Chapter 305: New Arrivals
Benton was well pleased with the equipment he’d provided Zou Tian, though the boy’s reaction had been muted at best. He was simply too used to being provided with impossible items to be truly impressed with anything. On the plus side, Yuan Yaozu’s response, as much as he’d tried to hide it, had totally made up for Zou Tian’s lack of enthusiasm.
Almost as good, a Golden Core cultivator from the Premiere Jade Treasures Auction House arrived on a flying sword to deliver the rest of the goods Benton had ordered, prominent among them everything he needed to craft the Time and Momentum qi sources, so he got right to work.
Between his experience in having made two of them already and liberal use of Time Manipulation, he created both of them and installed them in rooms by early the following morning, summoning Peng Hanying and Yang Ru soon after to get them started using Time dilation to accelerate their growth.
Even though none of the sect members so far had experienced any ill effects from using the dilation, Benton still forced the two to proceed cautiously, using the same stair stepped approach to increasing the number of sessions that the others had.
Yang Ru was given the extra warning to make sure to balance his cultivating Momentum with at least the occasional session in the Fire room when it became available. Though he didn’t focus on the aspect, the amount he did use it plus the fact that it so prominently featured in the unique verbiage of his aspect meant it would be an enormous mistake to neglect it completely.
Later that day, the sect had another arrival—a small caravan from Sixth Flawless Flowing City. Besides a couple of merchants, drivers, and a few guards, the main people arriving were the expected eight person acting troupe Kang Ya-Ting had procured and the disguised peak Golden Core cultivator from the Poison Claw Sect who was to use the Trials Pagoda.
After sending everyone else to the cafeteria for refreshments and asking the troupe to wait there until summoned, Benton escorted the cultivator to his office where Yuan Yaozu, summoned via message dragon, waited.
As soon as they were inside the formation protected room, the woman shed her illusionary disguise. “Greetings, Sect Leader Chao Su. This one is Duan Lan.”
Yikes. Everything about her from the tone of her voice to her posture radiated pure stress. The lady looked so taut that she was about to break.
After Benton returned her greeting, Yuan Yaozu said, “Elder Duan, you have not been deceived. The Trials Pagoda is real, and it’s probably even more amazing than you were told.”
Ah. Healthy skepticism warring with hope would explain how tense she appeared to be. Benton hadn’t thought much about the woman’s plight, but sympathy for her situation flooded him at the realization.
“Truly?” she said.