Unintended Cultivator

V13 Chapter 13 – Character

It turned out that Auntie Caihong did have a solution, mostly because Uncle Kho was always interested in reading about new things. As a nascent soul cultivator, he was far more likely to stumble across ancient and hideously fragile scrolls and manuals. The solution wasn’t simple, though. It was a multistage process that called for fairly complicated alchemical concoctions that had to be applied in specific ways. For Uncle Kho, that meant carrying around some very specialized and one-of-a-kind equipment that Auntie Caihong had made for him. As well as carrying around the alchemical liquids. Not much of a challenge for anyone with a storage ring, but vital for the process. Of course, that assumed that one person with one main qi affinity would be handling the work.

Sen had a small army of cultivators. He drafted some of the less disappointing alchemists to handle making large batches of the recipes Auntie Caihong had given. At least, he did once he’d made them himself and knew what they should look like. Access to all those cultivators also allowed him to avoid the problem of the equipment. He had air cultivators and water cultivators who could apply the things the alchemists were making without needing to bother with the equipment. He knew they wouldn’t do the work perfectly, but it’s not like he was hoping for some specific scroll or manual. Anything they managed to save would be interesting from a historical perspective, even if none of it was of practical use for cultivators.

Master Feng and Uncle Kho had warned him that cultivation had advanced a great deal. They did, however, add the caveat that there were many lost techniques. Sen’s takeaway was that he should temper his expectations. They might find something impossibly valuable, but it was more likely they wouldn’t. He didn’t really care about that. This was the first time in longer than he cared to consider that he had something to think about other than the war. His fixation on the project also gave everyone who had been fighting with him a little time to rest. He’d been pushing them hard for a long time now, so he felt they’d earned a short break.

His near-constant presence at the ruins did have one pitfall. It left the small handful of nobles who had survived his purge in a state of uncertainty about their immediate future. Sen knew he should care about that, but he just couldn’t muster the interest. The second he allowed anyone to speak to him about something like that, he’d be dragged into the posturing and vying for position that happened every time he took over a new city or country. He’d created a power vacuum. Everyone left who’d had a speck of power under the dead queen would want to fill that vacuum. He’d have to deal with that problem, but it could hold for a few days.

Of course, that was an issue centered on the nobility, politicians, and wealthy merchants. Once the common people in the city figured out that the army and new cultivators weren’t about to go on a massive killing spree, life mostly returned to normal for them. Sen had imposed incredibly strict rules about how his people could behave in the places they captured. He enforced those rules ruthlessly. After he’d executed a few dozen people who couldn’t seem to grasp that, yes, those limitations applied to everyone, the problems had largely stopped.

Not that he could prevent every soldier or cultivator from doing something stupid. But there were lesser punishments than death that could be doled out. He’d discovered that cultivators who spent months managing latrine pits for the entire army mended their ways. He left the generals to handle punishing soldiers for anything that didn’t warrant death. Some of that was practicality, but some of it was also a means of making the generals enforce a moral code on everyone, including their favorites. The one time a general had tried to let a favored subordinate escape punishment, Sen had transferred the punishment to the general, several lashes, and had it carried out in front of the entire army.

He was fairly certain he’d made an enemy for life out of that general, but doing it that way had given him a reputation as someone who was strict but fair. Sen wasn’t sure he agreed with that assessment. He tried to be fair, but fairness was one of those things that depended on the eye of the beholder. What he considered fair and what others considered fair were often at odds. It seemed all too likely that the mortals he’d conscripted into the army didn’t consider their punishments fair. Assuming that any remained who still drew breath. He hadn’t asked about them recently.

All the same, he wasn’t about to turn his nose up at that unexpected benefit. If the soldiers considered him fair, it also meant that they were less likely to question unpleasant orders. No matter how hard he tried to minimize it, every battle came at the cost of lives and injuries. He shook his head and forced those considerations away. That was why he was in the ruins. To give himself a brief reprieve from the need to obsess about all of those things. He looked around at the cultivators doing their best to restore the scrolls and manuals. They didn’t need him there. He knew it. If anything, his presence was more likely to cause mistakes than to prevent them.

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Instead of pointlessly monitoring other people working, he went looking for Master Feng. The elder cultivator had been spending most of his time in the ruins. Most of the time, he seemed to walk without purpose from one end of the once-thriving city to the other. Occasionally, though, he’d stop somewhere and stare for hours with distant eyes. Sen assumed he was trying to remember details from a childhood so far into the past that it was hard to imagine. Checking his spiritual sense, it seemed that Master Feng was in the middle of doing just that. He hadn’t moved in a while.

Sen decided to walk to where his teacher was, mostly as a way to avoid using more qi than necessary. His reserves were recovering, but it was a far slower process as a nascent soul cultivator. It was a bit chilling to realize that if he’d tried something like dragging a city out of the ground as a core cultivator, it wouldn’t have just failed. It would have failed, causing massive destruction in the region, and it would have killed him. A potent reminder that just because something could be done, it doesn’t necessarily mean it should be done. Then again, that tug hadn’t shown up until he had the necessary power, if only just. He found Master Fend staring at one of the larger and more ornate stone buildings in the ruins. It was on Sen’s list of places to investigate, but he hadn’t gotten to it yet.

“Runchu,” said Master Feng.

“What?” asked Sen.

“The boy I befriended. I finally remembered his name. It was Runchu.”

“I see. Did you remember your name?”

“In point of fact, no,” said the elder cultivator with a wry smile. “I think it’s because I’ve been thinking of myself as Feng Ming for so long that it’s hard to think of myself as anything else. Feng Ming the cultivator isn’t really anything like who I was as a boy. Something I suspect you’re coming to grips with now.”

“I am,” said Sen. “Or, I’m trying to. I do things now, and, sometimes, it’s almost like I can see myself from when you found me. He would hate me.”

“I recall that you had some very specific opinions about nobles. I imagine an emperor would be even worse.”

“So much worse. Then, I remember that those were the opinions of a child. A very angry, very hungry, and very uneducated child. Some things only become clear with time and experience.”

“That’s sadly true,” said Master Feng. “It’s also true that time and experience can cloud things for you, too.”

“Oh?”

“Take the building,” he said with a gesture. “I can tell you it was important. I can even tell you that my mother worked there. I can’t tell you why it was important, or what she did there. I can make guesses that would probably be accurate, but I don’t actually know. It’s oddly frustrating. I can probably tell you everything there is to know about wind qi, but I can’t tell you what she did to buy us food. That might make me the most unfilial son in history.”

“Most people don’t have to remember those things thousands of years later.”

“That’s true. I’m not sure it’s an excuse karma will accept, but it is true.”

“You’ve been talking a lot about your mother, but not your father.”

“I had one. Beyond that, I can’t tell you a thing. I don’t think he was there. Maybe he left. Although, I don’t get the sense that I was angry about it, so maybe he died when I was young.”

“I wish I could say that I’m alright with not knowing anything about my parents, but it’d be a lie. If I knew that they died, I could be fine with that. I could mourn in peace, because I’d know that they didn’t abandon me. But for all I know, they left me to die and went on with their lives. They might still be out there somewhere. I might have met them and never even knew it.”

Master Feng gave Sen a long look before he asked, “And what would you do if they were alive, and you did meet them?”

“Honestly, I’d probably kill them.”

Master Feng shook his head and said, “You don’t know yourself as well as you should. You might want to kill them. Anyone would in your situation. But you’d wouldn’t do it, not unless they’d done something terrible to someone else.”

“How do you know that?”

“Sen, I’ve known you for most of your life. Do you think I don’t know what makes you angry? You can be offended. I’ve seen that happen. When it does, you’re perfectly willing to punish someone. But enough rage to kill? You only get that way when someone is hurting the weak. That is, in my opinion, your essential character. It’s a little misguided, at times. The weak can be just as evil as the strong. Sometimes, they’re worse. That’s something experience hasn’t taught you, yet. But you reserve that anger for people you think truly deserve it.”

“And you think my parents wouldn’t, if they’re alive?”

“Oh, I absolutely think they’d deserve it. That’s why I’d kill them without a second thought. I’d feel quite satisfied with myself, too, but we’re talking about you. You wouldn’t kill them because you don’t see slights to yourself in the same way see slights to others. You’re more forgiving about it because you think you’re strong enough to take it. Which you are. It’s one of your strengths, and one of your weaknesses.”

Sen sighed and said, “Can’t something just be a strength? Just this once?”

“You young people. Take it from an old man, that’s not how it works.”