Unintended Cultivator

The day started out like most days did for Sen. He made breakfast for Ai. He’d discovered through trial and error that, while she liked lots of variety for the evening meal, she didn’t really want to have to think hard for breakfast. That meant that he generally kept things simple. Rice porridge made with broth was the main dish most days. Sometimes he’d throw in some vegetables or a bit of leftover meat, while other days he’d just add some seasonings. Fruit was abundant at the moment, so he usually cut some up and let her eat what she wanted of it. Falling Leaf joined them that morning and patiently listened as Ai told her a story about some kind of bear. He didn’t know if she was talking about a dream she had or something she’d actually seen. She didn’t seem frightened at all, so he supposed it must have been a tame encounter either in real life or her dreams.

While they all ate, he pretended that he couldn’t hear all of the birds outside impatiently waiting for Ai to come out and order them around. That was something that he hadn’t been able to figure out, and neither had anyone else. By all rights, those birds shouldn’t listen to her. He’d harbored a suspicion that she might be using some kind of primitive qi technique on them, but there had been no evidence of that. It was just a mystery. He might worry more about it if she was ordering them to do harmful things or things that might hurt them. For the most part, though, she just had them chase bugs. It was hard not to see that as a benefit. While very few insects could do anything to his body, reinforced over and over again by cultivation, Ai and the rest of the mortals didn’t share that trait. The wrong kind of insect bite or sting could pose a legitimate threat to them. So, he found no harm in letting her faithful flock keep the insect population down.

He did have to ask her not to send them after bees, though. She had seemed truly confused, and he’d had to talk fast because he didn’t really understand it himself. He’d just been told by Auntie Caihong that crops and fruit trees needed bees to do something called pollination. If that didn’t happen, then crops and fruits wouldn’t mature properly. That was literally everything he knew about it. The entire process was a mystery to him. Since he had no reason to doubt Auntie Caihong, though, he’d told Ai to leave them alone. She’d accepted his answer, even if he thought she mostly did it because she was worried that they might run out of plums someday. Whatever gets her to not annihilate all the bees, I guess, thought Sen. He thought that maybe he find out more about how the bees and crops were related, but he simply didn’t have the time.

After that, Master Feng came to collect Ai for an adventure. Those adventures usually consisted of the nascent soul cultivator flying Ai around for a while and showing her interesting things. Sen had never delved too deeply into exactly how Master Feng, Auntie Caihong, and Uncle Kho decided who got to have Ai on any given morning. He did get the impression that it was something of a competition. If there were rules to it, he had yet to discover them. Ai was just happy to have so many people interested in playing with her. As they were leaving, he did hear Ai say they needed to get Li Zhi, her friend from town. Master Feng amiably agreed and the pair set off.

Part of Sen always wanted to chase after them and join in on the adventures, but he had responsibilities and needed to set a good example for Ai. If he couldn’t be bothered to do his work, how could he ever expect her to be diligent with her work? Not that she showed any real signs of laziness. She had her off days where she just couldn’t keep her mind on learning, but Sen had concluded that normal children were just like that. He couldn’t expect her to be a tiny adult, let alone act like a tiny cultivator obsessed with advancement. If she was being diligent four or five days out of six, he wasn’t going to complain.

Falling Leaf left almost immediately after that with a vague comment about seeing if the spirit beasts had decided what to do. She’d been going out to the ice wolf’s cave every few days, but always came back with the same report. There was no sign of Winds of Winter. Sen wanted to be disappointed with that. Having spirit beasts out in the wilds keeping tabs on the more hostile spirit beasts would be useful. It just came with so much potential trouble that he almost hoped they would decide to just sit the war out. Almost. He promptly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. It was important, but there was nothing to do until they made a decision. In the meantime, he had other, more immediate concerns.

As hard as he tried to delegate tasks, it seemed like there was an ever-growing list of things that required his personal attention. That had forced him into that office of his more and more hours of the day. He wanted to resent it, but there wasn’t anyone to blame but himself. He’d decided to build this place into a sect, and now he had to deal with the consequences. Doing his best not to grumble, he started making his way across the compound to the main building. As tedious as he found much of the work, he also had the feeling that a day would come when he could leave the day-to-day running of the place to others. He looked forward to that day and used it to keep himself motivated to do the work that needed to be done now.

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While all of the students and teachers were good about staying clear of the immediate area around his home, he soon started encountering people moving back and forth, meditating, practicing, or simply cultivating. The ones who noticed him all abandoned whatever they were doing and bowed to him with respectful murmurs of Patriarch. It still bothered him, but the battle was already lost. He just did his best to put on a neutral expression and nodded as he passed by. He used to stop and try to talk to people, but he found that usually led to very awkward moments as people stammered their answers to his questions. That held for almost everyone, save for some of the core cultivators. There was one core cultivator in particular that he’d hoped would leave who had chosen to stay. He tried to avoid the woman whenever possible, but there was only so much he could do within the confines of the academy.

Sua Xing Xing was striding across the open ground with that smile on her face. Sen hated that smile. It was equal parts seductive smirk and respectful. He was baffled about how she managed to pull that off. It must be a woman thing, he thought. It didn’t help that he did find her striking, although he supposed that was as much because of contrast as anything else. Most of the people in the kingdom were marked by dark hair and dark eyes. Sua Xing Xing had red hair, blue eyes, and very pale skin. It wasn’t as pale as his own skin, which had never recovered after his most recent body cultivation advancement, but was paler than just about everyone else’s. The main problem with the woman was that Sen knew what she was about.

She wanted to lash herself to his cart and get carried along through advancements. To her credit, she’d never made any real effort to hide that fact. He supposed it wasn’t even that surprising. He expected that was a common practice in most sects. Find a strong teacher or elder and attach yourself to them. It would provide protection and, presumably, access to resources. He hadn’t even been able to come up with a good reason not to let her officially join his sect when it became clear that’s what he was making the academy. Not that he needed a good reason. He could deny anyone he wanted with a word. He just didn’t, and I don’t particularly like you wasn’t a good enough to make someone with actual talent leave.

If only letting her join didn’t necessitate talking to her. Unfortunately, for all intents and purposes, she was a core member of his growing sect. If he was being honest with himself, she was probably functioning as an elder. Even after having gotten explanations from several people, he was still a bit hazy about what those roles actually entailed. So much of what was involved depended on direct experience that he’d found no explanation could really resolve his confusion. So, he mostly refrained from using the terms. Given that her star was rising in the sect, though, he couldn’t simply ignore her outright. That she seemed to wait around to ambush him didn’t endear her to him, though.

He checked an exasperated breath before it could escape his lips, then drew to a stop. He looked toward where the gate was located. He could sense a group of cultivators out there. People he didn’t recognize. Sua Xing Xing walked up to him, saw where he was looking, and he felt her spiritual sense expand in that direction. She frowned.

“Should I take care of it?” she asked.

“No,” said Sen, trying to decide what was best. “We’ll both go and see if this is what I think it is.”

She nodded, all of the flirting air around her gone and replaced with a focused seriousness. They headed toward the gate, and Sen felt more than saw Bahn Huizhong trail after them. The man had been giving pointers to one of the students who was trying to master a new cycling pattern. By the time they reached the gate, the three were walking in a group. Sen eyed the man.

“If you go out there with me, it might be interpreted the wrong way,” said Sen.

“Let them think what they want,” said Bahn Huizhong with a shrug.

Sua Xing Xing gave the man a semi-hostile look. She didn’t appreciate that Sen liked the man well enough to spend time with him on purpose, unlike his response to her. She schooled her expression into one of neutral indifference as Sen gestured for the gates to be opened. The three of them walked out to get a look at the group that was waiting for them. There were six of them, one in the nascent soul stage and the rest at or near peak core cultivation. They all wore dark brown robes.

“Shattering Earth Sect,” whispered Bahn Huizhong.

Sen nodded slightly and focused his attention on the nascent soul cultivator.

“What business brings the Shattering Earth Sect here?” asked Sen, at least trying to feign politeness.

The nascent soul cultivator drew himself up and stared down his nose at Sen.

“I am Chan Runchu, Elder of the Shattering Earth Sect. I have come to challenge you, Judgment’s Gale.”

Sen tilted his head a little to one side before he said, “No.”

That seemed to catch the other man off guard.

“What? You can’t deny my challenge.”

“Of course, I can. I’m not obligated to indulge anyone in something so stupid and pointless.”