Benton had never seen a more nervous group than the actors he’d summoned to et with him. With all the bowing and “this lowly one” and kowtowing, they behaved like he might strike them down at any second.
He scanned the leader.
Na:Wen DuyiAffiliation:Golden Heavenly Third Core Acting TroupeAge:21Cultivation:NoneTechniques:NoneSpiritual Roots:F Qi Aspect:Embrace of deception, willingness to bend
The kid’s spiritual roots were nothing to get excited about, but wow, Deception was an interesting aspect. Benton would have been darn skeptical about the kid’s scruples if he wasn’t an actor. As it was, though, the aspect and the profession couldn’t have been more closely aligned.
The other mbers of the troupe, three won and four more n all in their late teens to early twenties, were all exactly what Benton expected, possessing roots mostly in the F range. The highest was an E-.
Their aspects were more interesting. While four of them possessed simple variations of common elents, two had Illusion and one Disguise. So, out of eight people, half had aspects featuring uncommon sub-elents or ones that Benton hadn’t previously seen.
If he’d happened on a random group the sa size as the troupe, he would have expected, at most, one of them to have an unusual aspect, and he wouldn’t have been at all surprised if none of them did. Two would have gone against the odds. Four was just crazy.
Back on Earth, certain types of people were drawn to acting as a profession, and Benton doubted tendencies in that regard were any different on his new planet. He took the result as more confirmation that aspects affected personality.
With all the kowtowing, the troupe barely had ti to introduce themselves before Sun Hua ca in to serve tea.
Once everyone was seated with a cup, Benton spoke. “Welco to the Rising Tide Sect. I am Sect Leader Chao Su.”
The actors kowtowed to him yet again, and he had to wait for them to rise before continuing.
He cupped his hands. “First of all, gratitude for coming all this way. The trip was long, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
The troupe appeared stunned that the mighty cultivator would express either appreciation or sympathy for what they went through.
“As to why I requested that Elder Kang Ya-Ting approach your troupe, I have a project that requires cultivators with acting experience.”
They all glanced at each other, their expressions confused.
“Apologies for any misunderstanding, Sect Leader,” Wen Duyi said, “but we’re not cultivators."
Benton smiled. “Tell , is it easier to find a cultivator who is an actor or to find actors and make them into cultivators? You are experienced thespians, are you not?”
The light of realization dawned in their eyes, but they still appeared sowhat apprehensive. Which Benton understood. It wasn’t every day that a sect leader summoned soone with such an offer.
“To be clear, none of you have much talent in terms of your spiritual roots, all Es and Fs, not even close to what is required to join most sects.”
His announcent, obviously, did nothing to alleviate their trepidation, but he thought it was important to be transparent.
“Again, though, that’s fine,” Benton said. “All I need are Foundation Establishnt realm cultivators, and I can get you to that level without an issue, even with your relatively poor roots.”
“Esteed Sect Leader,” Wen Duyi said, cupping his hands, “this lowly one doesn’t understand. No sect would expend the resources necessary to raise such untalented mbers to Foundation Establishnt. What project could be so important to justify such an act? What are the risks? Will the lives of these lowly ones be in danger?”
Benton chuckled. The kid had a spine. Good.
“It’s easier to show you than to tell you.” Benton Teleported the entire group to an unused room on the top level of the Martial Pavilion.
After the troupe got over—for values of getting over—the surprise at suddenly being in a completely different room, Wen Duyi said, “Was that … Teleportation, Esteed Sect Leader?”
“It was. You have knowledge of cultivators?”
If anything, the kid appeared even more cowed than before, his eyes wide and face pale. “This lowly one’s plays sotis feature cultivators, Esteed Sect Leader. Teleportation is … unusual.”
“True enough. If you accept my offer, you’ll just have to get used to the unusual, though. We do that kind of thing a lot here. Even my disciple, Yuan Yaozu, a Nascent Soul from the Poison Claw Sect, finds my actions … unusual.”
The kid’s face sohow beca even paler. “N-nascent Soul d-disciple, Esteed Sect Leader?”
Wen Duyi was quickly becoming one of Benton’s favorite people on the planet. Knowledge of what should be possible combined with unreserved expressions when norms were broken were a fantastic blend, and the kid possessed both in spades.
Benton employed his go-to thod of dealing with reactions from such people—completely ignoring them. He walked to a panel next to the door and drew the troupe’s attention to it. “This is why you’re here.”
He touched the pad and brought up a video of the last spar that took place in the room, Yang Xiu versus Kang Lin. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“Y-yes, Esteed Sect Leader,” Wen Duyi said, clearly confused.
“Moving images in living color of two people fighting. Of two of my disciples fighting, actually. A spar. That actually took place in this room recently.”
“Yes, Esteed Sect Leader.”
The confusion obviously hadn’t cleared.
“Assuming a thod to distribute the dia, anyone who has a pad like this one could watch this spar, right?” Benton said.
“Yes, Esteed Sect Leader.”
The kid still didn’t get it.
“What if, instead of a spar, this pad displayed one of your plays? What if thousands of people—tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, billions—had access to these pads?”
Finally, the light went on, and the kid’s eyes widened. “We … these lowly ones would be…”
“Yes,” Benton said, “you’d be famous. Each play would be seen by millions instead of by hundreds. What you’re not considering yet, though, are the advantages given to you by being cultivators. Imagine Illusion making your plays seem real. No longer being limited to painted backdrops. What would that do for your storytelling?”
Obviously, Wen Duyi couldn’t grasp what was to co. He simply didn’t have the background or the knowledge of cinema that Benton did. But even the barest inklings of how ga changing the technology was made the kid practically hyperventilate.
After that, it was a no-brainer that the troupe chose to join the sect, so Benton Teleported them all back to his office where he handed them over to Sun Hua for induction, instructing her to provide them with the standard sect cultivation thod. Making movies was an interesting project, but it wasn’t important enough—or the troupe talented enough—to justify specialized thods.
With his special project set in motion, Benton turned his attention to other matters. When Duan Lan had left Benton’s office earlier, she’d followed Yuan Yaozu, who’d promised to give her advice on the trial she’d be attempting. The briefing must have been more involved than Benton had anticipated because it was well into the evening before Benton received the request from the pagoda for her to enter.
Crossing his fingers in hopes that he wasn’t throwing away five hundred Sect Points, he granted his permission. It would likely be hours before he knew the result, so he pushed it out of his mind and concentrated on creating the Fire Qi Source. By the ti finished that task, set up a Ti dilation room to house it, and continued making greater spirit coins to feed the formations, there was still no notification about the Duan Lan’s status.
With the sun peeking over the horizon, he checked his notifications, discovering that he’d received the expected eight Shop Points and Sect Points for adding that many new mbers.
Hmm. How long had it been since he’d actually paid attention to his totals? A quick bit of math revealed it had been almost four weeks since he’d last checked. It would probably be a good idea to do a full accounting, considering that he’d just spent five hundred on the Trials Pagoda.
Over the twenty-six days, twenty sect mbers had advanced their Body Cultivation in the Bronze realm a total of eight tis to give him one hundred sixty points, and the twins and Jin LiJuan had all reached the peak of Silver to give him an additional twenty-four.
The category had definitely slowed in points gain since its halcyon days leading up to the beast tide. Of course, he could speed that back up if he needed to, but the current rate seed good for the Alchemy Pavilion. It gave the junior mbers sothing easy to do that taught them practical skills and earned Contribution Points while still allowing ti in everyone’s days for cultivation and other training.
Benton could live with one hundred eighty-four points in less than a month.
In contrast to Body Cultivation, the amount he earned from Spiritual Cultivation was nothing short of astounding. Not from his core mbers, though. They were all so highly reald that it took weeks and months simply to advance a single minor realm. Only Zhong Wen had gained him even a single point, hitting Qi Gathering minor realm seven.
The big gains had co, as usual, from the high quantities of sect mbers in the lower realms. Fatty Ren’s first induction class had hit Qi Gathering minor realm four and been given pills to advance again. Since there were one hundred ninety-five of them, that gave Benton three hundred ninety Sect Points.
The sixth set of villagers, seventy-five of them, had all reached minor realms three and four, the latter with the aid of Qi Condensing Pills. The one hundred fifty points they earned would have been extraordinary at almost any other ti.
The seventh set of villagers and second set of Fatty Ren’s were the stars, though, simply due to sheer quantity. Three hundred villagers and one hundred townies made for a lot of cultivators, and they also all reached Qi Gathering minor realm three, took a pill, and made it to minor realm four.
Eight hundred Sect Points.
Eight hundred!
Since Benton had already made it to Nascent Soul and with Nihility so far away and more complicated to qualify for, he was in no hurry to add mbers for the sake of simply having more people. Thus, recruitnt had slowed. The council had decided on a group of one hundred villagers once per month, and the first batch added under that edict reached minor realms one and two in the ti period.
An additional two hundred points was nothing to sneeze at.
The final points from the category ca from adding the troupe to the sect’s roster, a asly eight points in comparison.
All told, Benton was quite happy to be the recipient of one thousand five hundred forty-nine Sect Points for the category.
Soul and Mind Cultivation weren’t nearly as lucrative for two reasons. One, his sect mbers had so little ti to devote to the practice. Two, adoption of the practice hadn’t spread to the newer mbers yet, mainly because Benton hadn’t quite decided on the best point in the process to start everyone. Of his over eleven hundred mbers, only two hundred sixty-two were working on one or the other.
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That number was fine with Benton, though. There were only so many hours in the day, and so many productive uses of ti. Cultivating one’s Mind or Soul ant stealing hours from Spiritual Cultivation or techniques applicable to one’s profession or weapon training.
Besides, he only recently had a big batch of newbies reach Qi Gathering minor realm four, the stage at which mbers were allowed to branch out with techniques. Once they got settled with their pavilions and other additions to their routine, he’d make a recomndation for them to work on Soul or Mind Cultivation, probably in the next month or so.
For the mont, he was quite happy with the two hundred sixty-two points the practitioners had gotten him for advancing to the third minor realm in their respective cultivation.
The final category, Techniques, still lagged all other thods of earning points. Which made sense. Each advancent took a lot of work. Still, it was better to have the one hundred four points than not to.
All told, Benton gained two thousand ninety-nine Sect Points over the twenty-six days, an amazing total.
He pulled up his full status.
Sect Na:Rising TideSect mbers:1,117Disciples:57Sect Points:3,205Shop Points:696Host Cultivation:Nascent Soul - Minor Realm NineQi Available:289,164,544Host Body Cultivation:Platinum - Minor Realm NineHost Mind Cultivation:Expert - Minor Realm NineHost Soul Cultivation:Nirvana - Minor Realm NineHost Techniques (Qi Gathering): Basic Archery: Mastery Basic Spear Combat: Mastery Expert Golden Core Cultivation: Mastery General Knowledge of Mind Cultivation: Mastery General Knowledge of Soul Cultivation: Mastery Illusion - Mastery Knowledge of Beast Binding: Mastery Knowledge of Blacksmithing Rank 1 - Mastery Knowledge of Blacksmithing Rank 2 - Mastery Knowledge of Blacksmithing Rank 3 - Mastery Knowledge of Blacksmithing Rank 4 - Mastery Knowledge of Glassmaking: Mastery Knowledge of Herbs - Mastery Knowledge of Lightning: Mastery Knowledge of Magnetism: Mastery Knowledge of Nihility Realm - Mastery Knowledge of Origin Qi: Mastery Knowledge of Origin Qi Manipulation: Mastery Knowledge of Pills - Mastery Knowledge of Qi Sources: Mastery Knowledge of Rank 1 Alchemy - Mastery Knowledge of Rank 1 Formations: Mastery Knowledge of Rank 2 Alchemy - Mastery Knowledge of Rank 2 Formations: Mastery Knowledge of Rank 3 Alchemy - Mastery Knowledge of Rank 3 Formations: Mastery Knowledge of Rank 4 Alchemy - Mastery Nascent Soul Cultivation Knowledge: Mastery Pill Basics: MasteryHost Techniques (Foundation Establishnt): Absolute Speed Enhancent: Mastery Analysis: Mastery Aura Defense - Mastery Automatic Reaction Variable Shield: Mastery Blacksmithing: Mastery Blacksmithing Rank 2: Mastery Blacksmithing Rank 3: Mastery Blacksmithing Rank 4: Mastery Chain Lightning: Mastery Clone: Mastery Copy Image - Mastery Earth Shot: Mastery Explosive Growth: Mastery Extre Area Temperature Manipulation: Mastery Folded Space Quickstep: Mastery Forging Rank 1 - Mastery Forging Rank 2 - Mastery Forging Rank 3 - Mastery Forging Rank 4 - Mastery Formation Modification Rank 1 - Mastery Formation Modification Rank 2 - Mastery Formation Modification Rank 3 - Mastery Formation Modification Rank 4 - Mastery Fortified Sewing Rank 1 - Mastery Fortified Sewing Rank 2 - Mastery Fortified Sewing Rank 3 - Mastery Fortified Sewing Rank 4 - Mastery Foundation Excavation: Mastery Glass Creation - Mastery Healing: Mastery Hydro Blast: Mastery Illusion Detection and Mitigation: Mastery Illusion Illumination: Mastery Imbuing: Mastery Invisibility: Mastery Layered Variable Shield Breaker with Void Finisher Weapon Augntation: Mastery ditation: Mastery Origin Qi Manipulation: Mastery Pause Ti: Mastery Perception: Mastery Pill Creation Rank 1 - Mastery Pill Creation Rank 2 - Mastery Pill Creation Rank 3 - Mastery Pill Creation Rank 4 - Mastery Power of the Heavens: Mastery Projectile Enhancent: Mastery Rank 1 Formation Construction: Mastery Rank 2 Formation Construction: Mastery Rank 3 Formation Construction: Mastery Rank 4 Formation Construction: Mastery Rank 1 Formation Construction Acceleration: Mastery Rank 2 Formation Construction Acceleration: Mastery Rank 3 Formation Construction Acceleration: Mastery Rank 4 Formation Construction Acceleration: Mastery Rank 1 Herb Preparation - Mastery Rank 2 Herb Preparation - Mastery Rank 3 Herb Preparation - Mastery Rank 4 Herb Preparation - Mastery Rank 1 Inscription: Mastery Rank 2 Inscription: Mastery Rank 3 Inscription: Mastery Rank 4 Inscription: Mastery Seeking Speeding Arrow: Mastery Space Dragon Origami ssenger: Mastery Stealth: Mastery Stone Shaping and Construction: Mastery Switch Places: Mastery Swordsmithing Rank 1 - Mastery Swordsmithing Rank 2 - Mastery Swordsmithing Rank 3 - Mastery Swordsmithing Rank 4 - Mastery Talisman Crafting Rank 1 - Mastery Talisman Crafting Rank 2 - Mastery Talisman Crafting Rank 3 - Mastery Talisman Crafting Rank 4 - Mastery Teleportation: Mastery Variable AoE Gravity Burst: Mastery Variable AoE Shield: Mastery Variable Spirit Coin Manifestation: Mastery Voice Amplification: Mastery Wind Slash: MasteryHost Techniques (Golden Core Concepts):Anti-Tribulation - MasteryEarth - MasteryFire - MasteryForce - MasteryGluttony - MasteryGravity - MasteryHealing - MasteryIce - MasteryIllusion - MasteryLight - MasteryLightning - Masterytal - MasteryMagnetism - MasteryMontum - MasteryNature - MasteryOrigin Qi - MasteryPoison - MasteryShadow - MasterySharpness - MasterySll - MasterySound - MasterySoul - MasterySpace - MasteryTemperature - MasteryThunder - MasteryTi - MasteryTribulation Lightning - MasteryVoid - MasteryWater - MasteryWood - MasteryHost Techniques (Nascent Soul Auras):Gravity - MasterySpace - MasteryTi - MasteryVoid - MasteryHost Mind Techniques (Myriad): Dual Focus: Mastery Inflict Fear: Mastery Mind Crush: Mastery Mind Stun: Mastery Telekinetic Push: MasteryHost Mind Techniques (Expert): Mind Strike - Mastery Obliterate Mind - Mastery Split Focus - Mastery Telekinesis - Mastery Terrify - MasteryHost Soul Techniques (Nirvana): Soul Material Manipulation: Mastery Soul Sap - Mastery Soul Stun - Mastery Soul Transference - Masterynus:[Cultivation thod][Technique][Quest][Perk][Advancent][Shop][Sect]
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