The Sect Leader System-Chapter 335: What Was I Thinking?
Once Benton happened to consider using karma as a method to determine who deserved to be offered an invitation to the sect, his first action was to buy a Knowledge of Karma technique from the System for four Sect Points.
The information granted was sparser than Benton’s experience with other such techniques led him to expect, but after further inquiries, the System revealed that its information on the subject was limited.
Good to know that even the almighty System had limitations.
The bottom line, to the best of what the technique revealed to him, was that karma increased with positive thoughts, words, and deeds and decreased when those were instead negative.
Another major point was that karma was only gained or lost based on intention. Say a man stepped on an innocent person’s foot. The circumstances behind the move mattered. If the act was an accident, karma remained constant. If intentional, karma decreased.
The exact amount of the decrease wasn’t something that the System could calculate, however, as it varied based on way too many factors. How much harm was done? What was the karma score of the innocent person? How bad was the injury? What were the follow-on effects of the wound?
Those were apparently just some of the variables involved.
The System also revealed that Benton, upon buying an appropriate Concept, could obtain a karma score on a targeted individual. Which was fantastic. Exactly what he wanted.
Only it wasn’t exactly what he wanted.
Benton basically wanted to know if someone was good or bad, a measure of who someone was inside their heart. Karma didn’t measure a person’s innate goodness, only their actions. Circumstances could drive a good person to bad acts. Thus, It was possible for a person Benton would consider to be good to have a negative karma score and vice versa.
That the score was based on intent, however, helped tremendously in making it an indicator of what Benton wanted to measure, especially when taken as an average over the subject’s lifetime. He felt fairly confident in saying that a person with a decently high average score was probably a decent person.
His first test revealed that Gao Zian averaged around a positive fifteen hundred per year. Which seemed solid. But Benton had no idea what the number actually meant.
The next test was on the Jade Chameleon arrogant young master. Negative seventy-five hundred per year. That seemed really awful, like someone who went around performing bad acts constantly. But again, Benton didn’t know that for sure.
He needed more data.
The obvious thing to do was to measure the karma of his own kids, but honestly, that felt intrusive. So the next best thing was to run tests on his potential new members, which was something he was considering doing for inductees going forward, anyway.
The practice was still invasive, obviously, but it would make him feel better about giving someone access to the power inherent in his superior scriptures. He didn’t necessarily need to check all the clan kids, but a sampling was necessary, both to establish a baseline and to ensure that most of the clan was, in fact, good.
Benton messaged Sun Hua, and soon, ten of the clan members were escorted into his office.
He was quite pleased with the orb and readout he’d created. It would have been easy to simply upgrade Analysis to include the information he needed, but that wouldn’t help his sect members in the future. So, instead, he’d created an all-in-one test orb that output data to a tablet.
Drawing on the System, it displayed all the information Analysis normally did—name, age, affiliation, cultivation specifics, spiritual roots, and aspect. Additionally, he had it reveal the subject’s average karma score. It was everything his sect members would need to decide to offer membership and, if they did, to determine what cultivation method to provide the subject.
Benton suspected that the device he’d put together on a whim might become a crucial tool for the Rising Tide Sect’s future.
Perfect.
Of the ten clan kids he tested, the lowest was in the eleven hundred range and the highest in the low three thousands. None were negative. Given the mindset of cultivators in general and the brutality he’d seen of sect members other than his own, he figured that was pretty darn good.
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“Okay,” he said to Gao Zian once all the others had cleared out of the office, “I feel comfortable offering you and your entire clan membership in my sect.”
Contrary to Benton’s expectations, the patriarch didn’t jump at the offer.
Instead, he said, “May this one inquire as to why the sect leader would extend this offer? No one in the clan is particularly talented, and the average Rising Tide Sect member already possesses more martial might than any in the clan as well.”
Benton shrugged. “To stagnate is to die. Growth is imperative. Move upward or perish. I can offer you as many platitudes as you want, but the gist is that we’re a small sect. We need to grow, and it’s not easy finding people we can trust.”
“The sect leader trusts us?”
“Not totally, obviously, but enough to establish an ongoing relationship.”
The barest hint of a frown appeared on the patriarch’s face. “What would be expected of us, Sect Leader?”
“To be honest, little. Cultivate. Grow. You’ll mostly manage yourselves. Try to keep our affiliation on the down low until all this mess with the JCSB blows over. Once that happens, which will hopefully be soon, we’ll discuss integrating everyone.”
Gao Zian sighed. “Permission to speak freely, Sect Leader?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t see what you get out of this deal. You’re basically adding around two hundred random people into your sect. Sure, we have a lot more training than an average peasant, but given what you can offer, I’m not sure that we present much of an upgrade over a random person off the street.”
“You know what? You’re right. What was I thinking?” Benton got up like he was planning on leaving the room. The yell came just as he was about to open the door.
“Wait!”
Benton turned around. “Yeah?”
“You changed your mind just like that?”
“No. I just wanted to see your reaction.” Benton grinned. “It was kind of funny, to tell you the truth.”
Gao Zian just kind of sputtered, his mouth making noises but none of them coherent enough to be recognized as a word.
“Look, some of what I do is, frankly, inscrutable,” Benton said. “I know there’s not a lot of trust between us, but I absolutely will get something out of your clan joining me. And that something that I gain will not harm you or, really, affect you at all.”
The patriarch very clearly mulled that over for a while. “A leader having secrets regarding his faction makes sense. There are matters regarding the clan that I’d prefer not to reveal even to the closest of allies. So I can accept that you have valid reasons for wanting us in your sect. It’s more difficult to accept that those reasons won’t impact us.”
Benton shrugged again. “Frankly… I don’t care? It’s not like I’m begging you to join. If you’re not interested, I’ll get you back to your home, and we’ll go our separate ways. No hard feelings as far as I’m concerned.”
“Truly?”
“Yeah. I would bear you no ill will. Why would I?”
“Why indeed.” Gao Zian sighed. “If I accept, I’m taking a risk of you having nefarious intentions. If I refuse, I possibly pass up a chance to make my clan much, much stronger than it ever would have a chance to be otherwise.”
“That’s about the sum of it.”
The patriarch paused again, looking very conflicted. “Can you at least explain to me why it is so important to you that only people with good karma are inducted?”
Benton frowned. “See, that question worries me. I get that your clan is pretty much, by definition, your family, but if you had a choice, wouldn’t you prefer to let in only good people versus bad?”
“Of course I would.”
“I’m confused then,” Benton said. “If you’re so adamant about what your decision would be, why would you not think that I would answer the same way?”
For once, Benton wasn’t being lighthearted with his question, either. He was honestly perplexed.
Gao Zian’s eyes went wide. “This one simply didn’t think of it in that manner, Sect Leader.”
“Okay…”
“The Sect Leader has indulged this one beyond any reasonable expectations, but if this one could ask one more question?”
“Sure.”
“What would you say is your sect’s mission, Sect Leader?”
“Ah. That’s an easy one.” Benton realized that was pretty much the first thing he should tell anyone who considered joining. “When I created the sect, I made a promise to the heavens regarding just that subject, which was witnessed with quite the display of purple lightning. Impressed my members, it did, believe you me.”
Gao Zian seemed astonished as well, especially since that wasn’t the kind of thing one could lie about as the heavens tended to take a dim view of using its name in vain. A cultivator who claimed to have promise witnessed who didn’t was likely to experience that purple lightning up close and personal like.
“The mission is in the sect’s name,” Benton said. “A rising tide lifts all boats. We lift each other up. We want those around us to rise even as we seek the heavens ourselves. Further, the Rising Tide Sect is a righteous sect, not simply in the context of opposing demonic sects but in the true meaning of the word. Our members seek righteousness. We protect the innocent. We punish evil. We are bound by our word.”
A small flash of purple lightning lit up the office, and Benton smiled. “See?”
“That… I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“Hang around me long enough, and it’ll become common.”
Gao Zian closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them. “This lowly one cannot refute the heavens. Considering your sect’s mission and what it offers, the clan would be fools to refuse such a generous offer. If you’re still offering, that is?”
“I am.”
With the negotiations—such that they were—settled, it was time for logistics. Gao Zian flew a glider alone back to his sect. Once there, he popped a contingency ring given to him for just that purpose, and the beacon produced by the device gave Benton what he needed to Teleport directly to the clan’s home.
After that, he Teleported both of them back to the compound before moving all the clan back home. Benton had Huang Yimun, five guards, and Sun Hua accompany them as well, and over the next half day she inducted everyone and got them settled with cultivation methods.
By afternoon of the next day, the Rising Tide Sect had grown by one hundred ninety-seven members.
