Chapter 322: A Gain, Tests, and a Reversal
A few days had passed since Benton had put on his performance at the steering committee meeting, and all was quiet. Neither Mao Biya nor the Jade Chameleon Sect had made any overt moves against City Lord’s faction. But that was fine. Expected. After all, Benton could have been paying Qiu ZhenKang off for something that had nothing to do with them.
Benton had an idea that might anger them enough to take actions that would push the City Lord’s faction away from them, but it would have to wait until the tournament started. For the moment, it was time to test his Aura suppression against multiple Nascent Soul opponents. He Teleported to the arena at the Poison Claw branch sect. Kang Ya-Ting and Elder Dai were already there, and they all exchanged greetings.
“Revered Senior Sister Duan Lan will be here momentarily,” Elder Dai said. “We also secured the participation of two of our three Nascent Souls who aren’t in seclusion, Revered Elder Xu Chuanli and Revered Elder Tang Huan. Unfortunately, Revered Elder Luo Xiaotong has other commitments.”
“That’s fine. Yuan Yaozu makes four, which should be a good test.”
Five would have been better, but Benton felt sure that he could extrapolate results well enough that the lesser number would work. Gathering so many Nascent Souls was not a trivial task, after all.
Soon, Duan Lan did, in fact, show up, and right after a round of greetings were exchanged, Benton Teleported to his sect and brought Yuan Yaozu back to the arena with him.
Benton noticed a small bead of sweat on Kang Ya-Ting’s brow.
Nascent Souls naturally exuded a small representation of their Aura, one that they really couldn’t control unless they’d practiced their technique extensively—or unless they’d cheated and paid to have the System bring it to Mastery. So having two of them nearby had a noticeable, though not too intense, effect on the Golden Cores.
“The plan is simple,” Benton said, once yet another round of greetings were complete. “I need both of you to attack me simultaneously with your Auras.”
Targeted use of Auras was much different than the naturally emitted pressure, and even at just Small Success—the level at which Nascent Souls started with their techniques—attacks were eminently controllable. Thus, since no powerful qi techniques were expected to be used, there was no need to move the test farther out onto the arena floor. Kang Ya-Ting and Elder Dai didn’t even need to move away as the Nascent Souls’ control extended to including and excluding any targets they desired from the effects.
“Begin,” Benton said.
A pressure descended upon him as two Auras sought to suppress him. To test the impact of the restraint, he used his Concept of Light to send what amounted to a laser pointer beam at both his sparring partners. A red dot appeared on each of their foreheads.