Unintended Cultivator

Sen walked along the wall that separated the town from the rest of the rest of the world. Once the word had spread that the spirit beasts had begun their war, all pretenses had been abandoned. The cultivators in Sen’s sect had been explicitly put to work expanding and reinforcing both the physical wall and the formations it contained. Similar work was being carried out around the sect compound itself. It had been a tiny bit amusing to watch the mortal townspeople stare in awe as the once sturdy wall rose in height and expanded in depth at a nearly visible pace before their eyes. Before, cultivators and particularly nimble mortals could walk on top of the wall. Now, anyone could safely and easily stride its length. He had taken to walking on those walls several times a day. Some of it was simply to be seen by the cultivators and mortals tasked with keeping watch. He’d thought it was foolish when Master Feng suggested it.

“No one cares about seeing me on that wall,” Sen complained. “They’ve got enough to do without me distracting them.”

Master Feng shook his head in a mildly disappointed way.

“Things are different now. When this was a sect, your presence was a distraction. Now, this is a fortified town preparing for war. Like it or not, you are their general. People need to see their generals. It improves their morale. Helps them find inner strength.”

“Shouldn’t cultivators be finding that strength anyway?” asked Sen.

“Yes, but many won’t. It’s just one more of a countless number of reasons that bottlenecks happen to most cultivators. It’s all well and good to say that you need to develop inner strength. It’s something else entirely to do it.”

He’d been both surprised and maybe even a little disappointed to discover just how right Master Feng had been. He was willing to forgive the mortals. They’d spent most of their lives developing skills to make enough money to survive. They hadn’t spent countless hours cultivating, honing their martial prowess, and supposedly becoming stronger. It worried him just how brittle the confidence of his cultivators truly was in practice. They always straightened up and seemed more certain whenever he passed by them. He did his best to keep any judgment off his face. He’d usually pick someone to speak with, if only briefly, on all of these walks. Again, it seemed to bolster their morale and confidence. This isn’t good, thought Sen. What will they do if an actual attack comes?

Even so, it did let him expand his spiritual sense out into the distance. His awareness could stretch for miles. Aside from Uncle Kho, Master Feng, Auntie Caihong, and Fu Ruolan, he had the best chance of noticing spirit beasts approaching through the wilds. The problem was that he couldn’t be on the wall all of the time. He still had a sect to run and a town to help govern. That meant putting in the time with the sect and town leadership, but he could do it while he was walking. Granted, that would only be useful if spirit beasts came in force during the brief periods he was paying attention, but it still made him feel a little better to do it. At least it was something. That was the other reason he’d taken to making the multiple wall walks every day.

His frustration had mounted as the days passed and the reports kept coming in. Sen made himself listen. He made himself issue orders. He made himself stay. Everything inside of him wanted to race off to the hottest points of the fight and make a difference. The first problem was the same problem that had initially kept him in place. Everything was too far away for him to get there fast enough. That fact alone might have been enough to make him push for advancement into the nascent soul stage if it would have made enough of a difference. It wouldn’t have. He’d asked some very pointed questions of his nascent soul teachers about it, and they had confirmed that while it would make him faster, it wouldn’t make him that much faster.

The second and probably more pressing problem was that everyone was still reeling, still disoriented, and what minimal efforts at coordination there were had largely come from him and his people doing everything short of screaming into the communication cores. He could only hope that the nations on the other side of the Mountains of Sorrow had been better prepared for this turn in the war, although he suspected they weren’t. They might have been better informed and better equipped to coordinate, but he doubted they had the capacity to cooperate. Not when princesses were looking for ways to kill their fathers and going so far as to try to enlist help from beyond their own borders. That told him pretty much everything he needed to know about the state of affairs beyond the mountains.

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At least, it told him what the starting point would be. He suspected that the prospect of annihilation would be enough to get them working together eventually. Assuming enough cultivators and mortals survived the initial days. Sen had to consciously push away any thoughts of how many mortals were likely dying in those cultivator-dominated kingdoms. He found he was less worried about the cultivator casualties. He chose to view them as little more than a resource. As for the mortals, there was nothing he could do about that. There was shamefully little he could do about the mortals dying in his own country. Not until everyone else came around to the idea that survival and cooperation were, in this case, synonymous. Until that happened, he just had to hold his little piece of ground against all comers.

A task that had proven remarkably easy so far. He didn’t know if the spirit beasts were avoiding him specifically, or if they were avoiding the north in general, but they hadn’t been a problem so far. Part of him was grateful for that. Every day that the people under his care didn’t have to fight and die was a good day in his world. On the other hand, he also felt guilty for feeling grateful that other people were dying instead of his people. He could make a difference if he went somewhere else but his responsibilities were here. At least, they were here for the time being. It rankled him not to contribute to the larger fight. Knowing that acting now would be premature and foolish did very little to lessen his wish to do something. Yet, he was already doing the only responsible thing he could do. Until a fight came to him, he would have to simply accept the world as he found it.

“Patriarch?” asked someone in an uncertain voice.

Sen glanced up and found a young man standing there. He was one of the townspeople’s children. One of those brave souls who had stood and fought against those spirit beasts what seemed like a very long time ago. Child, thought Sen. He’s nearly a grown man. He just seems young to you. When did that start happening? Sen remembered the young man, vaguely. He was a little embarrassed that the only thing he really remembered was that the young man had not been particularly gifted with the spear.

“Yes?” asked Sen.

“Will the spirit beasts really come here?”

It was an earnest question with a hint of desperation at the edges. The young man wanted to know the answer, but he desperately wanted the answer to be no. A sentiment that Sen found it difficult to fault. He even wanted to tell the young man a comforting lie, but it would be a foolish thing to do. Sen turned and stood next to the young man, staring out into the distance. He could have been that young man in some other life. He wouldn’t have called it a kinder life, since life didn’t seem to be preparing any kindness for this young man. Sen had read enough history to know that war was kind to no one. Sen had certainly doled out more than his fair share of unkindness when he’d declared war on the Twisted Blade Sect and left nothing in his wake.

“They will,” said Sen.

There was a sharp intake of breath. Sen wondered if the news had somehow hit harder because he had said it, rather than a parent or a town elder.

“Then, there’s no hope,” said the young man in a muted tone.

“There’s always hope, but I won’t give you false hope. Perhaps they won’t come today or even in a month, but you must prepare your mind for the truth that they will come. Here is what hope I can offer. The wall is strong. The people in this town are brave. The cultivators here will not abandon you.” ȓαƝОᛒΕŜ

There was a prolonged silence before Sen heard the young man take a hitching breath. He didn’t know if there were tears on the young man’s face. Sen wouldn’t shame him by looking. If the young man was afraid, he was right to be afraid. If he feared for the future, he was right to do that as well. Sen remained in place, offering what silent comfort he could until the young man seemed to have composed himself.

“Thank you, Patriarch. For telling me the truth.”

Sen nodded and went to turn away when he took a stumbling step. A small group of spirit beasts had just raced into his spiritual perception. Is this it? Have they finally come for us, as well? That thought was dispelled when he felt Falling Leaf’s familiar presence right behind them. It took him a few moments to understand what he was sensing. Falling Leaf had paused, while the small group had continued racing toward the town. Then, he felt a larger group of spirit beasts enter his spiritual sense. They bore down on Falling Leaf. Sen was racing toward them on a qi platform before he even had the thought to go to her assistance. She had to have felt his spiritual sense. Otherwise, why choose to stop there and not closer to the town where someone else might have sensed them? He couldn’t know and he didn’t care. He had been constrained by duty and responsibility to stay where he was, but this was a situation where he could act.

The air screamed as it raced by his face, but he barely noticed that at all. Every bit of his attention was consumed by what was in his spiritual sense. Falling Leaf was delaying the larger group. She’d even managed to kill some of them, but the balance of numbers was too much against her. As dangerous as she was, dozens of spirit beasts could bring her. Or, they would have. Sen slammed to a halt in the sky over where he felt the fight in the forest below.

“Spirit beasts!” Sen roared with qi enhancing his voice. “I see madness has taken you. I will cure your ills.”

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