novelraw Book 13: Chapter Five – Because This City Is Still Standing
Book 13: Chapter Five – Because This City Is Still Standing
Book 13: Chapter Five – Because This City Is Still StandingThe silence in the room was profound as the six nascent soul cultivators stared at each other. All of them were aware that, for people of their power, it was a ludicrously short distance. Any of them could cross it and begin the violence in less than an eye blink. Yet, no one moved. No one spoke. Because they were all so advanced in their cultivation, none of them even breathed. They just waited. At least, that’s what Sen assumed they were all doing. Those three cultivators whose names he didn’t even know had seemed shocked by how casually he’d dispatched the royals and condemned most of the nobility to death. While the sect leaders might not have cared about those mortals, they most certainly cared about what Sen’s treatment of them might mean for the cultivators in the city.
“Well?” asked Sen, breaking the silence. “I’ve never known a sect patriarch or matriarch to be short on words when confronted with a threat. Are none of you even going to threaten to bring the heavens down on my head? Honestly, I’m almost disappointed.”
“Are you trying to provoke us?” demanded one of the trio, stepping forward.
Sen thought that the man must be a true prodigy. Most nascent soul cultivators looked to have reached middle age or even the age of a mortal elder. This one barely looked to be thirty. Even with the slowed aging that came with each advancement, he would have needed to race through every advancement. However, Sen couldn’t help but wonder if something had gone wrong after that. The man was only a few advancements farther along than Sen himself. I wonder if I’m just underestimating how long it normally takes to progress as a nascent soul cultivator, mused Sen. For all I know, he’s still racing through his advancements.
“It hasn’t been my experience that most cultivators require provocation to do something stupid,” answered Sen. “I suppose I should applaud your restraint.”
“You are insolent,” said the man, his rage almost bleeding off him.
“There it is,” said Sen. “I’m glad we can skip past all the false politeness. I find it taxing to pretend that cultivators are actually civilized.”
That comment seemed to catch the man off guard.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that, at the end of the day, most of you are a bunch of heartless, bloodthirsty monsters who are only marginally better than the spirit beasts. At least they have the excuse that they were born bloodthirsty and violent.”The man sneered at Sen and said, “You say that like you’re not one of us. Do you think you’re better than every other cultivator? We’ve heard the stories. We watched what you just did here. You have no ground to stand on.”
“Better than every other cultivator?” said Sen. “Oh, no. You misunderstand. I’m not better than any of you. I’m worse. I’m far, far
worse than any of you could ever dream of being. I’ve had to be. Of course, that also means that I’ve spilled more blood and taken more lives than any five nascent soul cultivators put together. What do you think happened to all those cultivators in all those sects that opposed me? Did you imagine I left them free to roam in my empire? Did you think I let them go to plot and plan their petty revenges? Is that the lie you’ve all been telling yourselves?”The three sect leaders across the room exchanged worried glances. When none of them ventured to answer his question, Sen continued.
“If it is, put away that child’s fantasy. I cut them down. Every last one of them. There are only two paths available to you. Submission or death.”
There was another long silence as the three cultivators studied Sen. They were searching his face, his bearing, and his words for something. It might have been as simple as trying to judge his conviction, but he doubted that. While many, even most cultivators were exactly as bloodthirsty and heartless as he’s claimed, it didn’t make them stupid. They could be clever and strategic, even if they often dismissed those in favor of brute force. No, he suspected they were trying to measure something else. Sen just couldn’t grasp what it was without some clue. One of the other cultivators, a woman who fit his image of nascent soul cultivators better, stepped forward with a shake of the head.
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“This is the folly of youth,” she said before turning to Master Feng. “This is what you’ve staked our future on? A child with delusions of empire, overweening pride, and no respect for his betters? Is this what you taught him, Fate’s Razor?”
Master Feng, in what Sen considered a truly staggering display of indifference, blinked at the woman a few times before he answered with, “What? I’m sorry, I was thinking about something more important than you.”
“I should have expected this from you,” she snarled. “You’ve been hesitating at the peak of the mountain for too long. It has eroded your reason. This is not how we do things!”
She waved a hand in Sen’s direction.
“If we keep doing things the way you want us to, none of us will survive,” answered Master Feng.
“And you think we’ll survive by following this child? Letting him pretend he’s in control? We all know that you’re the one who’s really in charge.”
“It would be a fatal error for you to believe that,” said Master Feng. “I advise. I fight. I don’t lead. That much should be obvious.”
“And why would that be obvious?” she demanded.
The air itself seemed to shudder as just a part of Master Feng’s killing intent crashed down on the woman. She let out a pained cry and dropped to her knees. Blood ran freely from her nose and eyes. Sen glanced at his master and saw, as he had only a few times before, the true face of Fate’s Razor. The man was utterly implacable and immovable. As always, though, it was the eyes that told the true story. The eyes he saw in that moment were not remotely human or mortal. The full weight of every minute of the thousands of years that man had walked the world was on display.
That weight bore down on the woman with a pressure that Sen knew and was in no hurry to revisit. This person, a person Sen didn’t truly know at all, was the figure of terrifying myth that haunted the dreams and nightmares of cultivators everywhere. And rightly so. It took no imagination at all to picture him relentlessly stalking someone who had offended him. For that distant, terrible creature, it would be nothing at all to continue the hunt for years, decades, or even centuries. When Fate’s Razor finally deigned to answer the question, Sen was certain that the world trembled at the power thrumming through every word.
“It should be obvious because this city is still standing. I am unburdened by the benevolence and compassion that led my student to spare this city. Never allow yourselves to forget that your lives mean nothing to me.”
Even Sen exhaled in relief when Master Feng withdrew his killing intent. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t been the target. His teacher liked to play at being a little distracted and even silly. That made it easy to forget why the man had accumulated so many terrible and chilling names from other cultivators. Moments like this served as a stark reminder that people feared his master for very good and very real reasons. Sen waited while the woman gathered herself and made a futile effort to wipe away the blood on her face. She mostly smeared it, which made it look like she was wearing a bloody mask.
“Even if what you say is true, we have heard the stories. He,” she gestured at Sen, “always does his best to minimize death. If we press a fight now, your army will be destroyed. Even you must realize that, boy.”
“Just as you must realize that your sects will be destroyed as well.”
“It seems you’ll have to bargain,” she said, directing a triumphant sneer at him.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Sen asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you forgotten that I now control this city? Do you think no one else ever thought to try something like this? If you’ve heard the stories, then you must have heard that I travel with other cultivators. A large number of them. You saw a few of them earlier, but where do you imagine all of those other cultivators are right now?”
Sen saw the moment of realization on their faces when they worked out the meaning of his words. Since the majority of Sen’s cultivators weren’t around the palace, that meant that they had to be somewhere else. For example, surrounding the sect compounds of three nascent soul cultivators who are trying to be intractable. Sen felt the qi in the woman start to stir.
“You insufferable boy. How dare you?”
“Stop posturing,” said Sen wearily. “You’ve already lost. If you do anything foolish, my people will wipe out your sects before even you can get there. The only questions left are how badly you want to lose, and how much more time you’d like to keep breathing. I suggest that you work out the answers to those questions before you open your mouth again.”
Only one of the nascent soul cultivators from the city left the throne room alive. Sen was surprised that it turned out to be the aggressive one from the beginning of the confrontation. It seemed almost certain that he’d be unable or unwilling to bend his pride enough to accept submission. However, he’d been legitimately concerned with the survival of everyone else in his sect. Concerned enough to take the terrible offer of permanent servitude that Sen offered.
“That went better than I thought it would,” said Master Feng thoughtfully.
“One out of three,” said Song Lan. “That isn’t what I’d call a great outcome.”
“One out of three is a good outcome when you’re dealing with nascent soul cultivators. We aren’t reasonable people on the whole.”
“I take it you’re including us in that assessment,” said Sen.
“Oh, that definitely includes us. Maybe even especially us.”
Given everything he’d done or ordered done that day, all Sen could say was, “I suppose that’s fair.”