BWFoster78

Chapter 282 - Advice

Chapter 281 – Worries, Leadership, Rewards, and Gratitude

Chapter 280 – The Problem with Delegating

Benton had a nice vacation watching the kiddos playing with the spirit beasts. He loved that the older ones had really focused on making sure that Jin LiJuan got the most out of the trip and decided that the three of them needed to be rewarded for their kindness and consideration.

He also liked that Yang Ru seemed to have come up with a new use for one of his techniques, one that should suit him well for the upcoming tournament. Yang Xiu, on the other hand, seemed a bit more stagnate. B...

Chapter 279 – Depths of Shadow

Zou Tian hesitated before he stepped into the Trial Pagoda, still feeling worried about what would happen. One possibility was greatly positive—he’d be given a trial, and he’d pass it. Two possibilities were as greatly negative. Either he’d be given a trial and fail or the pagoda would determine that his requested modification did not meet the criteria for offered upgrades.

Basically, he had a one in three chance of a good outcome.

The problem was that so much rode on that...

Chapter 278 – Competitive Advantage

Yang Xiu was having a bit of trouble with the rank four beast she was fighting, an armadillo. More like an armor-dillo. The thing was encased in a thick, qi-enhanced bone shell that her arrowheads simply could not penetrate. Even its eyes were armored, and while not fast, it was quick enough to be able to move its head so that her shots hit the armored eyelids instead of the eyes as she intended.

Obviously, she could have used any of the arrows Master had created for her to solve the si...

Chapter 277 – Creepy Crawlies

Zou Tian sighed. In the five days since the expedition had departed, he’d been hard at work preparing for his eventual mission. Cultivating. Working on his Shadow Perception technique. Getting his knowledge of spycraft to Small Success. Sparring with his dagger.

Everything but entering the Trial Pagoda.

Brother Peng Zhen had given Zou Tian permission to use it any day he wanted. He just needed to run by the Contribution Points Shop first thing in the morning and make the reserva...

Chapter 276 – Success!

Fresh off a new round of cheating, Benton obviously needed to try out his new technique. He elevated high over the peak so that he could see the entire mountain at once, and triggering an old school memory of the Wonder Twins from the Superfriends, kind of, he said internally, “Detect Treasure activate. Form of a … Ice aspected beast core, rank ten or higher.”

He waited a moment, staring at what he imagined as specks of light representing qi below him. They were so numero...

Chapter 275 – Love Being a Cultivator

Benton had confidence that one pressing issue had been resolved. Having come to an agreement with the Lord and Protector of the mountain, a rank fourteen thunderbird, he didn’t think he’d have any problems with being attacked by anything more powerful than him.

Which meant he could focus on finding the materials that he required in order to make qi sources. In theory, such materials, being rich in qi, would stand out to his spiritual sense. And in reality, they probably did.

T...

Chapter 274 – It’s a Ford. It’s an Acrobatic US Air Force Squadron. It’s a …

Benton felt good about leaving the kids behind. If it were just Yang Xiu or Jin LiJuan, he’d have been a little worried, but Yang Ru and Kang Lin had good heads on their shoulders. Besides, the four Foundation Establishment cultivators plus Ganzou represented a nice little fighting force, definitely head and shoulders above anything they’d be likely to encounter short of the mountain.

With that worry dismissed, Benton turned his attention to the rapidly approaching peak and extended...

Chapter 273 – Refusing an Invitation

Zou Tian had come to a difficult decision. He’d been invited to go on an expedition to the mountain, and he wanted to accept. The opportunity was a great one for many reasons, like being able to practice Hide Presence against beasts of a higher realm and serving the sect by scouting for the other members. Both activities would give him good, practical experience in areas that he intended to perfect in coming years.

Unfortunately, Zou Tian would have to refuse. He simply had too much t...

Chapter 272 – Punching Up

5/29/25 A/N: With this chapter, I finally, finally, finally caught up. I hate getting behind, and it took me a lot longer to get back on track than I hoped. On the plus side, I got there! My goal is to get a few chapters ahead to give me a little wiggle room. Wish me luck!

Benton re-activated his Time Aura. He didn’t have long before the kids were ready to depart for the expedition to the mountains, and he didn’t want to delay them. Before they arrived, he needed to check his gains ...

Chapter 271 – Time after Time

As soon as everyone exited Benton’s office, he got right to work. He’d given himself a week to get everything on his list accomplished, which would have been impossible without his ability to manipulate time. With his new Aura, though…

Well, he had no idea. It all depended on how long certain elements took and if he got sidetracked and various other unknowns. He might finish with days to spare or seconds from his self-imposed deadline.

The first item on the list was rebuildi...

Chapter 270 – Who Stays and Who Goes?

Zou Tian walked into the Alchemy Pavilion and climbed the stairs leading up to Wan Ai’s private lab with all the enthusiasm of a man going to his execution. And for all he knew, he metaphorically was doing just that.

When he arrived at his destination, however, his girlfriend wasn’t there. Which was weird. She spent over ninety percent of her time in that room, using it for eating, cultivating, and practicing alchemy.

A bit worried that something was wrong, he searched the bui...

Chapter 269 – The True Cause of Great Trepidation

Zou Tian was curious about why Master had asked him to stay behind, but he wasn’t concerned. As a street rat working as a lookout for gangs back in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, a meeting with the boss was more likely than not a bad thing. It usually meant that he thought Zou Tian had done something wrong, be it missing something he should have observed or being lazy or stealing something or whatever other paranoic suspicion happened to pass through the guy’s miniscule brain.

The sec...

Chapter 268 – Never Again

Benton was both worried and gladdened by the choice his council had made. They had chosen the path of danger, which came with obvious risks, but he felt like none of them were going into the situation blindly or taking the danger for granted. Instead, they’d given the matter consideration and decided that the gains were worth the potential price.

Of course, young people tended to think themselves invulnerable—sometimes old fools did, too, as he’d recently found out—making them p...

Chapter 267 - Determination

As soon as Benton dropped the news about the invitation to the tournament, Yang Xiu’s face lit up like one of his kids back on Earth finding their stack of presents on Christmas morning. The faces of the other council members definitely showed interest, but none held the sheer joy of hers. He couldn’t help but grin at seeing her so excited.

“You apparently appreciate the news,” Benton said. “Want to explain why?”

“Every cultivation novel I’ve ever read has a tourna...

Chapter 266 – Should I Stay, or Should I Go?

The first thing Benton did upon teleporting back to his office was to send out messages to his entire council calling for a meeting in three hours. As it was shortly after lunch, that would give everyone enough time to settle whatever they were working on, attend the meeting, and finish up in time for dinner.

His second action was to send an additional message to Yuan Yaozu, asking the Nascent Soul to come to the Administration Hall as quickly as possible. The man quickly complied, and ...

Chapter 265 – Trouble Brewing and Deal Making

Benton received an interesting message, the shortest one he’d gotten yet. It simply asked him if he would teleport to Kang Ya-Ting’s study at noon the following day for a quick meeting.

That was it. No context. There should have been some explanation as to the purpose of the summons, right?

The paper sent had been one commonly used by the Poison Claw Sect, not one of Benton’s. Maybe that fact had something to do with the terseness.

Oh well.

Benton quickly sent a ...

Chapter 264 - Lure

Teng Wuying was on his way to a meeting with the leader of the Swift Blizzard branch sect in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, Mao Biya, when he saw that Poison Claw Sect brat who was discipled to Chao Su fly overhead. The device she rode was actually quite fascinating. Not the construction or function but rather what it represented.

Chao Su actually cared for his whelps. Why else would he go through the effort of creating such a thing?

Teng Wuying couldn’t believe he hadn’t realiz...

Chapter 263 – Testing

Benton had spent nearly a week in subjective time forging the twenty-five blades. In real time, less than a day had passed, meaning it was early morning of the next day. He had to admit that his Aura definitely saved Time.

Ugh.

Oh well. That one wasn’t even funny to him. Too on the nose. That was the thing about trying to be funny, though—no one succeeded with every joke.

Anyway, once he finished creating trade goods, his goal was to rebuild the towers before heading to ...

Chapter 262 – Swords!

Benton absolutely loved Kang Lin’s reactions. The twins and the rest of his kids just didn’t have enough knowledge to know how crazy some of the things he provided them were. She, on the other hand, was very aware of the items unusual nature and acted accordingly in the most amusing ways.

The look on her face when she realized just how valuable that sword was!

He chuckled. Really, he had no other use for the thing. Sure, he could have gotten a few spirit coins had he sold it, ...

Chapter 261 – Incredible Generosity

Kang Lin reminisced as she flew on her glider, as Master called it. She still enjoyed the experience of flying, but with her Foundation Establishment level body control and reflexes, simply staying over the trees as she made her way to Sixth Flawless Flowing City didn’t require much of her attention. The easy flight was nothing like playing what Yang Xiu called sky tag.

Now that make Kang Lin concentrate solely on flying.

As it was, though, her mind wandered. First, she consider...

Chapter 260 – Pedal to the Metal

With all the pills he needed for the immediate future created, Benton turned his attention to creating the qi sources. He wanted to make one for each of six elements—Fire, Ice, Momentum, Nature, Shadow, and Time. And each required three separate types of materials—beast, plant, and mineral.

Eighteen materials total.

He currently had in his possession three of the eighteen—the Fire aspected core from the Cyclops, the Fire stones Kang Ya-Ting traded, and Nature kernels from th...

Chapter 259 – I Got Pills, They’re Multiplying

Benton enjoyed his encounters with Kang Ya-Ting. The man was a cultivator elder through and through, always working the angles and trying to find advantages for himself, his family, and his sect. Typically, that trait would be one that Benton could understand but not really respect.

The way Kang Ya-Ting went about it was refreshing, though, bringing a level of openness to their dealings. Benton couldn’t help but wonder if the man was just less inclined to be sneaky than others in his ...

Chapter 258 – Taking Advice, Making the Right Choice, and Arranging Trades

Benton enjoyed his time spent with the members of the Formations Pavilion.

Just like with all his other members, they needed to reach Foundation Establishment to truly begin creating useful arrays, so it would be a long time before any of them were of great use to the sect. That fact didn’t mean that leaving them to their own devices was a great idea.

In fact, their time spent in self-study had definitely been counterproductive. Not only had they not advanced their main knowledg...

Chapter 257 - Changes

Xiang Da’s life had changed a lot over the last four months. Born to farmers in a small village in the middle of nowhere, he’d always been realistic about his chances of achieving greatness, as in he knew he had exactly zero chance. Not that he’d been unhappy. He had a wife and children and the prosect of a grandchild in the near future.

Like everyone else in the village, he’d been fearful about what the fall of the Righteous Rain Sect meant for them, and they had all been prove...

Chapter 256 – Sending a Message

Benton handed Jin LiJuan a jade slip with her new cultivation method.

She cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Master.”

“The next issue is what to do about techniques.” He sighed. “I’d really prefer you got both your current ones to Large Success before giving you any more, but we need more information about how the fact that you don’t have a qi aspect will affect things.”

She stared at him, curiosity evident on her face.

“For cultivation methods and Qi Gath...

Chapter 255 – Preparations for Departure

Since Benton made his decision to reset his morals back to Earth normal, he felt a lot better about things. No more wanton killing. That step would be one he’d take only if there were no other choice. He also felt good about his enhanced ability to defend his sect members no matter what his enemies brought against him.

Without a pressing need to exact more vengeance on the Jade Chameleons and having his main To Do item—increasing his power and the sect’s defenses by advancing to N...

Chapter 254 - Reset

Benton almost laughed at Yuan Yaozu’s expression. The man had probably just pieced together the fact that his newly advanced master somehow had Aura at Mastery already.

That right there was almost worth the cost of making Yuan Yaozu a disciple.

Almost but not really. Benton winced a bit at the cost of supplying that personalized cultivation method—eighty Sect Points. Eighty! Ouch. Added to the five hundred it had cost to get the man to Nascent Soul in the first place, and the ...

Chapter 253 – Shoot for the Moon?

Yuan Yaozu was having a hard time thinking straight. He’d lived for almost a thousand years and thought he’d seen it all. Sitting in the sand of an arena, he realized there was much more to the world, including the man in the meditative pose next to him, his new master Chao Su. The fact that the man was so beyond comprehension was not an easy revelation to adjust to.

The sect leader had so far demonstrated five impossibilities. First, the Trial Pagoda. Its ability to facilitate the ...