Yang Xiu was not happy. The bandits had prepared an ambush that she and Zou Tian had scouted. When she’d told the others about it, she had advocated for leaving the non-combatants behind with the wagons while the rest took the fight to the bad guys.
Yang Ru hadn’t liked that idea, and h...
2024-10-19 14:17:00 +0000 UTC View PostFeeding the kids hot, fresh food from the street vendors of Sixth Flawless Flowing City was one of the most satisfying experiences of either of Benton’s lives. Considering that the kids had never seen a spatial ring, the fact that they were more excited by the food coming out of it than the spe...
2024-10-19 14:15:03 +0000 UTC View PostBenton rarely got truly angry, but the idea that the Town Manager and his enforcers were so corrupt that children were suffering irritated him a great deal. For them to actively take their greed so far as to actually rob an orphanage, though? That was beyond the pale. Benton was infuriated.
Benton had a leisurely breakfast in the inn the next morning. His first task of the day was to find an orphanage. With the understanding that he wanted to donate food, the innkeeper had given Benton directions to one, and he didn’t want to arrive there too early and disrupt whatever their norma...
2024-10-18 18:04:50 +0000 UTC View PostBenton needed to know what shape the old sect buildings were in before he considered how much to pay for them, and Fatty Ren simply didn’t know, having not been out to the site in years. Thus, Benton insisted on seeing the Righteous Rain Sect grounds before even mentioning a possible price. He ...
2024-10-18 16:55:37 +0000 UTC View PostYang Xiu crept through the forest, all her enhanced senses alert. Everything her eyes saw in the early morning light was exactly as it should be. None of the shadows were just a little too big. The bulge on the backside of that tree was just a knot, not a small person trying to conceal himself be...
2024-10-18 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe next six days passed with excruciating slowness for Benton. Creak, creak, creak went the wheels. Followed by another creak, creak, creak. And another creak, creak, creak. Endless, endless creaks.
He mi...
2024-10-18 13:51:48 +0000 UTC View PostBenton really liked the whole knights of the round table thing he had going on, even if there was a clear king instead of everyone actually being equal. Lips were certainly loosening, and the disciples were starting to feel more comfortable around him and around each other.
That result was ...
2024-10-18 00:55:59 +0000 UTC View PostBenton was pleased to see that everyone was packed up and ready to go at dawn the next morning, all having already eaten breakfast in the inn. The caravan hit the road on time to continue its slow journey. Ye Zan estimated about two weeks to Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town and another month fro...
2024-10-18 00:52:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe next twelve days passed with excruciating slowness as the wagons creaked slowly along the rutted dirt path. On a positive note, all nineteen of Benton’s newest disciples advanced from Qi Gathering minor realm one to minor realm two in that time, earning him nineteen more points.
Bento...
2024-10-18 00:51:52 +0000 UTC View PostBenton decided to stay up all night. The four guards on duty each shift were fine to deal with any mortal concerns such as raising an alarm if bandits approached or scaring off wild animals, but he wanted to make sure no cultivators appeared in range of his spiritual sense.
The night passed...
2024-10-18 00:43:11 +0000 UTC View PostBenton was more than a little bemused at how quickly the twins had jumped to his defense from mere words when they’d been perfectly fine with him facing a Foundation Establishment cultivator alone.
“Everyone calm down!” he yelled. “Yang Xiu, Yang Ru, sit down. Put away your weapons....
2024-10-18 00:39:39 +0000 UTC View PostBenton let out a deep breath. The fight with the Chameleon Jade Sect member had been too close. If the spear had been a fraction of an inch off, the tip might not have penetrated the cultivator’s brain. After an unsuccessful attack against a powerful foe, the outcome would have been in doubt. 2024-10-17 20:59:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Benton’s scan of the Jade Chameleon Sect member told him a lot about the man. The first important fact was that he used illusion aspected qi.
According to what Su had learned in one of his lessons at the Flowing Tiger Sect, around three quarters of people born had qi aspects corresponding...
2024-10-17 20:49:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Benton took a deep breath as the wagon rolled slowly, really slowly, along beneath him. The mortals could walk as fast as the oxen moved, not to mention how much faster a cultivator could go.
He supposed it was fine. Two months on the road instead of one made little difference in the end, a...
2024-10-17 20:48:43 +0000 UTC View PostBenton hummed to himself as he walked toward the gates. When he saw the small crowd of people gathered waiting for him and his four disciples, he started softly singing. “So long, farewell, auf wiederseh’n, goodnight.”
He wondered how the kids would react to seeing The So...
2024-10-17 20:28:26 +0000 UTC View PostZou Tian had never eaten so well. Gone were the times when he had no idea when he would next find food. Instead, since being asked to move into the warehouse, he’d been given three meals a day and was allowed to eat as much as he wanted at each of them. He was even occasionally served dessert.<...
2024-10-17 20:24:31 +0000 UTC View PostBenton watched as Yang Xiu and her opponent, a girl who looked severely out of place with her yellow hair, walked into the arena. He scanned the blonde.
Yikes. The sect was bringing out their best...
2024-10-17 13:54:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs Benton waited for the crew to reset the arena from archery range mode to the normal bare sandy floor for the upcoming duel, he wondered if the spars would be as tilted in favor of the Poison Claw Sect as the contests had been. He found he didn’t care all that much. As long as his disciples h...
2024-10-17 13:45:28 +0000 UTC View PostKang Ya-Ting remained in the alchemy shop until Chao Su and his young … ward were well out of sight. The boy was interesting in that the elder had almost forgotten he was in the shop.
That the boy could evade notice meant he was manifesting his qi aspect even though he was a mortal. Such ...
2024-10-17 13:38:49 +0000 UTC View PostBenton was both dreading and looking forward to the trip to the alchemy shop. The former emotion was because a single mistake could have grave consequences, not just for himself but for the twins and all the orphans back in the village and the two boys he’d made promises to in the city.
H...
2024-10-17 13:32:47 +0000 UTC View PostBenton thought he was doing pretty well for being on a cultivation world for less than six months. Between Su’s memories of his experiences as a cultivator and his own life lessons from sixty years on Earth, he had plenty of mental resources to draw upon in any given situation to guide him down...
2024-10-17 13:31:20 +0000 UTC View PostYang Xiu was more than a little nervous because Master had left her and Yang Ru alone at a strange sect with no instructions other than to, “Have fun.”
“Esteemed Master Cultivator,” she said to Kang Ya-Ting, “this lowly one and her brother are a bit lost as to what to do. Please g...
2024-10-17 13:04:15 +0000 UTC View PostBenton and the twins were just finishing dessert in the restaurant when Kang Ya-Ting met them.
He immediately cupped his hands before giving each of the three a decorative metal pin. The piece of jewelry was the shape of a green snake and had a clasp on the back. “The Poison Claw Sect tha...
2024-10-17 13:03:00 +0000 UTC View PostKang Ya-Ting excused himself from the mysterious cultivator, Chao Su, as quickly as was polite, telling him to treat himself and his disciples to one of the various restaurants on the sect grounds—free of charge, of course.
The sect leader was in secluded cultivation back at the main sect...
2024-10-17 13:02:09 +0000 UTC View PostBenton sat on a quite comfortable seat next to Yang Xiu in the stands overlooking the arena. Below, Yang Ru and the young sect idiot waited for the duel to begin.
Kang Ya-Ting entered the stands and sat nearby. The first words out of his mouth were, “So, Orange Vigor Spirit Wood?”
Yang Ru stood across a sandy arena from his opponent, the arrogant young master who had since been introduced as Pan Jiang.
The first hint of fall was in the air, and the sun was straight enough above not to get in either of the boy’s eyes. It was a good day to fight.
Yang Ru once a...
2024-10-17 12:53:09 +0000 UTC View PostBenton fell immediately in love.
Not with the cultivator’s master—a dude—obviously, but with that guy’s sword.
It flew. It was a real flying sword, and Benton wanted one more than he’d wanted anything in either life.
Admittedly, he knew flying swords were a thing from ...
2024-10-16 23:19:56 +0000 UTC View PostYang Ru was pleased with himself. He and his sister had arranged for all the food on the list to be picked up in three days’ time, and the cost was only forty-six thousand taels, a staggering sum to him but much less than the budget that Master had given them.
Of course, that success was ...
2024-10-16 23:18:53 +0000 UTC View PostTrue to Benton’s decision, he and the twins spent the entire day in the warehouse cultivating, sparring, and practicing techniques. In the early evening, Yang Ru reached Small Success in Stone Skin, quickly returning one of the three Sect Points that had been spent on the technique.
Bento...
2024-10-16 23:15:12 +0000 UTC View Post