Unintended Cultivator

V12 Chapter 69 – Mechanisms

What remained of the local nobility and politicians stood before Sen. With one exception, they were pale-faced, sweaty, and wouldn’t meet his gaze. The magistrate stood alone among them in that he met Sen’s gaze without hesitation, as well he should. He’d proven where he stood and paid for it in pain. There were obvious marks of that pain in the man if one knew what they were looking for. Sen did. He’d treated enough sick and injured people to recognize what pain did to a person. The magistrate looked thinner. His expression was tight in a way it hadn’t been before, and he had a haunted look in his eyes. For all of that, the magistrate seemed to be finding his way.

“When I first arrived, I told the new magistrate not to disappoint me. I thought it was implicit that went for all of you. As you can see by your much thinner ranks, I remained disappointed. Those of you who remain showed either more loyalty or more cunning in covering your tracks,” said Sen.

He noted a few people who flinched and hunched a little, as if they meant to go unnoticed by making themselves smaller. Sen could press the issue or look into them more, but he suspected that was unnecessary. He doubted any of these people were going to be in a mood to oppose him anytime soon.

“I have dealt with those I found guilty,” he continued. “On a different matter, the orphanage and school that I have created in the former Soaring Skies Sect compound now has sufficient coin to continue operations for the foreseeable future. Just so no one can suggest I didn’t say it outright later, you should treat that money as though it is always in my coin pouch. It is sacred. It will not be used for any purpose save the one I have given it, which is to keep that orphanage and school in operation. Should it ever come to light that it’s been used for some other purpose, I will send people for you. People who will not show my restraint or hand out swift, merciful deaths.”

Sen knew that the money seized from all those fallen houses would have proven too much of a temptation. At least, it would have if he hadn’t given very specific instructions about it. What he hadn’t expected was for so many of the gathered people to look at him with so much abject horror when he suggested sending less merciful people to deliver his displeasure. It wasn’t a hollow threat either. He’d been getting sporadic reports from Long Jia Wei.

The man was engaged in an ever-expanding effort to recruit a certain type of person. The kind of people who couldn’t

, according to Long Jia Wei, function within the normal bounds of a sect. Sen hadn’t intended to facilitate the establishment of a sect of ruthless assassins. He also hadn’t intended for it to be hidden within the folds of his much more straightforward sect. Like so many other things he privately hated, Sen also had to acknowledge the usefulness of such a group. There would always be cultivators who simply wouldn’t bow to anyone else.Some of them were foolhardy. Some overestimated their own strength. Others were too set in their ways. All of them would become problems in the future. While the prospect of just assassinating them to solve the problem made his stomach roil, Sen wasn’t sure that there was a better solution. Even he could see that killing one person sooner to prevent a full-blown uprising later was a better choice. He also knew that people’s acceptance of some things would change. With the entire continent engulfed in chaos, he could get away with just about anything at the moment.

Song Lan was right, though. There would come a peace after the war. He needed to start creating the mechanisms for maintaining that peace now, while he could just order whatever he wanted. Even if he did become a tyrant emperor, he’d seen enough of politics to understand that even that wouldn’t be absolute rule. Not if he wanted the empire to survive his ascension. The sheer size of the continent would constrain him through travel time if nothing else. He’d have no choice but to extend an almost frightening level of latitude to governors in distant parts of the empire.

That very latitude required a countermeasure. Long Jia Wei’s assassins wouldn’t just be effective against other cultivators. They would be the frightening, unseen shadow to the foxes' more visible presence. That would make them an effective deterrent to any overambitious governor. While an army might move at a crawl across the continent, a lone assassin or three could move comparatively quickly. Lo Meifeng was building her spy organization, which would no doubt take root and bloom in the rest of the continent. With so much chaos and rebuilding to be done afterwards, people would be displaced. Few people would have the wherewithal to suspect that spies were already among them.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Not that Sen expected to personally benefit from any of these things. Or, if he did, he wouldn’t enjoy the fruits of those labors for long. What all of this would do is help cement his family’s position as the rulers of the continent. It wasn’t something Sen thought much about. In the back of his mind, though, he was aware that Ai would take the imperial throne if he succeeded. All of these things he was putting in motion or tacitly allowing were really nothing more than safeguards for her. Sen knew that he was a very difficult target, occupying a relatively rarified position near the peak of the cultivation mountain. Ai would be a different story entirely.

Even if she became a cultivator, she wouldn’t enjoy his rapid pace of development. Not that Sen found that idea very palatable. It was, however, a possibility that he couldn’t ignore. He might not want her to do it, knowing as he did the kind of pain it meant. The very idea of Ai putting herself through the kinds of things that he’d willingly done to himself made Sen feel sick. For all of that, he wouldn’t try to stop her. He’d advise her against it and tell her the reasons why, but he wouldn’t deny her the choice. It had taken him a very long time to decide that.

His first instinct was always

to protect her from pain when he could. That was a father’s duty as far as he was concerned. Whatever else cultivation was, though, it was about choice. The choice to seek another path. The choice to defy the heavens. It was ultimately about the choice of how one wanted to live their lives. He had enjoyed that choice to the extent that the heavens didn’t interfere. The hypocrisy of denying Ai that same choice was a bit too much for Sen to bear. He would loathe it if she walked down the same path, but he would keep that loathing to himself. Ai was growing up. He heard it every time he talked to her through the communication cores. She’d be an adult before he knew it.That growing process would come with a lot of different kinds of pain that he couldn’t protect her from. It wasn’t a lack of desire, but a lack of ability. He couldn’t protect her from loss, disappointment, or even heartbreak. Even if he might be willing to abandon the war temporarily to avenge that last one. Well, maybe not, he mentally conceded. Indulging the fantasy, on the other hand, was something he was quite certain he’d do. He couldn’t protect her from any of that, but he could protect her from his complicated feelings about cultivation.

He hadn’t chosen cultivation so much as been chosen for it. After having been chosen, the heavens took a hand in things. He was bitter about that and all the loss it meant for him in the future. And he knew it. Sen wasn’t capable of separating himself from those complicated feelings. He was capable of recognizing them for what they were. They were a reaction to a very abnormal situation. If Ai became a cultivator, she would have the chance to grow into the role over time. There would be no external push toward ascension or a desperate attempt to slow the pace.

Her experience would be normal and mercifully slower. At least, it would be as normal as it could be for a cultivator who had demigods hanging around playing aunt and uncle. Sen didn’t believe for one second that a pill, potion, or elixir would ever pass Ai’s lips that hadn’t been lovingly crafted by Auntie Caihong or Fu Ruolan’s hands. It was obvious that Uncle Kho would never allow anyone he didn’t trust with his life to have a hand in Ai’s cultivator education. Nor would Sen want to be the cultivator who failed in that duty. As mild as Uncle Kho could be at times, he could also be the Living Spear. The swift execution of the three cultivators who violated the sanctity of Uncle Kho’s mountain all those years ago stood as a testament to that.

Sen had to admit, if only privately, that Ai wouldn’t have a normal cultivator experience. Especially not if Master Feng was looming in the background like the hand of death. It would all still be more average than Sen’s experience. That was enough, if only just, for him to accept the possibility. Of course, any long-term plans involving Ai required that Sen actually win the war. To do that, he needed to get the army moving. At this point, he was the thing holding them up. Sen focused on the people he’d called.

“I’m leaving the magistrate in charge,” he announced. “His loyalty, I’m sure about. As for the rest of you, do not disappoint me, and you have nothing to fear. Are you wondering how to avoid that? It’s simple. Be diligent. Be honest in your work. Don’t try to steal from children. Don’t leave helpless farmers outside the walls to die.”

The acid in those last two comments made everyone, save for the magistrate, flinch. The magistrate stepped in when he seemed to register how close to full-blown panic the other politicians and nobles were.

“Do you have any orders for us?” he asked.

“Nothing specific. I will be leaving some soldiers and a few cultivators to assist you in maintaining order.”

The implicit message was not lost on the gathered nobles and politicians. Those soldiers and cultivators would help maintain order, even if it meant killing the rest of the nobles and politicians. This was a different kind of mechanism, meant for the short-term, but potent in its own way. His threats delivered, Sen rose from the ground on a qi platform. After a moment of indecision and weakness, he flew toward the Soaring Skies Sect’s former compound.