Unintended Cultivator

“She’s not wrong,” said Fu Ruolan.

After they had all eaten and Fu Ruolan had spent some quality time listening to Ai regale her to tales of walking through town, “training” with Dai Bao, and drawing orchids in the snow, the core cultivator had withdrawn to talk with Sen. The two had reached an odd sort of unspoken agreement after Sen had moved himself, Ai, and Falling Leaf to the new galehouse. Things had been incredibly tense that first week. Fu Ruolan had been keeping herself under such rigid control that it looked unhealthy. It had taken a while for Sen to realize that she was trying to prove, maybe to herself, maybe to him, that she could keep herself from doing anything drastic. Sen had finally relented and brought Ai with him one day. He hadn’t left the two of them alone, but Fu Ruolan had seemed to take the gesture in the right spirit. Even so, Sen had been astounded when the woman had come to them for the first time. Her visits were unpredictable, and he didn’t ask about it. They made Ai happy and seemed to soothe some inner turmoil in Fu Ruolan. That struck Sen as just about the best possible outcome in the situation.

Of course, as soon as the elder cultivator withdrew from the girls, Shen Mingxia promptly became the designated doll for Ai and Zhi. They took turns putting, thankfully imaginary, flowers and ribbons in the woman’s hair. If Mingxia minded, there was no sign of it on her face.

“She’s not wrong about which part?” asked Sen.

“About all of the parts. If you really need some excuse to send that girl away that isn’t a complete fiction, there are plenty of real treasures in places far less lethal than up on the Mountains of Sorrow.”

“You know where they are?”

“When you get to be my age, you have whole lists of treasures you’re going to go and get when you have the time. I bet all of your other teachers have them too. I’d even be willing to be that we all have at least a few of the same ones on our lists.”

“So, why don’t you go and get them?”

“It just never quite rises to the level of a priority. Every once in a while, you find out you actually need some particular treasure. That’s enough to get you out there and looking. Once you have it, though, you want to use it. You go home and run whatever experiment you were going to do or use it to reach that next level of advancement. By the time all of that is done, you’ve fallen into old routines.”

Sen couldn’t help but nod. He’d been running around, advancing at a breakneck pace, and rarely getting so much as a second to consolidate his gains, but that wasn’t true for everyone. Uncle Kho had spent centuries up on his mountain, only leaving on the rarest of occasions according to Master Feng and Auntie Caihong. Even if he had one of those lists, his routines kept him firmly in place. Sen could even see that happening to him. Oh, heavens, that would just be glorious, thought Sen. Years or decades with nothing to do but focus on refining my skills and enhancing my qi understanding? Not constantly forced into situations where I have to kill? Where do I get in line for that? Sen was so caught up in that beautiful daydream that Fu Ruolan snapped her fingers right in front of his face to reclaim his attention.

“Where did you just go?” she asked.

“I was just imagining what it would be like to have no one bothering me for years at a time. Focusing all my energy on improving as a cultivator. It was beautiful,” said Sen.

“Yeah, well, it’s not as great as it looks from the outside,” said Fu Ruolan, her eyes drifting over Liu Ai. “Company isn’t always a bad thing.”

“Speaking of company. Glimmer of Night isn’t bothering you, is he? I don’t expect he would, but I did bring him out there.”

“The spiderkin is wholly preoccupied at the moment. I think he had some minor breakthrough in—” she hesitated. “Honestly, I’m not sure what it is that he’s doing.”

Sen gave the woman a startled look. “Did you ask?”

“Oh, I asked. He even explained it.”

“And?”

“I said he explained it. I didn’t say I understood him.”

“I know that feeling,” said Sen with some sympathy, all too familiar with how impenetrable the spider’s explanations could get. “If he does become a problem—”

“I’d just ask him to leave. It wouldn’t occur to him to be combative about it.”

“That’s fair. What about all of this,” Sen shuddered, “sect nonsense?”

“Do you really need me to explain what was already explained to you?”

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“Not exactly. I need you to explain to me what I don’t know. Yes, there are some dubious advantages to loosely taking on some students, but what are the pitfalls of having a sect? Official or otherwise.”

Fu Ruolan gave Sen a considering look. “I’m glad to see that your mind and paranoia haven’t abandoned you entirely in our quiet little corner of the kingdom.”

“I came by my paranoia honestly. I’m just trying to use it to best effect these days.”

“Well, the most obvious pitfall is that other nearby sects won’t like it. Most of them don’t have the raw power to do anything to you, let alone make you stop, but you might draw the ire of the Vermilion Blade Sect. They could cause you some real trouble.”

Sen lifted a hand, formed a vermilion blade in the air, and dispersed it. “I think I have a functional accommodation with them. It should hold for the time being.”

“Now, that is interesting. You mentioned having a run-in with one of their members. Did you leave out a few details there?”

“I left out a lot of details there. Most of them tedious.”

“Stories are like that. They get dull in the details. The bigger concern you have to worry about with the other sects is that they won’t target you personally. They’ll target whatever students you take on.”

“What does that accomplish beyond making me angry enough to do something about it?”

“This is where never joining a sect is going to work against you. There are a lot of rules that are simply understood by sects. One of those rules is that conflicts between juniors are left at that. Let’s say that girl over there,” said Fu Ruolan, “gets into a fight with a foundation formation cultivator from some local sect.”

“Her name is Shen Mingxia.”

“Yes, I’m sure it is. So, the girl gets into a fight and gets hurt. The understanding is that you, as a vastly superior cultivator, to say nothing of being a sect patriarch, will not take it upon yourself to hunt down and kill the foundation formation cultivator who injured her.”

“What could possibly motivate me to accept that stupid rule?” asked Sen.

“I think you can figure that one out on your own.”

Sen did know why. He just didn’t like it.

“I imagine,” he said, “the desire to avoid having core formation or nascent soul cultivators battling in the streets of this little town would probably top that list.”

“Exactly. Just like the elders of other sects don’t want someone like you showing up to do battle in the streets of whatever towns or villages are to be found near their compounds. And there are nuances to all of these rules. Now, let’s say the girl—”

“Shen Mingxia,” repeated Sen.

“The girl,” insisted Fu Ruolan. “Let’s say the girl isn’t injured in a fair fight with someone of her approximate cultivation level. Let’s say that she’s ambushed by three cultivators of a higher advancement. Things get a lot murkier in a situation like that since there was a clear intent to do permanent harm. Now, you might have grounds to go hunting those three to express your displeasure. If you do, though, the expectation is that you’ll dole out a more or less equivalent amount of injury. If you kill them outright, we’re back to powerful cultivators battling in the streets and killing mortals by the hundreds.”

“And you’re saying that there are a lot of these unwritten rules?”

“Dozens.”

“I hate everything about this.”

“As you should,” said Fu Ruolan. “That’s without even considering the problem of people showing up to challenge you for control of the sect.”

“Who would want these kinds of headaches?”

“The kind of people who love power and can’t be bothered with details. I will say that you have a big advantage on that front. Your reputation as someone who ruthlessly slaughtered every enemy who got in his way as he crossed the kingdom will serve as a rather potent deterrent for most. Which leaves you with the more nebulous problem of poaching.”

“Poaching?” asked Sen.

“Sects tend to think of the nearby territory as theirs to recruit from. There’s a reason that sects tend to keep a certain distance from each other. They won’t like it if you start plucking up all the young talents.”

“I’m not planning on recruiting at all. So, problem solved.”

“They won’t see much difference between you actively trying to get students and students ignoring them to flock to the infamous Judgment’s Gale.”

“There is an enormous difference between those two things,” said Sen, already feeling the aggravation accumulating in his chest.

“Yes, and if they were using logic to understand the situation, they would acknowledge that. But they won’t be using logic. They’ll just see you as impinging on what is theirs.”

Sen leaned his head back and thought hard for a little while. Something finally occurred to him that he thought should have been obvious.

“All the people who are coming around or will be coming around to get me to teach them or start a sect with them. I assume that at least some of them are aware of these issues, right?”

“It seems likely. The wandering cultivators may not know the nuances, but any current or former sect cultivators will certainly know,” agreed Fu Ruolan.

“Then, why would any of them do it? Knowing it’s likely to draw all kinds of trouble down on their heads and mine, why would they even want to start down this road?”

“Some will do it because you’re a folk hero. Stories have a way of infecting people’s minds. Most will do it because you’re powerful, and they’re desperately hoping that they’ll be able to grab ahold of a piece of that same power.”

“Can’t you get power in any sect?”

“Can and will are, as you put it, enormously different things. Sect politics can hold a cultivator back just as effectively as it can push them forward. If people have tried the sect route and found the experience disappointing, they’ll hope that things will be different with you.”

“Have I mentioned how much I hate everything about this?”

“You have.”

Sen grit his teeth. “It was worth saying twice. I also think that this is way more trouble than I want to deal with.”

Fu Ruolan started to speak, but Sen saw her eyes go out of focus for a moment. Then, they snapped back into focus and a look of cold anger crossed her face. She stood and gestured for Sen to come with her.

“What’s going on?” asked Sen as he fell into step beside her.

“I have unwanted guests. Two of them. Both nascent soul cultivators.”

Sen came up short. Two nascent soul cultivators?

“Oh,” said Sen feeling abruptly sheepish. “About that. I think I know who it is.”

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