The Sect Leader System-Chapter 308: And Lightning

During the late morning hours, Benton’s spiritual sense finally detected a new presence in the sect—a Nascent Soul. Duan Lan had succeeded in her trial.

Considering the state of her pathways, Benton could only consider her advancement to be a miracle. System given treasures really were too good, giving a whole new definition to heavens defying.

Regardless of how much help she’d been given, congratulations were still in order, so he Teleported to her and cupped his hands. “Greetings, Elder Duan. Excuse me, I meant… Greetings, Revered Elder Duan. Kudos on your achievement!”

Startled for an instant at his sudden appearance outside the Trials Pagoda, she quickly regained her composure and bowed much lower than was necessary. “Sect Leader! This lowly one cannot adequately express my gratitude.”

“Nonsense. You did the work; you get the rewards.”

She laughed. “No amount of work would have given this lowly one the opportunity, though, Sect Leader.”

So far, Benton had found the old monsters from the Poison Claw Sect to be much nicer than he would have expected. The circumstances, of course, lent themselves to requiring grace, but both Yuan Yaozu and Duan Lan appeared genuinely grateful, a trait not always shared by cultivators in their position.

“I will graciously grant you permission to praise me, then,” Benton said with a smile.

She was taken aback momentarily by his tongue-in-cheek comment, but again, she quickly recovered, barking out a laugh. “Elder Kang Ya-Ting told me you were a character.”

“How was the trial? Any trouble?”

Duan Lan hesitated. “It was both easier and much, much more difficult than I imagined. The actual solution was simple and straightforward to implement. Getting past my own misconceptions to realize the solution wasn’t.”

That was a remarkably candid response. Even with his budding friendship with Yuan Yaozu, the man hadn’t been nearly so forthcoming. Instead, he remained quite cagey even to that day about his trial.

“Well, the fact that you passed is a credit to your sect,” Benton said. “All together, you’re three for three.”

Her face showed confusion, so he quickly added. “Kang Lin being the third, of course. She required no payment since she’s one of my disciples.”

“Ah. Of course.”

“What’s next for you? Hanging out here for a while as you consolidate your gains?”

She grimaced. “I’m afraid it’s back on the road with the caravan for me. It’s imperative that my advancement be hidden, necessitating the subterfuge, but the sect leadership also wants me back as soon as possible, meaning I should leave quickly. Today.”

Yikes, it sucked for her that she’d be riding excruciatingly slowly in a wagon for so long. He shuddered at the memory of having to do the same. He understood, however, that secrecy was important.

Unfortunately, there was simply no way to guarantee that someone from an opposing faction wouldn’t spot her if she flew. If the revelation that the Poison Claw Sect had advanced another elder to Nascent Soul got out before they were ready, the ramifications would likely be quite unpleasant.

Of course, even traveling as a pretend mortal was not one hundred percent assured to be safe. If only he knew someone who was a cheating cheater who cheats…

“I can Teleport you there if you prefer,” Benton said. “You could be in Kang Ya-Ting’s office seconds from now instead of weeks.”

For the third or fourth time in their short conversation, he’d obviously surprised her.

“You’d do that?” she said. “For what cost?”

“Honestly, it’s no bother, and I have business with Kang Ya-Ting. Bringing you along for the ride only requires a trivial amount of excess qi.”

Duan Lan looked very conflicted, her desire to get back to her sect as quickly as possible warring with the wisdom of putting herself further in his debt. She sighed. “You’ve done so much already that I can never truly repay. One more favor feels small in comparison.”

“Great.”

Before he could whisk her away, however, he performed a quick sweep with his spiritual sense, which revealed one of his message dragons inbound.

He held up a hand. “Just a second.”

A moment later, the dragon appeared. He grabbed it and, after determining it was from Jin LiJuan, quickly skimmed the note, chuckling as he finished.

When he looked up, Duan Lan had her eyebrows raised.

“One of my disciples requests advice.”

“I can wait if you need to take care of that.”

“Nah. I need to address it, but it’s nothing that can’t hold for a while. I’ve actually been wondering when the situation would occur. Her choice should be interesting.”

Stolen novel; please report.

She nodded, obviously not knowing how to react to the cryptic statement.

“Ready to go?” he said.

She was, and a moment later they stood in the office of a somewhat surprised and perplexed Kang Ya-Ting.

***

Kang Lin deflected an arrow from the air with the haft of her spear, and the strike hadn’t been luck. Well, not completely luck. Even someone as talented as Yang Xiu developed tendencies.

According to Grandfather, it took years and years of constant work for a martial artist to divest themselves from natural inclinations and make their movements wholly unpredictable. For all her heavens-gifted skill, Yang Xiu hadn’t put in nearly enough hours of training to reach that level of expertise.

Kang Lin spun, dodging another arrow, and used the momentum to position herself perfectly. Thrust. Strike.

Win.

She sank to the floor as she tried to catch her breath. It took everything she had and then some to eke out a victory.

Yang Xiu was simply too good. Too talented.

“Good job, Sister,” she said.

Kang Lin couldn’t compete. Sure, she’d held her ground up to that point, winning one in four spars, maybe one in five. No more than one in three. The future, though, was full of Time dilation rooms and ridiculous treasures and ascension through the realms that no one outside of an absolute genius could match.

She sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Yang Xiu said.

“Do you realize how absolutely absurd Master and your whole Rising Tide Sect are?”

Clearly, she didn’t.

“The Poison Claw Sect has been in existence for over a thousand years, right? You know how Master is always saying that anything can happen?”

Yang Xiu grinned.

“In the entire history of the sect,” Kang Lin said, “two times have extraordinary events taken place. Two. Here, it’s two a week, sometimes even two a day.

“Qi sources and Time dilation rooms. Flying devices for Foundation Establishment members. A Trials Pagoda. One of your weakest, most junior members suddenly bonded a beast with one hundred percent efficiency and jumped an entire major realm in a matter of weeks. Everything, and I do mean everything, is top heaven grade. If Master created—you heard me right, created—a technique for mucking out outhouses, it would be top heaven grade. Qi Gathering cultivators do not face rank four beasts. Foundation Establishment cultivators don’t kill rank six beasts on their own. Weapons cannot somehow convert any qi input into the blade to a different type. Every pill produced cannot be one hundred percent pure.

“Nothing is normal about this sect. It’s gotten to the point where I’d literally believe anything. If someone like … Jin LiJuan. Yeah, Jin LiJuan. We’re not expecting her to even qualify for the tournament, right? Well, if she somehow suddenly catapulted to the peak of Foundation Establishment and ended up winning the entire Quinquennial Tournament, I’d be like, ‘Yeah. Sure. That makes sense. She’s a member of the Rising Tide Sect.’

“And don’t even get me started on you and your brother. A-ranked talents. With your genius and the opportunity given to you by your sect… You’ll both be Nascent Souls in a week or two with those stupid time chambers. All I can do is sit back and be grateful that I got to witness the beginning of two legends.”

Kang Lin only stopped her rant because she was running out of breath after the spar.

“You’re miserable,” Yang Xiu said quickly. “Yang Ru is miserable. Why can’t the two of you just get married? And I still don’t know why you’re leaving after the tournament. I don’t want you to go.”

“You know why I can’t! And you know why I have to leave!”

Yang Xiu muttered something, but Kang Lin wasn’t about to ask what had been said. She didn’t want to know as both her stubbornness and intelligence had already been questioned quite enough lately.

“Master said he would—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kang Lin said through clenched teeth. “I’ve made up my mind. There has to be someone out there better than me for him.”

Yang Xiu huffed, but she didn’t respond. They settled into an awkward, aggravated silence until one of Master’s blue message dragons flitted into the room.

“That’s another thing,” Kang Lin said as the origami hovered above her. “In a normal sect, message devices don’t Teleport through walls!”

The paper unfolded at a touch, and she quickly read the short note. She was to go to Master’s office immediately.

Just because she was in a bad mood didn’t mean she could ignore a summons. Grandfather had taught her better than that.

She let out a sharp breath. “I’ve got to go.”

“Fine. See you later.”

Kang Lin stomped down the stairs, over to the Administrative Hall, and up yet more stairs before arriving at Master’s door.

That was one ordinary thing about the sect, at least. They used stairs just like everyone else. Of course, if she pointed that out to Master, he’d probably replace them with some kind of ridiculous Teleportation formations.

After knocking, she opened the door and found not just Master but Grandfather.

Oh crap. Was she in trouble? What had she done? She knew her attitude hadn’t been the best lately, but surely she’d controlled herself around Master, at least.

“Kang Lin, come in, please,” Master said.

As she entered, her grandfather called out. “Greetings, Granddaughter.”

She didn’t possess the wherewithal to respond to either of them since she was so busy trying to recall anything that they could be mad at her about. Of course, neither of them looked particularly angry.

“Your grandfather and I have a surprise for you.”

A surprise was good. She was almost positive Master wouldn’t have used that terminology for a punishment. Not that he was above teasing, of course, but he was never mean spirited about it.

“Ready to see what it is?”

“Yes, Master.”

“C’mon, then, let’s Teleport.”

An instant later, the three of them stood inside one of the Rising Tide Sect’s pavillions. The new Time dilation one if she was correct.

No. They didn’t! He couldn’t have.

“Your grandfather and I both contributed materials for the construction of a qi source. Welcome to the new Time Dilation Lightning Room!”

He did. They did.

“Master… Grandfather… You did this for me?”

“Well, there is Fatty Ren’s Junior Brother. He’s Lightning aspected. And a member of my sect. And of course Elder Kang has a great deal of respect for … what was his name … Su Cai! Yes, Su Cai.”

“You … did this for him? Both of you?” She knew that didn’t make any sense, but her day had been trying already. Master was sometimes difficult to comprehend.

“To tell you the truth, I’d totally forgotten that guy used Lightning until just a second ago, and I’m almost positive your grandfather has never even met him. Of course we did this for you!”

Kang Lin didn’t know what to say, and she was pretty sure she couldn’t have spoken even if she wanted to. She was that choked up.

Master and her grandfather had made a Time dilation room just for her. She knew better than almost all the Rising Tide Sect members how expensive those materials were. And Master had to make all the Time aspected greater spirit coins by hand to feed the formations, too.

There was absolutely nothing special about her. Nothing that warranted such treatment.

That the two of them cared for her so much to put forth so much effort was beyond extraordinary. She had never been so completely flabbergasted in her life. Her emotions were so conflicted.

Warmth from the caring they obviously felt for her. Pride that anyone thought she was worth such a treasure. Heavy due to the weight of those expectations pressing down on her.

Most of all, concerned. The gift would make leaving the sect after the tournament so much more difficult.