Unintended Cultivator

One moment, Sen was standing there. The next he was being ushered into the back of the establishment where he passed rooms that often seemed to have a preposterous amount of decoration and a host of young women and men. Some of them stared at Sen with pure curiosity, others with vaguely concerned looks, and one young man glared at him with open hostility. He barely had time to register any of that before the manager of the place was peppering him with questions, yet never letting him get a word in edgewise. The woman’s daughter, or niece, he hadn’t decided yet, was on the other side doing the same thing. The two women eventually showed him into a lavishly decorated room.

“Is the young master hungry? Or does he require a bath? Would he like the services of one of the young ladies or young men?” asked the manager of the place at a rapid-fire pace.

Sen held up a hand and the manager immediately fell silent. “I’m sorry, but I don’t really understand what’s happening.”

“Feng Ming is the patriarch of this establishment,” said the manager in a hushed, reverential tone. “He told us that if ever someone should arrive and say he had sent them, we were to provide that guest with all due courtesy and respect.”

“I…I see,” said Sen.

He had seen enough to understand that he was standing in a brothel and that this was likely some manner of joke on the part of Master Feng. Then again, maybe the old man just assumed that Sen would want some company. Even after years of knowing the man, Sen often struggled to discern Master Feng’s motives for anything. Sen wasn’t all that surprised to know that Master Feng had a hand in the ownership or operation of this place. If the man had once bought a pastry shop because a little girl called him grandpa, then he probably bought this place because one of the girls had a nice smile and offered him wine, or something equally unremarkable.

“Does the young master require anything?” the young woman asked.

“Just a place to sleep and a bath. Oh, and perhaps you can find the location of a business in the city for me.”

“Where does the young master wish to go?” asked the manager, looking relieved that Sen had finally said he wanted something.

“I will dispatch someone to find it for you immediately.”

“Oh, um, thank you. If they can find it for me by tomorrow, I expect that will be soon enough.”

“Of course. I’ll leave my daughter here to attend to your bath,” said the manager, vanishing out of the room before Sen could protest that all he really needed was directions.

The young woman issued whispered orders out the door to someone that Sen couldn’t see, then she just stood there, waiting expectantly for Sen to do, he didn’t know what. He occupied himself by looking around the room. Compared to the tent he’d been sleeping in recently, the place looked decadent to his eyes. Everything bit of cloth was silk. All of the wood in the room was heavily carved and gilded. There were more pillows on the bed than any five people could possibly find a use for. There was even a dresser with a small mirror laid carefully on top. When he ran out of things to look at, Sen turned his gaze back to the young woman. She had been studying him but dropped her gaze immediately when he turned to her.

“This room is very nice but well beyond my needs or, I expect, my means.”

“You are a guest of Feng Ming’s. Anything you require will be provided free of charge,” said the young woman.

She had looked almost offended that Sen would suggest he might need to pay for something within the walls of the brothel. He supposed asking for a simpler room was likely out of the question as well. He was deeply relieved when he heard a whispered voice from the door. The manager’s daughter gestured toward the door.

“A bath has been prepared for you,” she said. “If you’ll follow me.”

Sen did as he was instructed and followed the girl. Since everything he owned was in his storage rings, he left the room precisely as he found it. The bath was located in a private room, which Sen suspected was reserved for the most important customers. He touched the water and found it pleasantly hot. It had been some time since he’d last had access to a proper bath, and he wanted to take advantage of it. He examined his own internal state. He was healed from the battle with the spirit beasts, at least in the most technical sense. His physical injuries no longer bothered him, yet he could tell that some things lingered, deep down in his tissues. After considering what might best help him, he began pulling ingredients from his storage ring and sprinkling them over the bath. When the mixture felt right to him, he straightened up and began undressing. Glancing over at the door, Sen was startled to see that the manager’s daughter was still there and had disrobed.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“You are an honored guest of The Silver Crane. Do you not wish company? If you do not find me pleasing, I can summon another.”

The girl seemed a little crestfallen that Sen might send her away. He thought for a moment, looking for a graceful way to say that he was just tired.

“I find you very pleasing,” he said, hoping to assuage any wounded self-worth. “I was injured recently. This is a medicinal bath.”

That seemed to pique the young woman’s interest. “Truly? Are you a healer?”

Sen finished undressing as he answered. “At times and at need.”

The girl walked over and looked down at the plants and herbs floating on the surface. “Will it harm me?”

Sen opened his mouth to say yes, but he honestly didn’t know. He let a bit of qi slip free from his control and wash over the girl. She spun to look at him, her eyes wide, but relaxed when his qi retreated a moment later. He was surprised to discover that she was a cultivator in her own right. She’d made some progress in the qi condensing stage. He’d been so distracted by everything and semi-blinded by his hiding that he just hadn’t spotted it. After a moment of reflection, he shook his head.

“No, I don’t suppose it will harm you. I just don’t know that it will help you, either.”

The girl shrugged and Sen found himself very distracted for a moment before he got his focus back in order. The medicinal herbs were potent, but that potency wouldn’t last forever. He stepped into the bath and sank down into the water, letting the heat and the smell of the medicinal plants wash over him. Sen felt it when the girl stepped into the water.

“If we’re going to bathe together, I suppose I should at least know what to call you,” said Sen, not even opening his eyes.

There was such a long pause that Sen did eventually open his eyes. The girl was studying him again, as though she could divine something from his features that way that some claimed to divine from tea leaves.

“You’re a cultivator?” she asked, instead of answering his question.

“I am.”

“Why can’t I sense you?”

“It’s a trick. Helps me avoid,” he weighed a few words that might be appropriate, “complications.”

“How advanced is your cultivation?” she asked, although she sounded nervous about it.

Sen supposed it was a common enough question among cultivators. Of course, most cultivators didn’t have Sen’s trick and could get a feel for the general level of advancement of other cultivators they met. If he was keeping himself hidden, she might think he was going to be annoyed with such questions. He waved a hand in the air.

“Foundation formation, somewhere in the middle stage.”

“This trick of yours, can all foundation formation cultivators do it.”

Sen let out a soft chuckle. “No. Just me, so far as I know.”

“Can you teach it?”

Sen shook his head. “It’s not that I’m unwilling to teach it. I don’t understand how I do it. Neither did my teachers. You can’t teach what you don’t truly understand.”

For a little while, they fell into silence. Sen let his cultivation stay a passive thing and slowly soak in whatever healing effects the bath might provide. For his part, Sen just enjoyed the way the muscles in his back and shoulders slowly lost some of the tension that had been building up in them for weeks now. He really hadn’t understood what a luxury it was to have easy access to a bathhouse every day at Uncle Kho’s home. He’d had to go traveling to truly understand what kind of simple luxury he’d given up.

“Have you traveled far?” asked the girl.

Sen looked over at her. “A ways. I came from Tide’s Reach.”

The girl frowned for a moment. “To the north of here?”

“Yes, I’ve been traveling for several weeks.”

“Through the wilds?” she asked, sounding both excited and unsettled at the idea.

“Well, I suppose you could call them that. The areas along the road aren’t really the wilds. There’s too much traffic, too much civilization, too much hunting. Where I grew up, that was much closer to the real wilds. Even there, spirit beast attacks weren’t all that common. Honestly, I think bandits are probably a bigger threat to travelers. You should cultivate, by the way. Even if you don’t get much from the bath, you’ll get more value if you cultivate.”

Now that he was looking for it, he felt her qi start to circulate through her body. There was a gentle pull in the water that dragged away some of what the plants were slowly releasing. With a moment of concentration, Sen cycled a touch of fire qi and added it to the water. Then, he leaned his head back and worked hard to not fall asleep.

“Sun Lifen,” said the girl. “My name is Sun Lifen.”

“Hello, Sun Lifen. My name is Lu Sen.”

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