Unintended Cultivator

It turned out that Sen had spent almost two full days on that beach. Once the captain figured out that nobody was getting on or off the boat for a while, he just put his crew back to work on repairing the ship. So, the ship was underway again almost immediately after Sen and Lo Meifeng were back on the ship. For all that Sen desperately wanted to seclude himself in some quiet corner of the ship and consider his questions and theories about cultivation, there were practical concerns that couldn’t be ignored. After speaking with Lo Meifeng for a time, she’d decided that they would likely get off the ship sooner than later. She wasn’t sure where exactly. She wanted a port or harbor that was big enough that it would mask the exit of a few random travelers and let them disappear quietly into the night.

Yet, that decision pushed up something that Sen had been nudging down the road for a while now. He went looking for Lifen. He found her in their cabin, studying one the cultivation manuals he’d gotten for her. She looked particularly focused, so he settled into a sitting position on the floor and waited until she was ready to put the manual away. While he was tempted to do a little cultivation or ponder cultivation mysteries, or maybe eat his body weight in food, Sen just let his head lean against the cabin wall. The gentle rocking of the ship, combined with Lifen’s soft breathing, and the quiet swish of a page turning occasionally lulled Sen into a semi-conscious, semi-meditative state. He drifted, blissfully free of any thoughts or concerns for a while, until Lifen finally nudged him with her foot. His eyes snapped open. She was giving him an unamused look.

“Enjoy your time on the beach?” she asked, a little waspishly.

“Did it look like I was having fun?” he retorted.

Lifen’s expression softened a little. “No, not really. It all looked pretty painful, actually. Did you advance?”

Sen nodded. “My body cultivation this time.”

That got a speculative look from Lifen. “Really?”

Sen was a little tempted, but it wasn’t what he was there for. “I also had a discussion with Lo Meifeng about our next steps. We’re going to be leaving the ship. Probably soon.”

Lifen sat straight up at that announcement. “Where?”

“She hasn’t decided yet, but she said to expect it to happen in the next couple of weeks. I get the impression that she’s hedging her bets a little. I think she wants to see the ports. Maybe even leave the ship and look around a little before she decides. Which is probably a good idea.”

Lifen nodded. “I won’t be sad to get off this ship. But I’ll ride it for another month if it means getting off somewhere at least a little safe.”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that. But, it also means that we need to discuss your training.”

“Training?”

“Combat training, I mean. I wasn’t kidding before when I said that you’d need to know how to use a weapon. We can’t turn you into a master swordsman or expert spear wielder in a couple of weeks, but we do need to start. Really, we should have already started.”

Her eyes narrowed at that. “Then why didn’t we?”

“Because it’s hard. I’ll have to correct you, constantly. Push you all the time. You’re going to dislike me by the end of most days. I’m not especially looking forward to that. But not teaching you is irresponsible. I’d ask Lo Meifeng to do it, but it’s a terrible idea given that you two hate each other. One of you would wind up stabbing the other.”

Lifen snickered. “You’re not wrong. She and I wouldn’t pick each other to know under other circumstances.”

“You say that like I picked her.”

Lifen blinked a few times. “You know, I do forget sometimes that you got stuck with her as much as I did. You’re easy in her company.”

“Is that how it looks from the outside? I’m putting on a better show than I thought. I’m really not easy in her company at all. It’s unnerving having someone watch you constantly. But, she’s had every opportunity to betray or kill me and hasn’t done it. Unless she’s playing some absurdly long game I can’t see, I know that I can trust her. Those people are in pretty short supply these days.”

“I guess that’s all true. I still don’t like her.”

Sen gave her a half-smile. “I’d never ask you to.”

“So, when does all of this training begin? Today?”

Sen shook his head. “Not today. We’ll start tomorrow. Getting hit with lightning a bunch of times kind of took it out of me.”

“Lightning?” Lifen almost shouted. “What lightning?”

“You know, from like an hour ago? The tribulation.”

Lifen’s eyes went wide. “I wasn’t out on deck. I didn’t know.”

“Oh, well, yeah, I had a tribulation. It was just about as fun as you’d think it’d be. Lightning and pain and more lightning and pain. Maybe the heavens will pick something else next time.”

Lifen frowned a little. “I’ll have to do that someday.”

Sen was tempted to dismiss the concern, but that wouldn’t be doing her any favors. “Yes, probably. If you plan to keep advancing your cultivation.”

“How does body cultivation work?” Lifen asked.

The question seemed to come out of nowhere, so it took Sen a moment to make the mental shift. “Body cultivation. Well, it’s a bit like spirit cultivation. It tends to happen in major stages, with minor advancements in between. The first major stage of body cultivation is body cleansing.”

A hard shudder went through Sen as a bevy of miserable, unhappy, smelly memories rushed through his mind.

“What does that actually mean? In practice, I mean. It’s clearly more than just taking a bath.”

“It basically scours all of the impurities out of your body. It lets all your tissues, bones, and organs rebuild in a more perfect form. It also comes with the advantages you’d expect. It makes you faster, stronger, your body can take more punishment. It helps extend your life.”

Lifen thought for a little while before asking her next question. “But, what’s the end goal? I’ve never understood what body cultivators are aiming to accomplish.”

“They’re aiming for the same thing as spirit cultivators. Immortality. They’re just trying to get there another way. Spirit cultivators are trying to build a spirit, a soul, so powerful that it can ascend to the next realm. Body cultivators are trying to build an immortal body that can ascend and house their soul as it is.”

“And people like you? Who do both?”

“If, and it’s a very big if, you can keep both forms of cultivation advancing at approximately the same pace, you get an immortal body that can house the incredibly powerful soul that you built. I guess, it would make you kind of like a god. Don’t get me wrong, there are some short-term benefits too. The only reason I could kill that demonic core cultivator was because I was a body cultivator and a spirit cultivator. I couldn’t have kept up with him otherwise. As a rule, though, most people bottleneck somewhere along the way. Usually in both forms of cultivation.”

“But,” said Lifen slowly, “if you’re doing both, doesn’t that double your chances of actually ascending?”

Sen understood what she was getting at, and there was a kernel of truth in it. Following two paths did give you more than one way to get to immortality. Of course, it also splits your focus. One kind of cultivation could become a distraction from the other. Or that was how Auntie Caihong had explained it to him. Sen had taken most of his body cultivation questions to her because she made the medicine. He reasoned that probably gave her the most insight into it. Looking back, he wished he’d asked her so many more questions about it.

“I think most people would say that it doubles your chances of failing. Still, I suppose you could look at it that way.”

“It’s painful, isn’t it?” asked Lifen.

“Yes. It’s excruciating every step of the way.”

“I’d be less of a liability to you if I was a body cultivator too, wouldn’t I?”

Sen recognized how dangerous a question that really was, on so many levels. Lifen didn’t really understand the demands of body cultivation. She also didn’t understand how vulnerable she’d be during her breakthroughs. Sen had done most of his body cultivation in a safe, protected place. He couldn’t imagine trying to advance in body cultivation while simultaneously trying to stay away from demonic cultivators and anyone they hired. Of course, the dangers of it didn’t make her wrong. She would be less of a liability to him if she was also a body cultivator. Still, that didn’t make it a good choice for her.

“Technically, yes, you’d be less of a liability. But, if that’s the only reason you want to do it, then don’t. That’s not the kind of pain you take on for someone else’s benefit. You need to want to do it for yourself. It’s the only way you’ll make it through the process. Body cultivation can kill you if you’re not completely committed to it and your own survival.”

“So, you won’t help me do it if I ask?”

There was a challenge in those words that Sen didn’t fully understand, which made him very nervous. He also had a lot of doubts about her motives, which also made him nervous. Yet, as he’d had to remind himself more than once, cultivation was all about individual choice. It wasn’t for him to close off that road to her if she decided that she wanted to go down it. He decided he’d give her one last warning. Then, he’d have to let her do what she would with the information.

“You’d be starting late. Very, very late. There’s a little more flexibility with body cultivation than spirit cultivation, but not a lot. It’s entirely possible that you’ll start and find that you can’t get beyond the first few steps, let alone get into the second or third stages.”

That revelation seemed to give her pause, but she just nodded. “I understand.”

“Then, think about it for the next week.”

“But-,”

Sen held up a hand. “Think about it for the next week. Ask me all the questions that you haven’t thought of yet. Talk to Lo Meifeng about it. Yes, I know you hate her, but talk to her about it anyway. If, after all of that, you still want to walk down that path, we’ll talk about next steps.”

Lifen sighed in disappointment. “Alright. I’ll think about it.”

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