BWFoster78

Chapter 194 – Consumer of All

Fatty Ren had never met anyone who seemed so different between one encounter and the next as the sect leader did. One moment, he was literally the friendliest person ever, seeming like a generous grandfather giving wisdom and candies in equal measures to his offspring. The next he was casually demonstrating the number of Golden Core cultivators he had killed.

Scary.

Fatty Ren wanted nothing more than to remain on the sect leader’s good side, going out of the way to remind him of...

Chapter 193 – Interesting Isn’t All It’s Cracked up to Be

After dismissing his disciples, Benton spent the next hour hooking up the residences to the main power supply, and once done, he was pretty happy with his accomplishment getting so many places move-in ready. The area could house over three hundred people at full capacity, and he’d randomly tested many formations to make sure they operated as expected.

They all worked. Climate control, defensive shield, alarm, food preservation, and both water and sanitary all functioned correctly in e...

Chapter 192 – Lifeline

Jin LiJuan clung to the wolf pup in her arms like she was drowning and it was a lifeline. Which, in a way, it was. All her dreams of being a powerful cultivator were in her reach as long as she kept her bond with the beast.

Golden Core. She had no real idea what that meant, but the way Master said it made it sound powerful. And he expected her to reach that level before any of the other sect members.

She looked around her. Senior Brother was staring at her, as was Senior Sister. T...

Chapter 191 – Another Impossibility Made Expected

As soon as Benton returned to the sect grounds, he decided to send a message to Yang Xiu. First, though, he dithered a bit about using a message instead of just Quickstepping to her. Two thoughts convinced him that sending an origami construct was the correct call.

One, his time was valuable. In the ten or fifteen minutes it would take him to find her, exchange pleasantries, give her his instructions, and return to the sect grounds, he could complete diagnosing another array or two. Sur...

Chapter 190 – Procrastination

Benton soared through the air on his way to Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town, the wind washing through his hair and scouring away his troubles. He wished, anyway.

There was no telling when, not if, the Jade Chameleon Sect would retaliate for his actions or what form that reprisal would take. Part of his reason for destroying the branch sect grounds had been pure vengeance, but the main motive had been to send a message that he and his people were not to be messed with. He’d done it to...

Chapter 189 – Three Notifications and a Message

As Benton had been hard at work installing the infrastructure for the sect grounds, he’d ignored his notifications other than granting permission for Zou Tian to start his trial. By mid-morning, Benton’s tasks were finally complete, and he took a few moments to review the popups.

Nice. Great job, Kang Lin.

On another positive note, he was now firmly above seven hundred points, mainly...

Chapter 188 – Explosive Growth

Zou Tian smoothly darted from shadow to shadow, moving ever closer to the four-armed bug-eyed creatures slinging ice shards at him. The cavern provided plenty of cover in the form of rocks growing both from the floor and the ceiling, and each blocked the glowing light from above, giving him ample options for hiding.

He was still one against five, but the environment tilted things in his favor. The question was, though, what did the encounter have to teach him about using his daggers? 2025-02-02 05:18:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 187 – Fear of Failure

Zou Tian waited outside all night next to the Contribution Points Shop. Yang Xiu and Yang Ru had taken only a few hours each inside the Trials Pagoda. Kang Lin, on the other hand, had entered before sunset and, as of dawn, had not exited.

There was no cause for concern. Probably. Master had been in the area working throughout the night installing roads and piping, and he hadn’t given the building a second look. If Kang Lin were in any peril, surely he would have appeared anxious at th...

Chapter 186 – Move-in Ready

Benton was working on the sect grounds when he received a pop up notifying him that Kang Lin requested an attempt to improve her Lightning Shield. He smiled. She, unlike Yang Xiu, didn’t attempt to try his patience by selecting one of the trials he’d forbidden.

After granting his permission, he returned to his labor. Though he’d previously done preliminary work on the sect grounds by placing a lot of the main buildings and housing, that didn’t make the area exactly move-in ready...

Chapter 185 – Fly to the Moon

Benton truly loved flying. It was fast and practical and exhilarating. Even though he could do all manner of crazy superhuman things like manipulating gravity and slinging around lightning bolts, zipping through the air on a thin piece of metal made him feel more like he belonged on the pages of a comic book than any of those other abilities.

He had Quickstepped from the palace to several hundred feet in the air about a half mile from the old Righteous Rain Sect grounds, smoothly ejecte...

Chapter 184 – An Exciting Twenty Years

Benton summoned four copies of the new REDI Soul Cultivation method from his spatial ring and distributed one each to the four former Righteous Rain Sect Qi Gathering cultivators. Each immediately dove their consciousness into the respective jade slip.

Song Yongliang was the first to finish his brief examination. “This is a Soul Cultivation method.”

Benton wasn’t sure exactly how to respond to that statement. He had promised, after all, to provide exactly that. “Yes?” 2025-01-27 03:53:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 183 – Soul Man

More than a little frustrated, Benton was just about to open his mouth and admit that he could not diagnose the issue with the four Qi Gathering cultivators when a thought struck him.

What the heck was he doing? He wasn’t a normal cultivator who had to figure things out on his own. He was a cheating cheater who cheats.

“System,” he said internally, “is there a technique that I can purchase that will help me figure out what is wrong with these cultivators and, even better, ...

Chapter 182 – A Complete Idiot

Benton offered to induct Fatty Ren into the Rising Tide Sect immediately, but the Town Lord was too concerned about his former and future fellow sect members to focus on his own advancement. He insisted on summoning them to the palace immediately.

Not wanting to waste time, Benton decided to bring up the organization of the sect and the new sect branch. Fatty Ren would obviously be the branch leader for Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town, but his high cultivation realm created a major iss...

Chapter 181 – Condition of Membership

With the recent tragedy a little way in the rearview mirror and the unpleasantness in Sixth Flawless Flowing City dealt with, Benton could actually enjoy flying on a sword. It was as neat as he’d hoped. The wind whipping through his hair. The sheer exhilaration of hurdling over the land at speed.

If anything back on Earth compared to the experience, he didn’t know what it was. Obviously, he’d flown before. Many times. But being crammed into a packed airplane was not nearly the sam...

Chapter 180 – Assuaging Feelings

Zou Tian stood anxiously outside the Trials Pagoda. With a new day dawning, someone needed to make use of the facility, and Yang Xiu had decreed that, barring someone with a specific need, she would choose the order of entry based on cultivation strength. She and Yang Ru, obviously the strongest members of the sect, had already had a turn, so the next logical choice was Wan Ai.

Who had promptly refused.

It had been funny watching her, who never stood up for herself ever, squaring ...

Chapter 179 – Salt the Ground

Benton spent the night as a guest of the Poison Claw Sect, though he didn’t get much sleep. He had committed, after all, to create one thousand spirit coins to pay as a fine.

With his coin creation technique at Mastery, it cost him eleven thousand qi to create a ten thousand qi coin, so he spent the night converting batches of one hundred and eighty qi batteries before spending an hour using Meditation to restore his pool to nearly filled. So most of the night passed before he was fin...

Chapter 178 – That Could’ve Gone Better

Between the time Benton arrived in the cultivation world and a short while ago, he had killed a limited number of people. The young master and his men who had accosted Yang Xiu and Yang Ru in the forest. The cultivator gang who’d invaded the warehouse. The Foundation Establishment cultivator who had tried to rob the caravan on the road. The scum in Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town. And of course, the three Golden Core cultivators who had sought to kill his disciples.

For the most part...

Chapter 177 – Heaven Blessed

Kang Ya-Ting and Dai Shuren followed Chao Su on their flying swords. Just as they were all about to reach the territory claimed by the Jade Chameleon Sect, the mysterious sect leader paused in the air.

Confused, Kang Ya-Ting shared a glance with his friend, Elder Dai.

After moving his eyes back and forth a few times, Chao Su glanced back and said, “Just needed a second to take care of something. I’m ready now. Let’s proceed.”

How wonderfully confusing and mysterious,...

Chapter 176 – Power of the Heavens

The fact that destroying the Jade Chameleon Sect branch in Sixth Flawless Flowing City might result in the Rising Tide Sect gaining the enmity of not only that sect but the Swift Blizzard Sect and the Emperor as well gave Benton pause. On one hand, following through with his threat risked his sect members. On the other, showing weakness by not following through garnered just as much risk.

Besides, his cause was righteous. He had warned the Jade Chameleons to leave his people out of any ...

Chapter 175 – Rise

Kang Ya-Ting slowly sipped his tea as he sat across from Chao Su.

The man was as inscrutable as ever. Though he would not admit to his cultivation level, his access to high level treasures, demonstrated combat prowess, and the inability of anyone in the Golden Core realm to sense him proved he was at least Nascent Soul. The fact that he didn’t fear the strongest cultivators on the continent lent credence to the suspicion that he was even higher.

Kang Ya-Ting sighed, wishing he h...

Chapter 174 – Real Trouble Brewing

1/12/24 A/N I hated taking a full week off, but it is what it is. The hand is doing a lot better. Stitches come out Wednesday, and I still have a big bandage that makes me mistype with a little bit higher frequency than usual. All in all, though, I can type again, so I'm back. It doesn't actually hurt that much unless I move it in a way that I shouldn't or, and this is bad, bang it against a doorknob or something. I don't expect missing any more chapters due to this issue.

Ma FenFang wa...

Not a Chapter

Apologies. I will make this up to you, but I sliced my hand open today, requiring stitches. My typing sucks right now, and I'm not good enough with dictating to make that work. Will return to posting soon.

Chapter 173 – Terms of Punishment

Kang Ya-Ting was not expecting a message from his granddaughter, Kang Lin, but reports were not wholly unexpected. A lot was going on at the new Rising Tide Sect, including the recent revelation of a Trials Pagoda.

He eagerly dove his consciousness into the messaging device.

Dearest Grandfather,

This message will probably not reach you before Master Chao Su makes it to the city, but you need accurate information as soon as possible.

I was away from the vill...

2025-01-05 06:35:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 172 – Strike First and Strike Hard

Kang Lin and her team had barely completed their mission to round up the corpses of the rank seven spirit beasts when she heard two immense lightning strikes in the general direction of the village.

“That’s not good,” she told Hou Yazhu, the Rising Tide Sect guard who had been assigned to her group. “I don’t think that was practice.”

“Go,” the man said. “I can protect the two juniors in the unlikely event something happens. If there’s trouble in the village, yo...

Chapter 171 – Eve of Destruction

1/2/25 A/N: Apologies for not being very responsive lately. I went on a two week road trip to visit family and friends, but I'm back now. Regarding this chapter, the next little mini-arc is a lot darker than the rest of the story. I'm not a big fan of dark, but I think this part of the story warranted it. My desire is to return to the normal tone as soon as I can. Would really welcome comments through this period letting me know if you like or hate what is happening.

Yang Xiu fell behin...

Chapter 170 – True Danger

Benton’s first attack didn’t kill either of the two Golden Core cultivators from the Jade Chameleon Sect, but that was to be expected. Even Nascent Soul cultivators rare one shot Golden Cores.

There was a reason cultivators of that realm were respected and feared. It took a lot of effort to reach that high in one’s journey. The other thing it took was time. Lots of time. Decades.

Benton’s spiritual sense told him that the three men were in the seventh, sixth, and fifth min...

Chapter 169 – Hatched Chickens Come Home to Roost

Benton knew of only one reason why Golden Core cultivators would be headed toward the sect—to make him answer for the death of that thuggish Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Jade Chameleon Sect.

Of course, it could be something much more innocuous, like Kang Ya-Ting coming for a visit, but he wouldn’t bet money on that being the case. Better to hope for the best but prepare for the worst regardless. Benton had to treat the visit as a hostile incursion.

His first ac...

Chapter 168 – Distant Explosions

As soon as Benton left Jin LiJuan, he realized his mistake. He had told her to feed rank one cores to the wolf cub, but she didn’t have any rank one cores. Further, she and her group were days away from the village. Either she’d have to wait to begin following the regime he desired, or he needed to deliver the cores.

Obviously, he chose the latter of the two options.

He’d given all his rank one, two, and three cores to the Alchemy Pavilion to use in Body Cultivation baths, s...

Chapter 167 – The Care and Feeding of Beasts

Benton had a busy couple of days after the council meeting. For one thing, he had to make sure that the important tasks were moving in the right direction. Like the wood harvesting and wall creation.

Honestly, though, the villagers, now sect members, in charge of those operations were pure pros. There was nothing he could do to enhance the process because they knew a lot more about it than he ever would. After ensuring that production was happening and proceeding at the same rate as bef...

Chapter 166 – Mercy

Even Jin LiJuan’s small hands were able to completely encircle the wolf cub’s neck. It struggled pitifully, trying to breathe, as she crushed the life out of it.

She ignored the desperation on its face as the brightness in its eyes dimmed just as easily as she paid no attention to the disgusting, slimy substances coating its body that had transferred to her fingers. All that mattered was that it was a spirit beast, and after waiting for so long, she finally had the power to kill it....