BWFoster78

Chapter 224 – Instructions

A/N 3/22/25: Oops. I made not one, not two, but three mistakes in this chapter. I had to take it down and re-upload it. Apologies if you happened on it before the corrected version went up.

Benton had spent a lot of time coming up with a design for the towers. The formation capable of killing a Nascent Soul cultivator would go at the very top, but that array wasn’t the only one. He had to start with a solid base, one that could withstand quite a bit of punishment if anything got throu...

Chapter 223 – Free-Range Parenting?

Benton fretted about his decision for most of the afternoon, going back and forth in his head. One minute, he leaned on letting the twins go to Sixth Flawless Flowing City. The next, he changed his mind.

Ugh. The choice wasn’t complicated. On the “let them go” side, he had the benefit to the sect in allowing the pursuit of the two most important ventures possible at the moment and both the experience that would be gained by his two disciples and the world of good it would do them ...

Chapter 222 – Spies, Space, and Speed

A/N 3/19/25: Bonus chapter 2 of 2. Thank you all so much for your support!

Fu Qingshan sat in his hiding spot near the road outside the main entrance to Sixth Flawless Flowing City. He’d meticulously pulled branches and leaves around himself, and the technique he used to mask his qi was at Mastery. Additionally, his sect supplied a treasure that further concealed his presence.

With his spyglass, he could see the road, but even though he was only in the middle of the Foundation E...

Chapter 221 – A Third Option

4/13/25 A/N: Uploaded this chapter with a later version. Most of the stuff was clarity/typo related. However, I did retcon a couple of things about the trap to better match future events.

IIn preparation for the big reveal of an important sect secret, Benton paused to figure out how best to tell the council in a way that sounded believable. Well, he paused partly for that reason but mostly for dramatic effect.

The problem was that cultivators were hard to kill, and the higher one ...

Chapter 220 – A Dangerous Secret and a Ruinous Cost

A/N 3/17/25: Bonus chapter time. I'm actually way behind on these, so this is the first of two upcoming.

Benton braced from the massive infusion of knowledge he’d just purchased, and the System soon crammed it into his brain. Despite the onslaught of information, he didn’t feel overwhelmed. Nor underwhelmed; the download was one of his biggest yet, and he definitely felt it fill his mind.

But he suffered no headache. No real ill effects at all, actually.

If anything, he ...

Chapter 219 – Towers or Sources?

The twins’ birthday party turned out to be one of the best nights of Benton’s new life. He liked that the sect members and villagers seemed to appreciate the experience of the new dessert he served them even if the icing was a bit much for them. Watching Yang Xiu swoop around fearlessly on the glider and Yang Ru take a much more tentative approach amused the sect leader to no end. The main thing that warmed his heart, however, was seeing Jin LiJuan play with the other kids.

At first...

Chapter 218 – Fun and Games

Yang Xiu’s eyes widened at the sight of the beauty before her. She wasn’t sure exactly what device did, but it certainly looked interesting. And considering that Master made it, the treasure surely was unfathomable.

He was smirking at her, meaning that he expected her to ask him how to use the treasure. When she opened her mouth to do just that, though, she realized that, as his top disciple, doing so would be a failure. She should figure it out by herself!

From the shape and ...

Chapter 217 – Interest, Mortification, and Excitement

Benton’s heart broke for Li’er. The girl had been through so much. He couldn’t even imagine the impact that watching spirit beasts kill one’s family would have on a person. It was said that children tended to be resilient, but there was a limit to what anyone could endure.

On one level, he had realized that her life hadn’t been easy. No one’s life as a peasant in a cultivation world was easy, especially not one who was orphaned. But he hadn’t quite understood just how much...

Chapter 216 – How Did He Know?

Yang Xiu’s eyes were wide when she walked into the amphitheater. Hundreds of orbs, each a different color, floated above the open-air stadium. She’d never seen anything like it. She’d never even dreamed of anything like it.

Reaching out with her spiritual sense, she determined the orbs to be made of glass, but the light was produced by qi. Even more astounding was that additional qi was holding up each of the glass balls.

She’d only just stepped into the party and already ...

Chapter 215 – The Green Goblin, the Nature of Teenagers, and a ’67 Stang

Benton threw all the orbs and the cake into his spatial ring and Quickstepped into the amphitheater, ready to start decorating. Just after he distributed all the colored lights in the air and readied the cake on a giant slab of wood that he fashioned into a table, he realized he hadn’t got the kids gifts yet. And he was running out of time!

He panicked, trying to think of what to do.

As his eyes darted about seeking something to give him inspiration, he noticed the windows of th...

Chapter 214 – Party Prep

Yang Xiu waited until her brother stepped heavily forward on his right foot. That was his biggest flaw in using his technique. He always, always triggered it after one certain movement with that foot.

She dodged right.

He transferred all his gathered Momentum into his strike, but it was too late. She’s already moved too far away. And with his Momentum depleted, he was too slow to avoid her reprisal.

In one smooth movement, she nocked an arrow, charged it with as much qi sh...

Chapter 213 – A Big Change

After Benton left the Alchemy Pavilion, he spent most of the rest of the day working on designs for his grand formation that would protect the sect from all enemies. Obviously, those plans couldn’t be implemented for another almost two weeks, when the wall was completed and installed, but he wanted to be ready for when he could start creating the sect’s main defense.

Inscribing an array that created a shield to protect against one threat, be it a beast or qi or a cultivator or whate...

Chapter 212 – A True Alchemist

Benton’s attention had been drawn to two people running from the residential neighborhood to the Central Business District by the noise their churning legs and hard footfalls made. He flared his spiritual sense and determined that the two were Zou Tian and Wan Ai.

Obviously, their actions made Benton curious, but the fact that he could use his enhanced hearing to literally spy on anyone in the sect grounds made him very worried about too much surveillance. It had been a long time sinc...

Chapter 211 – A Hypothesis

Wan Ai woke with a start.

Of course. The answer was so obvious. How could she have missed it?

She rose from her bed, quickly dressed on a sect robe, rushed to Zou Tian’s door, and knocked softly.

In her excitement, she’d almost banged on the door, but her boyfriend—and how weird was it still for her to think of someone using that term—was the lightest sleeper she’d ever even heard of. Her simply opening her bedroom had likely woken him.

“Wan Ai?” he calle...

Chapter 210 – Psionic Force

A/N 3/5/25 Missed three points when doing the numbers for this chapter. Added those with the appropriate explanation.

Benton’s impression of Fatty Ren kept getting revised upward. The first meeting with the big guy wasn’t all that great as he appeared to be lazy, sitting in his palace eating while someone else ran the town he was responsible for into the ground. That opinion worsened as it became apparent how corrupt the Town Manager was and how downtrodden the residents were.

Chapter 209 – Dominant

A/N 3/3/25: That moment when you're trying to get a chapter posted and you keep adding and changing and deleting and revising...

Fatty Ren balanced awkwardly on the flying sword—his flying sword—as he made his way straight toward Sixth Flawless Flowing City, thanking his lucky stars that Sect Leader Chao Su had sought a consultation for a favor before simply departing to the city on his own.

That would have been a disaster.

When he had mentioned going there to, of all th...

Chapter 208 – A Points Sink

As an extrovert, Benton had always liked people, and he’d had a variety of relationships throughout his life on Earth. He’d been married, raised children, spoiled grandchildren, been taught and taught others in turn, mentored proteges, and so on. All in all, he felt he had a pretty good handle on human nature.

Sometimes, though, someone managed to truly surprise him.

When he’d first met Pan Jiang, Benton had pegged him pretty quickly as a standard arrogant young master, and ...

Chapter 207 – Empathy and Commonality

Jin LiJuan swallowed her pride, relying instead of the kindness of a relative stranger. “Senior Brother, will you help me with my spirit beast bond?”

“Of course, Junior Sister,” Pan Jiang said. “Though I certainly do not claim to be an expert of the subject, it’s likely that I know more about a typical sect’s beast pavilion than anyone here except for your master. I would be happy to instruct you on the subject.”

She cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Senior Brother.�...

Chapter 206 – A Lighter Heart

A/N 2/27/25: I added a status screen to Chapter 196. Just an FYI if you've been missing them.

The wolf cub followed Jin LiJuan into the Martial Pavilion. At rank two, it was the size of medium dog and continued to grow in size and strength each day after she fed it a rank one core.

In a way, it disgusted her. Beasts like it had killed her family. She wanted to see it dead, not getting bigger and stronger.

But as it grew so did she. At the current rate, she’d reach minor r...

Chapter 205 – The Martial Pavilion

Yang Xiu was practically bouncing up and down as Master escorted her, Kang Lin, and Yang Ru into the Martial Pavilion. Kang Lin had been telling stories about the one at the Poison Claw Sect, and if the one Master procured could do half those things, Yang Xiu was going to be so happy.

From the outside, it was perfect. At five stories, it was taller than all the other buildings in the main area, and its blue paint and tiles matched the others perfectly. Best of all was its location—rig...

Chapter 204 – Move-in Day

Huang Yimun was pretty far down the priority list. He had E- spirit roots even after the upgrade and was only at the fifth minor realm of Qi Gathering. Up until very recently he would never have even believed that him becoming a member of the council was remotely possible.

He still couldn’t fathom the fact that he’d been appointed guard captain. When Senior Sister chose him, he’d thought he’d be replaced as soon as the sect leader returned. Instead, he’d confirmed her decision...

Chapter 203 – Selection Day

Zou Tian had no desire to look at houses. He really had no desire to go with Wan Ai to look at houses. All such an activity would do was bring up very uncomfortable subjects.

If she wanted a place with a single bedroom, did that mean she wanted to live by herself or that they should escalate their relationship? Did she want marriage? Were they ready for marriage? Was he?

He felt like he was too young for such a decision, and that opinion was supported by people generally waiting u...

Chapter 202 – Formality and Nervousness

Sun Hua’s heart rose to her throat as she stood outside the door leading to what the sect leader called his “office.” The mayor’s house was large enough to hold a similar room, but he called it a “study.” She was fairly sure that the sect would use the former term going forward based on the sect leader’s preference, so she made a point to call it that in her mind.

Though she’d been assigned to be his assistant nearly a month ago, she’d never actually spent any time alo...

Chapter 201 – Plans and Ploys

Teng Wuying was equally parts pleased and anxious. By benefit of his brother’s not so untimely death, he was now the sole inheritor of his family’s resources. And he was still alive, which would have been a much more difficult feat to pull off had he remained in Sixth Flawless Flowing City.

On the other hand, he was standing in front of his sect leader, Duan Dandan, who did not look pleased to see him in the least.

Not daring to meet her eyes, he cupped his hands. “Greetings...

Chapter 200 – Information, Risk, and Reward

Emperor Han Shu was not sure if the information contained in the report he just read represented a good thing or a bad thing to his faction. Peace had existed between his empire and the sects for more than a century, but a single cultivator seeking advantage could change that status at any time.

For as long as anyone could remember, three sects had ruled the portion of the continent he currently controlled, but they cared not for mortal affairs. His family dynasty had started humbly, hi...

Chapter 199 – Spirit, Body, Soul, and Mind

A/N 2/18/25: This is Monday's post. Now, assuming that I get Wednesday's post up sometime tomorrow, I should be able to get back on track for posting on time starting Friday. Thanks for bearing with me.

The moment of silence was the end of Ye Zan’s memorial service, but with the entire sect present, Benton needed to take a few moments to conduct business. Which wasn’t exactly an ideal scenario, definitely something he wouldn’t have even considered back on Earth.

That underst...

Chapter 198 – Guilt and Regret

A/N 2/27/25: This is Sunday's chapter. I'll post Monday's chapter tomorrow, getting us caught up. Again, apologies for the delay.

With the preparations for move-in complete, Benton moved on to a much less pleasant task—getting ready for Ye Zan’s memorial service. The first order of business was to determine where the guard captain would be laid to rest.

He’d died a hero, and he deserved a resting place befitting his deeds. To create an appropriate place, Benton would need a ...

Chapter 197 – A Road Almost Taken

A/N 2/16/25 - I'm behind. Sorry. This should have been posted yesterday morning. I got stuck on this chapter. On the plus side, I got to reference both Star Trek II and Lost in Space, so there's that. I kind of ended up going down a wrong path, and it took me a while to see that I had to course correct. I think this version is much better. Look for me to catch up as soon as possible.

The day passed quickly for Benton. No emergencies arose, so he was able to devote his entire attention t...

Chapter 196 – Debt and Payment

A/N 2/26/25 - Status screen added today. Note that I found two small mistakes prior to this chapter. The numbers in this chapter and going forward should be correct.

Benton was happy with the techniques he’d given Fatty Ren. The flying sword technique would allow the big guy to travel between Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town and the village in well less than an hour and the weapon technique would make his attacks much stronger. He wouldn’t truly be a powerhouse until he developed hi...

Chapter 195 – Gluttonous Sword

Other than sleeping for a couple of hours, Benton worked through the night, making good progress. He felt confident that, with another eight to ten hours of labor, he’d have all the building interior arrays completely analyzed and safed off where necessary, assuming he didn’t hit any major snags. The final piece after finishing the work on the inside would be to hook all the CBD buildings, the cafeteria, and the arena to the main power formation.

Then, and only then, would the sect ...