Chapter 255: Preparations for Departure
Since Benton made his decision to reset his morals back to Earth normal, he felt a lot better about things. No more wanton killing. That step would be one he’d take only if there were no other choice. He also felt good about his enhanced ability to defend his sect members no matter what his enemies brought against him.
Without a pressing need to exact more vengeance on the Jade Chameleons and having his main To Do item—increasing his power and the sect’s defenses by advancing to Nascent Soul—removed, it was time for Benton to reassess his short-term goals.
He wasn’t entirely through with defenses as he still thought rebuilding the towers was a good idea. That task had slid a bid down the priority list, though. A much more important project was creating tokens for all the sect members. Right now, no one but him could enter or exit the main sect grounds while the Grand Defensive Formation was active, which meant that, in practical terms, he couldn’t leave the array running. Tokens would grant access rights to the wearers, allowing him to keep protection active at all times.
Another important problem that needed resolved was the fact that Vermillion Incomparable Rain Town and the branch of the Rising Tide Sect located there were basically undefended. All they had was Fatty Ren who, admittedly, could fight a bit above his realm. In the end, though, he was only a Golden Core in the first minor realm. His palace had some minor formations protecting it, but the city walls had nothing.
Benton really needed to install a Grand Defense Formation there as well.
Additionally, the need for Qi Condensing Pills was starting to grow. The sect had inducted a lot of members recently. Previously, the cost of one third of a Shop Point per pill hadn’t seemed like all that much, but multiplying that fraction by hundreds added up fast. Benton had actually delayed using the pills on a couple of groups already because he hadn’t wanted to spend the points.
It was time for him to stop spending a limited resource—Shop Points—on something that he could craft himself. Once he purchased the necessary techniques using Sect Points to get his Alchemy to Expert level, he’d be able to produce all the pills he needed simply by using spirit coins to buy the necessary herbs.
Thinking about techniques reminded him that he also needed to buy a new Aura so that he could test how two of them worked together. Of course, those planned purchases conflicted with his intention to shift his focus from building his own power. He felt that the upgrades were necessary, though. After all, it would be a long time before he could rely on anyone other than himself to keep his people safe.
Long term, building his sect members up so they could take on those kinds of roles was absolutely his most important objective, though. One step for facilitating that goal in the short term meant spending more effort guiding the pavilions. For example, it was way past time for him to teach the members of the Formations Pavilion how to handle maintenance tasks. Though that didn’t seem like a priority at the moment, those members were basically spinning their wheels without a practical application to focus on.
He also needed to find Jin LiJuan and get her a cultivation method and techniques. She’d been instructed to come find him after finishing with the pills, but he’d been so busy that she might not have wanted to disturb him.
Even more important for powering up his sect was obtaining the necessary materials to create the qi sources as those would become a true game changer.
Thus, Benton created his new priority list.