Unintended Cultivator

Sen’s first reaction was to say yes, emphatically. What better help could there be with destroying a sect than a nascent soul cultivator who hated sects? That notion was immediately followed by an intense desire to say no. Sen had made this problem. He should solve it. It wasn’t Uncle Kho’s responsibility to fix things for him, even if the man was willing, eager even. He didn’t imagine that destroying another sect would help Uncle Kho. If that could help him, it would have done so long before now. Of course, turning down the help wasn’t just turning it down for himself. If he declined the help and failed, it would almost certainly mean his death.

Whoever was left of the Twisted Blade Sect was unlikely to see his death as sufficient. They would no doubt seek out Sen’s sect and kill whoever they could. At which point, Uncle Kho would likely intervene and kill them all anyway. Either to protect the people here or simply to take vengeance for Sen’s death. If that was the case, then accepting the offer of help was probably the right choice. Sen felt frozen in indecision. Neither choice seemed like the right one. He wasn’t too good to take help. He had gotten a lot of help along the way. He just wasn’t sure that it was the right thing for Uncle Kho. Would he just be feeding that hate? But wouldn’t he just be feeding that hate if he got himself killed by saying no? There had to be a better choice or at least another choice.

“I—” Sen hesitated and inspiration struck. “I’d like to try to do this myself. It’s ultimately my responsibility, but I’m not so stubborn to turn down help if I need it. I’d like it if you came along. If I can’t get the job done, then I’d appreciate any help you’re willing to offer.”

Uncle Kho gave Sen a small smile.

“I thought I broke you there for a moment. You looked like your head might explode.”

“I was trying to figure out the best course of action. It was… It was more complicated than I expected.”

“I imagine it was,” said Uncle Kho. “I’d like to say things get less complicated as you gain experience, but life isn’t like that. Figuring out what the right or wrong decision is only gets more complicated. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you thought about it. Most people would have agreed without a second thought.”

“I almost said no,” admitted Sen.

That seemed to catch the older cultivator off guard. He just stared at Sen for a while before he finally asked an obvious question.

Before Sen could answer, the door opened and Auntie Caihong stepped out. Sen glanced past her and saw Li Hua clutching Zhi to her chest and sobbing. He averted his eyes. That wasn’t his business. Auntie Caihong closed the door before she looked at Uncle Kho.

“Why?” she repeated and gently pressed a hand to Uncle Kho’s cheek. “Because he cares about you, you old fool. He was thinking about whether helping him was going to be good for you or not.”

Sen gaped at Auntie Caihong. Had she read his mind somehow? She noticed him and let out a little laugh.

“What?” she asked. “I’ve known you since before you could shave, Sen. You’re many things, but you aren’t that complicated. That isn’t a criticism, either. The world needs straightforward men. That being said, I’m glad you didn’t say no. It would have been terribly tedious to talk you around on the idea.”

Sen frowned and said, “I’d have thought you wouldn’t like the idea.”

“I don’t,” she admitted. “However, I like the idea of you dying with no one there to help you even less. I don’t know this Twisted Blade Sect, but there’s every possibility they have nascent soul elders, to say nothing of a patriarch. I know you’ve killed nascent soul cultivators before, but I also know how you did it. You certainly punch up, but I also know that they weren’t that powerful. I’d rather not gamble that you’re going to come out on top against more powerful, more experienced nascent soul cultivators. Better to take the help and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”

“I can’t really argue with that,” said Sen.

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He felt a little better about asking Uncle Kho to come along now that Auntie Caihong had given her approval. He still hoped that his help wouldn’t be necessary. Sen didn’t think that Uncle Kho would be particularly well served by having more blood on his hands. There was always the karma to consider. Adding bad karma just to help him wasn’t in Uncle Kho’s best interest.

“Besides,” added Auntie Caihong. “This is clearly a sect that the world can do without. Destroying homes and businesses. Injuring mortals. Frightening little Zhi nearly to death. Those fools should thank the heavens that little girl wasn’t killed, or I’d be the one paying them a visit.”

Sen had to suppress a shudder. Considering what he could do with alchemy, what he’d already done with it, what he was planning to do with it, that thought was chilling. There were a lot of ways to die, and he could already make it something truly unspeakable. Plus, he wasn’t even that knowledgeable about poisons. She was. When he thought about what Auntie Caihong could accomplish with all of that knowledge and experience, it was the kind of thing to keep him up at night. He just meant to kill them. He preferred not to imagine what she would have done to them if they had managed to call her wrath down on their heads. Sen decided it was best to change the subject.

“How are they?” Sen asked with a gesture at the door.

“Physically, they’ll be fine. They both had a bad scare, though. Zhi will probably do better with it. She’s young enough that I doubt she really understood what was happening or how bad it could have been. As for Li Hua, it’ll be harder. She does know how bad it could have been. Time should help, but it might not.”

“Should I go talk to them?” Sen asked.

“In a little while,” said Auntie Caihong. “First, I’d like to know what you plan to do about all of this?”

Sen lifted a shoulder and said, “The plan isn’t that complicated. Kill them all. Raze the sect. Salt the earth.”

“I was hoping for a few more specifics.”

“Well, it’s hard to know for sure until I see the place. I do have a few more options than most, though. I can probably walk right through their walls, and even hide in the shadow realm for a while if necessary. Makes planting poisons a lot easier. I can mess with their formations. Depending on what they have there, I might even be able to turn those formations against them. I could even set up formations around the sect to make life very hard for them. The real problem is time. I have to believe they know those cultivators are dead. You told me about how they have those life tablets to alert them when high-ranked members of a sect die. The idiot in charge of those other idiots struck me as a young master. So, if they start mobilizing before I can act, things get complicated.”

Auntie Caihong and Uncle Kho both nodded.

“At least you’re thinking along the right lines,” said Auntie Caihong. “You probably have more time than you think. Sect wars don’t happen overnight. Cultivators can move fast, individually or in small groups, but moving a large group of them is different. They have to call people back to the sect, for one thing. That takes time. Then, they have to argue about who will be in charge of what. That’s politics, and politics are always slow. My point is that you probably don’t need to leave today. You shouldn’t waste time, but you should have a little to use wisely. Prepare appropriately.”

“And if all else fails, I can just smash their little sect to pieces,” said Uncle Kho sounding positively giddy at the idea.

Auntie Caihong gave him a long-suffering look.

“You could at least pretend not to be so happy about this.”

Uncle Kho considered that for a moment and said, “You know, I really don’t think I can.”

Auntie Caihong started to say something before she cocked her head a little. She glanced back at the door.

“You can probably go in now,” she told Sen.

“Thanks,” said Sen and turned to Uncle Kho. “We’ll discuss the practicalities soon.”

After a nod from the elder cultivator, Sen went over and knocked on the door. There was a pause before Li Hua called out.

“Come in.”

Sen went inside. Li Hua’s eyes looked puffy and red, but she seemed to have gotten over the initial bout of crying. There was fear and anger and relief dancing in the woman’s eyes. Zhi was held protectively on her lap. The little girl looked like she had been crying, but there was more confusion than anything on her face. She saw Sen and lurched toward him. Li Hua looked like she meant to grab the little girl and yank her back but stopped herself at the last second. Zhi ran over and threw her arms around his leg. She stared up at him with big eyes and a quivering bottom lip.

“Uncle Sen! There were bad people! They hurt Mama!” she cried.

He stroked her hair with a hand that only shook a little with renewed rage. He kept that rage off his face and out of his voice. It was hard, but he did it. She didn’t need his fury. She needed comfort.

“I know there were, little bird. I punished them,” said Sen, meeting Li Hua’s eyes. “They won’t bother you or your mama ever again.”

A look of vicious satisfaction swept across Li Hua’s face, and Sen thought he saw a little of the fear in her eyes recede. It was a start.

“Are you sure?” asked Zhi in a quavering voice, her lip trembling even more.

Sen crouched down so she could look right at him.

“I promise,” said Sen.

Tears started to trickle down the girl’s face, so he pulled her close and let her cry. At least I killed them all this time, he thought. Or, I will.

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