Unintended Cultivator

Sen did pause long enough to strip the dead cultivators of their belongings. After a moment of thought, he reduced their bodies to ashes. Wu Gang gave him a curious look.

“Dead bodies are bad for the health. No reason to make the mortals clean them up.”

“That’s… That’s very public-minded of you,” said Wu Gang.

“It’s a byproduct of all the alchemy I learned. I picked up a lot of information about health and what makes people sick. No need to make work for someone else when I can deal with it right now.”

Sen led Wu Gang back to the others. Shen Mingxia and Long Jia Wei stared while Glimmer of Night had seemingly grown bored. He’d wandered off a short distance to poke at a plant that had somehow taken root between a couple of stones in a building wall. Sen stopped and looked a little harder at the plant. There was something odd about it, even if Sen couldn’t quite put his finger on what. Sen shook his head. He’d have to try to remember to ask the spider about it later. There were other priorities at the moment. He called Glimmer of Night back over to them.

“Everyone, this is an old friend of mine. Righteous Wu Gang,” announced Sen.

Shen Mingxia smiled and gave the man a respectful nod.

“I’ve heard the stories about you,” she said.

Wu Gang flushed a little and held up his hands as if to defend himself from some dire accusation.

“You shouldn’t believe those stories. They’re mostly made up. I’ve never even been to half of those places.”

Sen gave the man a look of understanding and sympathy. He knew better than most about those stories.

“This,” said Sen with a grin, “is Honorable Shen Mingxia.”

She gave him a flat look and said, “Are you really going to introduce me to people that way?”

His grin grew even wider.

“Every chance I get,” he said before gesturing at Long Jia Wei. “That is Long Jia Wei. I haven’t given him an annoying honorific yet.”

Long Jia Wei gave Wu Gang a shallow bow and said, “An honor to meet you.”

Sen frowned. Long Jia Wei was acting odd, almost shifty. He was refusing to meet Wu Gang’s eyes and couldn’t seem to find a comfortable way to stand. On top of that, Wu Gang was studying the man with an intense look.

“Have we met before?” asked Wu Gang, his gaze sharpening even more. “In the town of Mercy’s Lament, perhaps?”

Long Jia Wei coughed nervously and said, “I don’t believe we’ve ever been introduced.”

Well, that was smoothly done, thought Sen. The man had implied a lack of meeting without ever actually denying it. Sen imagined that there was a very interesting story to be had about all of that. It was a story he wanted to hear. In fact, he wanted to hear both sides of it, but not at the same time and not right at that moment. If nothing else, he didn’t want Wu Gang and the ex-sect cultivator coming to blows immediately. So, he intervened.

“Mercy’s Lament. That doesn’t sound like a cheerful place,” observed Sen.

Wu Gang gave Long Jia Wei one last hard look before he turned his attention back to Sen.

“Oh, it was nice enough. You know how these town and village names are. Half of them are about something that happened so long ago that nobody remembers it anymore.”

“Mmm, true,” said Sen. “Anyway, the last member of our little group is Glimmer of Night.”

Glimmer of Night just looked at Wu Gang for an incredibly long, awkward moment before he remembered some of the social etiquette Sen had tried to teach him. The spider pressed his fists together and bowed.

“Glimmer of Night,” said Wu Gang. “That is a very unusual name.”

When the spider said nothing, Sen once again intervened.

“He’s an unusual man. And, it’s been a long week or so for all of us. Do you know if this town has an inn?”

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Wu Gang nodded. “I can show you the way. I have a room there.”

“So, the life of a wandering cultivator hasn’t left you poverty stricken?” asked Sen as they all started to follow the man.

Another sheepish look crossed Wu Gang’s face as he said, “The people I help often try to reward me. I do my best to say no or ask for something modest, but they can be very insistent. Especially the nobles.”

Sen lifted an eyebrow at that.

“Do you help many nobles?”

“No,” said Wu Gang, “but bandits will attack almost anyone on the road. I won’t withhold aid to those in need when any other help may be days away.”

Sen knew that he couldn’t say the same thing. Actually, if bandits were involved, he would intervene but not because he wanted to help the nobles. In any other circumstance, he would probably just walk right by and let the nobles fend for themselves. I gave him the right name, thought Sen. He might not have started out that way, but he has legitimately become righteous. Plus, after a moment of reflection, Sen realized that he didn’t want his biases to infect Wu Gang. Just because he loathed almost every noble he’d ever met, it didn’t mean that Wu Gang should. The man had set out with the explicit aim to help people, and he had. True or false, absolutely every single story about him painted Wu Gang as a hero. A humble hero. That didn’t happen if there wasn’t a lot of truth at the center of it. Suggesting that some people simply didn’t deserve his help would be a disservice to who the man was and what he’d accomplished. And Sen certainly didn’t begrudge the man the occasional reward. People had to eat.

“I understand,” said Sen. “You can only say no so many times before you’ll damage someone’s pride.”

The look of relief on Wu Gang’s face told Sen that the man still valued his opinion far more than he should. Sen felt like he should relieve Wu Gang of that concern. Whatever debt had existed between them, Sen felt certain that it had long ago been paid in full. He just didn’t know exactly how to put that concern to rest. Sen resolved to give the matter some thought before they parted ways again. While Sen approved of all the help that Wu Gang had given out to people, he also knew that there were other things in life. Things like a home and children. Things that the wandering hero should feel allowed to go and experience for himself if he wanted them. And maybe he doesn’t, thought Sen, but he shouldn’t deprive himself of them out of a debt to me that doesn’t exist anymore.

The inn wasn’t anything special, but it was clean and had the air of a place that was well-loved. Sen secured rooms for everyone, and Mingxia immediately went off to take a bath. Sen would have loved to get one for himself, but he supposed that the least he could do was let her take one first. Especially after he dragged her along for this stupid nightmare of a trip. He would have told her to go back to the academy, but he didn’t dare to send her back on that road. There was just no way to know if any cultivators were still on that road or if they were looking for her now as well. As dangerous as being near him was, at least he had a decent chance of protecting her when she was nearby. If he sent her back, even that protection would vanish. No, the best he could do for her was simply to keep her close for now.

Glimmer of Night wanted to go to his room immediately, and Sen understood why. Once he was safely behind a locked door, the spider could abandon his human disguise. Sen, however, was hungry. After he had spoken with the inn owner and ordered three of everything on the menu, they went to the common area where there were tables. After that, a steady stream of food was brought out to him, Long Jia Wei, and Wu Gang. Sen simply ignored everything and everyone else for a while as he ate. When he finally felt sated, he looked over at Wu Gang.

“So, what have you been doing since we last met?”

Wu Gang, who had been staring at Long Jia Wei, blinked a couple of times before a thoughtful look came over him.

“Well, it has been a few years,” said Wu Gang. “I’ve done quite a lot, although not as much as you it seems.”

“Oh, don’t listen to those stories. I’m as boring as old bread and as gentle as a kitten.”

Long Jia Wei started to choke on the dumpling he’d just put in his mouth. Sen slapped the man on the back a few times.

“You’ll have to forgive Long Jia Wei,” said Sen in a low, confidential tone. “We’re still working on his table manners.”

“Apparently,” said Wu Gang, looking amused.

“Back to you, though. Why don’t you give me the high points.”

Sen sat back and listened as Wu Gang described what he considered the high points of his journey. He skipped over almost anything that smacked of heroic battles. That was simply referred to as “cleaning up some minor trouble.” Instead, he talked about helping to build a bridge that would make it easier for farmers to get crops to market. He talked about a dying old man he’d stayed with for two months as he dutifully wrote down the man’s life story. That was followed up by a months-long quest to find the son who no doubt thought, incorrectly, that he’d been abandoned by the old man. A quest during which Wu Gang had cleaned up some minor trouble on no less than eleven occasions.

He’d helped a widow keep her home and found orphans families to live with. He’d helped a group of wandering monks find their lost temple. It was a tale littered with so many kindnesses, great and small, that Sen was positively stunned that Wu Gang hadn’t exploded with divine qi and pure enlightenment. If anything, the tale made Sen feel a little inadequate. He’d done a bit of good here and there, but it simply paled in comparison. Shen Mingxia had joined them after her bath and almost immediately been caught up in rapt attention. She was so focused on the telling of the tale that she’d had the same piece of vegetable hanging from her chopsticks for the better part of ten minutes.

“After we got the temple back in working order, we needed to clear the old road so that people could come and go. I cleaned up some minor trouble with that, and then I headed north.”

“Why north?” asked Shen Mingxia, her eyes shining with interest.

Wu Gang cleared his throat a little nervously.

“Well, honestly, I heard that you started some kind of a sect,” said Wu Gang with a nod to Sen. “I was curious. So, I thought I’d pay you a visit.”

Sen let his head drop against the top of the table.

“It’s not a sect,” he almost cried before he started thumping his forehead against the wood.

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