Benton was both worried and gladdened by the choice his council had made. They had chosen the path of danger, which came with obvious risks, but he felt like none of them were going into the situation blindly or taking the danger for granted. Instead, they’d given the matter consideration and decided that the gains were worth the potential price.

Of course, young people tended to think themselves invulnerable—sometimes old fools did, too, as he’d recently found out—making them prone to weigh benefits more highly than potential losses. And if their decision led to any of them dying, he’d never forgive himself.

Evelyn would have shared those exact concerns, and she would have told him that keeping the kids confined to the house and never letting them explore the world was bad, too. Which was worse—dying or never living?

Regardless, the die was cast. If he had been adamantly opposed to their decision, he would never have left it up to them in the first place, so now that they’d made it, he’d accept it.

“Gratitude to all of you for serving the sect in making this determination,” Benton said. “Now that it has been made, it is important that we all pull in the same direction. Even if you voted Stay and you unbendingly believe your position is right, I implore you to put aside those thoughts. The goal for all of us now is to make our participation in the tournament as safe and rewarding as possible.”

So far, the council members hadn’t shown much animosity when their choices were overruled. Which kind of made sense. Most of them were very young and had no experience with leadership. They were still getting used to the idea of being in charge, and the thought that everyone should be forced to do what they wanted was still a foreign concept.

Benton hoped it would be a long, long time before internal political divisions started playing a role in the sect administration. That such would happen was inevitable, but he’d fight tooth and nail to hold it off as long as he could.

Getting back to his address to the council, he’d already told them about which contests were being held and how they were divided by realm. Now, it was time to dive a bit more into the logistical details. “In no more than four months, we must send notice of how many of our members are competing in which contests and divisions. Approximately three weeks after that, we must send a detailed list along with names and realms. That’s the deadline for us to decide who is participating and for the chosen members to solidify their realm.”

He glanced at each of the councilors, assuring that he had their attention. “You’re probably asking—how are the participants chosen? The answer is easy. The pavilion heads will make that determination.”

As usual, Yang Xiu was the first to speak. “What’s the criteria, Master?”

“That’s up to the pavilion leader. How to choose the participants. How many participants. All of it is completely up to the discretion of the person or persons in charge of each of the relevant pavilions.”

Yuan Yaozu looked concerned about that proclamation.

“I will give you two pieces of advice for your consideration,” Benton said. “One, there is admittedly danger involved. Everyone going will get a contingency ring, and I’ll probably come up with some other types of protective treasures as well. But the participants need to both be aware of that danger and be capable of handling some measure of it. Obviously, I can’t be everywhere at once. A smaller group is easier to protect.

“Two, we have two things we want out of the tournament. The lesser one is to show the other factions our strength. I’m with Yang Ru on this one. To a great extent, how we see ourselves matters a lot more than how others see us. However, there is some cooperation required among the factions, and being perceived as strong helps with that. Bringing obviously weak and unprepared members will not help us in that regard much. For example, while I’m pleased with the progress of our martial members and think the Alchemy Pavilion is coming along nicely, the Formations Pavilion isn’t quite where it needs to be to compete against other sects, and I don’t think it will get there in less than five months.”

“Agreed, Sect Leader,” Xiang Da said. “Besides, most of us are more inclined toward reading books than we are to going on adventures. We’ll be just fine staying home and repairing any problems with the arrays. I do have one request, however?”

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“Go for it,” Benton said.

“You mentioned repairing the towers? Which will mean a lot of intense formations work. I know we’re not ready to help with such a complex undertaking, but I believe that simply watching what you do will help us immensely. We already feel like we’re advancing much faster after simply learning about the arrays used on the houses and such.”

Benton only had to think for a moment. With him at Nascent Soul and Yuan Yaozu available for protection for the next century, the value of keeping the towers’ arrays completely secret was severely lessened. Besides, observers from the factions had seen what they could do. Not to mention that, even if preserving secrecy were paramount, Benton trusted his people.

“Permission granted,” Benton said. “I’ll message you before I start the work.”

The Formations Pavilion Leader cupped his hands. “Gratitude.”

“Okay,” Benton said. “The second goal for the tournament is for it to benefit the participants’ advancement. When you’re thinking of whom to send, don’t only choose the most powerful or most skilled members. Think about who might gain insight from watching their peers or might need the challenge to rise above. Leading a pavilion isn’t just about logistics or being the best at that particular skill. It’s about knowing your members and figuring out how to help them improve. Understand?”

“Yes, Sect Leader,” the pavilion heads chorused.

Benton smiled. He really did have good people. “I’ll leave the rest to you, then. I would tell you to feel free to reach out to me for help or advice, but for at least the next month or two, I’ll be so busy that you should only come to me in an emergency. In fact, consider me absent from the sect during that time, just like when I was building the towers in the first place.”

Sun Hua looked panicked.

“I see you understand, my highly capable assistant,” Benton said. “I think I made it apparent that I intend for Yang Xiu and Yang Ru to eventually inherit this sect. They were my first disciples and have continued to impress me with their talent and diligence. Both are excelling in martial might and cultivation progress.”

The twins cupped their hands.

“Being strong and advancing to a high realm is an important part of being a sect leader,” Benton said. “However, it’s not the only crucial aspect. Running a sect requires skills and knowledge in administration and logistics. I want both of you to take turns working under Sun Hua, learning everything she does for the sect. I don’t expect you to be able to perform her functions as well as she does them, but you need to understand the what and the how and why it’s so important.”

It was Yang Xiu’s turn to look panicked.

Benton hid a grin. “Don’t worry. I know you’ve got way too much on your plates until after the tournament, so let’s put a timetable on that. Starting six months from today, I want one of you to shadow Sun Hua for an entire month, and at the end of that month, the other will take that same position. Fair?”

“Yes, Master,” the two said.

“In the interim,” Benton said, “you both will be as busy as I am, and running the sect is mainly an administrative function. Sun Hua, you are the acting sect leader whenever I’m indisposed until I state otherwise.”

She swallowed. Hard. “Y-yes, Sect Leader.”

“Remember that you’re not alone in this.” Benton met the eyes of every other person present in turn. “I expect every member of this council to lend any aid they can to you. Ask and ye shall receive. Understand?”

“Yes, Sect Leader.” That time, she seemed much more sure of her answer.

Good.

“Now, there is a caveat to you being in charge,” Benton said. “You are fantastic at the administrative side of running things. On the other hand, you have little to no experience with combat or fighting. If there is any threat to the sect at all during the time when you’re in charge, you need to take decisive action on a limited decision tree. If it’s a true emergency, crack your contingency ring to summon me. If you’re not sure if it’s a true emergency, ask Yuan Yaozu, Zou Tian, or the twins. If it’s not an emergency, pass temporary leadership of the sect over to the highest ranking member of the Martial Pavilion that you can. My preference for order would be the twins, Zou Tian, Huang Yimun, Hou Yazhu, and Zi Delan. Works?”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

Benton felt a bit bad about leaving Yuan Yaozu and Kang Lin out of the chain of succession, but while it felt right to treat disciples like sect members most of the time, it simply didn’t seem like a good idea for a member of another sect to be appointed sect leader, no matter how temporary the basis.

“Does anyone have anything they’d like to add?” Benton said.

No one did.

“Great. Yuan Yaozu and Zou Tian, please stay back for a few minutes,” Benton said. “The rest of you are dismissed.”

While everyone filed out, Benton mentally reviewed his To Do List for the next week.

Repair/Rebuild Towers

Make and Distribute More Contingency Rings

Create GDF for Fatty Ren’s Palace

Forge Sword and Glaive for PCS Elders

Upgrade Personal Power in Preparation for Mountain Excursion

He mentally frowned at the necessity for that last one. Since he felt ready to take on a dozen or so rival Nascent Souls on his own, powering up more felt a bit overblown.

There was no guarantee, though, that the cyclops was the most powerful creature on the mountain. Not wanting to risk bringing more heat down on himself at the time, Benton hadn’t done an extensive scan of the area, and while any number of equivalent peak Nascent Soul beasts didn’t faze him, who knew if there was one at the equivalent of the Nihility realm. After all, such a beast would probably have the ability to hide itself from a cursory scan.

Never again would he underestimate the power of those higher in rank than him. Never again.