The Sect Leader System

The next qi-rich material, a rank eleven Ice aspected beast core, came up on the block next, and Benton leaned forward on his seat. With his trade for Ice Lotus with Elder Feng of the Poison Claw Sect and the earlier purchase of the rock steeped in the qi of an Ice cave, that core would complete the set of three that Benton needed to create a qi source for Yang Xiu.

He had to have that beast core, no matter the cost. Sitting on a bit over one point three million greater spirit coins he’d netted from the auction thus far plus several hundred thousand that he’d started with, he was ready to spend every single coin to acquire it.

As per usual, the bidding quickly reached fifty thousand. Also as normal, the bids slowed down, increasing by only one thousand each until he held the highest bid at fifty-seven thousand. That was when the auction took an unexpected turn.

There were no more bids.

Benton won the core for fifty-seven thousand greater spirit coins. Not a hundred and fifty-seven. Not one million five hundred seventy thousand. Just fifty-seven thousand.

That was slightly less than the Fire beast core would have gone for if not for his foil’s interference despite being one rank higher. Which tracked. Ice was not nearly as popular with cultivators as Fire. Nor was it as commonly found in disciple’s aspects.

Benton was quite grateful for the room’s privacy arrays as he burst out laughing. He knew that making his foil overpay for the Fire beast core had probably been damaging to that person, but it must have burned them more than he’d thought if they were giving up already.

Of course, maybe they were just taking a break so as to be more unpredictable, but either way, he’d take the win.

Next, the first talismans of the auction made an appearance, and though Benton wasn’t interested in buying any, the sale reminded him of their existence. He’d barely thought about the devices since his encounter with that creep who stalked Yang Xiu. The unfortunate nature of his introduction to them aside, they were actually quite handy, allowing anyone, even a mortal, to command the power of whatever cultivator had created the talisman simply by tearing a piece of paper.

If he were looking to provide protection for his sect members—which he definitely was!—what better way was there than to give them all multiple talismans that he created with Nascent Soul level attacks and defenses? He made a mental note to buy the necessary skills in time to prepare plenty of talismans for the tournament.

As he was deep into consideration of which of his techniques would be best to imbue into talismans, one of his swords came up—the Space Blade. Benton actually had high hopes for that one as the attack was a special one that he called Spatial Tear. It essentially opened an infinitesimally small tear in space, which had very interesting properties.

For one thing, it was nearly invisible, and while a cultivator who had trained their spiritual sense and was paying close attention could detect where the qi from the sword landed, the tear itself did not emit qi once it was established. Basically, one’s opponent would have a brief moment where they could possibly note that qi from the blade was doing something in a specific area. Unless that opponent happened to use a Spatial element, though, they wouldn’t see or sense the tear itself.