The Sect Leader System-Chapter 283: As Expected

Benton had about a day and a half left before the morning of the auction arrived, and he’d accomplished all his major objectives. Which meant he was free to move onto minor ones.

He believed that the training sword he’d created to sell could end up being a tremendous boon for whatever faction ended up buying it, and he’d frankly be a horrible sect leader if he didn’t provide similar resources for his members.

Spears should be easy. To save money on building them, he’d forego the all-metal haft design and use Orange Vigor Spirit Wood, which had the dual benefits of being almost as good as metal and basically free for him. The woodworkers and former village alchemists had already cut and treated plenty of correctly sized branches just for that future purpose.

All Benton had to do was forge the spear tips and inscribe the formations. No problem. Ten of the practice weapons should be enough to get things started.

The sect’s other primary weapon was the bow. Two former villagers turned sect members were bowyers, and while the Qi Gathering realm archers were all still using weapons purchased from merchants, the craftsmen were already preparing for the day Benton would want to award new Foundation Establishment members with bows made from Orange Vigor Spirit Wood.

But there was a problem. As far as he knew, they’d only made three of them so far, having been concentrating on other general woodcrafting needs instead.

For an instant, he was tempted to spend the points necessary to become a Master Bowyer, but that expenditure seemed wasteful. While he enjoyed crafting, it was silly for him to take on literally every job. The sect could get by with three training bows for a while. He’d add more as soon as the raw versions became available.

The sect had branched out some from his original thought of everyone using both those weapons and only those weapons. Many of his members, especially the crafters, used a dagger, which made a ton of sense for the alchemists. And it also made sense for the blacksmiths to use a hammer.

Luckily, those were easy enough to forge. Since there were far fewer using daggers or hammers than spears or bows, he’d start with two training weapons each.

As soon as he came to that conclusion, though, a thought occurred to him. The crafters used them as both a weapon and a tool, and while he probably could cram teaching functions for both into a single device, it would be far easier to simply separate the two uses, meaning making eight total devices instead of four.

Finally, came his hardest choice—a sword. Currently, he only had one sect member training with it, but he had to believe others would come along eventually. Besides, Pan Jiang could also use it while he was at the sect.

Why not? Making one of them wouldn’t take up too much of his time.

Thus, Benton spent the next full day of objective time, some while accelerated and some while not, making training weapons and tools.

When finished, he almost Teleported directly into the Martial Pavilion to hand most of them over to Yang Ru, but he stopped himself. First of all, he really didn’t want to explain the purpose of the devices multiple times. Second and perhaps more importantly, he needed to treat the Rising Tide like a true sect, and in a true sect, the members were summoned to the sect leader. He didn’t go to them.

Which made sense to the part of Benton who’d spent most of his career as a middle manager back on Earth. Optics mattered. Once a company got large enough, the employees should see the CEO as a visionary leader, not some random guy who wanders around the building running errands.

He sent message dragons to Yang Ru, currently the sole head of the Martial Pavilion; Xun Wu, the expert blacksmith; Wan Ai, reluctant leader of the Alchemy Pavilion; Zou Tian, who used the dagger as his weapon of choice; and of course Sun Hua, the assistant sect leader.

Shortly after Benton teleported back to his office, the five joined him.

Benton removed one of each weapon type from his ring and placed them on a table. “These devices are something that will improve the rate of gaining Mastery with weapon and tool techniques. Each is inscribed with formations that allow it to sense when a basic movement is correct and guide the user appropriately.”

He looked out and saw blank looks on most of the faces, the exceptions being Xun Wu and Zou Tian who both looked thoughtful. More explanation was definitely needed.

Benton picked up the spear. “The basic moves for a spear are thrust, slash, block, and parry.” He demonstrated each one he named the action. “Since I perfectly executed the moves at a novice level, the spear didn’t react. When I do it incorrectly, however…”

He changed his hold on the haft so that his hands were out of position, and when he slowly thrust forward, he made sure to mess up his footwork. The tip went well askew of where it should have ended up. The spear fought him the entire way, trying to force him into the correct form.

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“Did you see how the spear jerked against me?” Benton said.

The others nodded.

“The idea is that novices practicing with it will get immediate input on whether they are executing the basic moves correctly and even be guided into the proper form. Note that the spear formations are not trying to teach a specific technique. The goal is simply to help novices master the basics. The effects of that mastery should be quite profound in speeding up learning their techniques.”

Xun Wu was the first to react by cupping his hands. “Gratitude for thinking of crafting separately, Sect Leader. Truly mastering the basic forms will be an immense benefit to my apprentices.”

Benton deposited the rest of the devices on the table. “Each of the Pavilion heads should take their respective weapons with them. Yang Ru, these are all the bows that were ready. Sun Hua, please get with Guang Yin and see if we can increase production.”

The ones addressed all hurried to note their understanding.

“If this works as well as I expect,” Benton said, “I’ll make another round for intermediate and later expert training. Please pay attention to the progress of your pavilion members and report back to Sun Hua in a week or two about the effectiveness. Any questions?”

There were none, and as he dismissed the group, he felt pretty good about the small boost the weapons were likely to provide to his sect. Every little bit helped.

Yang Ru called Huang Yimun, the guard captain; Hou Yazhu, the leader of the second guard team; and Zi Delan, the head of the attack squad into one of the private sparring rooms and explained the purpose of the new spears.

“I gave it a try, but it didn’t seem to work.” Yang Ru had honestly been a bit distracted during the demonstration. Kang Lin had definitely grown more distant lately, and he didn’t know what to do about it. “Maybe I did it wrong?”

“You’re probably too good at the basic moves since you’ve already mastered your skill,” Huang Yimun said. “It sounds like this is for beginners. Zi Delan, what’s your status?”

“Large Success, Senior Brother.”

Huang Yimun nodded. “It would be better to find someone at Small Success, but it’s worth a try.” He grabbed one of the spears and tossed it to the attack squad leader.

“Just go through the basic moves, Senior Brother?” Zi Delan said.

“Start with a thrust,” Huang Yimun said.

Zi Delan looked doubtful, but he did as instructed, stepping forward with his right foot and lunging the spear in front of him. The weapon jerked him to the side. “Whoa! Did you see that?”

“That’s because you—”

“Wait,” Huang Yimun said, cutting Yang Ru off. “Don’t tell him what he did wrong. The spear is supposed to correct him on its own. Keep trying.”

“Yes, Senior Brother.” Zi Delan lunged forward again but much slower, trying to avoid the jerk. It didn’t help. “The spear is pulling me to the left, which means it’s trying to tell me I’m going too far to the right.” He stepped forward and back again with his right foot but without using the spear. “I think my footwork was wrong?”

The next time he tried the thrust, the weapon still jerked but with noticeably less force.

“Yeah!” Zi Delan said. “I think I understand how this works. May this one have some time to practice with it, Senior Brothers?”

“Do it,” Yang Ru said. “Report back to me on your progress.”

With permission granted, the younger cultivator left, and Yang Ru turned to the two remaining pavilion members. “Want to spar? Two on one?”

Haung Yimun was nearly as skilled as Yang Ru as far as technique went but was no match for the Foundation Establishment cultivator in terms of power and speed. The addition of Hou Yazhu, who was not a naturally gifted fighter but who’d reached Mastery with his spear technique due to sheer time spent practicing, to the spar evened things out a lot.

The next couple of hours were good practice for all three of them.

“We should do that more often,” Yang Ru said when they finally halted.

“Agreed, Senior Brother,” Huang Yimun said. “Just have to find the time when we’re not cultivating or practicing our other techniques or instructing our juniors or carrying out the administrative responsibilities of our positions.”

“Agreed, but it’s important.”

“The tournament?” Huang Yimun said.

Yang Ru grunted.

Huang Yimun sighed. “I’ll shift some things around and find the time. Most of the guards are interested in participating. Which is good. There will definitely be plenty of need for them to protect the regular members during the tournament, but I wonder if it’s a good idea to leave the sect unprotected.”

Yang Ru almost snorted. The sect was protected by both Master’s formations and by a Nascent Soul cultivator. What exactly were a group of Qi Gathering realm guards supposed to do if a threat bypassed those two defenses? There was no need to disparage the man’s efforts, though.

“The sect leader will make that decision,” Yang Ru said instead.

Oh. Or maybe his sister would actually be the one to make the call given that she was leading the tournament preparations. He decided that there was no need to mention that fact.

“Zi Delan should have reported back,” Yang Ru said.

“Agreed, Senior Brother,” Huang Yimun said. “Let’s go find him.”

The search wasn’t difficult as it turned out the young cultivator had simply gone to the room next door, but when the three entered, Zi Delan didn’t even acknowledge them. He simply kept shifting the spear into a blocking position, muttering to himself, and repeating the action. Bemused, the seniors observed him for a while.

Eventually, their presence registered to the young man, who jumped and almost dropped his spear. “Senior Brothers! This one apologizes.”

Yang Ru wasn’t the slightest bit annoyed at Zi Delan’s not immediately greeting them. The junior cultivator was quite intelligent and somewhat diligent, but he had a hard time focusing on a task. The fact that he had apparently been practicing for hours on his own and was so engrossed that he hadn’t even realized he was no longer alone in the room was interesting.

“Report,” Yang Ru said.

“Give me a few more hours with this spear, Senior Brother,” Zi Delan said confidently, “and I’ll reach Mastery with my spear technique.”

Of all the words that Yang Ru might have expected to hear, those particular ones weren’t among them.

“I didn’t realize you were that close,” Huang Yimun said.

“I wasn’t, Senior Brother! This device is incredible for correcting my faults. It took about thirty to forty-five minutes to perfect my thrust, but once I did, my understanding of my spear technique increased greatly. Then, I proceeded to the slash, and the same thing happened. I am positive that, once I finish with the block and the parry, I’ll reach Mastery soon after.”

Yang Ru simply nodded. Such was to be expected from something produced by Master.