The Sect Leader System-Chapter 312: Manual Learning

Benton felt conflicted as Zou Tian left the office. With him departing for the tournament—albeit with a long layover in Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town—the sect’s participation in the event became a lot more real. The decision to go had been left to the council, and Benton wouldn’t go back on his word to support their decision. But he still hated the risk they were all taking.

The danger wasn’t his only hesitation, though. The prospect of going head to head with members from other sects had really brought out the competitive spirit in his members, all for the honor of the Rising Tide Sect.

Honor? Hooey.

Their sect had so many cheats that he really felt their performance in the tournament didn’t matter a lick. The sect’s rise was inevitable as long as he could get safely past whatever coalition of forces aligned against him over the next few years. Honestly, since he had reached Nascent Soul and there were no Nihility realm cultivators on the continent, he was pretty sure that, if the currently neutral factions joined forces with his enemies, he’d still have nothing to worry about.

Not that such was his desire. He much preferred to keep a cordial relationship with his neighbors, especially those like the Poison Claw Sect who had stood by him to a much greater degree than he had expected. But he didn’t need any of them. How any of them reacted to the Rising Tide Sect’s showing at the tournament was completely irrelevant.

Still, he’d been a young man once and remembered how important his school winning the state championship had seemed back in high school, and he hadn’t even been one of the players! He really couldn’t fault the kids for being enthusiastic.

“I’ve not been to the Quinquennial Tournament,” Benton said to Yuan Yaozu. “What’s the level of competition like?”

His Nascent Soul disciple looked him over for a moment before answering. “Your real question is whether your juniors have a chance, right?”

Benton nodded.

“It’s tough, but you’ve got some advantages on your side,” the Nascent Soul said. “The twins are, frankly, scary. The combination of their natural talent and the quality of the scriptures you gave them is formidable. And Body Cultivation is a major plus, especially in the lower realms. I’m not saying either will win, necessarily, but the low Foundation Establishment division isn’t as tough as the one for the top of the realm. They should vie for a chance, which is more than can be said for the members of most small sects who have ever been invited.”

“Anyone else catch your eye?”

Yuan Yaozu hesitated. “Not really. Sorry. All your members, even the ones with poor spiritual roots, will end up being above average for their realm once they gain expertise with the Foundation Establishment realm techniques that you give them. The ones who reach Golden Core will likely excel. Right now, though, your techniques just haven’t had enough chance to give them the foundation needed to stand against the top tier of a major sect. It will be your members’ physical advantage versus the better talents of their opponents.”

Benton had basically figured as much.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Yuan Yaozu said. “Your Martial Pavilion is top notch. You’ve equipped them well for success. Your members will perform well enough to make the other sects take notice. I just doubt any besides the twins will be good enough to place in the top ten.”

Honestly, Benton could live with that result. The twins finishing well would help with morale, and who knew what would happen with Jin LiJuan. That scenario could end up with her losing in the first round or winning the whole thing.

He barely held back a laugh while imagining the reaction from everyone if she came out on top.

“What about crafting? Xun Wu is talented and has a lot of experience as a blacksmith. Shi Long is only an apprentice, but he’s a B rank.”

“Two and a half months,” Yuan Yaozu said.

The complete non sequitur threw Benton.

“That’s how long Xun Wu and Shi Long have been using a proper cultivator forge, mostly still with mortal metals. In contrast, their competition learned on that equipment and with cultivator metals.” Yuan Yaozu paused. “Then again, none of Xun Wu’s competition reached expert level as a blacksmith before becoming a cultivator. It’s really difficult to predict how he’ll perform as it might come down to the particular challenge. If it requires knowledge of fundamental techniques, he’ll excel. If it requires expertise with cultivator specific materials and equipment, he’ll probably struggle.”

Benton sighed. That explanation made entirely too much sense. “Formations are obviously a no. Last I heard, they’re not even planning on attending. What about Alchemy?”

“That quiet girl and her assistant will eventually make fine alchemists, but they’re not where they need to be. And I don’t think they’ll get there fast enough even using your Time dilation rooms.”

Benton really hadn’t expected the knowledgeable elder’s answers to be any different. “Really, that’s all fine. The kids will be a bit disappointed by not crushing all comers, but they’ll get over it. I appreciate your evaluation.”

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The two talked about various other subjects for a while before Yuan Yaozu excused himself, leaving Benton to mull over the discussion about the tournament.

His sect had advantages that others would consider ridiculous. The cultivation methods he created allowed his sect members to ease through the minor realms quicker and gain more power while doing so and also build a better foundation than any of their counterparts could dream of. His techniques likewise would simply make them better than anything their rivals had access to.

But.

Yuan Yaozu was right. Those advantages would really shine the higher in realm they reached. Even if Benton went on a spending spree giving new techniques to all his members and opening new Time dilation rooms for them, it would only help so much in the Qi Gathering realm.

Besides, he wasn’t blind to the strain using the rooms put Zou Tian and all the others who were accelerating their progress under. They were putting in a tremendous amount of work. He’d rather minimize the number of people who had to suffer under such harsh loads.

Not to mention that some of his sect members, like Wan Ai, vastly preferred learning by reading manuals rather than having knowledge crammed into their brains from a technique.

Wait.

“System, how many Shop Points do I currently have?”

Host has 697 Shop Points available.

Benton grinned. Ever since he became a Master Alchemist, he’d spent very few Shop Points. That there was a resource that was being severely underutilized.

“System, how much for a high quality manual on basic alchemy?”

A Basic Alchemy Manual may be purchased for 1 Shop Point.

At that answer, Benton laughed out loud, but he knew to test that the pricing held before he got too excited. He quickly asked the System about a number of manuals, from advanced blacksmithing to an encyclopedia of cultivation metals to Master Alchemy to basic martial arts training methods.

All were one Shop Point each. Even better, the initial purchase cost him but making copies didn’t. A grin stretched across his face as he made his decision. By that afternoon, the sect’s library would be a lot fuller.

Zou Tian had only been a little jealous when Senior Sister had gone on and on about how cool it was to fly. His lack of response was partially because he knew she tended to be somewhat irrationally exuberant, so he figured she was probably exaggerating.

She hadn’t been.

Flying was absolutely amazing. Watching the trees blur past underneath him while the wind whipped past his face was an absolutely incredible experience. The only way he could describe it was exhilarating.

That being the case, he was on a mission, and he had work to do, beginning with making sure he wasn’t being observed. He pulsed his spiritual sense and didn’t detect anyone.

Using his sense wasn’t his only precaution, obviously. The first had been hiking far from the sect using Hide Presence the entire way before taking to the air, pulsing his spiritual sense often.

He was reasonably sure his departure hadn’t been detected.

Which left him to his next two objectives—ensuring that he wasn’t spotted either en route or upon arrival at Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town. He hoped to accomplish the first of those goals by not going anywhere near the path leading between the village and the town, instead looping all the around Eternal Celestial Peak—staying far on the opposite side of the valley from the mountain to avoid the expedition—before turning back to the northwest toward his destination. For the second, his plan was basically the reverse of leaving the sect—land far from town and infiltrate the wall while remaining stealthy.

It was difficult to determine the exact heading needed to reach the town or how far away he was, but he’d kept as good a track of time using the wristwatch that Master had invented. It was quite simply amazing, and Zou Tian was positive it would catch on fast if the devices were sold—absent the laser, of course.

With knowledge of how fast the glider flew and the relative distances involved, he knew when he drew relatively close to his destination. At that point, he began pulsing his spiritual sense frequently until he finally detected the unmistakable powerful presence of a Golden Core, Senior Brother Fatty Ren.

That information gave him the heading he needed, and given the relatively weak range of his new sense, he landed his glider almost immediately, as soon as he spotted an acceptably large gap in the tree cover below.

His trip to the town was not quick, but it was quiet. Between his technique and movements that he’d trained so diligently so as neither to make a sound nor leave a mark of his passage, no potential observer could possibly have discovered his presence.

Moving carefully required much patience, which was a trait Zou Tian possessed in great quantity. He just kept repeating a mantra that Master had said he’d read about one time, “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”

Which admittedly had confused Zou Tian at first. After a bit of experience, though, he relied quite heavily on the advice.

He’d landed at midmorning, but the sun was nearly set by the time he finally spotted the town wall. The lateness was fine, though. In fact, the later the better, so he settled in to wait until full night.

He employed one cheat that felt unsatisfying to him. His sect token would get him through the town’s defensive formation without triggering an alarm. There had been no time for training from Master on bypassing arrays, unfortunately.

The salve to how bad he felt about not using proper spycraft to infiltrate the wall was the fact that Sixth Flawless Flowing City didn’t have such protection, and Zou Tian was forbidden from attempting to enter any of the branch sects except for the allied Poison Claw’s.

Regardless, learning how to penetrate similar defenses was his current top priority before going on another mission.

When he finally moved from his hide position, darkness further hid his already almost invisible form, and fewer people on the streets meant less chance of someone accidentally hearing an inadvertent boot scratching a rough cobblestone or seeing a bit of errant light somehow reflecting off him.

Not that he was likely to make such amateur mistakes, of course, but a true spy eliminated as many potential errors as possible.

Of course, the problem with his caution was that he wouldn’t be able to find a room until the next day, which meant hiding in an alley until morning. That was fine, though. He’d done much worse for longer when he was younger.

Zou Tian wandered the town looking for a suitable spot that wasn’t likely to be distured. Once he found one, he settled in for another long wait.