Unintended Cultivator

With Duan Yuxuan’s certainty that Master Feng would show up there at some point, Sen found himself stuck in one place with no clear picture of when he might leave. It was a strange feeling for someone who, aside from his time trapped at the cult, had rarely stopped anywhere for more than a night or two. Worse still, he had nothing that he needed to be doing. There were plenty of things he could be doing. After that afternoon with the jian students, he’d been inundated with requests for him to do everything from provide guest lectures on an array of subjects, most of which he was woefully unprepared to teach about, to offer private training sessions. He’d pretended not to notice that most of those requests came from women. He had politely declined them all, choosing instead to occasionally drop in on the jian students, or wander the halls looking for things of interest.

He spent most of one day sitting in on classes with their formation master. He’d asked a few questions that had caught the man’s attention and, seemingly, left the other students baffled. The formation master had dismissed his students early that afternoon in favor of having an in-depth discussion with Sen about formation theory. Sen wasn’t sure how much their formation master got out of the discussion, but Sen had found it enormously helpful in clarifying some of the things he’d have to run experiments to confirm. He had made a point to find out where the alchemy classes were held and steered well clear of that part of the compound. He worried that there would be another awkward bidding war if they caught sight of him.

He also found elders offering instruction on fire cultivation to students of all levels. He always stopped, listened, and even participated in those classes when he could. Strength was all well and good, but he’d learned through hard experience that efficiency was often just as important. The tips and ideas he picked up didn’t always work for him. He wasn’t a pure fire cultivator the way most of the elders and students were, so some of what they practiced simply wouldn’t work for him, and other things didn’t work for him the same way. He’d seen students conjuring blades of flame and inquired about their process. When he tried it, he got a ten-foot arch of multicolored sparks. It was pretty enough and would be distracting as the hells to an enemy, but it most certainly wasn’t a bar of white-hot death. He stuck around and experimented until he could produce something similar to their flame swords. When he explained how he generated it, the instructor shook his head and muttered something about cultivation geniuses doing impossible things. Sen hadn’t found it impossible, just difficult.

On some days, though, he just found the compound stifling. He missed being out on the road, moving from place to place, breathing different air in the evening than he had in the morning. He did not miss the running for his life part as much. That he could do without, thank you very much. Sure, he’d benefited from that mad scramble to stay ahead of the demonic cultivators. He’d pushed his formation knowledge ahead enough that he was starting to feel like his cultivation was lagging behind his understanding. All of the chaos had done much the same for his alchemy knowledge. He imagined that some cultivators would think it was a small enough price to pay, but he wasn’t one of them. He’d left the mountain to see and experience the world, not run through it as fast as he could to avoid looming death.

On those days when it felt like the walls of the compound were going to suffocate him, he’d usually just wander out into the valley until dark, set up his tent, and spend a night in the company of nature. That had been his plan when he left the compound that morning, right up until an unwelcome guest invited herself along for his walk. The white-haired cultivator, who had introduced herself as Li Ju, kept up an almost non-stop stream of words from the moment they left the compound until Sen picked an arbitrary moment to sit down on a rock and eat some lunch. He passed her some food and, briefly, silence reigned in Sen’s world. As soon as lunch was over, though, Li Ju launched into more tales of…something. Sen had stopped really listening to her after the first ten minutes. It wasn’t until he registered that she’d said something about cutting off someone’s head that he focused on her. He dredged his mind for what she’d been talking about. Something about a dress and nasty comments. He stopped in his tracks and turned narrowed eyes on her.

“You cut off someone’s head because they said something mean about your dress?”

She shot him a withering look in return. “Of course, I didn’t cut someone’s head off because they insulted my dress. What kind of person do you take me for?”

“A cultivator,” said Sen in a flat, unemotional voice.

It seemed that Li Ju didn’t have a prepared answer to that because she just gaped at him for a minute. By the time she’d gathered her wits enough to speak again, Sen had already turned and walked away.

“I just wanted to see how outrageous I’d need to get before you started paying attention to me,” she said to his back.

“And you thought following me out here, to the place I like to come and be alone, was the best way of getting my attention?”

“You avoid me in the compound.”

“You can think of that as a not very subtle clue.”

“Why won’t you teach me?” she demanded.

“I’m a bad teacher,” said Sen. “Or, I don’t have the time. Or, the threads of karma aren’t right. Or, I just don’t want to. Pick a reason that suits you, and I’ll agree with it.”

“I want to know the real reason. You clearly aren’t too busy since you can teach those sword brats.”

Sen’s patience twisted, frayed, and snapped. He whirled and pointed at her. “That! That right there. That’s why.”

She frowned at him like she couldn’t understand what he was trying to get at. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s the other reason.”

She glared at him. “Then explain it to me like I’m stupid.”

“You’re arrogant. I make time for those sword brats you disdain so much because they aren’t. They know that they have a lot to learn and will do damn near anything I ask them to do in the name of improvement. You already think you know everything of value in alchemy. In fact, I bet you thought that it would only take, what, a day or two to pick out whatever little nuggets of wisdom I possess.”

Li Ju’s cheeks went bright red at those words. “I didn’t think that…exactly.”

“Sure. Here’s the point. I’d spend half my time arguing with you about every little thing you know is true. You think you want to learn, but you don’t. You want me to make you feel good about what you already know. That’s a waste of your time and mine. If it makes you feel any better, though, I’m not teaching any of your competition and for nearly identical reasons. Plus, I expect I’ll be leaving soon. So, you won’t have to deal with me after that.”

Li Ju paced back and forth, clearly trying to work up some argument or some way to convince Sen. He found a tree to lean against while she processed the fact that she just wasn’t going to get her way this time. When she seemed to come to grips with that, she turned and gave him what he supposed she thought was a seductive look.

“If you won’t teach me, then I don’t suppose you’d be interested in some-,” she started but trailed off when she saw Sen was shaking his head. “Really? Why not?”

“Well, if for no other reason, I’m certain that Lo Meifeng has no desire to watch or listen to us have sex,” said Sen, before raising his voice and shouting, “Am I wrong about that, Lo Meifeng?”

“You are not wrong,” a voice drifted out of the nearby woods.

Li Ju spun in the direction the voice had come from. “Has she been following us all day?”

“Yeah,” said Sen with indifference. “It’s sort of her job.”

“What if I’d attacked you?”

“Then, I probably would have cut your head off.”

“What if I caught you by surprise?”

“If you got the drop on me and it looked like I was in mortal danger, I expect she’d have killed you.”

Li Ju shook her head. “This is normal for you?”

“I suppose it is, at this point.”

“No wonder everyone is so afraid of you.”

“Well,” said Sen, “I can’t really help how other people feel about anything.”

“Leaving your pet assassin at home sometimes would probably help.”

Sen shrugged at that. Li Ju seemed to realize that the conversation could only get more awkward from there, so she made some excuses about her duties and hurried away. Sen was so happy she was gone that he could have done a little dance. Instead, he turned back the way he had been heading and walked deeper into the untamed parts of the valley. A few hours later, he set up camp and, after a little consideration, he made a big meal. He looked out into the darkness where he was pretty sure that Lo Meifeng was eating something cold and unappetizing.

“Put whatever that is away and come have some hot food,” he shouted.

There was a brief pause and then Lo Meifeng hesitantly walked into the light cast by the campfire. Sen just held out a plate to her. She took it and started eating, but he could feel her looking at him every five seconds or so.

“Don’t read anything into it,” he said. “You were helpful. That earned you a hot meal.”

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