexpecting people with things they couldn’t imagine ever even seeing much less owning was definitely one of the best parts of his new life.

Song Yongliang looked to Fatty Ren for confirmation.

“I have not had personal experience with such marvelous scriptures from Friend Su yet,” Fatty Ren cast a hopeful look at Benton. “But Elder Kang Ya-Ting of the Poison Claw Sect has vouched for their quality. I was also able to examine a sword technique that was gifted to a Poison Claw Sect member. It was confirmed to be top heaven grade.”

Song Yongliang sank to the ground and kowtowed, his face literally touching the floor. “This lowly one apologizes for doubting the Esteemed Sect Leader.”

The young man’s three companions quickly followed suit.

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“So,” Benton said, “I take it that you four are interesting in joining my sect?”

Fatty Ren hadn’t been so happy in quite some time. As a soon to be new member of the Rising Tide Sect, he would have a genuine elder, the sect leader no less, to lean on for decisions. Running the town for the last twenty years had been so stressful, and Fatty Ren had never felt comfortable asking any of the important elders back in Sixth Flawless Flowing City for assistance as they were always so busy and probably had more significant issues to deal with the whatever problem he was concerned about.

When Sect Leader Chao Su had breezed into town and exposed the corruption of the former town manager, Fatty Ren had felt so bad. His citizens had suffered because he hadn’t done his job correctly. He really should have asked for help.

That moment had been something of a turning point for him. Since then, he’d been much more involved in the actual governance of the town, and hearing the townspeople cheer for him when he killed spirit beasts had been really nice.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel out of his depth.

In comparison to those old elders in the city, Sect Leader Chao Su felt approachable, more like a kind friend than an important man who was too busy to talk to anyone. Granted, the sect leader was definitely an important and busy person, but Fatty Ren still felt like it was okay to ask for advice.

It was with some trepidation, however, that he agreed to take on the responsibilities for running a branch of the sect as well. He made sure that his former and current sect brothers and sister would join at that same time. If there was anyone in the world he trusted, it was those four. They’d all gone through so much together. And they were all very competent.

If any of them had reached Foundation Establishment instead of him, he was sure they’d already be at Golden Core, and the town would have thrived under their leadership. He should have appointed one of them town manager instead of that scummy merchant. It was just that, at the time, all of them had been so focused on trying to get their cultivation healed.

Well, that problem was hopefully resolved. Not immediately, of course, but Fatty Ren trusted Sect Leader Chao Su when he said that cultivating the method he’d gifted would fix the issue right up. In a couple of years, their souls would be right as rain once more, and they could all proceed to Foundation Establishment.

Yay! He was so happy that had worked out.

He was also quite glad that the four had apologized so strenuously to Sect Leader Chao Su. For a few moments there, Fatty Ren had feared the whole situation was going to turn out really poorly. It had been so much of a relief when the four had completely given up their suspicions.

“Great,” Sect Leader Chao Su said. “I plan to get you inducted into the sect before I leave today, but first there’s some business to discuss, namely what I need you to do in the immediate future to further my goals and the goals of the sect.”

His first instruction was to reiterate the mission he’d given to Fatty Ren—inducting two hundred members into the sect before the end of the month, regardless of talent. The sect leader followed that message with a directive to begin recruitment with the members of the orphanage. The unfathomable thing about that directive was that he also provided a list of those under the age of fourteen who were able to already begin cultivation.

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Fatty Ren had so many questions. How did the sect leader know which kids could cultivate? Did he test every single one of them just in case? Why? Since he had specifically said he didn’t care about talent level, why not just choose the ones that were fourteen or above instead?

Before Fatty Ren was able to decide if he should voice those questions or not, the second instruction was being delivered. He was to travel to the village two days hence to attempt a trial to break through his bottleneck. Apparently, the pagoda only allowed one attempt per day, and the slots for both today and tomorrow were already filled.

“It’s a long journey to the village,” Sect Leader Chao Su said. “Leave as soon as you’re able in order to make it in time, preferably before nightfall.”

“That’s not necessary, Friend Su. That journey should take only a matter of hours for me. I am, after all, at the peak of Foundation Establishment.”

The sect leader looked genuinely surprised at the news, which was awesome. It felt pretty good to be the one shocking him for a change!

The third instruction was much more problematic. Apparently, there had been some conflict with the Jade Chameleon Sect, and anyone from that sect was to be considered Rising Tide’s sworn enemies. The Poison Claw Sect, at least, was still a close friend, and for the moment, Swift Blizzard was neutral. Sect Leader Chao Su directed them to be very careful if encountering any members of the enemy sect.

“Should we seek to make moves against the against any Jade Chameleons we encounter, Friend Su?”

Sect Leader Chao Su’s answer to that question had led to the fourth instruction. They should keep their membership in the Rising Tide Sect on the down low for the time being. From context, Fatty Ren determined that the odd phrase meant that they shouldn’t advertise their new affiliation, which was a very odd thing to hear from a sect leader.

When Fatty Ren made his confusion known, Sect Leader Chao Su said, “I understand. I wish we could be out in the open about all this, and eventually, we will be. At the moment, though, I want all our enemy’s attention focused solely on me. I want the five of you to be safe. The fewer targets they have, the better.”

Fatty Ren was almost positive that the leadership of the Righteous Rain Sect had never given a single thought about the safety of its members. From the start, it appeared that his new sect would be much different from his old one.

That feeling was cemented when Sect Leader Chao Su said. “I probably should leave you with some additional resources just in case they’re needed for anything.”

He grimaced for a moment, and then his eyes started darting around at nothing in particular. Once they’d stilled again, he began producing spirit coins in his hand. He gave eleven to Fatty Ren and began making more.

Fatty Ren examined them. They were all infused with Gluttony aspected qi. All eleven of them! One held ten thousand qi and the others a thousand each.

By the time he’d gotten over his shock enough to speak, Sect Leader Chao Su had handed stacks of six coins to Fatty Ren’s sect brothers and sister. Each stack held one ten thousand qi coin and five one thousand qi coins. The three Water aspected cultivators had received coins of that element, and the final one, Su Cai, had also received coins matching his qi aspect, Lightning.

It was not beyond the realm of possibility for a single cultivator to produce spirit coins infused with three different qi aspects, but to be able to produce the exact three that corresponded to the cultivators one was gifting the coins to was unfathomable. There was no way Sect Leader Chao Su somehow used Gluttony, Water, and Lightning as his elements. Fatty Ren had never even met anyone else who used his element, and Lightning, though common in terms of a secondary element, was still relatively scarce as well.

“That’s about it,” Sect Leader Chao Su said. “I really want to get back to the village as soon as possible since I left the sect members there in a hurry. They need to hear about what’s happened since. I also need to pick up some more buildings from the old sect site. Any issue with me doing that?”

Fatty Ren cupped his hands. “Take whatever you need, Sect Leader.”

Sect Leader Chao Su smiled. “Gratitude. I’ll take you up on that this time. After all, you can basically request anything you need from me as my branch sect leader.” He paused. “There’s just one more thing we need to take care of before I induct you five into the sect—do you have guards who can watch over you while you’re incapacitated?”

“Incapacitated, Friend Su?”

The sect leader grinned. “Something is going to happen as soon as you accept the invitation to join my sect that has the potential to be a great benefit to you. At the same time, accepting that benefit will cause you so much pain that you’ll be out of commission for about half a day. I definitely recommend trustworthy guards.”

The five of them looked at each other.

“Can you explain more about this benefit, Friend Su?”

“Not without spoiling the surprise.”

Fatty Ren was pretty sure that the sect leader’s response meant there was no way to pry any more information out of him, so a squad of palace guards were sent for and, when they arrived, given instructions to stand guard for at least twelve hours.

As soon as protection was arranged, Sect Leader Chao Su had the five of them spread out and make themselves comfortable. He then made a speech that culminated in him declaring them new members of the Rising Tide Sect.

Literally the instant he declared them to be so, Fatty Ren felt something. A surety. An instinct. Something. He became absolutely positive that, if he wanted to, he could meditate and improve his spiritual roots by one minor rank.

Which of course made no sense. There were few ways to improve one’s spiritual roots, and none of them occurred randomly after a bit of meditation. On the other hand, he had never been so positive about anything in his life.

Finally, he realized that the improvement was the surprise that Sect Leader Chao Su had mentioned. Choosing to accept it would result in great pain for the next twelve hours, but that consideration was trivial. What were twelve hours of agony compared to a lifetime of benefit?

There was no choice involved.

Before he made that decision official and began meditating, however, Fatty Ren couldn’t help but think, “Who in the heavens have I gotten involved with?”

Improving spiritual roots as a benefit to joining a sect was not normal. Giving access to a Trials Pagoda that could overcome bottlenecks was not normal. Handing out top heaven grade cultivation methods and techniques was not normal.

He was positive that the next twenty years, if he survived that long, were sure to be more exciting than the last twenty.