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 of slow actions, and he had to give each inductee their moment. With nine people at ten to fifteen minutes per person, it was about two hours before each had officially, per the System, become one of his disciples.
Completing the Recruit Additional Disciple Quest nine times gave him that many Shop Points, not that he could spend them yet. He was looking forward to actually founding the sect and triggering the opening of the Shop.
Baby steps, though. Baby steps. His future sect had just taken a major leap forward, going from three members counting him to twelve. He was happy with the progress. Even better, he saw a path forward. Complete some reputation quests for the village and then ask for the land he needed.
The sun hadn’t entirely set yet, but it was getting late, approaching time when the children should be getting to bed. His many years of experience as a father of young children told him that, if he gave them the jade slips and let them start cultivating, they’d be up all night. Better to wait until he was free tomorrow evening for that.
Benton had Zhong Wen send them off to bed.
As his new recruits filed out, another child, a girl, appeared in the doorway.
“Hi,” he said.
The girl scowled at him. “You are making them cultivators.”
“Jin LiJuan!” Zhong Wen yelled. “Show respect to Master Chao!”
The girl ignored the mistress. “Why them and not me?”