Unintended Cultivator

V12 Chapter 46 – Helpful

Sen sat at a table in the common area of an inn he’d taken control of through the expedient of throwing gold at the owner and all of the current guests. The place had emptied of everyone but the staff in under ten minutes. Sitting across from him was a very uncomfortable Elder Deng. Propped up in a chair next to him was the still unconscious woman whom Sen had fought with at the gate. Misty Peak appeared from behind an illusion. She gave Elder Deng and the other Soaring Skies Sect elder a brief glance before she turned her attention to Sen.

“My grandfather is here?”

“He is,” said Sen absently as he studied the unconscious woman.

He really wasn’t sure what to do with or about her. Supposedly, Laughing River and his minions… At least, Sen thought there were minions involved. They were supposedly killing all of the people in the Soaring Skies Sect who would have opposed him. On the one hand, the fact that this woman was still alive might mean that she wouldn’t oppose him. On the other hand, Laughing River might have assumed that Sen was just going to kill her for being foolish enough to fight him.

“Where is he?” asked Misty Peak.

“He’s killing some people for me. He’s being unusually helpful. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“He’s killing people for you? What people?”

Sen nodded toward Elder Deng and said, “Disagreeable people.”

“Oh. I guess that is helpful,” said Misty Peak, who started to frown.

“You know,” said a glowering Elder Deng, “I’ve known most of those disagreeable people for centuries. Just because—”

“You should stop now,” said Sen in a soft voice. “Do you think I don’t know what you’re going to say? That I never considered it?”

“Well—” started Deng.

“You’re going to say that opposing me doesn’t automatically make them enemies. That cultivators choose their own paths, and it’s perfectly valid to see the world differently from me. That, if nothing else, they’re resources that have better uses than being cut down by assassins. Something like that?”

Elder Deng scowled briefly before nodding.

“Yes,” he added. “Something like that.”

“You’re wrong. When the stakes are this high, and I’m the only person doing anything to save all of us, opposing me does automatically make them enemies. I have no intention of fighting a war for years and leaving known enemies here to plot my demise while I’m gone. As for choosing their own paths, what paths would those be? If I fail, they’re going to die just like everyone else. That will bring their paths to a rather abrupt end, don’t you think? If they’re still determined to oppose me, then they aren’t resources that have better uses. Even if I made them go with me, they’d constantly be looking for ways to cripple or kill me. I have enough of those concerns already without providing willing conspirators to help.”

“They aren’t evil,” insisted Elder Deng. “They helped defend this city.”

“Because they wanted to control it. Not because they actually wanted to help the people here. Not because they wanted to assist in winning this war. I suspect that your patriarch had some plan to set himself up here as a cultivator king.”

“How is that any different than you?” snarled Elder Deng. “What makes your rule so much more righteous?”

“Righteous? I never claimed that anything I was doing was righteous. I’ve been very clear with everyone that I’m a tyrant. Maybe not by choice, but that is what I am. Tyrants don’t tolerate other tyrants in their domain. The difference is that I don’t plan to hide in one city and hope other people will solve my problems. If everyone does that, we all die.”

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“Even if you’re right, it doesn’t justify murdering all those people.”

Sen gave Deng a very flat look when he said, “I didn’t hear you raise a single objection when I murdered those mortals right in front of you. Where was your indignation then?”

Deng opened and closed his mouth a few times, but he couldn’t seem to find an answer. Sen continued.

“It’s always so easy to think that people you don’t know and don’t care about had it coming. Yet, somehow, when it’s someone you know or like, you’re certain they deserve another chance. As far as I’m concerned, I gave your sect every

chance it deserved and more. You should be happy that I don’t intend to kill every last person in it. I assure you, I didn’t show nearly that much mercy with the Twisted Blade Sect.”It seemed that the story had spread to Emperor’s Bay. Deng flinched when he heard the name of the sect that Sen had razed. It seemed an effective tactic, even if Sen knew it was a mostly hollow threat. He had absolutely no desire to go down that road a second time unless there was no way to avoid it. He’d suspected that he had innocent blood on his hands even before that, but he knew he did after that. The poisons he’d released in that sect had killed indiscriminately. The karmic debt from that would likely pale in comparison to the one he’d owe after the war, but the choices he’d made there still haunted him.

“I take your meaning, Lord Lu,” said Deng in a tight, angry voice.

“I’m sure you do. The problem I have now is figuring out what to do with your friend,” said Sen, gesturing at the unconscious woman. “Or should I be asking where you stand in all of this, Elder Deng?”

The other cultivator studied Sen for a time before shaking his head.

“I’m old enough to know that, sometimes, a sect will fall. I may disagree with your choices, but I’m not so much a fool that I don’t understand why you made them. I will not stand against this tide.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Despite what you may think, I take no joy in slaughter. Do you believe that she,” Sen gestured at the unconscious woman, “will see reason? Or would it be better if she simply never wakes up?”

Deng seemed far more conflicted about those questions. That alone told Sen that the woman would almost certainly prove problematic at times, but it didn’t necessarily mean she needed to die. He also knew he was looking for any excuse not to kill anyone else that day.

“Let me talk to her,” said Deng. “I think she can be brought around.”

“That does not inspire confidence,” observed Sen. “She will be required to make a vow to the heavens to serve me. Do you believe she can be brought that far around? If she can’t, it would be more merciful to kill her now. Regardless of how you may feel about it, I will not simply release her to go her own way.”

“Just give me time to talk to her. She’ll be angry about all of this.”

“You have until the end of the day.”

“The end of the day?” asked an incredulous Deng. “How can I possibly convince her by then?”

“It’s more time than I’ll give the rest of your sect. In the meantime, you should take her to one of the rooms. This isn’t the only matter I have to deal with today.”

Deng nodded, picked up the woman, and started to leave.

“Elder Deng,” said Sen.

The man stopped and looked over his shoulder.

Sen fixed him with a hard look and said, “Don’t tell her to run. I don’t want to hunt her like an animal, but I will.”

Deng’s jaw worked, but he gave a single, sharp nod of his head. Once he was gone, Misty Peak sat down across from him. Sen raised a wind barrier to keep their conversation private.

“Do you think that it’s wise to give him time?” asked the fox-woman.

“What I think is that I’m going to end up having to kill that woman,” said Sen.

“Then, why give him time?”

“Because giving him time makes it less likely that I’ll need to kill him as well. And I’d prefer not to kill him.”

“Why is that?”

“Beneath all that sect loyalty nonsense, he actually does have some honor. He also has experience leading other cultivators. The ones I brought with me from the capital are talented enough, but there weren’t any real elders among them. I can use someone with all that experience. Someone who knows how to control themselves and keep others in line. I can’t be there to scare people into compliance all the time.”

“And what about my grandfather? Do you think you’ve scared him into compliance?” asked Misty Peak.

“Not in the slightest, which is part of what has me worried. He gave me some perfectly understandable reasons for why he’s being helpful. Mostly the survival of the nine-tail foxes. But is anything ever that simple with him?”

Misty Peak sat in thoughtful silence before she shrugged.

“It might be. Under normal circumstances, I’d assume he was playing some kind of game. It is what we do. As things stand now, though, he may well be setting all of that aside in the name of survival. I did.”

“How can I know, for sure?”

“If he doesn’t betray you in some spectacular fashion before he ascends, then you’ll know for sure.”

“It may come as a surprise to you, but that was less than helpful.”

“No, that’s not surprising,” said Misty Peak with a merry gleam in her eye.