Unintended Cultivator

V12 Chapter 58 – Character

Sen knew from a lot of recent experience that getting any group of people ready to start traveling was a slow process. That process could be made even slower if people tried to resist or make unreasonable demands. For the most part, the people of Tide’s Rest proved reasonable. The knowledge that only his intervention had saved their lives was likely contributing to that attitude. That or the knowledge that he intended to leave. He had used the communication core to inform his forces back at Emperor’s Bay that he had found survivors. In a move that surprised him, the cultivators volunteered to send a group to meet them on the way and escort them back.

He wasn't sure whether he should be appreciative of that and view it as a sign that perhaps they were coming around or treat it cynically. Coming out to “help” on what had been nothing but a personal mission to assuage his conscience might look like an opportunity to curry favor. He suspected that the truth was probably somewhere in between. Some of them were, without question, looking to elevate themselves or their sects in his eyes. Others probably were starting to share his view that letting the spirit beasts kill everyone not in a sect was a bad thing. For most, it was probably a mixture of motives that even they couldn’t wholly untangle.

As for the people of Tide’s Rest, Sen was keeping his distance. He used the excuse of watching for another spirit beast attack. If he’d been able to just talk to them, that might have been one thing. His arrival, while efficient, had put up an impossible-to-scale wall between him and everyone else. He could see it in the way they looked at him. He was a dangerous savior to some and a terrifying nascent soul cultivator to others. If that wasn’t enough, the word of his taking over the kingdom had managed to spread this far before the town was essentially cut off.

Anyone who might have hazarded approaching the dangerous savior or terrifying cultivator was put off by the idea that they might accidentally offend the king. It was as tiresome as it was predictable. He had given some thought to visiting Orchard’s Reach simply to escape it, but he didn’t need to go there. If the spirit beasts had attacked this town, there was no chance that anyone was left in Orchard’s Reach. He could only hope that Grandmother’s Lu’s people had the good sense to leave before that happened. So, he stayed apart. Sometimes, he took up a position on the wall. Sometimes he stood on the beach, contemplated the waves, and considered the inspiration he had missed there.

It had been a long time since he’d last gotten an inspiration and the accompanying divine qi. Not that he viewed that as an entirely bad thing. That last thing he wanted now was more divine qi raining down on him and forcing another advancement. Standing on the same beach, though, he couldn’t help but wonder what the inspiration had been about. Would it have changed things for him? He doubted that. A part of him suspected those inspirations were nothing but an excuse for the heavens to force him ever closer to new advancements. Even so, the what-if was hard to elude. Then again, if it had changed things, he might well be dead now. If he’d gone down even slightly different paths, he might not have developed the strength to survive.

That was why he had very specifically avoided asking about or looking for those two fools who had interrupted that inspiration. However inadvertently, they might have saved his life. Not that he would do anything to them. They hadn’t been a match for him when he’d met them on that beach years before. Doing anything to them now really would be nothing but petty bullying. He had made some vague threat about testing their character, though. Since he still had no idea what that could possibly mean, better to just avoid the problem entirely. It’s best to just leave it in Karma’s hands, thought Sen. I don’t need to be responsible for everything.

“Lord Lu?” said a feminine voice from behind him.

He’d been so caught up in his own thoughts and so unthreatened by anything he could sense that he hadn’t even noticed them. Even so, he glared into the middle distance, since he didn’t know where else to glare. It wasn’t like Karma was in some specific direction where he could aim his disgruntlement. He’d just decided to leave it in Karma’s hands, hadn’t he? Was this Karma mocking him? Maybe they’ll go away if I ignore them, he thought. Sen tried to convince himself that would happen even while his spiritual sense told him they were just standing there and waiting.

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“Lord Lu?” repeated the cultivator.

“Do you think it wise to disturb me here of all places?” he asked.

There was a long pause before she said, “Perhaps not wise, but it does seem appropriate.”

Sen turned to look at the pair. He thought they both seemed stronger than they had been the last time he saw them. It had been some years, but that seemed fast for normal cultivators. He supposed they must have been working hard.

“What do you want?” he asked, his voice more tired than angry.

“When Elder He returned, he said that you would come one day and test our characters.”

Sen almost wanted to laugh. They both looked so serious about it. He’d just wanted to scare them. Apparently, it had worked. Unfortunately, that absurd comment about testing them was coming back to haunt him. And he was a nascent soul cultivator now. They probably imagined that he had some secret technique or method for gleaning the quality of their souls. Wasn’t that how it went in all those cultivator legends? The impossibly powerful master would appear in the final hour with a technique to rend the heavens or lay bare the truth.

“I did say something about that,” he conceded.

“We’re ready,” she said, all while looking like she was going to die from fright.

Sen sighed and asked, “What were your names?”

“Zhu Fen,” said the one who’d done all the talking.

“Sun Xue,” said the other in a barely audible whisper.

“Tell me, Zhu Fen and Sun Xue, what did you imagine such a test would look like? If you were to test someone’s character, how would you do it?”

The pair traded baffled looks. Apparently, they hadn’t given any more thought to that problem than he had. That struck him as particularly odd given their circumstances. How was someone meant to prepare for a test they knew nothing about? Sen shook his head, and both women paled.

“I have no idea what the pair of you have been doing, but all I really wanted was for you to be less selfish and petty. Did you at least manage that much? However, maybe I should put that question to you, Elder He. Have they managed that much?” asked Sen, looking past the pair.

The women turned to peer at the man, who had been standing there for a while. They probably didn’t see it, but Sen could tell that the man found their predicament amusing. Elder He inclined his head to Sen.

“They have.”

“Very well, then,” said Sen, turning to resume his study of the sea. “I’ll take your word in this and consider the matter closed.”

He heard two very relieved breaths explode from the women before Elder He spoke to them.

“You shouldn’t test Lord Lu’s patience. He might change his mind.”

Sen watched the pair retreat in his spiritual sense. Elder He came over to stand next to him.

“I appreciate your lenience with them.”

“Lenience?” asked Sen.

Elder He winced and said, “Some tales reached us even in this remote place. Tales of your great strength, but also tales of the terrible vengeance you’ve taken against those who have offended you. Great houses, kings, and even nascent soul cultivators have fallen before your wrath.”

Sen grimaced. All those things were true, although he suspected that little context had found its way into those tales.

“And what did you expect me to do?”

“I feared you might kill those two on sight.”

It was Sen’s turn to wince. He couldn’t even fault the old cultivator for fearing that. Simply reaching the nascent soul stage usually meant building a mountain of corpses to stand on. He’d not only reached that stage but claimed a kingdom along the way. With all the stories going around, and the heavens only knew how many of those were just made up, he might have thought the same thing.

“There’s more than enough killing to be done without inventing reasons to do it,” said Sen. “The last time I executed someone, it was for barring the gates of a city and leaving hundreds of farmers and their families to face the spirit beasts alone.”

Elder He stared at him like he didn’t quite believe it and didn’t dare not to believe it.

“Compared to that, what those two did to me is—” Sen hesitated. “It was nothing. Certainly nothing worth their lives. Honestly, though, with everything that’s coming, it might have been kinder to end them here.”