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 had he returned to the work area than Yang Xiu said, “Why did you reveal so much to that kid, Senior Brother? I thought we wanted to avoid notice.”
Kid? Listen to this brat. The boy was barely a couple of years younger than her.
“There is a fine line between seeming too powerful,” Benton said, “which might lead to one of the three sects taking interest in us, and seeming too weak, which invites attack from every two-bit street gang around.”
“You think your display with Ru’er will dissuade them, Senior Brother?”
“Not indefinitely. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to slip out before they make their attempt.” Benton shrugged. “If not, maybe we at least headed off some of the many probes I was expecting. I’d rather they gather their forces for a big showdown than us have to put up with fending them off every other night.”
Yang Xiu’s face showed concern. “Can the three of us fight off an entire gang of cultivators, Senior Brother?”
Wandering cultivators came in two types—those rare few who traveled the land seeking the Dao and those who were forced into the lifestyle because they had too little talent to do anything else. The first was considered an honorable path, even if not quite as respectable as traditional sect membership. The latter … wasn’t.
Of course, part of that judgment was probably a bit of Chao Su’s bias, but Benton expected it accurately reflected the view of most people.
“Acting as a gang relegates one to the status of an ordinary thug, an act that is beneath contempt, an extreme loss of face and honor,” Benton said. “Only those who are so weak as to have little other choice would do such a thing. I can’t imagine the three of us having trouble facing a score of such cultivators.”
He allowed the siblings to return to cultivating while he spent another couple of hours processing spirit beast parts. In the midafternoon, he counted their progress, finding that they’d barely finished a hundred beasts.