Unintended Cultivator

Sen was in the middle of jian training with Sua Xing Xing when he felt the approach of several cultivators. Cultivators that he didn’t recognize by feel. Cultivators that even he might feel inclined to acknowledge if his initial impression of their strength was accurate. That was always a little dodgy at a distance. While cultivators arriving at the academy wasn’t anything new, he had a premonition that this was going to be different. Different good or different bad, he wasn’t sure, but since cultivators were involved, he assumed it would probably be bad. Sen had only been half paying attention to his spar with the pale woman, idly staying a step ahead of her aggressive attack pattern while he weighed what to do about the new cultivators. He made a point to meet new cultivators, if only briefly, when they first arrived at the academy.

Sen decided that it was best not to break that pattern. With the exceptions of Uncle Kho and Auntie Caihong, he was best equipped to deal with it if hostile sect members or wandering cultivators showed up. He was also less likely than they were to simply kill those cultivators out of hand if they proved annoying. He’d done his best not to lean on their reputations as much as possible. It seemed wise to continue approaching the world that way. While Auntie Caihong might let cultivators go if they bothered her, Uncle Kho would not. If he started reducing cultivators to ash left and right, Sen would never convince anyone that this place wasn’t a sect. And if the other sects believed that Uncle Kho had finally, after thousands of years, decided to start his own sect with Sen as a figurehead… Sen didn’t know what the other sects would do. Nothing good. He was sure of that much. Sua Xing Xing’s voice snapped him back to the present.

“You could do me the courtesy of pretending that this requires your full attention,” she said, stepping back and checking the edge of her jian before sheathing it.

“What?” asked Sen with a blank stare.

“Exactly,” muttered the woman.

“Sorry. We have new arrivals. People I should probably greet in person to avoid any unfortunate incidents.”

A hint of interest sparked in Sua Xing Xing’s eyes. “More cultivators?”

Sen nodded as he sheathed his own jian. He didn’t bother checking the edge. The blade had been stuffed with metal qi. He would have sensed it if the weapon had taken any damage. Walking toward the door, he called back.

“This shouldn’t take too long.”

She was walking next to him a moment later, having used a qinggong technique to close the distance. The woman gave him a little smile.

“Why would I intentionally miss out on this?” she asked. “It should be interesting if nothing else.”

Sen considered ordering her to stay in the training hall he’d designated for cultivators. While she might be playing at just wanting to see what happened, it wasn’t lost on him how it would look if she arrived with him. It would imply things to the cultivators about her position here, her relationship with him, or both. Those were all implications that didn’t please him because perception had a way of becoming fact, and he hadn’t decided what to do about her. He didn’t want people assuming that they could influence him through her. On the other hand, the new cultivators were making their way toward the mortal training hall. Exactly where he didn’t want them to go and interfere with people.

He decided to just let it go this time, mostly because he didn’t want to take the time to argue with her. Seeming to sense his resignation, her smile widened just a little into something that bordered on self-satisfied. That almost made him change his mind then and there. Of course, they were most of the way to the mortal training hall by then. Damn cultivator speed, he complained to himself. As they neared the door, Sen saw three people who were all very obviously from some sect. They wore matching dark gray uniforms with yellow patterns stitched into them that resembled lightning. It didn’t mean anything to Sen, but it clearly did mean something to Sua Xing Xing. The woman took one look, stopped short, and took a sharp breath. He gave her a look, but her gaze was fixed on the one who looked like he was in command. The one about to shove open the door. Can’t have that, thought Sen.

“You aren’t students here,” said Sen in a qi-reinforced voice loud enough to make leaves shake free from nearby trees. “That building is off-limits to any who aren’t invited.”

The trio by the door turned to look at him. He braced himself for the usual young master posturing. Instead, the trio ignored him almost entirely while staring at Sua Xing Xing in open-mouthed shock. The leader, a handsome man with narrow features and piercing eyes took a step forward. He couldn’t seem to rip his gaze away from the woman standing next to Sen. For her part, she had drawn herself up and was leveling a cool, dispassionate gaze at all of them.

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“Xing Xing,” said the leader in a soft, disbelieving voice. “You came here?”

“That is my affair and none of yours,” she said in words chipped from ice. “You don’t belong here, Sheung Tian Kuo.”

“I don’t belong here,” said Sheung Tian Kuo in a low dangerous voice. “None of my affair? We were supposed to—”

“Were,” repeated Sua Xing Xing. “No longer.”

If this were happening almost anywhere else, Sen would have simply backed off and enjoyed the show. Unfortunately, it was happening at his academy with very fragile mortals far too close for the kind of destruction that would ensue if a fight broke out. Now that they were close enough, Sen could better judge the strength of the newcomers. In terms of pure spirit cultivation, Sheung Tian Kuo was actually sitting a little higher than Sen at true peak core formation. The pair who stood a respectful step behind were closer to Sua Xing Xing’s level. All of which meant a lot of potential destruction if things turned violent. Given the way Sheung Tian Kuo was glaring and even shaking a little, that felt like an almost inevitable outcome.

“If the two of you have some personal matter to settle, do it elsewhere,” said Sen in a voice that was more command than suggestion.

Sheung Tian Kuo turned his attention to Sen and fought a visible battle for self-control. It was a battle that he seemingly lost because the next words out of his mouth sounded almost designed to trigger an immediate duel.

“Do not speak to your betters until spoken to, you jumped up little nothing. The Thunderous Sky Sect goes where it will, when it will.”

Sen’s first instinct was to simply kill the man where he stood and be done with it. There was a theoretical gap between them, but Sen had bridged much bigger gaps than that. Plus, this place was his in ways that the newly arrived cultivators clearly hadn’t discerned yet. On the other hand, the man was distraught. Sen didn’t know the details but the broad strokes were clear enough. There was some kind of romantic history between Sheung Tian Kuo and Sua Xing Xing. A romance that she had apparently ended, and he hadn’t gotten over yet. Sen generally thought that how people acted under stress was often a better indicator of their true nature than how they acted while calm. However, it left the issue of how this might have gone down if Sua Xing Xing hadn’t decided to make an appearance something of an open question. The longer Sen stood there, simply staring at Sheung Tian Kuo like some kind of undesirable insect that he’d stumbled across, the less certain the other man looked. It was like Sen’s mere gaze held a weight that was slowly crushing the other man’s confidence. It was Sua Xing Xing who finally broke the silence.

“Elder Yu would be ashamed of you.”

Sen watched as those words struck the three sect cultivators like a condemnation from the heavens. Sheung Tian Kuo lost every bit of color in his face. The other two looked abruptly nauseated. Sen thought that he might want to meet this Elder Yu one day. A person who could evoke those reactions in core cultivators at the mere suggestion of their disapproval, well, that was someone formidable. That the elder would feel such disapproval at what Sen had come to think of as standard sect behavior also told him that the stories he’d heard that not every sect was a collection of useless, awful people might hold some truth. Sua Xing Xing continued without a trace of mercy in her expression. Sen stared at her as she seemed to become an entirely different person. A person he might actually be able to like a little bit.

“Using the honorable name and reputation of the Thunderous Sky Sect as a club. Seeking to disrupt the education of others. Hurling insults at your host. Have you forgotten everything that you were taught?”

Sheung Tian Kuo flinched back from the rebuke. He held out a hand toward Sua Xing Xing as if imploring her to stop. She was not moved. Her face was stone as the next words fell from her lips like an executioner’s blade falling on the neck of a disgraced foe.

“You shame us all.”

As Sheun Tian Kuo’s face went a little slack and sweat broke out on his forehead, it was obvious to Sen that those two had been extremely close at some point. It was the only way she could have known exactly how to break the man with a handful of cold, precise statements. It also told him some things about her. Things that he wasn’t sure how to interpret. At the very least, it was a statement about how completely she had severed that relationship in her heart. What she had just done wasn’t something you did to someone you still cared about. At the same time, she seemed to be deeply concerned about how the man’s actions would reflect on her old sect. That was a relationship that she hadn’t severed so neatly. Sen took all of that as a warning not to put too much trust in her. Divided loyalties were a dangerous thing. As for Sheung Tian Kuo, he lowered his head, stared at the ground, and quietly mumbled to himself about honor and shame.

The other two Thunderous Sky Sect cultivators looked at each other for some hint of what they should do. Sen could just barely hear them conferring in hushed, frantic tones. Finally, one of the pair stepped forward. The man gave Sua Xing Xing an uncertain look while she continued to exude imperious displeasure and towering disdain. Seeing no shelter from the storm there, the man turned his eyes to Sen.

“This one is Yim Haitao,” said the man, clasping his hands and bowing.

Sen gave the man an infinitesimal nod and said, “I am Lu Sen.”

Yim Haitao straightened, but he didn’t get a chance to speak before Sua Xing Xing spoke.

“He is also known as Judgment’s Gale, the Heavens’ Scouring Blade, the Hand of Chaos, and—”

“I’m relatively confident he knows who I am,” said Sen, cutting off the litany of names.

“I beg the forgiveness of Judgment’s Gale. This,” said Lim Haitao with a helpless little gesture around him, “was not our goal or task. I ask that we be allowed to withdraw and tend to our brother disciple.”

Sen considered those words for a moment before he asked, “And just what was your task?”

When he saw the man swallow hard, Sen just knew he wasn’t going to like the answer.

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