Chapter 160a: Arc Chapter 1 Epilogue
Benton shook his head. Kang Lin and every single one of his sect members had all chosen to embrace the pain in order to improve their spiritual roots by a single minor step.
Every. Single. One.
They were all in the stands in front of him in the lotus position, suffering. Occasionally, a grunt or a cry would escape from one or the other of them, but overall, they were mostly silent, the most intense expression of their agony a quiet writhing when they couldn’t quite keep still.
On one hand, he was so very, very proud of them. They’d accepted whatever cost was necessary for a small but crucial improvement in their status. On the other, he was horrified. Was the gain worth the pain?
He wished he could suffer for them. Instead, all he could do was stand watch over them as they endured.
Benton had waited for a little while after the cultivators began experiencing the intense pain before he released the villagers. He wanted them to see for themselves just how much the process hurt because they’d all be making that same decision for themselves in the future. It was better they went into it with open eyes, and he was quite serious about not looking down on anyone who chose not to take the improvement.
Not that he believed anyone would decline based on recent evidence.
Cultivation worlds were crazy.
If he’d made the same offer on Earth, some percentage would surely have taken him up on it. There were always driven people in any crowd, willing to overlook momentary discomfort for future gain. But he was positive most would have simply told him, “No thanks.”
The process took around twelve hours, and he stood there, watching over them, not doing anything else other than scanning with his spiritual sense the entire time. If they were willing to undergo such agony, the least he could do was to remain vigilant.