Chapter 190: Procrastination
Benton soared through the air on his way to Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town, the wind washing through his hair and scouring away his troubles. He wished, anyway.
There was no telling when, not if, the Jade Chameleon Sect would retaliate for his actions or what form that reprisal would take. Part of his reason for destroying the branch sect grounds had been pure vengeance, but the main motive had been to send a message that he and his people were not to be messed with. He’d done it to keep his sect members safe.
His greatest fear was that the very act meant to protect them would be what led to their deaths.
If a single Nascent Soul cultivator came after him, he felt good about his chances of defending the sect and the village, but if multiple higher realmed cultivators attacked, there would be nothing he could do. His only way to truly defend his people was to become stronger, which meant ascending to Nascent Soul himself.
And to do that, he needed one thousand sect members who viewed him with an average loyalty rating of at least six point five and a minimum of half of whom lived in the main sect grounds.
With the loss of Ye Zan and the gain of the wolf cub, Fatty Ren, and the four former Righteous Rain Qi Gathering cultivators, the Rising Tide membership sat at two hundred sixty-seven. After inducting the one hundred ninety-five recruits Fatty Ren found, that number would rise to four hundred sixty-two. The next induction of villagers would put the sect at more than half the target.
It was tempting—so, so tempting—to simply recruit the rest of the people immediately. Dragging the rest of the villagers out to the amphitheater and inducting them would be a piece of cake. Everyone was eager to join up. Even considering the recent trouble with the Jade Chameleon Sect, the advantages far outweighed the risks for the mortals.
The problem was that the sect was not big enough to take in so many people. They didn’t have the infrastructure or the personnel to handle the influx. Benton’s gut told him that trying to do that in an unorganized manner would hurt the sect in the long run.
The question was whether it would save them in the short run, in which case the long-term risk was worth it.
Really, the decision came down to the answer to two questions. The first was how and when would the Jade Chameleon Sect react? If they immediately sent all their Nascent Souls to the village, he was cooked if he didn’t reach that realm first. But everything he and Su knew about sects told him that the Jade Chameleons would move cautiously.
They had been put in a precarious position. The Emperor’s faction and the other two of the big three had to be sniffing at their holdings. One wrong move could cause everyone to pounce. Trying to strike at Benton and failing would prove disastrous for them.
They also had no idea of Benton’s true strength. He’d proven strong enough to kill a large force of Golden Core cultivators, which was something no one of a similar realm should be able to do. Combined with the inability of anyone to sense him, they should suspect he was at least at Nascent Soul. No other interpretation of the facts made sense as his true situation was, to the best of his knowledge, unprecedented.