Chapter 160a – Arc 1 Epilogue

12/17/24 A/N: Okay, this is kind of a weird way of doing things, but I'm combining three of what would be chapters in a novel into a single post. The first is this epilogue, which is almost long enough to stand alone. The second, though, is a table that hopefully you can bookmark and come back to if you forget who someone is? And the third is the prologue for the next arc, and it's a bit on the short side. So I decided to post them all separately because that's the way they would be in a book, but since they're the same post, I labeled them a, b, and c. Hope that works for everyone.

He shook his head again. Cultivators.

Wan Ai and the three Foundation Establishment level cultivators all looked to have come through the experience just fine, but the low to mid ranks appeared to be absolutely wiped. It was nearing noon of the next day, and they hadn’t had any good rest for a while. He sent everyone back to the village with street food from his ring and instructions to eat quickly and go to sleep.

After the arena cleared out, Benton remained behind, directing his attention to his To Do list. With the beast tide complete, there was little danger remaining. It would be a while, months probably, before even rank ones started returning to the area. Most of the sect members could fight such a beast one on one. By the time beasts became a threat, the wall would be finished, and his sect would be even bigger and his members more powerful.

All of those factors meant there was nothing preventing him from moving the sect to the grounds. He just had to start placing buildings. That was one task for him.

His other major goal was to get to Nascent Soul. The fight against the rank ten beast had been an eye opener. Benton was very powerful for his realm, but auras were no joke. A strong enough opponent could end him and everything he was trying to build.

He needed to get his sect to one thousand members quickly. That was his second task.

There were other smaller goals that needed accomplishing, and he would work on those as they came up. For the moment, though, it was good to keep his eyes on what the most important priorities were.

It was time to increase the number of sect members by adding another fifty. The mayor was indisposed having just improved his spiritual roots, but he and Benton had worked out lists many, many inductions in advance. Everyone knew exactly when their turn was, so Benton only had to return to the village and find one of the mayor’s still mortal administrators to get the word around.

Soon, he completed the ceremony, and as expected, each of the new sect members had received the option to increase their spiritual roots as well. And also as expected, each of them had chosen to do so.

Cultivators!

Benton didn’t know what the future would bring. He was positive there would be new dangers and new challenges. Overall, though, he couldn’t think of a better group of people to have standing next to him as he faced all that was to come.

They were his new family. Obviously, no one could replace Evelyn or his children or his grandchildren, but he was … happy.

He pulled up his status.