BWFoster78

Chapter 47 – Reactions

Zou Tian watched nervously as the Twelfth Discordant Brigade crept toward the warehouse. Though Chao Su was one scary guy, the same could be said for Yao Yahui, the leader of the cultivator gang.

Few organizations other than the City Watch and the three sects could match their might. Everyo...

Chapter 46 – Shock and Awe

Benton’s enhanced spiritual senses detected sixteen men and three women slowly entering the warehouse. All but one were in the Qi Gathering Realm, mostly minor realms three and four. A couple were in minor realm two. One was in the fifth. Two were in the sixth and another in the seventh. The ma...

Chapter 45 – A Not Unexpected Development

The next day Benton ran errands while the twins cultivated. His first stop was the Heavenly Transit Mercantile Association. Ma An had agreed to pick up the Orange Vigor Spirit Wood from the warehouse, but the city wasn’t exactly arranged with street names and addresses like one would expect on ...

Chapter 44 – Cash Grab

Benton had a good feeling about the boy, Zou Tian. He seemed like the sort who would commit to a group as long as he was given a reason. If Benton were right, all he had to do to reap loyalty was to sow it.

He escorted the boy to the exit, and the two parted on good terms.

No sooner h...

Chapter 43 – One Scary Cultivator

Zou Tian had maintained oversight—he much preferred that term rather than spying—on wandering cultivators before. In his experience, such people weren’t much more powerful than regular gang members. Basically, they were trumped up peasants who somehow gained access to the most basic and inc...

Chapter 42 – Like a Thief in the … Day?

Per the messenger that arrived at the inn the next afternoon, the warehouse was ready on schedule, and Benton led the siblings there. As they neared the structure, his attention was caught by a young boy lounging in the shade of an alley.

Even though Su’s memories advised about exactly wh...

Chapter 41 – Beyond Expectations

As Benton led the siblings in following the guard’s directions, he passed literally hundreds of people. It wasn’t possible to scan everyone that quickly, but a sampling indicated about what he expected, mostly Es and Fs. There was one D, but the man was middle aged and dressed nicely enough t...

Chapter 40 – Making an Omelet

To simply call Sixth Flawless Flowing City a city did not do it justice. The area it encompassed was enormous. It stretched as far as Benton’s eye could see. He had no way of determining how many people lived within its walls but wouldn’t have been surprised if it were in the millions. Scanni...

Chapter 39 – Easy Come, Easy Go

Benton led the siblings on a five-hour sprint to start the day, after which he fed them and let them cultivate for five hours. That was followed by another three hours of sprinting until it grew dark, and they set up camp.

He aimed to set a blistering pace.

Judging from the map the ma...

Chapter 38 – Leave-Takings

Benton smiled as he looked at Yang Xiu, cultivating blissfully as the harvesters worked. She’d hit Small Success with her perception technique the previous night and was drawing close to minor realm six.

Her brother was not doing as well. He still practiced with one of the mortal spears, ...

Chapter 37 – To the Future and Beyond

Benton smiled as all the kids enjoyed the dinner. He had plenty of boar meat to leave for them to eat while he was gone, but he’d need to figure out some variety for long term. Ah well, the upcoming shopping trip would take care of that. Best of all, he should be able to buy them some candies. ...

Chapter 36 – The Sect’s Foundation

Benton had a Sect Point burning a metaphorical hole in his pocket. Yang Xiu achieving Mastery with her archery technique had gained him two, pushing him to his twenty-first total gained. His ten percent rule meant he could use one to increase his personal power.

He hadn’t wanted to make a...

Chapter 35 – A Greater Treasure?

Yang Xiu sank into a lotus position, immediately beginning to cultivate as soon as her master gave her and her brother leave to do so. Though she wasn’t an expert at cultivating yet, she was getting used to spending a lot of her time cycling, and the qi in the area around the special spirit woo...

Chapter 34 – Analysis

It soon became apparent to Benton that the battle with the rank three had scared off all the other spirit beasts, leaving the area safe for the harvesters. He released the siblings to cultivate while he periodically scanned with his spiritual sense.

Once he felt fully recovered, he cleaned ...

Chapter 33 – Enter the Dragon

Benton was madder at himself than at Yang Ru.

As someone who had raised three children through the turbulent teenage years, Benton was quite familiar with an immutable law of nature—kids screw up. It was unfortunate that Yang Ru chose the middle of a life and death fight to do so, but it ...

Chapter 32 – The Best

Yang Xiu stood about ten yards behind Ru’er. Her master was off to her left about twenty feet. Sounds of many beasts approaching came from the weirdly colored woods in front of her.

“Get ready,” her master yelled. “Just a few seconds.”

She nocked an arrow.

Her main emo...

Chapter 31 – Facing the Tide

With the siblings trailing right behind Benton, he raced at full speed toward the large source of qi. The journey took less than a minute, and he quickly stopped before entering the range of the mass of spirit beasts.

Most of the vegetation he’d encountered on his new planet so far looked...

Chapter 30 – Boasts and Beliefs

Benton waited outside the gate with the siblings for the six harvesters to show up. He sensed a handful of spiritual beasts in the area, but none higher ranked than two and none nearby enough to worry about.

“Senior Brother,” Yang Xiu said, “I thought about a question a lot last night...

Chapter 29 – Unexpected Discovery

Benton instructed his new recruits on the bai-si tea ceremony.

“We’ll start with Mistress Zhong,” he said after the explanation was over.

The orphanage had a tea pot, and being able to boil twice the water at once sped things up. Still, the process involved a lot o...

Chapter 28 – Supreme Growth of Heaven

As Benton watched the children eat dinner, he scanned each of them. Most of them returned messages such as: 

The timeline varied from a month to, in the case of a little girl who Zhong Wen informed ...

Chapter 27 – Food for the Soul

Benton felt bad about eavesdropping on the mayor’s conversation, but the situation was simply too important for him to leave things to chance. The information he’d overheard was crucial for informing his actions in the immediate future.

First, though, it was time to see about acquiring ...

Chapter 26 – Let’s Make a Deal

With Benton’s proximity to the village’s wooden walls, he noticed that they showed no signs of the scarring he’d have expected from repeated beast attacks, a discordant fact when compared to everything else he’d observed. Of course, the wall’s material resonated with his spiritual sense...

Chapter 25 – Out of the Woods

Benton intently studied the walled village before him. Neither he nor Su had any experience determining population just from looking at one from the outside, but his best guess was something in the low thousands. It definitely wasn’t a tiny flyspeck, but he wouldn’t classify it as big enough ...

Chapter 24 – Wishes and Fishes

Benton kept a watchful eye on his disciples, worried both about them getting injured in a fight and about them growing fatigued from how hard he was pushing them.

A week passed, and the siblings were making progress in many ways. First, distance wise, as they were covering a lot of ground. ...

Chapter 23 – Attack!

A hand on Benton’s shoulder woke him, and it took him a moment to grasp the situation. It was dark out with only the flickering light of their fire providing light. He was in his tent on his bedroll. Yang Ru had shaken him.

Benton mentally asked the System how long until his alarm was sup...

Chapter 22 – Core Harvesting Lessons

Yang Xiu’s hands trembled as the rustling drew closer. She tried to tell herself that she’d killed the last four consecutive spirit beasts she’d faced with her bow, but her self pep talk did nothing to quell her nerves.

Before, she’d been one hundred percent confident that her maste...

Chapter 21 – Questions and Contributions

The group traveled further toward spirit beast territory, but the creatures were still scarce. Benton was only able to round up one set of rank ones for the siblings to fight each of the next two days. Neither made a kill on their own, but they improved.

On the third day, the density of spi...

Chapter 20 – A Single Step

As Benton had expected, both his disciples had woken the previous evening in plenty of time to consolidate their cultivation, so as the two ate breakfast, he packed their tents and bedrolls and most of the rest of the supplies from around the camp into his spatial ring.

“It has been said ...

Chapter 19 – Advancement

Over the next several days, Benton fixed meals, sparred with his disciples, and offered guidance where appropriate. Mostly, though, the kids stayed on the right track, cultivating and practicing diligently.

Late on the fourth day, he got the notification he’d been waiting for; Yang Xiu ha...

Chapter 18 – Corrective Measures

Benton stepped to the side. The tip of a spear—well, a sharpened stick, anyway—slid past him a fraction of an inch from his robe.

The stick retracted and plunged toward him again, aimed at his chest. To his senses, the thrust might as well have been moving through molasses.

He inf...